Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Samsung: Is the Time for Tablets Up?

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung are the world’s largest premium tablet vendors, whereas one arguably ‘invented’ the product, the other rode on the wave for the device. Regardless of who revolutionized tablets, the important question for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung is whether the device will continue to flourish or is the tablet era over, as is evident from recent sales reports.

Photo Credit: Apple

Kevin O’Leary, an Investor at ‘Shark Tank’ discussed the decline in tablet sales and the prognosis for tablets, with the ‘Squawk Alley’ team on CNBC.

“The bigger question, I think, that we all must be asking is, what is the long term prognosis for tablets? Because, as I look at the form and factor of iPhones and Samsung Note 3s, beyond their surface, perhaps a tablet just becomes an iPhone that you can’t make any phone calls on and therefore it just becomes extinct. I don’t have any applications on my tablet that I can’t use on my iPhone and vice versa in the Android environment too,” O’Leary said.

O’Leary is also concerned about the drop in sales of tablets that both Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung have witnessed in the second quarter, owing to the fact that tablets are the second biggest product for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and a major product for Samsung. He believes that before concluding which platform will dominate, one needs to look at the long term existence of tablets as a product category in itself. O’Leary also feels that perhaps tablets would be a vertical for enterprise in the long run, instead of being a consumer product.

“[…] For consumers, tablets are PCs, they just are, they are not an extension of the phone, they are PCs and I think Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) as the leader in this market has to decide are they going to make the iPad more PC like, do things like ship it with a keyboard or are they going to back off a bit and make it more of a niche product,” CNBC’s Jon Fortt said.

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