Positioning against the iPad

As you’ve probably seen, there’s a tsunami of tablet vendors launching products over the next few weeks and months.  Apple demonstrated that there’s a market for tablet computers so the rest of the world is running fast to join the party.  Most people think that it’s impossible to compete against the iPad. But it doesn’t have to be. 

A great strategist can always find a way to pierce a hole in the armor of even the strongest opponent.  How would you position against the iPad if you worked for one of the other device makers like HP, Samsung, RIM or Motorola? 

You can usually exploit a weakness that hides behind your competitor’s greatest strength.  What is Apple’s greatest strength?  There are several but most people would say that ease-of-use is their greatest strength.  Apple’s products are easy to use because the entire product (hardware, software and content) comes from Apple. 

What is a weakness that competitors could exploit?  While ease-of-use is a benefit of buying Apple products it comes with a price.  Sure, it costs more to buy Apple products but the cost I’m talking about is something else.  Apple products come with a pair of handcuffs.  You can only buy Apple products or products that are controlled by Apple’s distribution platform (iTunes) and you can only use their products in the exact manner that they allow.  This can be very frustrating when you want to do something outside of Apple’s predefined boundaries. 

Apple competitors could exploit this area by positioning around ideas like “enjoy the freedom of doing things your way” or “it’s your tablet, use it however you want to” or even “you don’t have to be controlled by anyone”.  Apple tried the “all-in-one” approach in the early days of the PC wars.  They had the best products back then too.  But, they lost the war because Microsoft and thousands of other hardware and software companies combined forces to crush them.  We learned back then that the best product doesn’t win.  But, technology purchasing habits have changed in the last 20 years so we can’t be sure that history will repeat itself.

No question about it, the tablet wars are about to get interesting.  Is it possible for Google and their cast of hardware partners to catch-up to Apple?  I don’t know.  But it’s going to be fun to watch!