Atrix laptop dock to cost $500
I suppose this will shortly become a front page article and this thread will get buried (didn't use to be that way, forum members actually drove most of the topics, oh well).
But anywho, I see where Motorola will be wanting $500 for the Atrix laptop dock thing. You can get it for less bundled with the phone, but then you have to spring for a $20/month tethering plan.
So: yikes. What does this portend for Xoom pricing? The dock thing is just a shell with enough silicon to support a custom UI; sure it has a laptop form factor with a keyboard and all, but still.
More generally, WTF Motorola? You're barely eking out some profit on the back of Android and you're spending development time and money on a device seemingly designed to fail? Shades of Palm and the Folio.
But mostly, I thought Apple was going to get slaughtered by cheaper competitors. If Motorola can't make a dumb shell that significantly undercuts the iPad, what chance do they have of making a price competitive actual tablet? Are they going to take a loss on each Xoom to try and drive some market share? Can they actually afford to do that?
But anywho, I see where Motorola will be wanting $500 for the Atrix laptop dock thing. You can get it for less bundled with the phone, but then you have to spring for a $20/month tethering plan.
So: yikes. What does this portend for Xoom pricing? The dock thing is just a shell with enough silicon to support a custom UI; sure it has a laptop form factor with a keyboard and all, but still.
More generally, WTF Motorola? You're barely eking out some profit on the back of Android and you're spending development time and money on a device seemingly designed to fail? Shades of Palm and the Folio.
But mostly, I thought Apple was going to get slaughtered by cheaper competitors. If Motorola can't make a dumb shell that significantly undercuts the iPad, what chance do they have of making a price competitive actual tablet? Are they going to take a loss on each Xoom to try and drive some market share? Can they actually afford to do that?
Comments
But mostly, I thought Apple was going to get slaughtered by cheaper competitors.
Apple said all along that the competition would find it hard to compete. They are actually fairly honest a lot of the time. Battery claims etc.
There are cheaper tablets like the 10.1 Archos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZHjBOSOT-DU
but the screen isn't as good, nor the battery life, nor the UI. It judders a bit and the Android layout is unintuitive. For the difference of $200 or less if you get a good iPad deal, it's just not worth the headache going for the cheap junk.
The Motorola Atrix dock price is surprising but then laptop display panels costs about $100-200 alone. Add a $50 battery, a $50-100 enclosure, a $30 power supply, you are in the $200-300 region for parts and you still have to make a profit.
I would have loved the idea of Apple doing this type of thing - basically make a $299 netbook dock for the iPhone but they might not be able to and still turn a profit.
Apple are getting very smart with their product lines - the 27" IPS screens and the iPad being the best examples. Their $3b exclusivity deal and liquid metal deal should be interesting to see how far they can take this.
If Motorola has to charge $500 for this, what will they have to charge for much more hardware (I'm going to assume the modest additional casing materials, keyboard and slightly larger screen will be more than offset by a touch panel, actual computer innards and wireless radios).
And of course it makes one wonder what all these 10" tablets are going to sell for. Will they all be obliged to cut corners to make a price point? And will consumers accept shoddy builds and cheap materials on a tablet? I realize "good enough" PCs ruled the roost, but my feeling is that tablets have a much closer connection the user and require more attention to detail to be appealing. I don't think you can just shove some components in a black plastic box and call it a day, especially if that only allows you to undercut Apple's pricing by some modest amount.
You kind of wonder if Android triumphalism isn't clouding some minds. Maybe Moto thinks their new "super phone" (which I give about 24 hours before being supplanted by the next Android super phone) is massively appealing that folks will fork over whatever to have the whole kit. Because of the, um, openness, I guess.
So given the BOM for the dock, with an 11.6" non-touch screen, some casing, a keyboard and some minimal amount of silicon, what does that suggest about probable Xoom pricing?
It says it might be absolutely nuts:
http://crave.cnet.co.uk/laptops/moto...ards-50002167/
The UK iPad is £429 so £719 is nearly 70% more. It doesn't matter that it's 32GB as NAND is cheaper this year so the iPad 2 will probably start at 32GB or have a lower entry price. If they put out a 16GB iPad for £349, everybody else might as well just go home. Even at the same price, a dual-core with 32GB and double the graphics performance is just a killer device.
And of course it makes one wonder what all these 10" tablets are going to sell for. Will they all be obliged to cut corners to make a price point? And will consumers accept shoddy builds and cheap materials on a tablet?
Apple has done very well here thinking about which components matter most to the user experience - the display and the build quality. The iPad screen is stunning to look at and the metal backing is very durable. As I say, their exclusive deals in these areas along with their own battery technology is going to be impossible to rival.
I realize "good enough" PCs ruled the roost, but my feeling is that tablets have a much closer connection the user and require more attention to detail to be appealing. I don't think you can just shove some components in a black plastic box and call it a day, especially if that only allows you to undercut Apple's pricing by some modest amount.
You kind of wonder if Android triumphalism isn't clouding some minds. Maybe Moto thinks their new "super phone" (which I give about 24 hours before being supplanted by the next Android super phone) is massively appealing that folks will fork over whatever to have the whole kit. Because of the, um, openness, I guess.
I think the software is the key to all this. The 'good enough' hardware only works if the software is capable enough too and for the first time, Apple got ahead of everyone with the App Store. In my opinion, the Android operating system sucks. The openness is fine but they haven't put enough effort into getting the basics right. I constantly find myself lost in the UI as it doesn't have the certainty/consistency you have with iOS about what an action is going to do.