The battle for Android tablets seems to be about to reach its climax.
First of all, the number of manufacturers of tablets that are visible to the naked eye is increasing, in addition to old players such as Samsung, Huawei, Apple, etc., after 2020, we have seen the review of Xiaomi tablets, the emergence of honor tablets, and vivo has also spread the "gossip" of the tablet that is about to be launched. As for OPPO, it was the first to release their first tablet product, OPPO Pad, on February 24.
Secondly, the tablet pc market is still an unquestionable bounty. According to the latest data released by IDC, the shipment volume of China's tablet PC market reached 7.42 million units in Q4 2021, an increase of 20.9% year-on-year; throughout the year, the Shipment volume of China's Tablet PC Market reached 28.46 million units, an increase of 21.8% year-on-year, setting the highest increase in shipments in seven years.
Based on these two points, we can easily conclude that the Android tablet market will not only usher in a big war, but also usher in a big chaotic war. At the same time, this big war is also very likely to rewrite the current market structure, not to mention whether it can pull the iPad off the throne, at least in the field of Android tablets, it is estimated that the order will change, and even the industry's big reshuffle.
Seeing that the cake of the Android tablet market will be redivided, who is the X factor? Perhaps, the OPPO Pad that has just appeared will attract everyone's attention to a greater or lesser extent. In fact, as a latecomer in the Android tablet, OPPO Pad has both the advantage of being a latecomer to solve the pain points of the product and the market pressure of "missing a good opportunity".
If you want to understand the "danger" and "opportunity" of OPPO Pad, you have to combine the current market environment, consumer demand and product itself ability performance and many other factors to consider comprehensively, we can only say that OPPO Pad does have more opportunities to succeed in the market, but the difficulty is not small.
Can OPPO Pad make Android tablets successfully break the game?
As early as last year (2021), Oppo Vice President and President of China Liu Bo has disclosed the research and development plan of OPPO tablets in advance, just as his "prediction" expected OPPO tablets to be officially debuted in the first half of 2022, that is, on February 24. Having said that, but looking at the entire industry, OPPO did come late in the field of tablet computers, not to mention the leader of tablet computers, Apple, even Xiaomi and Huawei have several years of tablet manufacturing history.
As a "late player", what kind of achievements OPPO can finally achieve in the market, I personally believe that it still depends on one point, that is, whether it can solve many pain points in the current industry as an Android tablet, narrow or even level the gap with the iPad, so as to be widely recognized by the market and the industry.
So the question is, what are the pain points of android tablets? In order of the degree of impact on the experience, it should be the following three points.
First, design. Personally, I think design is a trait that most Android tablets lack, especially compared to the iPad. Tablets require design innovation, which is not only about sensory pleasure at the visual level, but also on the actual experience. For example, the size of the tablet, heavy weight, good design can allow the tablet to optimize the grip feeling without shrinking the hardware performance, reduce the burden of use, such as the "full screen" design for reducing the weight of the tablet has a very significant effect. In addition, the use of metal materials also improves the durability of tablets, and metal materials can enhance the texture of tablets and meet the aesthetic needs of users.
What does OPPO Pad do in terms of design? Visual perception is the most obvious two points, one is quite good fuselage three-dimensional data, 11-inch screen size can meet the needs of most of the content presentation, thickness of 6.99 mm, controlled at 507 grams of weight to ensure the most basic use of OPPO Pad; coupled with the "streamer crystal drill process backplane design", the beating "OPPO" geometric rhythm pattern makes OPPO Pad in a number of tablets have a bright appearance and ultra-high recognition, highly in line with the mainstream aesthetics.
It can be said that the good design is the oppo Pad as the basic means of strengthening user perception as a new product, changing the sluggish image of the traditional tablet computer "silly big black thick".
Second, the basic experience. Nowadays, Android mobile phones are quite close to the iPhone in the basic experience, but it is difficult to deny that most Android tablets are still far from the iPad in the basic experience. The basic experience referred to here is not just the hardware level of stacking, optimization so simple, to a certain extent, the adaptation and optimization of the software (system) is the core factor that affects the basic experience.
Having said that, the Android tablet is not as good as the iPad in terms of system experience is really not necessarily the manufacturer's pot, because Google's Android system is not as good as iOS (now called iPadOS) in terms of adaptation and optimization from the beginning, which is a congenital disadvantage. Because of this, it is unrealistic for Android tablet manufacturers to pin their hopes on Google to reverse this situation, and they only have to optimize their own adaptation like OPPO Pad.
In fact, the core of the adaptation optimization of Android tablets has only one point, that is, "how to rationally use the big screen". It may be that the OPPO Find N released last year gave OPPO some inspiration, and on OPPO Pad's ColorOS for Pad, we saw some familiar large-screen space utilization solutions.
For example, four-finger pinching, two-finger split screen, parallel windows and interconnection and other functions, with the help of these functions we can better divide and make full use of the display space of large-size screens, so that OPPO Pad avoids the embarrassing situation of "just simply enlarging the UI". Of course, the more practical significance is that the productivity attributes of OPPO Pad have been strengthened, and we can quickly process tasks based on the advantages of large screens, read documents or approve information, etc., and have more room for display in the hottest distance education, learning and work scenarios of Android tablets.
Of course, in addition to the optimization of the system and software, OPPO Pad is also at the mainstream level in hardware, even beyond the mainstream level: flagship chip, 2.5K resolution + 120Hz refresh rate screen and 8360 mAh super battery, the basic experience is naturally guaranteed.
The last and most crucial point is ecology. It is no exaggeration to say that the iPad can become the leader of the tablet computer is not because of how good the configuration and experience are, but through the seamless interconnection and integration of the ecology, it tells the market that "the iPad has an important position in the Apple ecosystem", rather than the large-screen mobile phone can be easily replaced.
If the Android tablet wants to qualify for direct confrontation with the iPad, then building a logical and self-consistent ecosystem has become the minimum requirement. Speaking of this, we have to re-mention the "latecomer advantage" of OPPO Pad: because of "latecomer", they have enough time to think, to prepare, to build a persuasive ecosystem, and then let the emergence of OPPO Pad become "taken for granted".
Why is OPPO Pad necessary? I think OPPO is still more clearly considered, according to personal understanding, it is natural that in individual scenarios do not need to use the computer but the mobile phone can not handle individual problems, the tablet computer can naturally come in handy. For example, online classes, remote meetings and the like, medium-sized tablets have inherent advantages; in terms of playing games, tablets are larger in size, display more content, and also have performance release and battery life advantages
Upper-level replacement of smartphones.
It is worth mentioning that in order to cope with some possible use scenarios, OPPO is equipped with a stylus OPPO Pencil and a smart magnetic keyboard for oppo Pad, in other words, ecological accessories are also ready. In terms of linkage with other ecological hardware, it is needless to say that OPPO Pad can also be linked with OPPO TV, and simple operation can transmit the picture on the tablet to the TV, coupled with the interaction of wearable devices such as headphones and bracelets, OPPO is a successful insertion of OPPO Pad into a link of the ecological chain.
At this point, the ecological story of OPPO Pad is complete, and it should be noted that this is not done by OPPO Pad alone, but requires a certain amount of time to prepare and layout, relying on many "foreshadowings" buried in the early stage. At the same time, OPPO Pad can almost be regarded as a link in OPPO's own ecological chain, and it is also an indispensable link, such a sense of existence and importance, but also let users perceive that "tablets do have the value of existence".
When design is taken as the first selling point, basic experience as word-of-mouth guarantee and ecological construction as the core competitiveness, it is not difficult to see that OPPO Pad is indeed "prepared". Combined with the market demand mentioned above, it is foreseeable that tablet computers will continue to grow rapidly in the predictable future, driven by favorable situations such as the booming demand for home work and distance learning, and it will not be surprising if OPPO Pad becomes a dark horse.
Tablets compete in the big picture? not necessarily
In the eyes of most people, it seems that all aspects of Android tablets can not catch up with the iPad has become a foregone conclusion, but with the birth of a new generation of tablets represented by OPPO Pad, the so-called "finality" is changing again. After all, we have seen that the new generation of Android tablets continue to make up for shortcomings, whether it is a single product experience or the Internet ecology has made significant progress, perhaps already has the confidence to compete with the iPad at the same price.
For example, represented by OPPO Pad, the obvious shortcomings of the new generation of Android tablets at the single product level have been basically made up, although there is still a gap with Apple like the core chip, but other peripheral configurations have not lost iPad or even surpassed iPad. In terms of product strength, OPPO Pad and other Android tablets have been able to call the board or even replace the iPad in most scenarios, and the design is richer and the price is more attractive, not to mention the high-end market, at least in the low-end market, the status of the iPad has been greatly threatened.
Of course, if we take a long-term view, Android tablets want to really threaten the leading position of the iPad, it is still not enough to do a good job, Xiao Lei found that the biggest problem of Android tablets before "no continuity". Of course, not all brands do not have continuity, but we can see the typical example of Xiaomi. At the beginning, Xiaomi, as the earliest batch of manufacturers of Android tablets in China, was basically the main competitor of iPad or even the only two competitors in China, but then Xiaomi suspended the tablet production line for several years because of various considerations, giving Huawei (mainly attacking the middle end) and Lenovo (mainly attacking the low end) the development opportunity, and by the time it was time to pick up the tablet business again, it had been thirty years in Hedong and thirty years in Hexi.
Therefore, Xiao Lei is worried not that the big factories cannot make good products, but that they do not have enough persistence and perseverance to continuously do a good job. Especially now that the tablet is given the role of "ecological member", there can be no "broken change" situation, taking our protagonist OPPO Pad as an example, it must be constantly updated and iterated to accumulate a stable audience and core fans, otherwise the ecological layout that has been painstakingly built will naturally appear gaps and reduce the overall influence.
In general, Lei Technology believes that the current competition for Android tablets is actually the competition of "completion degree", and it is necessary to fight the completion of a single product, the completion of peripheral products, and the completion of ecological degree. Xiao Lei believes that the dispute over tablet computers is also a "local battle" of the IoT ecological battle in the long run, and if manufacturers can win the ecological battle, then they can naturally have an advantage in categories such as wearables, smart homes or consumer electronics.
On the other hand, although the battle for tablet computers is a "local battle" of the IoT ecology, it is not impossible to influence the battle situation. From the current situation, although OPPO is a latecomer, it has indeed achieved "first-come", and has deployed various IoT devices such as TVs, headphones, watch bracelets and other ioT devices at the hardware level in a short period of time, and has quickly opened up at the software level to allow capabilities to penetrate each other. Obviously, this is the biggest competitive advantage for OPPO Pad, and the complete ecosystem can amplify the value of a single product, which also means that it is easier for consumers to form stickiness and brand trust.
If you simply look at OPPO Pad, it may have a limited impact on the industry, after all, with the current supply chain level and the level of the R& D team of large factories, it is not difficult to reproduce a product of the same level as OPPO Pad in a short period of time. But the real embodiment of OPPO Pad "catfish effect" or in the ecological integration level of thinking, we believe that when a similar track goes through, the industry will inevitably accelerate the construction of the ecological chain, from the overall to think about the existence of single product hardware significance; closer to say, the industry shuffle is silently accelerating, those ecological construction is incomplete enterprises, as well as those hidden in the dark corners of the "zhai board" enterprises, will also be out of this cleanup, tablet competition has just entered the second half.