Well, that's what everyone thought about the PC back in the early 1980s. No one could have imagined what you can get nowadays for less than $500. As component prices come down and less engineering is required to create a tablet, the costs will come down. I'd be willing to bet that in 5 years, there will be a number of tablets around the $100 mark. Not as functional or as easy to use as the iPad, but good enough for the low end market.
I don't consider 2 decades foreseeable in computing. Even 5 years is really stretching it, though analysts try and are usually wrong. 5 years ago, in 2006, Nokia and RiM were slated to dominate handset profits and MS dominate mobile OS profits in the foreseeable 5 year future, yet halfway through 2008 Apple became the most profitable handset vendor. We're even seeing a rise in the average cost per handset and service fees because of the shift to consumer-friendly smartphones. I don't think that was predicted in 2006.
That's silly. The TouchPad is a very useful tablet and does a lot of things. The only major limitation is lack of apps - so why would you cripple it further by hacking it to run an OS where you can't even be sure if ANY of the apps will work?
Control?
Just because?
To see if you can?
My online super-model girlfriend whom I've never met says Android is super awesome?
Would someone really spend $99 on a web browser and email client that will never get patched or updated?
Blows your mind, eh?
Does your car get patched or updated? Howsabout your microwave oven? Patched and updated is not anything that the majority of people care about. Hell, they don't even update to Lion!
Patched and updated don't matter to hardly nobody.
ATV is great. I spent a couple weeks last Christmas ripping/encoding DVDs into an ATV friendly format. We now have something like 300 movies instantly accessible from any of the three ATVs in the house. Add in the 4,000 or so songs in my library, photos, netflix, and all of the other stuff on it, it's a no-brainer at $99.
Well said, RT. ATV is indeed a, "no brainier..." I do something similar, rent a few movies from redbox, rip (HandBrake) them onto me my iMac, return them, and keep them for future viewing!
HP was the top non-Apple tablet brand for retail sales between January and October of 2011, taking a 17 percent share, according to NPD. That narrowly bested Samsung, which came in second place with 16 percent.
In third was Asus, earning a 10 percent share of the U.S. market, while Motorola and Acer each followed with 9 percent.
None of these guys care about market share.
That being said, It looks to me like each of these guys have a much larger share of the tablet market than Apple has of the Computer market. We know that Apple makes lots of money with single-digit market share. I wonder if these guys can make lots of money too, even if they are not number one.
Apple has proven that market share is not necessary for large profits.
Boy, they are really scrapping the bottom of the barrel with this story.
Highest selling, non Apple tablet? LOL!
That's like the new way Hollywood sells box office results: The highest grossing comedy made between 10 and 20 million dollars where its weekend grosses in Florida were done when the temperature was 75 degrees +/- 2 degrees and twelve congolese 10 year olds were given their very first surface to air missile launcher purchased with illegal funds from Goldman Sachs and bought from a Chinese weapons manufacture. Damn!
I wonder if these guys can make lots of money too, even if they are not number one.
Nope. Need to create a cost effective, quality product that can grow a brand. Selling your product at a quarter the cost to make it while offering little to no future support ? which you say is irrelevant to the computer market ? is kind of the exact opposite of what Apple does.
For $99 without a contract? It is an impulse buy. It is like buying a $399 desktop computer bundle years ago. Since it was not your primary computer, If it breaks, through it a away.
That being said, It looks to me like each of these guys have a much larger share of the tablet market than Apple has of the Computer market. We know that Apple makes lots of money with single-digit market share. I wonder if these guys can make lots of money too, even if they are not number one.
Apple has proven that market share is not necessary for large profits.
Great post...but looking at HP's recent mis-steps, it doesn't look like it's in their DNA. Although, it does sound like they have come to the rather sad realization that selling cheap, creaky, plasticky crap computers with no "value added" is a mug's game!
Walmart & McDonald's play the game well...usually if u can figure out a way to sell garbage, u can make money. Bad luck for HP.
I think HP is looking to copy IBM's seemingly successful transition from hardware manufacturing to business services. Just what we need more consultants! Pretty soon we will all be selling insurance to each other!
"In all, non-iPad U.S. tablet sales are said to have brought in $415 million at retail in 2011. When accessories are thrown into the mix, total retail revenue was said to be nearly $700 million."
$285 million in accessories! That sounds like a lot to me given only $415 million on tablets themselves.
Amazon is buying a seat in the computer-tablet market. HP bought a one-time-piece of the market to recoup some of its development losses. Others are giving away their tablets if two mobile phones are purchased. Who knows how that will fair. It is called biding one’s time. Great if you have the coffers to sustain such models.
Apple has the coffers and it could play a similar game, decimated the competition at their own game and run away with the market. But wouldn’t that be viewed as anti-competitive? Or, it could continue as it is doing now, while better profits can be made to further develop its product as development prices and product costs come down. Meanwhile, MicroSoft is gambling on its own version of a tablet yet how it will make any money from its efforts is anyones guess. It sure won’t be from sales of its tablet OS.
In time, the need of sustainable profits in this emerging market will come into play. I doubt the model of razors and blades applies in this market. Meanwhile, Apple’s share of the computer market continues to rise and profits roll in while industrial profits outside of Apple continue to fall. If the next iPad is not just an iteration, it could be game over for the other players and could become the iPod scenario, all over again.
Bought one off of Craigslist for $180. Took it home, set it up, tried for a few hours, sold it on eBay for $210.
Few good UI stuff (Android Honeycomb could take some lessons here) but overall, the Touchpad felt like a half-baked product. I'm sure it would have eventually gotten better if HP was going to actively support it.
That being said, It looks to me like each of these guys have a much larger share of the tablet market than Apple has of the Computer market. We know that Apple makes lots of money with single-digit market share. I wonder if these guys can make lots of money too, even if they are not number one.
Apple has proven that market share is not necessary for large profits.
You're misreading the article. The percentages given are for the the non-iPad market. So that HP's "17%" is 17% of the few percent left over after you account for Apple. Far below Apple's PC percentages. And a good chunk of Android tablet sales are coming from fire sale discontinued models, so no, it's not likely they can make any money at all, much less Apple like numbers on these sales.
And a good chunk of Android tablet sales are coming from fire sale discontinued models, so no, it's not likely they can make any money at all, much less Apple like numbers on these sales.
Two of the top 10 tablets on Amazon are under $100.
Few good UI stuff (Android Honeycomb could take some lessons here) but overall, the Touchpad felt like a half-baked product. I'm sure it would have eventually gotten better if HP was going to actively support it.
Instead of supporting their own bought and paid for OS, it seems that HP is going to follow the Nokia route and jump in bed with MS. I guess they're taking those surveys to heart that say that people are waiting for a Windows based tab.
You're misreading the article. The percentages given are for the the non-iPad market. So that HP's "17%" is 17% of the few percent left over after you account for Apple. Far below Apple's PC percentages. And a good chunk of Android tablet sales are coming from fire sale discontinued models, so no, it's not likely they can make any money at all, much less Apple like numbers on these sales.
I reread the article. I think that you are correct. The stated percentages add up to 52%, which is much larger than the non-Apple share of the tablet market.
These guys ain't gonna make much unless they up their market share. Their volume is now unlikely to cover their fixed costs.
I am still unsure of why people even bought them at $99. I've never seen one and never will cause they didn't even get to where I am but regardless of if it has any value it harks back to the 80's where you bought an empty vessel with a flashing cursor. At least back then though you could learn how to program it and make it do stuff.
Would someone really spend $99 on a web browser and email client that will never get patched or updated? Geez people bawked at having to pay Netscape for a browser.
I did exactly that, $99 for (mainly) a web browser and email client and it does these two things well. Why would I do something so crazy? Well, what other alternatives are there for a $99 machine that can do both of these on a large screen with great battery life? I don't have to lug my MBP home from work every day and I don't have to leave my desktop on all the time. IMO money well spent.
On the other hand, I would definitely rather have an iPad 2, but I don't think i'll use it enough to justify the current price. Maybe if I'm lucky with TD rewards on Friday and get it for $299!
BTW, i just got an ATV as well and it's GREAT! Can't wait until they make it a semi gaming console that can host i-devices and not just AirPlay/mirror them.
Comments
Well, that's what everyone thought about the PC back in the early 1980s. No one could have imagined what you can get nowadays for less than $500. As component prices come down and less engineering is required to create a tablet, the costs will come down. I'd be willing to bet that in 5 years, there will be a number of tablets around the $100 mark. Not as functional or as easy to use as the iPad, but good enough for the low end market.
I don't consider 2 decades foreseeable in computing. Even 5 years is really stretching it, though analysts try and are usually wrong. 5 years ago, in 2006, Nokia and RiM were slated to dominate handset profits and MS dominate mobile OS profits in the foreseeable 5 year future, yet halfway through 2008 Apple became the most profitable handset vendor. We're even seeing a rise in the average cost per handset and service fees because of the shift to consumer-friendly smartphones. I don't think that was predicted in 2006.
That's silly. The TouchPad is a very useful tablet and does a lot of things. The only major limitation is lack of apps - so why would you cripple it further by hacking it to run an OS where you can't even be sure if ANY of the apps will work?
Would someone really spend $99 on a web browser and email client that will never get patched or updated?
Blows your mind, eh?
Does your car get patched or updated? Howsabout your microwave oven? Patched and updated is not anything that the majority of people care about. Hell, they don't even update to Lion!
Patched and updated don't matter to hardly nobody.
Collector item for future generations !
I don't think people will care.
ATV is great. I spent a couple weeks last Christmas ripping/encoding DVDs into an ATV friendly format. We now have something like 300 movies instantly accessible from any of the three ATVs in the house. Add in the 4,000 or so songs in my library, photos, netflix, and all of the other stuff on it, it's a no-brainer at $99.
Well said, RT. ATV is indeed a, "no brainier..." I do something similar, rent a few movies from redbox, rip (HandBrake) them onto me my iMac, return them, and keep them for future viewing!
Best
HP was the top non-Apple tablet brand for retail sales between January and October of 2011, taking a 17 percent share, according to NPD. That narrowly bested Samsung, which came in second place with 16 percent.
In third was Asus, earning a 10 percent share of the U.S. market, while Motorola and Acer each followed with 9 percent.
None of these guys care about market share.
That being said, It looks to me like each of these guys have a much larger share of the tablet market than Apple has of the Computer market. We know that Apple makes lots of money with single-digit market share. I wonder if these guys can make lots of money too, even if they are not number one.
Apple has proven that market share is not necessary for large profits.
Highest selling, non Apple tablet? LOL!
That's like the new way Hollywood sells box office results: The highest grossing comedy made between 10 and 20 million dollars where its weekend grosses in Florida were done when the temperature was 75 degrees +/- 2 degrees and twelve congolese 10 year olds were given their very first surface to air missile launcher purchased with illegal funds from Goldman Sachs and bought from a Chinese weapons manufacture. Damn!
I wonder if these guys can make lots of money too, even if they are not number one.
Nope. Need to create a cost effective, quality product that can grow a brand. Selling your product at a quarter the cost to make it while offering little to no future support ? which you say is irrelevant to the computer market
None of these guys care about market share.
That being said, It looks to me like each of these guys have a much larger share of the tablet market than Apple has of the Computer market. We know that Apple makes lots of money with single-digit market share. I wonder if these guys can make lots of money too, even if they are not number one.
Apple has proven that market share is not necessary for large profits.
Great post...but looking at HP's recent mis-steps, it doesn't look like it's in their DNA. Although, it does sound like they have come to the rather sad realization that selling cheap, creaky, plasticky crap computers with no "value added" is a mug's game!
Walmart & McDonald's play the game well...usually if u can figure out a way to sell garbage, u can make money. Bad luck for HP.
I think HP is looking to copy IBM's seemingly successful transition from hardware manufacturing to business services. Just what we need more consultants! Pretty soon we will all be selling insurance to each other!
$285 million in accessories! That sounds like a lot to me given only $415 million on tablets themselves.
Amazon is buying a seat in the computer-tablet market. HP bought a one-time-piece of the market to recoup some of its development losses. Others are giving away their tablets if two mobile phones are purchased. Who knows how that will fair. It is called biding one’s time. Great if you have the coffers to sustain such models.
Apple has the coffers and it could play a similar game, decimated the competition at their own game and run away with the market. But wouldn’t that be viewed as anti-competitive? Or, it could continue as it is doing now, while better profits can be made to further develop its product as development prices and product costs come down. Meanwhile, MicroSoft is gambling on its own version of a tablet yet how it will make any money from its efforts is anyones guess. It sure won’t be from sales of its tablet OS.
In time, the need of sustainable profits in this emerging market will come into play. I doubt the model of razors and blades applies in this market. Meanwhile, Apple’s share of the computer market continues to rise and profits roll in while industrial profits outside of Apple continue to fall. If the next iPad is not just an iteration, it could be game over for the other players and could become the iPod scenario, all over again.
Few good UI stuff (Android Honeycomb could take some lessons here) but overall, the Touchpad felt like a half-baked product. I'm sure it would have eventually gotten better if HP was going to actively support it.
None of these guys care about market share.
That being said, It looks to me like each of these guys have a much larger share of the tablet market than Apple has of the Computer market. We know that Apple makes lots of money with single-digit market share. I wonder if these guys can make lots of money too, even if they are not number one.
Apple has proven that market share is not necessary for large profits.
You're misreading the article. The percentages given are for the the non-iPad market. So that HP's "17%" is 17% of the few percent left over after you account for Apple. Far below Apple's PC percentages. And a good chunk of Android tablet sales are coming from fire sale discontinued models, so no, it's not likely they can make any money at all, much less Apple like numbers on these sales.
And a good chunk of Android tablet sales are coming from fire sale discontinued models, so no, it's not likely they can make any money at all, much less Apple like numbers on these sales.
Two of the top 10 tablets on Amazon are under $100.
Few good UI stuff (Android Honeycomb could take some lessons here) but overall, the Touchpad felt like a half-baked product. I'm sure it would have eventually gotten better if HP was going to actively support it.
Instead of supporting their own bought and paid for OS, it seems that HP is going to follow the Nokia route and jump in bed with MS. I guess they're taking those surveys to heart that say that people are waiting for a Windows based tab.
It?s a confusing consumer product field.
Yes, and that plays right into Apple's hands as the default choice.
If the next iPad is not just an iteration, it could be game over for the other players and could become the iPod scenario, all over again.
The next iPad is going to be great. The next iProduct always is better than anything on the market, and is destined to sell huge numbers.
You're misreading the article. The percentages given are for the the non-iPad market. So that HP's "17%" is 17% of the few percent left over after you account for Apple. Far below Apple's PC percentages. And a good chunk of Android tablet sales are coming from fire sale discontinued models, so no, it's not likely they can make any money at all, much less Apple like numbers on these sales.
I reread the article. I think that you are correct. The stated percentages add up to 52%, which is much larger than the non-Apple share of the tablet market.
These guys ain't gonna make much unless they up their market share. Their volume is now unlikely to cover their fixed costs.
I am still unsure of why people even bought them at $99. I've never seen one and never will cause they didn't even get to where I am but regardless of if it has any value it harks back to the 80's where you bought an empty vessel with a flashing cursor. At least back then though you could learn how to program it and make it do stuff.
Would someone really spend $99 on a web browser and email client that will never get patched or updated? Geez people bawked at having to pay Netscape for a browser.
I did exactly that, $99 for (mainly) a web browser and email client and it does these two things well. Why would I do something so crazy? Well, what other alternatives are there for a $99 machine that can do both of these on a large screen with great battery life? I don't have to lug my MBP home from work every day and I don't have to leave my desktop on all the time. IMO money well spent.
On the other hand, I would definitely rather have an iPad 2, but I don't think i'll use it enough to justify the current price. Maybe if I'm lucky with TD rewards on Friday and get it for $299!
BTW, i just got an ATV as well and it's GREAT! Can't wait until they make it a semi gaming console that can host i-devices and not just AirPlay/mirror them.