Tesco: keep taking the tablets Clothes, coffee shops, online films, a bank and now tablet computers. It is all a far cry from founder Jack Cohen's market stall. Tesco's new foray into tablets, via the £119 Hudl, will not be an easy win. The likes of Acer, Lenovo and Hewlett-Packard sell devices at similar price points. Even Microsoft has struggled to make an impact on the tablet market. Why is Tesco getting involved? Hudl sales will make little impact on profits. True, the market is growing. According to Gartner, global tablet sales will more than double between now and 2017. But Tesco would have to sell over 5m Hudls a year to even reach 1 per cent of turnover. Tesco says it will be profitable. But analysts are unlikely to be overhauling their financial models. What the Hudl does represent is an effort to find growth in the stagnant UK supermarket industry. Tesco has cut back its UK store expansion plans and is being more selective overseas. But growth will have to come from somewhere. Hence the development of Tesco bank and the acquisition of online film and music businesses. Hudl owners will be able to access all these services, as well as buy groceries, via a conveniently placed permanent button. It is like a Tesco store in the palm of your hand. By pricing it low, Tesco will be hoping to lure impoverished students and the like, who are the big grocery shoppers of the future. In that respect, Tesco has little to lose and is right to be bold. Failure would be embarrassing, but after the Fresh & Easy debacle and the horsemeat scandal the company is used to dealing with setbacks. It will not say what it has spent on the project, but it is unlikely to be a large share of the annual £3bn capex bill. The Hudl could, however, be troubling for established players such as HP and Lenovo. If a Jack-of-all-trades like Tesco can successfully take them on in the tablet market, what are they bringing to the party?