The first tablet we'd swallow

It appears that Android-based tablets are going to struggle even more against Apple's iPad in the Australian market than first thought. Tech analysts Telsyte originally expected the iPad to take 60 per cent of the Australian tablet market in 2011 – an impressive feat in itself – but that figure has now been revised up to 71 per cent. The revision has largely been blamed on delays to the release dates of rival tablet devices, most of which don't deviate enough from the iPad to give consumers significant incentive to opt for anything other than Apple's offering.

The first-mover advantage principle states that the first company to release a new technology and win a significant market share can be very difficult to chase down. The name 'first-mover' is a little misleading, it could more accurately be renamed 'first-capture', because its capturing market share that really matters. It's not necessarily the company that moves first with a new technology, but the best company that moves early.

This is illustrated quite clearly in this infographic from Android Tablet Fanatic, which shows how the history of tablet computers goes back much further than the first iPad . The history of the tablet isn't just a cavalcade of marginalised technology firms – Fujitsu, Nokia, Samsung, Sony and Asus all made an attempt at mastering the tablet at some point or another, but to no avail.

Then Apple, with it's insightful product and unfathomable brand power, came along.