I don't think Apple will be unhappy to see this <i>at all</i>.<p>The most recent figures I've seen have the iPad at around 70% market share. There's no chance that will survive after this kind of device appears, but I would guess Apple would be very happy to own, say, the top 40% of the market while the Android OEMs bleed each other dry at tiny margins.<p>Witness Apple's killer execution in the laptop market - and there they've fought there way upwards from virtually nothing, whereas with tablets they're starting with the dominant ecosystem.
I know this is purely anecdotal, but everyone I've seen recently who has bought a tablet, bought a laptop within 6 months or switched back to their old laptop and got rid of it.<p>I'm still not convinced by the tablet hype. The star trek wow factor wears off pretty quick for most people.<p>A $99 tablet may change that (temporarily as it's almost impulse buy pricing), but I'm not sure something of that price will have anything groundbreaking to add.
Asus have aparantly already denied this, not that it means much. [1]<p>It seems pretty unlikely to me, most of the $99 tablets available on AliExpress are significantly underpowered, especially around the areas of battery and screen quality. Google haven't released a sub-standard Nexus device yet, I'm not sure why they'd do it now, when according to all the reports I've seen the Nexus tablet is doing pretty well.<p>1 - <a href="http://www.reghardware.com/2012/09/27/asus_rumored_to_reject_99_dollar_nexus_7_rumor/" rel="nofollow">http://www.reghardware.com/2012/09/27/asus_rumored_to_reject...</a>
If this is true, I would wager it has the same specs as the current Nexus 7. The Tegra 3 that is currently used is printed on an out-dated 40nm process:<p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tegra#Tegra_3" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tegra#Tegra_3</a><p>Printing the same chip on say a 32nm or 28nm process (Like the iPad 2,4) would dramatically reduce the cost.<p>This would also allow them to use a smaller battery and achieve the same battery life.<p>The major challenge is the LCD panel. It's plausible they could continue to use the same IPS screen, but using a nice TN screen is another place they could cut costs. They could also just wager that these are going to sell like crazy and work out a deal at volume like Apple does.
Well, the low-end N7 has a $152 bill of materials and has some fairly high-end hardware, so putting in slightly lower-end hardware (dual core chip, 1,024 x 600 display etc) can get the tablet close to $99.<p>The other thing to note is that Google can probably afford to lose a bit of money on these, since it'll only take a few months (say, q2 '13) for them to really drop to $99. Seems like having the only $99 this holiday season is worth a couple of hundred millions (think of it as a huge advertising campaign).
I hope all Android OEMs are fully aware that Google has tricked them all into a race to the bottom. That's pretty much been Google's strategy against all its competitors to date.
I’d be much more willing to spend $99 on a Google tablet then $99 on another cheap Chinese tablet. I bought a Novo 7 several months ago to test out the accessibility of Android verses iOS as a blind user. Since it was Android somewhat modified by the manufacturer I needed sited help to install a TTS engine as well as install the talkback screen reader. I then had to remove a bunch of crapware, and deal with the fact that the tablet was somewhat underpowered providing me with a substandard experience. I was not very impressed with the tablet’s accessibility, but don’t know how much of that is Google’s fault verses the manufacturer. In comparison with iOS I can take a device out of the box, turn it on, hit the home button three times, and it starts talking. After this experience I won’t be buying no name $99 Chinese tablets, and since I have an iPhone that works fine I can’t justify $199 for another device that would be nothing more than an excuse to test the accessibility of an OS I most likely won’t switch to any time soon. If you reduce the price from $199 to $99 and it’s a stock Android experience with the accessibility software preloaded I can justify $99 to test out the accessibility of an OS I most likely won’t switch to any time soon.
I just picked up a Nexus 7 today :| May have been a bad time to buy. Any thoughts on whether I should sell it? It's still completely packaged, haven't opened it yet.
If they do that, it will be HUGE here for us in Uruguay and other Latin American countries.<p>Any reduction in price means a 2x reduction here due to import taxes and other stuff, so a decent U$ 99 tablet will be the first quality sub-U$ 200 tablet here.<p>They will also be available for direct import - you can't buy most stuff online here without paying heavy taxes, but sub-U$ 200 after taxes and shipping can be imported directly for personal use.<p>I will personally buy several, if this is the case (one for me, one for my gf, and some for my family members).
A quality $99 name-brand tablet would impact the eInk device market the most. Why would someone buy a $139 Nook or $179 Kindle when they could get a tablet for less? (Yes, I know how eInk is "better for the eyes" -- but we are talking the general population here, who have not embraced eInk in droves and who probably don't want to read books, either.)
A quick google search (<a href="http://bit.ly/RkNKpF" rel="nofollow">http://bit.ly/RkNKpF</a>) shows that there are plenty of tablets under $99. I think sub $100 tablet by Google will be good for the market but not any huge game changer like the article makes it out to be.