iPad effects on market

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_16/b4224031138429.htm

The above link is to a businessweek.com article which discusses the iPad and how it has had a detrimental effects to other companies in the PC market. The article discusses Acer and Asustek, two PC manufacturers who were very successful in selling inexpensive netbooks the past few years due to the economic downturn. However, Apple's iPad has allowed customers to purchase a product more appealing at the same cost. This has caused sales growth in companies like Acer and Asustek to decline dramatically. In response these companies are planning to launch their own line of tablets. A major problem for these companies though is to find a capable operating system for the tablets. Currently companies like Microsoft and Google have focused their time on operating systems for smart phones and have not geared toward tablets. This poses a major problem for companies looking to get into the tablets market as they are already far behind Apple. The author then suggests a strategy for Acer and Asustek to take back their market share would be to undercut Apple with price cuts. However, Apple already set its iPad price so aggresively low that it is very difficult to do this.