Shocking: Nvidia CEO says Android tablets will overtake iPads in 30 months

Vlad Bobleanta  By on 17 May 11

Stop Internet! Shocking news has come out of Reuters’ Global Technology Summit.

Jen-Hsun Huang, the one who’s made some pretty earth-shattering allegations over there, is Nvidia’s founder and Chief Executive. What exactly did he dare say?

That the tablet market for the next two and a half years will mirror what has happened in the smartphone space in the past two and a half years, at least in the Apple vs. Google fight.

What’s that? Well, Apple’s product (iPhone then, iPad now) gets an early start, great sales, and amazing market share numbers. Slowly, but surely, competition mounts from the Android corner, and, in about two and a half years, Android becomes number one.

An important thing to note here is the focus on just Apple vs. Google – so, Symbian fanboys (really? you’re still around?), BlackBerry fanboys (!), Microsoft fanboys, etc., don’t sweat. Yes Symbian has been the No.1 mobile operating system for much of the aforementioned period, but, again, we’re just focusing on Apple vs. Google here. Okay?

Good. Now that we’ve cleared that out, the time has come to ask Mr. Huang the obvious question: how dare you? How dare you spell out the obvious in front of media people? I mean, don’t you know that they all have iThises and iThats in their pockets, on their desks, in their minds… everywhere? Sure, they may have conceded the smartphone battle, but clearly Apple will win out in tablets. Please… it has to win somewhere. For even though it may be more profitable than all the other companies on Earth combined, some people just hate it when the raw (market share) numbers show something else as No.1.

Oh, media. This is a funny industry. Ask anyone, ANYONE, in it during iPhone 1 times, about Android. We all would have laughed. Hard.

Today? Well, Google’s laughing at us.

Tomorrow? It will be laughing at you, who think the iPad will forever be at 80%+ of the market.

The only issue I take with Jen-Hsun’s quote is the time frame. I’d say Android’s domination of the tablet space will start even sooner, perhaps as soon as in 18 months from now.

Sure, things may change. But if they don’t drastically change (think: Apple may release a whole array of tablets starting at $199; or Google may decide to give up on Android to focus solely on Chrome OS – stuff like that), then Android will be the No.1 tablet OS. And soon. Mark my words.

It will be even easier with tablets, since there’s basically almost no one else around. RIM’s got one offering,… and that’s it. MehGo tablets? Yeah, right. Windows 7 tablets? Microsoft still thinks we’re fools. So it’s (almost) just Apple vs. Google here.

The mobile space is getting more and more interesting by the day, that’s for sure. So keep reading, and we’ll keep reporting.

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  • Anonymous

    So, in 2.5 years. He has some pretty long goggles to so far in the high-tech sector.

    Also, if it’s really going to take 2.5 years, then the uptake is pretty slow.

    iPad is not *that* good or that far ahead.

    If somebody shipped a tablet with a 10 hour battery, Flash acceleration, high-res display (1280 ain’t high) and a semi-matte display for outdoor reading, it would sell like hot cakes.

    The current low res 5-hour glossy mirrors aren’t very useful and they are way over-priced. Including iPad.

  • trust

    30 months. That’s more than 2 years. Felt like forever to wait. For now, iPad2 gets my money and let’s see later in the next 2 years how capable is Android tablet.

  • Sagrilarus

    I’ll be curious to see how this market segment changes as ubiquity starts to set in.  The cell networks have very real physical limitations on the amount of data they can deliver, and as more of these platforms enter the market they will need to either overtly ration bandwidth or let their switches do it the hard way.  When these streaming platforms become less capable they’re inevitably going to need to change.

  • Sagrilarus

    I’ll be curious to see how this market segment changes as ubiquity starts to set in.  The cell networks have very real physical limitations on the amount of data they can deliver, and as more of these platforms enter the market they will need to either overtly ration bandwidth or let their switches do it the hard way.  When these streaming platforms become less capable they’re inevitably going to need to change.

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