Quote:
Originally Posted by kennyc
I love my Xoom, I love my Xoom, I love my Xoom.  |
ohoh, kenny is wearing his ruby slippers again...theres no place like home, theres no place like home, theres no place like home.
I looked at a Xoom the other day but like many I just don't see the value for the price. Much of that is the whole CellCo factor in all of this. Really, I cannot remember a time in my life when companies simply refuse to compete on price as they do today. And it's not only tablet/slate devices but the cell phones are priced at six-bills off contract. Huh?
I look at it this way, I can buy a throw away cell phone with 3G for $10-$30. Right there tells me what the 3G and actual cellular hardware and software are worth. In other words for the value in a tablet computer the cellular side of things is worth about $10-$30 of the price. Wifi is worth maybe $5 and we know the prices on the other hardware is dropping like a stone, save from some of the discrete chips on the system board due to demand, production issues and the Japan factor now. But all totaled I don't see a slate device being more than a $150 cost to make. Even touch layers are very inexpensive these days. And LCD's are, well no costly. So that $150 tear down just seems generous to me. I can see a fully decked out 64GB 3G/Wifi device for $350-$399 as the sweet spot.
I wonder if a lot of the prices are tied to the actual cellular components and their related firmware, patents and such belonging to the CellCo's so they are nailing the device makers hard on those licence fees. But if they give the CellCo exclusivity the CellCo will pay near to what the true retail price would be. So rather than seeing independent hardware with SIM slots where the end user has freedom of choice, the Cellco's are eliminating any potential freedom wireless 3g/4g offers over actual cell phones.
So, I blame...hmmmm, oh, Apple just because they are an easy target.
Really though I don't understand the "new math" used in the market for these devices which really do not use any new tech, designs or features. it all already exists in netbooks/laptops/tablet computers. Plus they have access to numerous slate friendly OS's now and don't even need a full Windows install which was long blamed as the evil empire artifically inflating system prices. I once was an authorized MS OEM and trust me, the cost per license was well under $20 back in the 90s and dropped under $10/system by the late '90s and that was just for around 1000 units/yr. Android has to cost far, far less. WebOS and the new QNX based Blackberry OS might actually cost out to more but in both cases these are OS's which will be stable and around at least as long as iOS, probably longer. Blackberry is leveraging a huge business customer pool on top of it.
Sooo, long way to say, if B&N can sell the NC for $250 and show a profit then any of the other device makers can do the same selling a slate with all the options for $350-$399 and not sweat it.
Other than maybe looking at a NC or used iPad unless I see a 11"-12" device for around that $350-$400 price with both SD card and SIM slots, wacom.N-trig or similar and the ability to run full Win7/Win8 I am not going into the market for any more than $250. I refuse to buy into the marketing hype and know the true value to me. These only give me a slightly new way to work and relax but my current workflow is just fine as-is and spending an extra near to $1-megabuck just because has never made me smile.