The unsung Chinese iPad hero

If you live in the West, there is a good possibility you have never heard of Ereneben. There is also a very good possibility you will have heard of Apple (and are maybe sick hearing about them in daily news reports).

So what's the connection? The Apple iPad dominates the tablet market, with 75% of sales going to the Cupertino computer giant. In the Far East however there has been an alternative for a very long time, and sales are still strong.

Beijing based Ereneben Information Technology are still riding high on sales. Fang Liyong, COO says “There are only two tablet computer makers that are superior to all others in the world. One is Apple, the other is Ereneben. And the rest of the tablet PC makers are lost in Apple's shadow.”

Ereneben's tablet computers are certainly not high profile, and you will probably not spot them on the streets in Europe or America, but in China their sales last year were around 46 million dollars. Liyong says “We plan to maximize our sales to 1 billion yuan this year.” Thats well in excess of 100 million dollars and quite an achievement for a device no one in the Western world seems to know about.

KitGuru says: Is this a threat for Apple? Well, we don't think Steve Jobs and his management team will be worried, because they still dominate sales and have market dominance in many countries. It is nice to hear however that at least one challenger is doing well, even if its only in a certain part of the world.

Become a Patron!