I’m glad someone did some digging on this topic, which has been at the top of my mind now that a mass of Android tablets are nearing release.
Why Nobody Can Match the iPad’s Price | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
I don’t recall exactly when he said it, but in one of Steve Jobs’ keynotes, he defied the competition to match the iPad’s pricing.
So far, no one has been able to touch the $500 mark with anything competitive.
This is obviously a strategic change for Apple, which usually sells to the high end of the market. I assume the strategy was to capture market share by collecting an abnormally small margin for each iPad.
Anyway, how much does price matter to any of you planning to get a tablet this year? If you’re in the market, you’re probably waiting for the iPad 2, right?
Find the comments.
Update: Jason Grigsby (@grigs) brings some logic to the party with the average selling price, i.e. Apple’s prices remain the same until a new model drops, whereas other manufacturers typically come down in price. His example is the Droid X, Rich’s (@rmanalan’s) latest phone, which debuted at $199 subsidized and now is a whopping $0.01 on Amazon. Good point.
For folks who are still trying to figure out where to fit in tablets in their workflow, price will be very important. For folks who have figured out that for my travel, for my biz meetings, whatever this is going to be primary, price (a couple of hundred bucks diff) will probably not matter that much, for them flash and other features might be important.
However, one of things I am waiting to see is how the used iPad 1s at 300 – 350$ impact the price. Unlike phones, tablets are not that much abused. So if I want to buy an iPad for entertainment, for my kids to play, I would not buy iPad2, I would not buy a new Android tablet, I would buy a used iPad 1 this year.
Some of the Android tablets have carrier agreements mixed in with them, e.g. the Xoom, which makes the price murky. I agree that used iPads offer a nice alternative. I actually think this year’s iOS update will make the original iPad more valuable than new hardware.
Android offers a nice option for IT departments, which would likely get a bulk discount. I’m hoping for Android tabs to succeed, but their prices look pretty steep right now.