Amazon’s Kindle Fire dips back below 4% market share

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Maybe the Kindle Fire really is the “fruitcake of tablets.” Worldwide market share for Amazon’s family of tablets dropped to 3.7 percent in the first quarter, according to new data from the IDC research firm, which says the Kindle Fire was the “victim of a highly seasonal product cycle.” In other words, lots of people are… Read More…

CHART: Tablet market soaring, now almost two-thirds the size of PC market

ipadmini

The market for tablets is continuing to climb dramatically, reaching 49.2 million units shipped worldwide in the first quarter, up from 20.3 million units a year earlier, according to an IDC research report issued today. That’s in sharp contrast with the market for traditional computers. An earlier report by IDC said that PC shipments declined… Read More…

Microsoft ships 900k Surface tablets in Q1, breaks into IDC’s top 5 for first time

surfacepro

Microsoft is officially back on the radar in the worldwide tablet market, with its Surface Pro and Surface RT tablets combining for 900,000 units shipped in the first quarter, according to a report today by the IDC research firm. That gives the Microsoft Surface 1.8 percent market share, in fifth place, according to IDC’s estimates…. Read More…

Apple Mac not immune to slump in computer market

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Apple will report its quarterly earnings Tuesday afternoon, providing the latest glimpse into the sales of the company’s main iPhone, iPad and Mac product lines. One underlying question: How much will the iPad cut into Mac sales? The shift in consumer spending toward the iPad and other tablets has been the big story in the… Read More…

Surface Pro surfaces in stores — but sorry, there’s no Surface RT trade-in program

surfacepro

It’s launch week for Surface with Windows 8 Pro — the new Microsoft tablet that uses an Intel Core i5 processor and, unlike the previous Surface with Windows RT, runs legacy Windows applications. Despite a report that Surface RT users would be able to trade in their existing tablets toward the price of a Surface… Read More…

Am I nuts if I don’t want a tablet?

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I have a confession to make. The Surface is here, the iPad is everywhere, Jeff Bezos is promoting Kindle Fires again and tablets of all kinds are guaranteed to fly off the shelves on Black Friday and beyond. But I still don’t want one. Am I nuts? I’ve heard the arguments for a couple years… Read More…

Commentary: Microsoft Surface breaks out of the walled garden

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While working at Activision some 16 years ago, I negotiated with Microsoft to build out an Internet presence around our marque game title, Mech Warrior Three. Microsoft offered to build and host the site for free on MSN. I told them that we didn’t want to be trapped inside the walled garden of MSN, we… Read More…

VIDEO: Why these people bought a Microsoft Surface

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Why wait in line for a Microsoft Surface? That’s the question we asked outside the Microsoft Store in Seattle today. Yes, the line at Seattle’s University Village included lots of people who either work for Microsoft, used to work for the company, or are close to people who do. This is Microsoft’s backyard, after all…. Read More…