Tablet Makers Try To Beat iPad's $500 Pricetag 338
The iPad has sold extremely well at a starting price of $500 but "that kind of pricing doesn't work for many tablet vendors," says a story at CNET. And recent price drops reflect this. It's been a rough year for tablet makers, and it's not even Black Friday yet.
Re:Amazon did it (Score:5, Informative)
1) iPad most definitely *not* sold at a loss - nowhere close.
2) iTunes Store/App Store run at very minimal profit. It is over break even, but not by much.
*sources, Apple's officially filed financial statements, every year since the launch of the iTunes Store.
Re:Amazon did it (Score:3, Informative)
If you believe the iPad isn't sold at a loss, then I have a bridge to sell you.
If you believe it is sold at a lost you would be an idiot. Here are some facts.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/07/19Apple-Reports-Third-Quarter-Results.html
From q2 2011 to q3 2011 Apples revenue decreased in the App Store, iTunes Stores. Yet their profit increased from q2 to q3. Now how can it be that they had decreased revenue and increased profit if they according to you make the bulk of their profit off these ventures and not the hardware which had increases in revenue?
Re:Amazon did it (Score:5, Informative)
The bulk of Apple's profit comes from every device that goes out the door—whether it's paid for by you or by a combination of you and your mobile carrier.
Don't worry, you pay 100% the cost of your iPhone. Your mobile carrier is nice enough to loan you the bulk of the purchase price and then extract it from you over the course of a 2-year contract, at an unspecified interest rate. It's similar to loan sharking, except there's no disclosure. :)
Re:Amazon did it (Score:5, Informative)
Apple made 7 billion in profit in the second quarter of 2011 alone - 500 million over the course of a year (or over the course of 3 ish years, give or take a bit up or down - the app store has been open for three years and has paid 2.5 billion to developers [that's the 70%]). It's certainly not coming from the App Store if they do a 30/70 split (as famously derided on here often) and the 70% side of that split adds up to 2.5 billion.
Like I said, the store does turn a profit, but it is *enormously* dwarfed by the profits from hardware sales - ie, my point was to refute the GP's argument that not only are Apple making their 16 billion in annual profit mainly from "iTunes/app store content sales by skimming off the top", but that they're also selling the iPad at a loss which is why no one else can make a cheaper tablet.
In other words, his arguments are total nonsense. The iTunes Store and the App Store exist to drive hardware sales, not the other way around.
Re:That's because the "tablet market" doesn't exis (Score:5, Informative)
Some of the Android tablets are quite nice. Particularly the Asus Transformer, the Acer Iconia Tab, the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Any day now the Tegra 3 models will be out and they promise to be astounding. For myself I prefer the widescreen layout.
Yes, the iPad is doing very well. That doesn't mean there's no hope for others. Agree about HP, RIM, Cisco and some of the others looking to put their own proprietary spin on things.
There's also huge demand for the lower-end Android tablet in places where money is harder to get. There are places in this world where the $500 entry price for an iPad is just too much money. It's easy enough to say that if you can't get the good one, do without - but the lesser things can still be darned useful. It's nice that there are hundreds of alternatives for those folks to use.
Re:The market for iPads was always there (Score:1, Informative)
Apple had a tablet then, it flopped too but thanks for your totally illogical tripe