Well, that's one advantage of being the first mass merket provider, you define the genre, like how Toyota has defined the crossover SUV because they were the first to build one.
But the actual hardware is half the story (or maybe 30%), these things will live and die with their respective app stores, which is a point Scroble made in his blog. Currently iPad is lightyears away.
As for the reader/tablet discussion: this will blur in the future. Amazon is getting their app store ready as we speak.
Defining the genre is all well and good, until someone else re-defines it out from under your feet.
At the early stage in the tablet genre we're at, this is largely moot - clearly Apple have a huge lead, both in sales and in consumer mindshare, and everyone else is playing catchup.
On the other hand, things can change.
I'm sure Sony and Nintendo would be quite happy to define the 'handheld gaming device' genre as one in which devices have buttons and analogue sticks, but saying they've got 90%+ of the 'buttons and analogue sticks' genre isn't much comfort if everyone is using their smartphones and tablets for gaming.
Similarly, Newspapers and printed media will be happy to define 'newspaper' to be something printed on real paper and then claim X marketshare, that doesn't mean that they're not losing out to online news sites.
If in a years time, Apple are saying 'but we have 90% of the REAL tablet market!' then the shareholders should be worried.
At the end of the day, it's still a case of No True Scotsman[1]
But the actual hardware is half the story (or maybe 30%), these things will live and die with their respective app stores, which is a point Scroble made in his blog. Currently iPad is lightyears away.
As for the reader/tablet discussion: this will blur in the future. Amazon is getting their app store ready as we speak.