Reply With QuoteSo much for being price competitive with Apple....
Endgadget is breaking the news that the new Xoom will be $600 for wifi and $800 for unsubsidized Verizon 3g. So very very tempting, particularly after this Apple fiasco. I just don't have the budget for it. Also note that Best Buy may be taking pre-orders for it as early as tomorrow.
So sad I can't have one of these!!
So much for being price competitive with Apple....
It has a front and back camera as well as a HD camcorder. The resolution is 1280x800 vs 1024x768 for IPad. Dual core processor. Assuming that the rumors of the IPad 2 are true, the IPad 2 only comes with one front facing camera, and no HD camcorder.
So you get a lot for $100. Not to mention the fact that if indeed Best Buy is taking pre-orders tomorrow for delivery next week you get it faster.
I'm really not going to worry much about the state of tablets until the iPad 2 comes out or at least has firm specs released, especially given the price points.
I don't think most people care. I do, but it seems most buyers of tablets aren't very hung up on speeds and feeds.Originally Posted by Lorini
I think the HD camcorder is a selling point. You would pay more than $100 at Best Buy for a Flip and this way it would be integrated.
As one of the resident Apple-hater Android fans, I think this thing is at least $150 too expensive to really find a market. Sure, the specs are better than the iPad, but even I don't care that much about the differences (and that's versus the iPad 1 let alone whatever the iPad 2 brings), and it still suffers from a much weaker software story (especially when it comes to games) which impacts overall value regardless of under-the-hood specs.
That would make sense as a justification if this thing were anything like the form factor of a Flip. The whole point of a Flip is how easily one-handable it is while recording video. Do you really think the kids are going to be pulling out their $600+, unwieldy 10" tablet slabs on the snowboarding slopes to record their friend catching sick air? Are moms going to carry this thing around following their kids at the park? Since the answer to these questions is clearly no, they are still going to have to buy a Flip.
Yeah, that justification makes a lot more sense with phones -- I'm not interested in buying a Flip because my iPhone takes pretty good video, but there's no way I'd haul out a tablet for that.
I've seen the argument that hardware specs aren't driving consumers, but the presence (absense) of apps is. And while Android does have an app store, and the number of Android apps is growing, Apple still has a big lead in market and mindshare in that regard.
Hardware specs might be of interest to the technophile early adopters but if the tablet makers really want to explode their potential market then price is the biggest concern. A decent offering in the $199-$299 range would probably be enough for tablet market to cannibalize the home PC market.
I would think $300 would be less than what the tablet is costing right now, so that wouldn't happen soon. It will happen eventually I think but not in the next 18 months for a tablet of the size of an IPad.
Another article detailing the features of Android. I also think that the fact that Best Buy is carrying it will help.
I sure hope it succeeds. This 30% cut that Apple wants out of all content providers is a deal breaker for me in any case (discussed here. ).
IMO any serious Android competitor to the iPad should cost no more than $450 for the entry model. Apple has a huge headstart in mindshare and apps and chances aren't too good you'll beat them on industrial design wow-factor, so if you can't beat them soundly on price then you're probably already doomed. Motorola probably couldn't swing that with the Xoom, but that's because they are doing the standard PC-Maker-like mistake of trying to compete on specs that hardly anyone really cares about.
Of course part of the problem here is that Apple's past success has given them volume that allows them to buy components at super cheap prices, which gives them a huge advantage on pricing up front, but as a consumer none of that is my concern.
This.
None of those extras is stuff people (not counting techies) have expressed they're missing from the iPad. Your new tablet need to be as good or better than the iPad and priced competitively with the lower end iPads.
My wife is the poster child for this. She is considering getting an iPad. I don't know why as she already has a netbook. She is aware that other tablets are out there (because of me), but its about the slick looking device that is an iPad that she sees some friends have, and the gee-whiz apps that they are running.
I can't watch Netflix on it. I can't play any decent games on it. I am going to guess that I most likely wont even be able go watch Hulu on it.
I can browse the web and read my kindle books but I don't see my self paying more for that. As CCZ said the software is a huge disadvantage here. I really don't think that buying version 1.0 (yes I know its 3.0 or whatever) is a great idea. I dont even know what the battery life is going to be like but if its less then the ipad even a little then the product fails.
Hulu and Netflix are currently being beta tested through PlayOn. What that means I don't know because I don't use either Hulu or Netflix. But it has been confirmed. The problem with Android and Netflix seems to be one of DRM.
PlayOn relies on streaming from a PC running their server software, so it's not really the same as actually having real direct-streaming Hulu or Netflix clients.
You also have to either pay a one-time $80 fee for the PlayOn server software or subscribe for $40 for the first year and $20/year afterwards.
Agreed. For this to be really competitive and gain any ground, it has to be just a bit less expensive than the iPad. Let's face it, the iPad is the standard upon which all other tablets are now judged.
And that judging isn't really focused on GHz, amount of doohickeys, or flux capacitors. It's all based on marketing, word of mouth, momentum, and apps.
Exactly.And that judging isn't really focused on GHz, amount of doohickeys, or flux capacitors. It's all based on marketing, word of mouth, momentum, and apps.
I've currently actually got an Android tablet, the Viewsonic G-Tablet (a rebranded Malata Z-Pad). I've had it since November. Like many of the upcoming Android tablets it is Tegra2 based and the battery life is very good (~8-12 hours depending upon how heavy you are using it), so there's really no reason 10" Android tablet makers should have issues with battery life.
The G-Tablet is actually a really nice device for $370 if you're willing to replace the shitty software it ships with with a custom rom (I'm running a Gingerbread build on mine and I'm sure it'll be running Honeycomb within the next month, assuming Google gets HC into ASOP soon).
The only reason I'm looking out towards other Android tablet options is the screen -- it works great for touch but the off-axis viewing angles aren't so hot, so I'm looking for something with about the same specs but with an IPS screen. There's no way I'm going to pay $600 or more for such a thing, though.
The biggest thing is the perceived apple tax. Everyone thinks they are getting shafted by Apple on price so any competitor needs to be cheaper (see laptops). I personally prefer Android to Apple but a lot of people are going to shy away at the $600 price point.
I don't think it's just the Apple tax though. $600 is starting to compete with cheap laptops. People will start thinking to themselves: "Wait, I could buy a low-end Dell for this."
The whole point of the iPad was that it was Apple's answer to the Netbook, and the only reason Netbooks took off was because they were cheap. They fulfilled a need for people who wanted a portable computer for nothing but email and web browsing.
Watching other manufacturers jump on the Tablet bandwagon, add a few more features and jack up the price accordingly tells me that they fundamentally misunderstand where the demand for these things is coming from.
And $800 for the version with 3G? That's just laughable.
Actually, you can get a low-end Dell for less than that. $600 is getting close to the price of my wife's mid-range Dell, which has an Nvidia GPU and a fast processor.
Yesterday, on Dell.ca:
Vostro 230 Slim Tower w/Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5700, Windows 7, 3GB RAM, 320GB 7200RPM HD, DVDRW - $329.00
http://store.apple.com/us/configure/...co=MTcyMTgwOTU
I agree with you, but $800 is apparently reasonable to some people for a tablet.
Don't forget industrial design/fit and finish. The iPad looks and feels fantastic, in terms of just messing with one in a store for ten minutes or being passed around at a get together with friends or in the office. People may complain about the weight in extended use, but as an object to just pick up it feels solid and quality. A lot of these tablets trickling out have inferior screens, or plastic-y cases. Even if the internal hardware is better it doesn't necessarily feel better in the hand. Or, the hardware is more powerful but the animations aren't as slick. Like screen rotation is functional but a little janky looking or zooming seems a little steppy. That stuff affects word of mouth and perceptions a lot.
Nope, $800 is too high, 4G notwithstanding. I don't see a need for 3G on my IPad, not to mention 4G. $600 I can see for myself at least. Unfortunately the sale of my dogs on Facebook is not going well, so I won't be getting one anytime soon.
(no I'm not actually selling my dogs).
Actually, I read somewhere that the breakdown of 3G iPads sold vs WiFi-only iPads sold is something like 15% vs 85%. It's nowhere near as successful.
Apple stuff is so expensive.... oh, wait...
Apple's operations group signing massive options contracts on memory and chips years in advance of shipping product is the unsung secret behind their success.
I'm pretty sure 15% of a jillion is still pretty successful. Put another way; I bet Xoom will wish it had the same number of sales as the $800 version of the iPad.
Posting Permissions