By Paul Merry

The much vaunted battle between the Nexus 7, Kindle Fire (HD) and iPad Mini in the sub 8inch tablet market has been ongoing in the press with a number of impassioned views expressed for each side – although the zealot quotient is particularly strong in the iPad corner.

In specification terms there is not much between the devices although the Nexus has a better CPU and both the Kindle and Nexus have superior screen resolution (1024×768 162ppi Vs 1280×800 216ppi).

Price is another area in which the three are pretty much on equal terms although one does wonder at the logic of offering a device with a slightly lower spec than its highly successful competitors for around $130-100 more; the Kindle and Nexus retail $199-250 with the iPad retailing at $329 (approx figures for comparable 16GB models).

But is their space for all three devices?

If we break down the segment these devices are targeting; the commuting, paper-back carrying, social networking middle section of society, it appears everyone else is targeting them also. But if we look deeper a number of sub-segments begin to appear which the devices uniquely support.

The type of persons choosing each device can be segmented into:

• Kindle HD: those seeking easy set-up, preloaded books and easy access to many more. Believers in the mantra of simplicity, simplicity, simplicity.
• Nexus: those willing to fiddle about a bit more, search down the best free and paid (grudgingly) for apps that they require. Those more at ease adapting their requirements and self-serving, the Techanista.
• iPad: those who are more design orientated, Apple Zealots and fans of the smooth Apple OS, those keen to integrate into the apple software and hardware ecosystem. Fashionista and ‘look at me’ types.

Assigning a relative weight and so gauging who is likely to generate the greatest revenue from these sub-segments is a challenge for another day but at this point it seems that at least there is a target market for each within this particularly busy consumer segment.