Quote:
Originally Posted by ooogemaflop
for the same money you could buy a new desktop and aint you heard of sleep mode lol lol
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True.
I couldn't take a desktop PC with me when travelling, though, nor laze about with one in bed or on the sofa. I could do that with a laptop, but I don't want a laptop.
Plus a new desktop would be boring, & less shiny
Quote:
Originally Posted by haydnwalker
Apple are definitely a company that want to take your disposable income, regardless of the product.
I'm sure they'd get more fanboys if the prices were a bit more reasonable  |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris
Apple's image is reinforced by the price. They are very good at what they do - high-end consumer electronics that are very well designed, (usually) well made, and priced in a way that says 'premium product'. Enough people are prepared to lash out what it costs to buy something with the Apple label on it, they really don't need to drop the price.
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Although the MacBook & iMac have an "Apple premium" on the price, the iPad prices are actually already reasonable, when you consider the competition, and Apple certainly has no need to reduce them (not just because it sells like hotcakes anyway at the current price, due in part to the branding).
Something that none of Apple's competition for the tablet market has managed to do yet in the 11 months since iPad 1 was released is actually bring out a competing tablet with comparable specs, build-quality, and software for a lower price...Strange as it may seem when you think of the price of the iMac, MBP, etc., the iPad is actually competitively priced rather than the usual Apple price of "more expensive than everything else".
The Samsung Galaxy Tab was the only real competition last year. Although it had fairly comparable specs to an iPad (but half the screen area due to being 7") it still cost
the same price as an iPad.
The first "quality non-Apple tablet" out of the gate this year is the Motorola Xoom (due in April). Fairly comparable specs to the iPad 2, but with more RAM and a higher AR screen (16:10 instead of 4:3) [Improvements which most consumers probably won't actually care about... the average consumer for these doesn't seem that fussed by tech specs, something Apple knows]. The price?
The same as the iPad 2 (£500 for 32GB WiFi-only, £600 for 32GB WiFi+3G).
Samsung is bringing out a new Galaxy Tab later this year, the Galaxy Tab 10.1, with comparable specs to the Xoom & iPad 2. And you can bet that it will cost the same as an iPad 2...
HP & RIM (BlackBerry) both have their own tablets due at some stage (the TouchPad and PlayBook respectively). They may manage to be more competitive on price (especially HP), but at the moment they're still pretty much vapourware until HP or RIM actually start giving out real info on release dates & pricing etc. ...
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Apple owns the tablet market at the moment. Tablet = iPad for most people.
It controls the hardware, the software, the app market, and the retail. It knows that every unit it produces will shift easily, and it can bulk buy components cheaper than its competitors can (also, one reason 2010's competitors were primarily 7" rather than 10" is that Apple allegedly bought so many 10" screens that there weren't enough left for anyone else...).
Other than HP & RIM, all the other competitors (i.e. the Android OEMs) only control the hardware, so only make a profit on the hardware... and they can't sell their products direct as they don't have their own chain of stores like Apple does.
It'll be very interesting to see the evolution of the tablet market this year, given that there is finally going to be some serious competition... I can't see anyone stealing Apple's crown though, certainly not this year.