Just as remarkable as the iPad’s success, however, is the proliferation of cheaper imitators. A mere three-and-a-half years after the first iPad was sold, the market for tablets already has a premium and a budget end, like that for cars. The cheap models, most of which have seven- or eight-inch screens against the standard iPad’s ten, use Google’s Android operating system (which is free) and are sold for as little as $100 or less. The least expensive iPad Air and the Lumia 2520 will be sold for $499 and Microsoft’s Surface 2 for $449.
Ben Wood of CCS Insight, another research firm, reckons that North America already has two tablets for every five people. Cheap devices, he thinks, are often bought for children who covet a parent’s iPad. The two-car family took decades to arrive. The two-tablet family has taken three years.
