Industry consolidation is only a good thing when the competition it provides drives innovation. When all the players in an industry wallow around at the same level of mediocrity, that isn't really market diversity. The current tablet market is not a healthy one. It has apple at one end, and a theoretical other end that doesnt really matter. Squeezing out 15 companies that don't matter to make room for one competitor which has a chance is not a bad thing.
I don't think of it as consolidation... I think of it sorta in the way Joel describes consumer routers in his last post http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2012/06/because-everyone-st.... There's a lot I'm working out in my head about this, so let me spit out some points for you to consider:
- the increasing move to *aaS (look at OnLive, for example)
- the reports that MS wants to charge >$60 for Windows RT licenses even on <$500 devices
- the difficulty companies like Google and MS have competing toe to toe with Apple's vertically integrated devices
It's a narrow consolidation however, that's been ongoing for quite a while. Do you really miss Packard Bell, or any of the other interchangeable Windows OEMs? Sony, for all it's eclectic design decisions is the only memorable one out of the bunch and it typically delivers overpriced junk that has more lock in than anyone wants to remember.
