Several PC makers, including HP, Acer, Asus and Dell, are reportedly planning to reduce their commitment to tablet development or withdraw from the tablet altogether.

According to Digitimes, the outfits believe they are simply unable to compete on a par with content-oriented companies such as Amazon, Apple and Barns & Noble. With very few productivity oriented apps, the tablet market is completely reliant on content consumption. This basically means that companies with vast content libraries have and will have an upper hand.

What’s more, Amazon and Barns & Noble can afford to sell their tablets with very tight margins or even lose money on each unit, as they will simply earn more on content in the long run. This obviously does not apply to the likes of Acer or Asus, which cannot afford to compete with undercut pricing.

More here.