I was just reading some tech news when I stumbled upon this. It's funny, but I have a tablet that was $150 cheaper sitting on the coffee table....I had to post the article because I can't post links yet. From the New York Times:
So Far Rivals Can’t Beat iPad’s Price
By JENNA WORTHAM
The iPad 2, unveiled on Wednesday, offers several sleek improvements over its predecessor. But its most attractive feature is perhaps the same one its predecessor had: the price tag.
And what makes that feature even more compelling is that so far, Apple’s competitors in tablets cannot beat or even match it.
The iPad 2, like the original, starts at $499. Apple says that since it introduced the original last April, it has sold 15 million of the devices, generating $9.5 billion in revenue. Analysts say this is only the start of a lucrative market for tablet computers, which could soar as high as $35 billion by 2012.
The Motorola Xoom and the Samsung Galaxy Tab were introduced recently, both to generally good reviews but at higher prices. Dozens of hardware manufacturers are scrambling to bring their own variations to market this year: Hewlett-Packard with the TouchPad, HTC with the Flyer, LG with the G-Slate and BlackBerry with the PlayBook.
But prices, or even release dates, have not been announced, and industry experts say it is not yet clear whether the devices can be competitive with Apple on price.
“There have been nearly a hundred competitive tablets that have been introduced since the iPad,” said Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. “But it seems that no one has eclipsed or even matched Apple on pricing.”
Analysts and industry experts point to a number of reasons. Primarily, they say, Apple’s deep pockets — a staggering $60 billion in cash reserves — have allowed it to form strategic partnerships with other companies to buy large supplies of components, for example, expensive flash memory. By doing this, the company probably secures a lower price from suppliers, ensuring a lower manufacturing cost.
At the same time, they say, Apple has sidestepped high licensing fees for other items it needs, like the A4 and A5 processors within the iPads. Those parts, designed in-house at Apple by a company that Apple bought, are among the costlier components needed to make a tablet computer.
Mr. Sacconaghi said Apple also could subsidize some of the cost of building iPads with the money it makes through its App Store, which generates more than a billion dollars each year. This means that Apple can take a lower profit margin on the iPad, 25 percent, than it does on, for example, the iPhone, which can yield as much as 50 percent profit.
Yet another advantage is Apple’s wide net of its own global retail shops and online stores; for customers, this means they can avoid a markup from a third party like Best Buy.
Although other companies have some of these factors in their favor, no one but Apple has all of them.
Steven P. Jobs, chief executive of Apple, who took the stage during the Apple press event Wednesday in San Francisco to announce the iPad 2, made a not-so-discreet swipe at rivals.
Is 2011, he asked, “going to be the year of the copycats?”
“Most of these tablets are not even catching up to our first iPad,” he said.
For example, like Apple, Samsung cuts costs for making its Galaxy Tab, a seven-inch tablet, because it builds many of the components itself. And like many other tablet makers, Samsung relies on the Android mobile operating system, which Google makes available free. Even so, the Galaxy can cost as much as $549 without a contract for cellular service.
“Just because a company sources internally doesn’t ensure that they get the best pricing on components,” said Rhoda Alexander, an analyst at IHS iSuppli, a research firm. “It doesn’t necessarily guarantee efficiency from a cost perspective.”
Justin Denison, vice president for strategy at Samsung, said that in the United States, the company relegates device pricing to its carrier partners, but that he was not worried that the cost of the Galaxy, which has received generally glowing reviews, might turn prospective buyers away.
He said the company was “quite happy” with early sales of the device, which it pegs at two million, adding that “consumers will decide for themselves whether the price is worth it.”
But adding to the challenge for Samsung and most other tablet makers is that they rely on third parties like Best Buy to sell the devices. Apple’s retail and online stores help eliminate this problem.
“You don’t see a markup in the same way a retailer would mark up an item, so it reduces that particular margin,” said Shane Greenstein, a professor at Northwestern University’s graduate business school.
Shelling out billions of dollars to build glossy retail stores or to make investments in chip processors is not an option for a smaller company like Motorola, which recently spun its mobile devices business into its own independent sector. Motorola’s Xoom, a tablet with a 10-inch screen, a dual processor and front- and rear-facing cameras, costs $800 in the United States without a two-year contract with a wireless carrier. That’s roughly $70 more than the equivalent 32-gigabyte iPad 2 outfitted with both Wi-Fi and 3G functions.
Alain Mutricy, a senior vice president for mobile devices at Motorola, defended the pricing of the Xoom, pointing to the tablet’s extensive memory, high-resolution display and compatibility with Verizon’s 4G LTE network, to which Xoom owners will be able to upgrade free, as justification for the price tag.
“The Xoom is priced exactly where it has to be,” he said.
Mr. Mutricy said he did not think the company would do anything differently to trim costs.
“It’s not that we are trying to lower the price and cannot,” he said. “We are pricing the Xoom based on what we are offering consumers.”
But he said that Motorola was planning to expand its line of tablets in the future that would most likely include smaller, lightweight options with a lower retail cost.
Huawei, a Chinese hardware manufacturer, has said it hopes to press into the United States market later this year with the S7 Slim, a svelte, rectangular machine running Android on a 7-inch display and a 1-gigahertz processor, for $300.
Ross Gan, the worldwide head of corporate communications at Huawei, said the company cut costs by using a modest marketing campaign.
“We didn’t set our margins based on massive advertising campaigns,” he said in a recent interview.
Sarah Rotman Epps, an analyst with Forrester Research, predicted that pricing would become increasingly important in the tablet market because as more options appeared — particularly cheaper, no-name Android-powered tablets — shoppers would want to pay less.
“Consumers expect that over time, electronics get cheaper,” she said. “They’re seeing all these other devices in the market and not necessarily distinguishing between processor speeds. There’s a huge variation in price and power but from a distance, they all look like 7-inch touch screens.”
Over time, analysts say, efficiency in production will help bring down costs for competitors.
But the market will be hypercompetitive until then, said Ms. Alexander of IHS iSuppli.
“The iPad may continue to own the market if competitors don’t get more realistic on their pricing,” she said. “Right now, it’s too high relative to what the iPad has for the product.”
Well, Apple has been full of **** alot lately. Always expect this nonsense to spew out their mouths now.
Wow! Was this Guy working for apple or just hoping to get a kickback for sucking apples dong. I thought the newyork times would have better research than that. What about the vpad7 for 300$ or the zpad / Gtab for under 400$? I could write a more comprehensive and less biased article than this joker even if I was writing it while I was drunk and angry.
I am not sure of the reason, but the gtab has really never recieved any press love. Agreed out of the box the device leaves much to be desired, and that is what tech journalist really review, but for a device that specs wise (minus the screen) can match the Xoom, you would expect atleast a little buzz.
Odd, but I'm not complaining as it has kept the price low.
Not surprising really, they were the first to open the tablet market this time round, and it has really opened this time, so it stands to reason they will be struggling with the large amount of competition that has followed them, I'm not a Apple fan, never was, but i do realize they opened the market, and business competition can get a bit underhanded
same article was on cnn...be its being used as a written ad. I just can't pay $500 and not have flash or sd/usb storage...they are dribbling out the improvements and the idiots line up... They are predicting huge lines when 2 comes out! for what? faster and thinner ...big deal.
Hopefully one day the ipad will be fast enough to run flash
P00r said:
Hopefully one day the ipad will be fast enough to run flash
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HA
Dictator Jobs would never allow it
Years ago I got in on the ground floor buying the Amiga 1000 computer. Everyone who had one or saw it were impressed. A great community of people supported each other, giving heads up on new hardware and software releases. Promoting the hell out of it.
It finally died, and was regarded as a good game machine and maybe some graphics. Most just didn't take notice.
Did I do it again buying the Gtab?
Online retailers are wishing themselves a Snappy Christmas, with predictions this will be their best year yet.
However, with the online boom comes the threat of internet scams.
More Australians shop on their mobile phones than any other market place and this Sunday our online shopping is tipped to have its biggest day ever.
Credit cards that won't ruin Christmas
EBay reckon they will see almost two-and-a-half million people come into their site to source Christmas gifts – and over half of those people will be on their mobile phone. That figure is up to 30 per cent on last year’s total.
While there remains worries over online shopping – such as the worry of not receiving your gift in time – for the time poor and those wishing to avoid trudging through shops, it can be more than welcome.
The online boom has prompted a warning, though.
While many business websites look professional and trustworthy, they are not always what they seem.
Rod Stowe of fair trading said: “Web sites that show bad English, grammatical errors - often that is a good indication of a scam-type site."
For the disorganized, surveys show a quarter of people buy their gifts on Christmas Eve - four per cent of them at a service station on Christmas day and eight per cent regift last year’s present.
Whatever you decide, remember there are only 21 days left.
Avoid fraud
A black mark on your credit file can follow you around for as long as seven years and can stop you getting credit.
7News finance expert Scott Pape has three tips to keeping a clean credit file.
1: Don’t apply for too many loans.
2: Pay your bills on time.
3: Get a copy of your credit file.
To find out your credit rating for free writes to:
Veda Advantage
PO Box 964 North Sydney NSW 2059
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What you probably didn’t knowWhen Buffett was 11 years old; he purchased three shares of Cities Service Preferred with his sister.
Over the following months, the stock dropped from $38.25 to $27.
When the stock finally recovered to $40, Warren cashed out, netting a $5 profit. After selling, though, the stock continued to rise until it hit over $200 per share.
If had held on to the stock a little longer, he would have profited over $500.
What’s his secretWarren Buffett looks for companies that:
• Have high Predictability Rank, that is, companies that can consistently grow its revenue and earnings.
• Have competitive advantages. It can maintain or even expand its profit margin while growing its business.
• Incur little debt while growing the business.
• Are fair valued or under-valued.
What he’s probably looking at now
In today’s information overload environment, I believe some of you are interested in the novelties and news in the smartphone industry but are overwhelmed by promotional articles and advertisements online. Don’t worry, let me summarise the top 5 breaking news in the smartphone industry in May.
The smartphone notch is a status symbol. LG surveyed over 1,000 people across the US, UK, Italy, and Korea. The results show that only about 30 percent said no to it, while the rest of the participants indicates that they either liked or don’t mind the notch. So whether you like it or not, the smartphone notch is here to stay (https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/02/lg-g7-people-like-the-notch/).
Sophisticated Android malware tracks all your phone activities. An advanced type of malware can spy on nearly every Android smartphone function and steal password, photos, videos from apps, targeting at the subjects in the Middle East (https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/07/zoopark-android-malware-exfiltration/).
China’s XiaoMi files for mega Hong Kong IPO. XiaoMi filed for a Hong Kong initial public offering on last Thursday, being the largest listing by a Chinese tech company in almost 4 years (https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...ts-lid-on-financials/articleshow/64008892.cms).
Apple faces camera patent lawsuit over iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X. The Israel-based startup Corephotonics filed a second lawsuit against Apple, claiming that Apple is coping its dual-camera system. It will certainly be interesting to see where this case goes. The Corephotonics have to show that Apple utilised the tech that the company presented in its meeting (https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/01/apple-dual-camera-patent-lawsuit-coretronics-iphone-x/).
Honor10 launch event in London. Honor has scheduled a launch event on 15th May in London and it is highly possible that it will unveil the Honor10 smartphone at that time. Personally, the honor9 is a nice product that guarantees value for money so that Honor10 is worth expecting (https://www.facebook.com/honorglobal/ ).
Among these big things in smartphone industry, which one do you prefer or which one do you have comments on?
In today’s information overload environment, I believe some of you are interested in the novelties and news in the smartphone industry but are overwhelmed by promotional articles and advertisements online. Don’t worry, let me summarise the latest information in the smartphone industry in May.
Industry insight
The smartphone notch is a status symbol. LG surveyed over 1,000 people across the US, UK, Italy, and Korea. The results show that only about 30 percent said no to it, while the rest of the participants indicates that they either liked or don’t mind the notch. So whether you like it or not, the smartphone notch is here to stay (https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/02/lg-g7-people-like-the-notch/).
Sophisticated Android malware tracks all your phone activities. An advanced type of malware can spy on nearly every Android smartphone function and steal password, photos, videos from apps, targeting at the subjects in the Middle East (https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/07/zoopark-android-malware-exfiltration/).
Company news
Apple faces camera patent lawsuit over iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X. The Israel-based startup Corephotonics filed a second lawsuit against Apple, claiming that Apple is coping its dual-camera system. It will certainly be interesting to see where this case goes. The Corephotonics have to show that Apple utilised the tech that the company presented in its meeting (https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/01/apple-dual-camera-patent-lawsuit-coretronics-iphone-x/).
China’s XiaoMi files for mega Hong Kong IPO. XiaoMi filed for a Hong Kong initial public offering on last Thursday, being the largest listing by a Chinese tech company in almost 4 years (https://economictimes.indiatimes.co...ts-lid-on-financials/articleshow/64008892.cms).
New Product
Coolpad launches Note 6 with dual selfie cameras in India. Coolpad on Tuesday launched Note 6 as its offline exclusive product in India which offer a great value for money smartphone. But given the fact that there are already strong brand like Honor and XiaoMi in Indian market, the prospect of Note 6 is not optimistic.
Honor10 launch event in London. Honor has scheduled a launch event on 15th May in London and it is highly possible that it will unveil the Honor10 smartphone at that time. Personally, the honor9 is a nice product that guarantees value for money so that Honor10 is worth expecting (https://www.facebook.com/honorglobal/ ).
Among these big things in smartphone industry, which one do you prefer or which one do you have comments on?