Tablet Makers Try To Beat iPad's $500 Pricetag

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.

That's because the "tablet market" doesn't exist

[kikito]

There has never been an "tablet market". There is an "ipad market" now. It didn't exist when Apple initially launched the iPad, but they managed to "open the market" (clearly that legion of loyal fans had a role on that).

The rest of the vendors don't have that critical mass of early adopters, and/or their product isn't as good (or perceived as good) as the iPad.

The people who can afford them, pick iPads, or nothing at all. The rest of us have higher priorities than buying second-class tablets.

Re:10" Tablets are Market-transforming; 7" are Nic

[Junta]

Conversely, I'm skeptical on 10" tablets (actually, I'm skeptical about the whole market, but 10" in particular). After using an iPad2, that thing is monstrously heavy, and I could find no comfortable way to hold it. Sure, you can put it up on a stand, but once it's that awkward, a laptop would serve just as well. I could imagine 7" being a bit more manageable.

Re:Amazon did it

[Karlt1]

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. :)

How is that different from any other phone that the carrier sells? In fact, the carrier pays a larger subsidy for $200 iPhone than a $200 Android device and the customer still pays the same monthly amount for the same service.