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Motorola's XOOM tablet has arrived, and with it a slew of other Android Honeycomb products are on the precipice of reaching out to the masses, crushing the iPad! Tech media and Apple critics alike are weaving their webs, claiming Honeycomb is the OS we've all been waiting for — which will bring iPad to it's knees and relegate the iPad as a niche player at best. I'm sorry to break it to all the Apple-haters, but the demise of the iPad is greatly exaggerated.

The problem with this premise is that while Honeycomb may be a big improvement to Android for tablet use, Android has nothing to do with tablet production costs, and ultimately, retail prices. When it comes to tablets and pricing, there is a massive pricing chasm between the horrifically bad product and a good enough solution.

Whether it's a pathetic $249 Cruz T301 7" tablet, or Motorola's XOOM that'll set the wallet back $799, there are no tweener Android products worth their salt that can tackle the iPad (let alone the iPad 2 coming tomorrow). When products are found in the mid-range, the question remains "Why not just buy an iPad?" Viewsonic throws the kitchen sink at the problem, offering Windows 7 to Android 2.2 tablets from $489 to $709 — depending on 7" or 10" screens and OS choice. The problem is these mid-range solution aren't mid-range at all — they're garbage. The only way for companies can compete with the iPad is to scale over Apple's solution, which brings their price points way out of line. 

HP promises to make a huge push against the iPad, and Motorola is giving us the old college try, but without a feature-competitive product at an acceptable price, the future does not look anything like the history of the PC wars. There's RIM on the horizon with the Playbook, but isn't RIM's Playbook constantly just around the corner? But give it up for RIM, as the Playbook is the ultimate in vaporware. RIM's upgraded this non-existent product so many times, let this be a lesson to Microsoft on how to truly never launch a product.

Apple lost the PC wars due to mismanagement and a pathetic corporate roadmap, while the generic PC industry pushed price and good enough to win the day. Today is a different ball-game and Apple seems quite intent on ensuring its price points won't soon be met by the competition. Whether it's building one iPad design by the tens of millions. pushing economies of scale the competition cannot breach, or investing billions in key component suppliers, Apple will be keeping the competition's price points at bay for a long, long, time.

Tomorrow the iPad 2 will be revealed, and while it may be a modest upgrade, it's likely we'll see the original wifi model slot into the $399 price point. The entire iPad lineup promises to send the competition back to the price-plus-features drawing board for at least another 6 - 9 months. And do we even dare mention rumor of the iPad 3 this fall?...

2 Comments

1. PXLated ~ March 1, 2011 00:35
   Apple didn't have a chance to win the PC war, there was no war. In that era, all but a small percentage of computing was business. IBM "was" business computing. When IBM handed the golden key to Microsoft, history was written right then and there. Apple's bad management didn't help Apple but it had noting to do with winning or losing the PC era, even after the Mac intro. Now though, it's not "business" computing. It's the era of "consumer" devices (appliances). Apple is (and can continue) winning that.
2. android wallpaper ~ October 7, 2011 00:29
   ipad is the trend setter but not always be market leader

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