Google 'quite focused' on low-end Android tablets as iPad controls high end

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Comments

  • Reply 21 of 63
    Yes indeed Apple iPhone and iPad are "High-End" performance items, but at a very reasonable price. And with IOS nothing comes close to the user friendly integration, speed, and reliability.

    Great to see that Googi, with annual revenue equaling less than one quarter Apple profit, brings "The Evil" to at least considering wasting too much money.



    Hey Slappy, - maybe Apple is Not so Doomed after all!



    And if you have any influence at Sammy, please remind them they promised me two RS-232 ports on their Tablet. One for my ASR Teletype Terminal, and one for my Burpy Punch.
  • Reply 22 of 63
    jj.yuanjj.yuan Posts: 213member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ihxo View Post


    without a subsidizing model for tablets, the tablet market will be more like the mp3 player market.



    Like the mp3 market, Apple will release a mini iPad when the time is right. Maybe 2012 is the year?
  • Reply 23 of 63
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    There is nothing stopping Apple coming out with a lower end iPad that would wipe the floor with these low end Android toys. Call it a larger Touch or a small iPad, it doesn't matter. It would be part of the Apple Eco system and of the same high quality as iPads and Macs. Many of us have been against this as was Steve initially. I think we are approaching a time and level of maturity in the tablet market place where Apple entering the lower end is now right. It would not detract from full sized and hopefully even larger iPads, rather it would cater to the lower end of the market who currently have no choice but an Android box.
  • Reply 24 of 63
    tooltalktooltalk Posts: 766member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by nkalu View Post


    LOL.

    Android tablets couldn't compete with the force of the iPad.

    Google is now claiming low-end vs. high-end tablets.

    Whatever happened to the phrase: "iPad killer". There were several of them that were over hyped. Yet they couldn't compete with iPad, hence "low-end." Or substandard quality.



    wonder if Apple fanbois said the same thing about Android phones taking over the smartphone market share.
  • Reply 25 of 63
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tooltalk View Post


    wonder if Apple fanbois said the same thing about Android phones taking over the smartphone market share.



    Want to reconsider the term 'taking over' in that context? Try looking at profit margins along with volume. Ask HTC about how well volume worked out for them.
  • Reply 26 of 63
    tooltalktooltalk Posts: 766member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    Want to reconsider the term 'taking over' in that context? Try looking at profit margins along with volume. Ask HTC about how well volume worked out for them.



    I already said "marketshare," not "profit share." BMW's profit margin may be higher than Toyota's, but Toyota is the first in units produced / sold globally.



    Furthermore, Samsung is #1 in smartphone sales (sold or shipped) and their profit has been growing - in fact, according to their Q1 earning report, Samsung Electronic's profit doubled while their overall net revenue went up 20% - all attributed to growth in smartphone sales.
  • Reply 27 of 63
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tooltalk View Post


    I already said "marketshare," not "profit share." BMW's profit margin may be higher than Toyota's, but Toyota is the first in units produced / sold globally.



    Furthermore, Samsung is #1 in smartphone sales (sold or shipped) and their profit has been growing - in fact, according to their Q1 earning report, Samsung Electronic's profit doubled while their overall net revenue went up 20% - all attributed to growth in smartphone sales.



    Just as an observation. Using the long held Apple comparison of BMW is pretty funny. How many years did we Apple users point out the similarity between BMW and Apple in this regard when discussing the mass of cheap low end PCs out there.



    Regarding Sammy, I hope Apple can shift away from being Sammy's largest client soon. Theft on the scale of Google's Android shouldn't lead to reward who ever uses it.
  • Reply 28 of 63
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by orthorim View Post


    Winning!



    Google makes next to no money on the OS they give away for free. Further there's now lots of low end Android devices on the market and they make the bulk of those activations. They're not used as smart phones they're just purchased as nicer low-end phones. iOS leads in app sales (you don't want to know by how much), in internet usage (by 2x or more I seem to remember), and in companies that were founded based only on one platform product and 2 years later sold for $1Bn.



    So... I don't think anyone at Apple is sad about the smart phone market share. If Apple created 20 iOS devices that sold for $100, they'd probably rack up the numbers too. But they stick with the high end, and with making 70% of the entire industry's profits. They don't want to get greedy, I guess



    Excellent points.
  • Reply 29 of 63
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by tooltalk View Post


    I already said "marketshare," not "profit share." BMW's profit margin may be higher than Toyota's, but Toyota is the first in units produced / sold globally.



    Furthermore, Samsung is #1 in smartphone sales (sold or shipped) and their profit has been growing - in fact, according to their Q1 earning report, Samsung Electronic's profit doubled while their overall net revenue went up 20% - all attributed to growth in smartphone sales.



    You said 'taking over' hence my pointing out volume alone doesn't mean 'taking over', spin it anyway you like. HTC already discovered this.
  • Reply 30 of 63
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by orthorim View Post


    Winning!



    Google makes next to no money on the OS they give away for free. Further there's now lots of low end Android devices on the market and they make the bulk of those activations. They're not used as smart phones they're just purchased as nicer low-end phones. iOS leads in app sales (you don't want to know by how much), in internet usage (by 2x or more I seem to remember), and in companies that were founded based only on one platform product and 2 years later sold for $1Bn.



    So... I don't think anyone at Apple is sad about the smart phone market share. If Apple created 20 iOS devices that sold for $100, they'd probably rack up the numbers too. But they stick with the high end, and with making 70% of the entire industry's profits. They don't want to get greedy, I guess



    Re: the bolded:

    Actually, Google may be losing money on Android. A week or so ago, there as an article stating that 80% of Google's mobile revenues were from iOS devices. Google might actually make MORE money if they didn't have Android devices out there (that is, if a reasonable percentage of Android purchasers had bought an iOS device instead.



    Meanwhile, the Tab discounting and subsidies are already in full force:



    http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/s...laxy_0411-LI-1
  • Reply 31 of 63
    macbook promacbook pro Posts: 1,605member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by orthorim View Post


    I am really surprised at how well Google has kept up in the tech department, and how badly they have messed up the strategic element - they've lost control of the platform! I am a techie so I can see how this would happen to me, but I kind of thought Google would be smarter than that...



    Exactly! Google Android isn't inherently bad. In fact, Google Android is quite competitive with Apple iPhone and superior in a few ways (I am looking at you, Maps). I can forgive Google's iterative approach to improving features such as the slight improvements in the last four releases to finally achieve the simplicity and uniformity Apple iOS demonstrated in the first-and-only release of Cut-and-Paste.



    Google has arguably the worst business strategy in the history of mankind, especially for such a well-funded entity. The major issues with Google Android are virtually all the result of a lack of integrated hardware-software and pitifully integrated ecosystem.



    Battery Life

    Bloatware

    Lack of Software Updates

    Task Management
  • Reply 32 of 63
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post


    Re: the bolded:

    Actually, Google may be losing money on Android. A week or so ago, there as an article stating that 80% of Google's mobile revenues were from iOS devices. Google might actually make MORE money if they didn't have Android devices out there (that is, if a reasonable percentage of Android purchasers had bought an iOS device instead.



    Meanwhile, the Tab discounting and subsidies are already in full force:



    http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/s...laxy_0411-LI-1



    I wonder what Google offers these day to iOS users that Apple isn't able or won't soon be able to match other than search ... Maps they are well on the way to I'm sure, maybe they are looking at search or partnering. If only Apple could remove that 80% from Google's revenue stream ... Apple didn't start his war, Schmidt did.
  • Reply 33 of 63
    tooltalktooltalk Posts: 766member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by orthorim View Post


    Winning!



    Google makes next to no money on the OS they give away for free.



    I'm glad that you realize that Googles doesn't make money on OS. Google is a search company - and most of their products are given away for *free*.



    Quote:

    Further there's now lots of low end Android devices on the market and they make the bulk of those activations. They're not used as smart phones they're just purchased as nicer low-end phones.



    Your point being? I use my smartphone (3 iPhones so far and just recently Galaxy S2) as more like a PDA than a phone. On average I make 4 calls per month (plus some texting). Google doesn't care what phones you carry or how you use them as long as they depend on Google search, maps, email, docs, etc, etc.



    Quote:

    iOS leads in app sales (you don't want to know by how much), in internet usage (by 2x or more I seem to remember), and in companies that were founded based only on one platform product and 2 years later sold for $1Bn.



    Really? so what's Apps Store's share of Apple's overall revenue/profit? 1% or 2%? Woowwww..... *yawn*



    Quote:

    So... I don't think anyone at Apple is sad about the smart phone market share. If Apple created 20 iOS devices that sold for $100, they'd probably rack up the numbers too. But they stick with the high end, and with making 70% of the entire industry's profits. They don't want to get greedy, I guess



    uh? Apple makes plenty of low-end goods like minipod, Mac mini; there is no guarantee that Apple won't release cheaper iPhones for pre-paid or underdeveloped market. Sure, at the moment, both iOS and Android are gaining at the expense of RIM's & Nokia's. In another word, I don't think Cook is losing sleep over iPhones/Android sales, but, at the rate Android is growing now, they will have to come with something much much better to maintain the market / profit share
  • Reply 34 of 63
    paxmanpaxman Posts: 4,729member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post


    Re: the bolded:

    Actually, Google may be losing money on Android. A week or so ago, there as an article stating that 80% of Google's mobile revenues were from iOS devices. Google might actually make MORE money if they didn't have Android devices out there (that is, if a reasonable percentage of Android purchasers had bought an iOS device instead.



    Meanwhile, the Tab discounting and subsidies are already in full force:



    http://www.verizonwireless.com/b2c/s...laxy_0411-LI-1



    I really don't understand why Google would be interested in the low end of anything, unless it hopes that their low end deep penetration (oh stop it!) will eventually spread upwards. Google's business model is based on advertising and advertisers don't like low end, period.
  • Reply 35 of 63
    tooltalktooltalk Posts: 766member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post


    Just as an observation. Using the long held Apple comparison of BMW is pretty funny. How many years did we Apple users point out the similarity between BMW and Apple in this regard when discussing the mass of cheap low end PCs out there.



    Regarding Sammy, I hope Apple can shift away from being Sammy's largest client soon. Theft on the scale of Google's Android shouldn't lead to reward who ever uses it.



    Not sure what your point is. Apple's success is based on marketing, whereas BMW's on their engineering, product performance, etc. It's not just aesthetics that attracts BMW buyers. That perhaps explains why Jobs's NeXT failed to gain any significant market share in the Unix market back in the 90's, and why Apple, to this date, is conspicuously absent in lucrative high end server market, now dominated by HP.



    Samsung's largest client is Sony, not Apple, but with Sony losing billions, the rank might change this year.
  • Reply 36 of 63
    markbyrnmarkbyrn Posts: 661member
    I installed Android 4.0 on a $99 HP Touchpad (RIP WebOS) and except for some useful network utilities that Apple won't allow, I'm not impressed by the byzantine ICS UI or the quality of apps, especially those that are have a far superior iOS version.
  • Reply 37 of 63
    maestro64maestro64 Posts: 5,043member
    it will be the race to the bottom yet again, it will destroy brands in the process. What we will see is a bunch of low end android products and lots of dissatisfied customer and rest happy with Apple.



    Apple won the switch to Mac since it tapped in the bad customer experience, in this case people know the better experience and then experience the bad only to help promote Apple yet again. Any people will wonder why they switched.
  • Reply 38 of 63
    All Google is doing is trying to expand the android net for search and ads.



    Google does not care about quality products or a positive user experience.



    They want your private information so they can monetize it. That is their business. That is all they care about, to the extent that they will even bypass Safari's security measures to steal private information.



    Apple has been in the business of making quality products that people love for 30 years. It shows. It's why they are the market leader.



    I have the new iPad. I'm very happy with it. It was a little expensive, but it's a good product. No way I would buy an android low end shit tablet. Even the "high end" android tablets are shit, so lord knows how bad the low end models will get.
  • Reply 39 of 63
    patranuspatranus Posts: 366member
    How are those low end laptops (netbooks/Chromebooks) working out?
  • Reply 40 of 63
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    Google CEO Larry Page said on Thursday that his company is "quite focused" on reaching the lower end of the tablet market, even as Apple's iPad continues to dominate the high-end price range. [...]



    There are apparently many off-brand Android pad makers who are also "quite focused" on the low end of the tablet market. Because there's zero chance of them moving to the mid-range or high end. There is no race to the bottom because they're all already there.



    One of my buddies went to China and brought back a 7" no-name Android pad. Murky screen, stuttery graphics while playing Angry Birds, ridiculously short battery life. But hey, it was only $100.



    That's the market Page is talking about. The "I know it sucks, but oh well, it was cheap" market. The "Android market" if you will.



    Here's a link to the Engadget blurb on the device and the company, unfortunately named Ainol:



    http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/05/a...id-4-0-tablet/
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