Via Says $100 Android-Powered Tablets Will Challenge the IPad This Year

[kjk]

http://preview.bloomberg.com/news/20...this-year.html

About five different models, ranging in price from $100 to $150, will be available, Richard Brown, vice president of marketing at Via, said in an interview. The new computers, made by the company’s Chinese customers, will run Google Inc.’s Android operating system.

That's a lot of models within a $50 range

[cheerio6414]

this is going to be crazy

[Tamara]

I honestly don't see how they can sell them that cheap unless they are going to use garbage components that will fail in six months.

[Jaime_Astorga]

I'll believe it when I see it. It still sounds too good to be true, unless these are low quality products that need to be ordered into the U.S. from some Asian website.

[Dopedangel]

Originally Posted by Jaime_Astorga

I'll believe it when I see it. It still sounds too good to be true, unless these are low quality products that need to be ordered into the U.S. from some Asian website.

16gb Ipad cost apple about $259.60 in hardware according to estimates.
The most expensive thing is its screen $65.
So a device can be made in that range. Will not be as good as an Ipad thats a
given but yes it can be done. And if it costs 3 times less than an Ipad it will also sell a lot if it can do the basic function of web browsing and media consumption.

[bob1xxx]

Originally Posted by Tamara

I honestly don't see how they can sell them that cheap unless they are going to use garbage components that will fail in six months.

That's never stopped crapple ... I mean apple

[dmaul1114]

Yeah, I can't see those being worth a damn.

You get what you pay for. The wifi only iPods have an estimated cost of $250 or so from what I've read--and that's just parts and doesn't account for research and development costs, marketing costs etc.

[wallcraft]

The Pandigital Novel is an actual 7" Android tablet for $199 (estimated $180 retail). It is clearly designed to be an ebook reader with a few extras, and is therefore likely to be underpowered as a general tablet. I don't doubt that $125-$150 retail is possible later this year for a functional but minimal device.

It is less clear to me that a true Android based iPad competitor can be sold for much less than the iPad. Apple seems to be taking lower margins than usual, at least at the entry level.

[Ervserver]

ahhh I'm holding out for the $29 faux Kindles

[Tamara]

Originally Posted by bob1xxx

That's never stopped crapple ... I mean apple

Guessing you are an Apple hater .

[AlexC]

I'm an active Apple skeptic, but until the upcoming crop of Android tablets can demonstrate 10+ hours of usable battery life they won't be true iPad challengers.

[dmaul1114]

Originally Posted by AlexC

I'm an active Apple skeptic, but until the upcoming crop of Android tablets can demonstrate 10+ hours of usable battery life they won't be true iPad challengers.

That's the real key. Some super cheap, underpowered device isn't a true competitor.

A true competitor will match the iPads specs and performance as closely as possible, and ideally go better in certain areas like having a more open app store, an open, user-accessible file system, variety of screen size options for people who want something smaller or larger etc.

[John F]

Originally Posted by dmaul1114

...
A true competitor will match the iPads specs and performance as closely as possible, and ideally go better in certain areas like having a more open app store, an open, user-accessible file system, variety of screen size options for people who want something smaller or larger etc.

And flash.

[dmaul1114]

Indeed! Flash is a must in a tablet for me--at least as long as Flash is still so prevalent on sites I frequent.

[Jaime_Astorga]

Originally Posted by Dopedangel

16gb Ipad cost apple about $259.60 in hardware according to estimates.
The most expensive thing is its screen $65.
So a device can be made in that range. Will not be as good as an Ipad thats a
given but yes it can be done. And if it costs 3 times less than an Ipad it will also sell a lot if it can do the basic function of web browsing and media consumption.

Oh, no, I certainly agree it is perfectly possible to make one. I'm just saying, I haven't seen anything of the sort, so I am pretty suspicious of the claim that they are all going to show up in the same year. I mean, I am pretty sure netbooks were possible for a long time, too, but they never happened until OLPC and Asus opened the floodgates. Still, I would be very happy to see such devices as alternatives to the iPad. Specially if they have good battery life, as discussed above.