The big problem is the OS. The best bet, Android 3.0, is not released yet.
CNNMoney video.
I do like the Lenovo tablet which runs Windows, but you can run Android and take out the screen for a tablet. Sounds like the best of two worlds, but we'll have to see if it really will work well in practice.
Obviously 80 different tablets will not survive on the market. What I wonder, if you're not Samsung or HP, why go into this market at all? At least this early. You don't have a snowball's chance in hell of surviving. It's like a Chihuahua joining a bear fight.
But I guess the "me too" impulse is just damn strong, and companies are desperate to get in on the ground floor of the Next Big Thing.
What is often overlooked is how good a niche market can be. "There can be only one" works best in the movies. Apple was a highly profitable company for twenty years, in a niche market. Find something you do well that others don't, and go in there. Don't try to do what everybody, his dog and his brother are doing already.
5 comments:
People get in the habit of buying HP or Toshiba or whatever. They have brand loyalty. If these companies don't have a tablet (or a netbook, or whatever) for their habitual buyers, that could be a problem.
Some of these companies needt to have a product in every category to keep their habitual buyers from "learning" to buy another brand.
I'll concede that point.
Mmm, up to a point, no pun intended. So long as it runs the same OS, like Windows, aren't most PC consumers not really thinking about if it's a Dell or HP or Toshiba? I'd gotten that impression from past articles on market research.
Apple being different because we fans are freaks and because it has a different OS.
Admittedly I don't follow the PC market closely.
From personal experience, I do think brand loyalty is real on Windows machines.
A family I know has two or three Toshiba laptops, which have worked well. Now they won't buy anything else. Other people I know develop a fondness for Samsung phones and computers by buying a Samsung TV.
A relative bought a Gateway computer which lasted a long time. He ended up buying a new Gateway, even though Gateway had gone out of business and Acer had bought the name. He was really buying an Acer with a Gateway label.
If Acer makes a tablet and slaps the Gateway label on it, my relative will be more likely to buy it.
I was surprised at the relative's actions, but I guess Acer knew what they were doing by buying the Gateway brand, and also the Packard Bell brand.
Interesting, thank you.
I hadn't realized that Gateway had gone away (hadn't paid attention.) but I do know that Acer rocks! They were making tablets back in '02 before the world was ready for them! Fortunately, they're still around to catch their 2nd wave. I look forward to seeing what they are bringing to the table, now.
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