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Google set to blow open the tablet market later this year with $99 Nexus tablet

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Re: Google set to blow open the tablet market later this year with $99 Nexus tablet

#81

Post by GFischer »

If they do that, it will be HUGE here for us in Uruguay and other Latin American countries.

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.

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.

I will personally buy several, if this is the case (one for me, one for my gf, and some for my family members).

Re: Google set to blow open the tablet market later this year with $99 Nexus tablet

#82

Post by GFischer »

graham_king_3 wrote: post #79

You can already get a 7" android 4.0 tablet off aliexpress.com for $53, shipping included.

I haven't bought from that website specifically, but some coworkers and acquaintances have bought from dealextreme, alibaba, etc. They are incredibly bad.

Several have resistive touchscreens, most have modified Androids that don't have Play store and don't install what you want, most have quality issues (for example my coworkers' has wifi connectivity problems), bad battery life, and overall terrible experience.

I'll gladly pay double to ensure good quality and a good experience.

Edit: aliexpress is part of alibaba (which is part-owned by Yahoo IIRC), so it's very likely what you get is similar to what I'm describing.

Edit2: browsing, it seems most do come with capacitive touchscreens now. I don't see any with free shipping, but I'm not in the U.S.

Re: Google set to blow open the tablet market later this year with $99 Nexus tablet

#83

Post by ajross »

jdminhbg wrote: post #75
riffraff wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

pardon me, I don't understand your reasoning. Why would apple be less happy with 70% of the market than with 40%? Do you mean that you expect the total size of the market to double, and then expect apple to own 40% of it (so they have a total number of customers which is slightly more than what they had initially) ?

Say this Google tablet changes the tablet market from being "lots of early adopters" to "everyone remotely tech-savvy." In that case, Apple would be way happier with 40% of 10x the market they currently have 70% of -- it'd be more than 5x their current business. Additionally, a popular $99 Android tablet means that Android is now the bargain tablet. Other Android tablet makers will have to compete with Google, leavin…

Apple doesn't remotely "own" the high end of the PC laptop business. They're doing very well among web developers, so to a poster here maybe it seems that way. They're merely the largest single manufacturer among a very long list of PC vendors.

And the bit about "bargain" vs. "high end" presupposes there are features there that justify the distinction. A $99 tablet isn't going to have a 4G modem (though it's unclear if Apple's $300 item will either), but beyond that and its physical size the current Nexus 7 is a very feature-comparable device to the retina iPad.

Re: Google set to blow open the tablet market later this year with $99 Nexus tablet

#84

Post by webwanderings »

eckyptang wrote: post #3

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. I'm still not convinced by the tablet hype. The star trek wow factor wears off pretty quick for most people. 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 any…

Tablets should eventually be sold for $0 with advertising attached. They are entertainment devices and not really a serious machines like laptop or desktop for any productivity work. If we were not willing to attach telephones to our hips, I believe tablets would have been the only device we had bought in addition to computers.

Re: Google set to blow open the tablet market later this year with $99 Nexus tablet

#85

Post by potatolicious »

phaus wrote: post #62
potatolicious wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who used to work in the automotive manufacturing sector I'll say this: Mercedes/BMWs/luxury cars are not nearly as overpriced as laymen make them out to be. There is a lot going on under the hood (literally!) that sets these cars apart. Which isn't to say that everyone needs a Mercedes, but there's certainly nothing intrinsically smarter about a Kia over a Mercedes.

I'm sure that Mercedes puts a lot into making their cars, but consumer reports seem to indicate that the end product is actually worse than low end Asian vehicles. Most of the people I know that have Toyota, Hyundai, and KIA automobiles drive them for a couple hundred thousand miles. The people I know who drive Mercedes, bmws and audis have constant. problems. I'm not a mechanical expert but my guess is that the extr…

The plural of anecdote isn't data ;)

Having actually seen the religiously-collected failure data that all manufacturers keep, I can safely say that your impression is incorrect. The budget brands suffer from substantially more expensive failures than the luxury brands, whose failures tend to be concentrated in non-critical systems (power windows vs. your transmission).

The AK-47 analogy doesn't really work here. There haven't been any "mechanically simple" cars since, what, the 80s? The main differentiator here isn't design or technological complexity, it's part selection and manufacturing rigour. So really you're talking about a hand-made M16 done up in a garage vs. a precision-manufactured M16. We're well past the age of "AK-47" cars.

Re: Google set to blow open the tablet market later this year with $99 Nexus tablet

#86

Post by eckyptang »

glhaynes wrote: post #78
eckyptang wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have any feeds or Facebook. That was a far better solution if you ask me.

Literally nobody cares that you don't have the same desires as they do.

And likewise nobody cares that you disagree with me, including me.

It's an opinion. Chill.

Re: Google set to blow open the tablet market later this year with $99 Nexus tablet

#87

Post by eckyptang »

levesque wrote: post #76
eckyptang wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have any feeds or Facebook. That was a far better solution if you ask me.

This is silly, you are telling me that my way of living sucks and I should change it. I enjoy this stuff, reading articles, stories. I don't read news papers or magazines, this is how I get my information and news.

Not at all. I'm saying that it works for me versus buying another device to consume with. To me it doesn't matter what the medium is - it's still the same thing.

Re: Google set to blow open the tablet market later this year with $99 Nexus tablet

#88

Post by GFischer »

potatolicious wrote: post #85
phaus wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure that Mercedes puts a lot into making their cars, but consumer reports seem to indicate that the end product is actually worse than low end Asian vehicles. Most of the people I know that have Toyota, Hyundai, and KIA automobiles drive them for a couple hundred thousand miles. The people I know who drive Mercedes, bmws and audis have constant. problems. I'm not a mechanical expert but my guess is that the extr…

The plural of anecdote isn't data ;) Having actually seen the religiously-collected failure data that all manufacturers keep, I can safely say that your impression is incorrect. The budget brands suffer from substantially more expensive failures than the luxury brands, whose failures tend to be concentrated in non-critical systems (power windows vs. your transmission). The AK-47 analogy doesn't really work here. Ther…

No idea about now, but a few years ago BMW had a disastrous batch of onboard computers, which weren't cheap to replace at all.

My stepfather had one with such a problem, and stopped buying BMWs after being a loyal customer for 30 years - his BMW 2002 (model, not year http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BMW_New_Class) he could service for himself, while the newer models he can't even touch.

Edit: example complaint http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/bmw-c127.html

Re: Google set to blow open the tablet market later this year with $99 Nexus tablet

#89

Post by Someone »

riffraff wrote: post #24
macavity23 wrote: post #17

I don't think Apple will be unhappy to see this at all . 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. Witness Apple's killer execution in the laptop market - and there they'v…

pardon me, I don't understand your reasoning. Why would apple be less happy with 70% of the market than with 40%? Do you mean that you expect the total size of the market to double, and then expect apple to own 40% of it (so they have a total number of customers which is slightly more than what they had initially) ?

I think he means it in inevitable that there will be something below (price-wise) Apple's offerings. If there is, Apple would prefer to see lots of suppliers. That will keep keep margins down for the low end stuff, so the suppliers will not make enough profits to dare invest in high end stuff (traditionally, that has done in workstation manufactures such as Sun and SGI). It also will force those suppliers to compete on price, so that they will not gain experience in building for high quality.

Of course, even if that happens, the risk remains that, eventually, the low end stuff becomes 'good enough'. Half the quality at a third of the price will at some stage look enticing to many.

Re: Google set to blow open the tablet market later this year with $99 Nexus tablet

#90

Post by endersshadow »

phaus wrote: post #62
potatolicious wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who used to work in the automotive manufacturing sector I'll say this: Mercedes/BMWs/luxury cars are not nearly as overpriced as laymen make them out to be. There is a lot going on under the hood (literally!) that sets these cars apart. Which isn't to say that everyone needs a Mercedes, but there's certainly nothing intrinsically smarter about a Kia over a Mercedes.

I'm sure that Mercedes puts a lot into making their cars, but consumer reports seem to indicate that the end product is actually worse than low end Asian vehicles. Most of the people I know that have Toyota, Hyundai, and KIA automobiles drive them for a couple hundred thousand miles. The people I know who drive Mercedes, bmws and audis have constant. problems. I'm not a mechanical expert but my guess is that the extr…

I bought a VW Jetta instead of any of the above mentioned. Jettas aren't more reliable than any of them, and they certainly come with a fairly hefty price tag when I need them serviced.

But my car isn't just a tool for me. It's a source of enjoyment. I love driving. And I love driving my car. Really, I love it. I would buy an Audi A4 in a second if I could afford it. If you're only judging based on one axis (reliability), you miss a lot of what goes into the purchase a vehicle. Just because it's your most important criteria, it's not mine.

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