Quote:
Originally Posted by wodin
One of the main factors of the huge success of Android is than many (most) folks don't like to be controlled...
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Really? So nothing at all to do with the fact that Android is free?
And to the OP, I don't think iPad is expensive; the fact that they're shifting as many as they can make suggests to me that the pricing is about right, or if anything, that it's too cheap.
I agree that there's a market for a say, 6" tablet - my wife does a lot of commuter reading and finds iPad too big & heavy to be comfortable - though in my opinion manufacturers may have to rethink the whole widescreen thing; yes, it's great for movies, but speaking personally a widescreen device in portrait mode makes for an uncomfortable reading experience.
The other thing that alternative tablet manufacturers need to do is advertise and market their products properly; I know it's easy to snipe at Apple and call them 'just' a marketing company and how it's all about hype, but they certainly know about building product awareness. Contrast this to the Dell Streak (5" Android tablet/phone) for example, that launched here in the UK a month ago... and nobody noticed. Apart from press releases in specialist media, I've seen no advertising or marketing for this product at all - and this is from Dell, not some obscure Chinese clone-maker selling through eBay or direct from a badly-translated webpage. This is a product that's stocked in the high street stores of some of the major network providers - and yet there's nothing to let you know that it's available.
What else? Pricing is important; with iPads starting at $499 I think a 6" tablet needs to be around $349, or better still $299 to be perceived as value.
So there you go; build me a 6" 4:3 screen tablet that as fluid and easy to use as an iPad, price it at $329 and I'd buy one. Maybe...
Pete