Android tablets are piling up on the shelves, and filling warehouses and stock rooms, in a glut that's causing retailers to resort to extreme promotions to get rid of them. And lest you think Android's competitors -- other than the iPad -- are faring any better, the HP TouchPad is reportedly moving few units, while the BlackBerry PlayBook's anemic sales are causing concern for investors.

 

To understand why Android tablets (really, any tablet other than the iPad) have fared so poorly in the market, we need to look not at the history of "tablet computers," but at another timeline: That of ill-advised, copycat products. Let's look at a timeline of failure, and see if we can tell where things went wrong. 

The 1980s: The Home Computer

This was the must-have gadget that decade; or at least, the one that was more expensive than the Sony Walkman. And practically every company was making them, including ones that had no business making computers.

The Timex-Sinclair machines were surprise hits, as was this one "fruity" computer made by a couple of engineers in their garage. But some of the other companies getting into the business? There are species of home computer that haven't seen the light of day since they were last unearthed at a Goodwill store. And all of these machines couldn't run each others' software, of course, so it was the VHS / Betamax choice all over again.

The 1990s: The Game Console

Remember when all game consoles were "Nintendos"? Nintendo does too, believe me. Then Sega got into the fray, and pretty soon everyone from Phillips to Apple was making their own ill-advised game consoles.

Some of these, like the CD-i, are now synonymous with failure. Others, like the Pippin, seemingly vanished into obscurity. And the games that people wrote for those consoles (mostly) vanished with them.

The 2010s: "The Tablet"

That's supposedly the generic term for "a gadget that's like the iPad but isn't." But as we've seen, almost nobody's buying them. It's disingenuous to refer to a market that doesn't exist. Just like before, companies that had no business being in the market went ahead anyway. And just like before, they're being relegated to Betamax status, with incompatible games and apps and inconsequential followings. Only two things are different this time: The unifying banner of Android, without which every non-iPad would be going the way of the PlayBook and TouchPad; and the fact that these companies don't have a choice. The iPad is replacing many, if not most, computers, and the companies that make them have to create an alternative or die trying.