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How Will Amazon, Barnes & Noble Survive the iPad Mini?
redletterdave writes "For about a year, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble were almost completely alone in the 7-inch tablet market. It was nice while it lasted. The past few months have seen Google and Microsoft unveil their 7-inch tablet offerings — the Nexus 7 and Microsoft Surface, respectively — and it looks like Apple is about ready to get into the mini tablet game, too. If Apple releases its first 'iPad Mini' next month, what can Amazon and Barnes & Noble do to keep the Cupertino colossus at bay, as well as the other new competitors in the 7-inch tablet game?"
I get really tired of this frame of stories that assume Apple is the alpha and the omega.
Who cares about a possible iPad Mini that isn't drinking the Kool-Aid already? Just another iOS device, they already come with a range of displays, connectivity, etc. If you have already bought into the iOS ecosystem you might want one, otherwise not so much. What other OEM adding a new screen size would be a major story on /.? Newsflash! Dell adds new display option to their laptop line, discuss.
And for that matter, I don't really care about the Amazon or Nook tablets because they are trying to run the same Apple game plan, poorly. I don't want to semi-buy a tethered device that is more a tethered window into it's owner's cloud than a computer that [I] control. And to a great extent I toss the new Google Nexus 7 (by Asus) into the same pile.
Look around and you can buy tablets in any size, build quality and price that can be unlocked, accept removable media, even boot from that external media. Want one with a keyboard? Yup. Good cameras, sensors, etc. How much ya willing to pay? In other words, tablet computers instead of iPad clones. You can keep your subsidized[1] media players; I'm a nerd and I buy computers.
Just don't expect to buy a computer from a media company and get anything useful. Which is what B&N and Amazon are, Apple is in the process of becoming and Google is greatly desiring to be.
[1] Well not subsidized from Apple of course, there you pay more for the chains... but they are just so stylish!
Democrat delenda est
"The past few months have seen Google and Microsoft unveil their 7-inch tablet offerings — the Nexus 7 and Microsoft Surface, respectively"
Nope. Surface is a 10 inch tablet.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Surface
And besides, I'm sure Apple will sell a bunch, make money. A half year after that I'm sure stories will appear about a new Samsung, Kindle, or Google tab (or the combination of the three) that will offer something new or just enough of something new to move interest back away from Apple for a while.
Put the focus back where it belongs for their particular devices - Eink.
There are a ton of people who don't want to look at yet another computer screen when they are reading, which is why those people (me included) go for the Eink devices instead of the 7" tablets.
That is the space that made them popular, and that is the space they need to put the focus back on as a differentiating - and positive selling - factor.
The world moves for love. It kneels before it in awe.
How about we stop caring about Apple and just make the better product. Apple sells because of fan base they have, that is the only reason. They don't have better build quality, they don't have better hardware and they don't have better software, they just have fans. So instead of worrying about Apple, how about a company like Google just works hard and releases a better product. The better product wont always sell more but at least you can feel good knowing you did your best, you'll sell enough to make a profit and at the end of the day it wont matter. Of course if you really want the big numbers just stick a sticker of an Apple on the back and paint the tablet white, trust me your sales will double and people wont even turn the damn thing on.
They'll survive because nobody with two brain cells to rub together enjoys reading on a backlit and always-refreshing screen.
The Kindle hardware is just a channel to sell e-books. If Kindle hardware sales dry up due to competition from other tables, it's not a problem as long as the other devices that people buy support the Kindle App.
It is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail. - Abraham Maslow
Sue!
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There is no tablet market per se. There's an iPad market, an e-reader market, and a grab bag of every other manufacturer.
The Samsung Tab? Apparently it sold 37k units in the US last quarter, which makes it a total non-competitor to the iPad.
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/08/10/apple-sold-5-7-million-tablets-in-the-u-s-last-quarter-court-documents-show-samsung-sold-37000/
http://fortunebrainstormtech.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/screen-shot-2012-08-10-at-7-33-07-am.png
So anyway, what does it matter? There are Nook and Kindle readers on iOS - that revenue stream should be fine. By not selling the hardware both companies save money, but lose on lock-in. The impact will probably be marginal, or possibly a small plus as more people move to nook/kindle and away from books.
Of course, it depends on the price. If the iPad mini comes out at $199 it's game over for everyone else. I doubt that price point because Apple generally doesn't sell its hardware at a loss or close to a loss. They just need to make it close. $300 sounds more realistic - that's $100 less than the Ipad 2 and overlaps well with the iPad touch pricing.
and we shouldnt care. Amazon is a distributor, B&N is a retailer, when it comes to books. tablets are a publishing medium. I dont think we want more vertical monopolies, which is what amazons goal is, and b&n's is now. let apple and other hardware makers provide the platform, and publishers provide the product. and let b&n and Amazon either stick with selling, or move entirely into platform design.
Amazon and Nook are all about consuming content. Initial tear-downs of the Kindle Fire purported them to be built at a loss, or at the very least, sold "at-cost". The profits are in App sales, Kindle books, Newsstand subscriptions, and Music/Video content.
Thus, if their consumers are running iPad minis, Amazon already has most of that taken care of. There's a Kindle app for iPhone and iPad, and they've recently released the Cloud Player (music) for iPhone and Amazon Instant Video app for iPad. Those loyal to their content will still be consuming it, regardless of the device. Amazon doesn't have a foothold in all facets of iPad like they do in Kindle Fire or other Android devices (i.e. Appstore), but it's "good enough", right?
To a lesser extent, same applies for B&N. NOOK apps are available for both.
Now the risk for both of these companies is those who aren't loyal to a content provider and the default presence of iTunes.
$ man woman *
-bash:
I don't get the appeal of a 7 inch tablet at all. If you want to read novels on a 7" screen, go with e-ink. For comic books, technical articles, web, etc. a 10" screen is WAY more appropriate.
The kindle fire, etc. kind of made sense in that tablets were too expensive, and the fire offered an inexpensive (though inferior) alternative. But there's a lot more competition now, and 10" tablets can be had for about $250. So why bother with the 7" now?
Now I'll be embarassed to go pick up an iPad for the wife. "Umm, do you need mini or maxi?"
It would be nice tohave a more open Kindle Fire.
At least enable Bluetooth.
I read that as iPod Mini and became confused
By costing 1/3 to 1/2 less then the iPad Mini. There's still a lot of people out there that don't want to pay the Apple Tax.
This is just stupid. Look at how many 3rd party MP3 players were on the market before smartphones took over that role for most people. It's the same reason why people went out and bought a $50 Sansui instead of the $150 iPod Nano. Despite what the average fanboy would believe, price is still a motivating factor for a lot of people. I know many people that specifically went out and bought cheap-o MP3 players because they didn't want to risk losing/breaking the iPod which cost three times as much. For all intents and purposes, they both perform the same functions, after all, regardless of the price tag.
The impression is that Apple releasing a specific sized device is some how unfair to the competition and yet there was no question of this when Microsoft announced their device. People can argue specs all they want but when it comes down to it the iOS devices deliver the best user experience for most people. Android is popular mostly because the other companies have little choice but to pick it for development. If Apple opened up iOS for development Android would likely die overnight. No danger of that happening I'm just making a point. The point isn't that iOS is inherently superior it's just overall people are happy with it. There's talk of tablets taking over for desktops, not likely but the point is for most people they are good enough so there is a decline in desktops. Tablets will never be adequate though for most people doing serious work on a computer. I have a new iPad and I still spend 98% of my time on the desktop and do no actual work on the iPad. Look at it this way for all the fancy new input devices and overall improvement in computers I still work on an IBM style keyboard, I'm working on a Mac but I hate their keyboards, and I use a $10 Logitech mouse, I'm hard on mice and can kill a Mac one in less than a month and the cheapie Logitechs last 10X as long as the expensive ones. Basically how I use a computer hasn't changed that much in 25 years. I find touch pads clunky and hate using them even. I bought my first one 15 years ago and hated it so I went back to a mouse. I tried trackballs and hated those as well, I do computer graphics and trackballs are only good for editing film and spread sheets. The point is for all the attempts at reinventing the wheel the wheel still works fine. Okay we have an iPad mini coming out, so what? It'll fill a nitch and the desktop will soldier on. I expect an iPad "Maxi" eventually with a 15" or 16" screen. They'll probably come with that cover that doubles as an keyboard/display. Guess what? Back in the old days we called those notebooks and laptops! Try as you might to remake the wheel you eventually come back to round with a hole in the middle it just looks fancier.
The current full iPad already has fewer features and older technology than the Nexus 7 and costs three times as much.
Are they talking about the iPod Mega?
The biggest advantage any android tablet has right now, for a non-geek consumer, is the price: Will the ipad mini cost 200$? Considering the iphone still costs about 600 to 700$ and the ipad 2 still goes for 400$, i don't see apple bothering to release a 200-300$ tablet any time soon.
As such, those that cannot afford a 400$ tablet, would head to amazon, barnes&noble and google.
Slightly off-topic... But I haven't been able to find good answers.
Anybody has a link to an authoritative source about what happens to e-books if the publisher/seller goes out of business?
Are there any safeguards that will prevent the publisher/seller from pulling out an e-book already sold and installed in my reader?
Finally, are the e-books complete editions or are they abbreviated?
Thanks
Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out. - Cardinal Wolsey
Amazon, B&N and all the others will survive because they have E-ink screens, which are far superior (and, sadly, more expensive) for their specialized purpose.
If people wanted a color 7" tablet to do more than just reading, e-readers would have been gone from the market already. The only benefit a dedicated e-reader has over one of those cheap 7" no-name Android tablets is the screen. Even the cheapest Android tablet outperforms an e-reader in every way... except the screen.
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Just like Samsung so obviously copied Apple when they created the Nexus, Apple is obviously copying B&N by creating a 7 inch design. Just like making a reasonable graphical and physical user interface on a tablet, there are so many alternatives if they wanted to make a smaller tablet. They could have made a seven inch circular shaped tablet, or triangular. Making a seven inch rectangular tablet just smacks way too much of theft of intellectual property. You'd think Apple would recognize this by now after how people copied them when they invented the windows GUI, the mouse, the internet and HTML, digital music, tablets, and all those other things we all know (OK, what Apple fanboys, fangirls, and fan(girl)judges believe) they came up with.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
They'll survive it the way they've survived the iPod Touch all this time.
I honestly don't understand the 7" tablet market. If I want small, I've got my smartphone. If I want big, I can use a 10" tablet. WTF am I supposed to do with something that's too big to fit comfortably in my pocket but so small it's still hard to read?
The Blackberry Playbook is a 7" tablet and has been on the market for over a year now. How come it is never mentioned? I mean, it had it's flaws when first released but has been patched up for the most part now. When the playbook was first released everybody was saying 7" was too small for a tablet. Amazon, Google have each released their 7" and now Apple has been rumored to release a smaller version of the iPad and all of a sudden the 7" is the sweet spot?
I just call the iPad Mini the "MiniPad" - it's one syllable less to say and it rolls off the tongue nicely.
Currently I have an iPad 2 and I love it. If that’s drinking the Kool-Aid then give me some more! I would be highly interested in getting a 7 inch iPad, because of it being more portable. I prefer the iOS to the Android system and I’m really hopeful that they release it next month. I first heard a rumor of it from a coworker at Dish, because my girlfriend and I normally only use our iPads to watch live TV on the Dish Remote Access app, since my DVR is Connected to a Sling Adapter. It lets me stream live TV and recordings over the internet to my device. It would make it much easier to carry for me and even easier for my girlfriend’s small hands to hold it up!
Tablet computers are becoming a commodity. A 7" tablet from China is only $70. On Amazon, you can now get Android tablets from $60. Since the Allwinner ARM system on a chip came out for $7, with no US intellectual property to run up the price, the compute power in low-end tablets has been quite impressive. Tablet computers are going to be something you buy in a blister pack at the convenience store.
How will Apple, with all their expensive stores on expensive real estate, and a business built on huge markups, deal with that? Their pricing is around $400, over five times the price of the competition. They can't maintain that margin.
There's a market for luxury items. The CEO of Rolex says "We are not in the watch business, we are in the luxury business. The volumes are small. Apple is too big a company to take that route. Apple may have to try coming out with lower-priced lines to compete.
Are you guys drinkin' already this morning? The 'Apple automatons' are becoming too numerous to dismiss with trite dismissives. Perhaps you could say. Boy I don't want one! Perhaps you could say I can't imagine why anyone would want one! But to say the 25-30M a quarter they sell is to Apple automatons? Ummm, then there must be more of them around than you realize.
Just not charge $500 dollars like Aplle.
Microsoft Surface is not a 7" device...
The ipad mini will have to be a *lot* lighter.
If they are to compete with kindle they will have to sacrifice much
of the ipad experience unless they have some slam dunk
power consumption strategies/hardware that allow for a much lighter battery.
I get really tired of this frame of stories that assume Apple is the alpha and the omega.
When you start out like that you just look uninformed.
The fact is you should care if Apple is entering a niche because it means that other options may well dry up.
I don't really care about the Amazon or Nook tablets because they are trying to run the same Apple game plan, poorly
Poorly? Both seem to have done really well. Amazon has a tablet that lets people easily hook into the benefits of the media Amazon provides, and they have done a good job of selling devices.
I don't want to semi-buy a tethered device that is more a tethered window into it's owner's cloud than a computer that [I] control.
All of these tablets are computers you can easily control. Why then ignore the very real benefits that derive from the tablet maker also offering a hook into convenient cloud services?
iCloud will happily back up a jailbroken iPad as easily as a non-jailbroken iPad...
In other words, tablet computers instead of iPad clones. You can keep your subsidized[1] media players; I'm a nerd and I buy computers.
You claim you are a nerd, yet you discard the best hardware on the market (not just Apple), hardware that as you admit is perhaps cheaper through subsidization - that you don't even have to use!
A true nerd doesn't care what features a device ships with, just how much control they have over a device and what the hardware is. The iPad is as controllable a device as anything after jailbreaking - which even non-nerds can do, yet it seems to be too intimidating for you.
Weak sauce man. If you want be a nerd or hacker, be that - but don't proclaim some hardware is beyond your nerd-love simply because of extra features targeting the masses that you don't even have to activate.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
i wasn't aware that the number of customers a product has could magically make the technology behind that product better.
seriously, learn to read or lay off the booze yourself
Some of us purchase art books, comics, graphic novels, manga and full color magazines; for those e-ink is shit.
e.g. by putting out reader applicaitons for all platforms and making money on sellign the books, as they already do now. I would never buy the kindle (since dont like to pay somebody money for playing the gatekeeper to what i can watch on *my* device), but since Amazon makes my purchases available on my android via the kindle app, my xp machine, and (even for offline reading) in the web browser, i am not exacltly sure *why* amazon should be worried about the 7 inch ipad. I spend more for ebooks in the last year (since i use the kindle app) than for books in the 5 years before.
The ipad 7 inch is an device which apple hestitated to produce and enters the market as one of the last big players (the same for the surface thing). Pocket-compatible ebook reader have been arund a long time, and the load of android devices in all different shapes, formats and price ranges makes the 7 inch ipad appear like a drop of water in the sea.
The more relevant question is: Is apple navigating itself in a position of "we against the rest" with a high fence around the garden? Again? A little lesson in the History of Apple should teach that they made this mistake one time before. In the 90s they were had the monopoly in the DTP and creative market. Until they managed to annoy their customers a few years too long by keeping the same feature set and relying on the market monopoly. At that time the logics was: If you do DTP, you need an Apple, sicne the print shops only guarantee the result if you deliver your product as a mac format. If you open a print shop, you need a Apple because the customer has Apple. Bot have an Apple, so the colour calibration chain (which indeed worked better in the beginning on the Apples than on Windows) will guarantee that you know what you print. Nowadays the logics is: Apple controls a significant share of mp3 sales, media sales, so if you want to read a digital newspaper, you need an ipad. Since people reading digital newspapers own ipads, if you make a newspaper you need to publish for the ipad.
What happened in the 90s: Windows go better and betetr and chraper and cheaper and a so big overall market share that it put apple under pressure
What happens now: Android gets better and betetr and cheaper and cheaper and Apple has no monoply on the ebook, mp3 market or anything close. So the customers are essentially people who baought an ipod, upgraded to iphone and asrrive at the ipad now. I dont know many people who bought ipad which did not own iphones before.
So that leaves the question: Will Apple show an innovation (besides putting out an ipod in another size) which attract new cistomers or did they corner themself already?
They need to bring out color ink. .*now*. And be a tad bigger than 6" too please.. Not huge, but a little bit..
But as far as their 'tablet-readers' they are pretty much toast once apple gets in the game, as i don't think their multimedia ecosystem will keep them afloat enough to make it worth while. Sure they could survive, but that isn't the point of a business unit.
Their book ecosystem will keep the ink-readers alive forever, however my biggest fear is they get out of the reader market completely, and just sell e-books and reader apps.. Then where will we get ink from other than Sony and mainland china?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Wait; Apple doesn't have a 7-inch tablet yet? The strategy of the others is obvious: They sue Apple for infringing their "innovative" format. If they can find a friendly judge, they can block sales of Apple's gadget of the same size for a year or two, and by then people will be galloping off after the latest hot thing (maybe a 7.5-inch tablet?), and it won't matter. If Amazon, B&N and a few others pool their resources, they should be able to drag this out for a few years, even against Apple.
Of course, Apple might countersue for infringing on their patent on their process of patenting things that are only minimally different from what others have had for years. But that's a different /. story ...
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
My guess is that they'll deal with it the same way that they did when laptops and portable music players became commodity items. LOL
> There's a market for luxury items. The CEO of Rolex says "We are not in the watch business, we are in the luxury business. The volumes are small. Apple is too big a company to take that route. Apple may have to try coming out with lower-priced lines to compete.
Don't be stupid. The same could be said of the iPod : there are ton of cheaper mp3 player. "mp3 players are something you buy in a blister pack at the convenience store". It didn't kill the iPod. What killed the iPod was the surge of smartphones, which is one of the many reasons for Apple to have made the iPhone in the first place, to keep a market that generated lot of revenues for them.
Hell, the same shit you're spouting could be said for the smartphone market too. You can buy crap like the Samsung Galaxy Y for $128 dollars without a contract, $0 dollar with a contract. Didn't quite spell the end of the iPhone, did it ?
At $400 the iPad 2 is still within a reasonable price. It's not a shitty 7" tablet, it's a 10". Microsoft Surface will cost as much if not more. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10" cost as much. The Asus Transformer cost as much as the iPad retina.
You know what. You want to spend less than $400, you'll get crap, and it's not about being an Apple fanboy, because I think the Asus Transformer is quite the beast and Surface will be successful. But notice the thread they have in common : they are similarly priced to Apple products. You can't sell good stuff for less.
People have been saying that about Apple since Apple existed. They have come out with a few lower priced things over the years, but those products came and went while the expensive stuff remained.
both Barnes and Noble and Amazon were shifting those tablets, pretty much exclusively to get you to buy stuff from them. I'm not even too sure they were even that important - given an ipad and no legacy tie-in, I'd use kindle over apple's in-house offering.
My take on the Nexus 7 was a little bit different - this was prove that Android tablets didn't have to be crap or expensive. In our swoop they've pretty much decimated the market for so-so 3rd party manufacturers - any new tablet has either got to be significantly cheaper or better to even bother trying to enter the market place.
There's a market for luxury items. The CEO of Rolex says "We are not in the watch business, we are in the luxury business. The volumes are small. Apple is too big a company to take that route. Apple may have to try coming out with lower-priced lines to compete.
You have a good point, and I used to think the same, but consider that Apple has been selling high-priced laptops for over a decade, despite the emergence of $350 laptops, they still manage to sell them for $2000+. Not only do they sell them, their marketshare is increasing. I don't claim to understand HOW they do this, but they do. And so far, they've managed to keep selling iPads for some reason, too.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
You seem to be suffering from the delusion that your $60 tablet is even remotely as good as the iPad.
In other words, you can get a Chevy Aveo for $10,000. An Golf costs $25,000. I guess only rich people will ever buy anything except for an Aveo now!
And if something is more expensive, unless you know any better, it will be better.
Add to that the fact apple demand a huge markup on their hardware products (because they'll get it sold to the aforementioned undereducated snobs), therefore why wouldn't they have the most expensive 7" tablet?
For that matter, it blows away the iPad as well. After using it for a week, going back to iOS feels like going back in time. The Nexus is easier to use, more flexible, more responsive and it just plain feels slicker. I suspect an honest comparison between an iPad mini and the Nexus won't come up too well for the iPad. I'm sure it will still be bought in droves by the faithful, but Apple's been passed by Google.
"Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list!"
About the only difference is that you're liable to get somewhat more of your own created content on an iPad (if only because it handles more types of media, e.g. AVIs from your mobole phone, pictures from your camera).
Fortunately for iPad, there will never be an honest comparison, and anyone who does an honest comparison will be beaten into submission by the Apple fanboi media.
Kindle anyway. Slow, cumbersome, difficult to search. Purely a "use only when absolutely necessary" feature. I suspect (just a speculation based on my experience and the experiences of several colleagues) that most Kindle users buy books on Amazon.com using their computer, and only use the Kindle device/app for *reading*.
But nobody right now has Amazon's selection, or (just as big an asset) review infrastructure and data.
For the serious reader (several books a week, academic or specialty books, etc.) Amazon is currently the only choice by a large margin.
And I doubt the iPad Mini (or whatever) will have any effect on Kindle Fire sales, since Amazon advertises is as a "reader" much more than in the "tablet" space. The Kindle Fires is my social circles were all bought by people that use them for reading and reading only. They really had no other ambitions for the device, which is how they ended up with a Kindle Fire in the first place.
Even if they knew that you could do other things with one, I'm not at all sure they'd be interested in actually doing those things. I suspect that the marketing differences will keep these two devices in different and only slightly overlapping market segments.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
But it is. The Allwinner 10" from Amazon is as good as any Andorid tablet I have seen. Whether it is as good as an iPad is subjective. I would say it is, but I can see why people would disagree.
The medium of eInk is completely different than an LED type display. eInk is damn good for a page turning book, as in a novel or something where you read the pages slowly and in order. eInk is terrible for skimming where you flick back and fourth or where the data is highly formatted such as a textbook.
LED is awesome for stuff you read quickly such as video (many frames per second) a web page, twitter, facebook, etc. But even then the size determines what you will read. A larger screen (iPad or bigger) is good for skimming a textbook, or a magazine. I don't want to read a magazine or textbook on a 7 inch screen. Even though the screen is book size and the weight will be more book like I suspect that people will not want to read 50 shades of stupid on a smaller iPad. So that basically leaves it to be used for games, video, and other things that you would do with a really big phone.
I would say that the revolutionary size would be to bump up the normal iPad so that it doesn't have that huge bezel and a genuine 10+ inch screen; at least the size of a National Geographic. Then I can really do the textbook/magazine thing really well.
The revolutionary thing to do with eInk would be to make it way tougher (2 dead kindles in this house) and keep making it crisper. I am not sure that colour is even that important. Colour might make it easier to sell in Staples but only if it doesn't come at the expense of lightness/crispness/cost/ or battery. I wouldn't mind the screen being a notch bigger but at most another inch.
I'll probably buy it to replace both my phone and my current iPad in one device. I use Google Voice + Talkatone on my iPad already when I'm stationary, but a 10" tablet is just too big to carry around—for example—to the grocery store. But at 7" I'd make the leap and do away with the phone form factor altogether.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Assuming they actually do release it (has anything official been announced yet?), Apple is going to have a hard time setting a good price for the iPad Mini.
The Nook Tablet, Kindle Fire, and Nexus 7 all start at $199. Therefore, Apple won't be able to price the iPad Mini much more than $250 unless they want to be seriously beat out on price by A-list competitors. It's one thing to be beaten on price by bottom-of-the-barrel crap like Archos, but until now, the iPad has been quite competitive on price with equivalently powerful systems from A-list vendors such as Samsung. No other 10-inch tablet provides equal performance to the iPad at a substantially cheaper price. In fact, no consumer tablet at any price can beat the iPad 3's display resolution. Apple's success comes not only from providing a slicker product, but also from the fact that they've pretty much abolished the "Apple tax" on portable hardware, and used their supply chain dominance to leverage prices way down.
At the same time, Apple can't sell the iPad Mini for much cheaper than the iPad 2 ($399), because if they do, it will cost them a substantial number of sales on the better hardware. A lot of tablet users would gladly drop from 10 inches to 7 inches to save $150, if the user experience is otherwise the same. Apple doesn't want to cannibalize its own profit margins on their high-end tablets.
I'm sure their marketers have crunched all the numbers. My prediction: if the iPad Mini does see production, it will start at $249 or $299 for the cheapest model. Just low enough to lure over a decent number of Nexus/Kindle/Nook users, just high enough to keep the iPad 2 competitive. Also, the screen resolution will be 1024x768.
Apple can sell $2000 laptops because they compete with other $2000 laptops (heard of Alienware?) on screens, speed and other features.
And those $350 laptops are still shit. Which is why many spend just $150 more and get an iPad.
I thought the natural progression was to introduce the iPad Maxi.
Having purchased multiple cheap laptops and a couple $2000+ laptops over the years, it's quite clear in this category higher prices equals higher quality. And, high quality is more than GHz, RAM, storage rating. It also includes form factor, weight and durability.
And there are cheaper music players than iPods, and cheaper laptops than MacBooks, and yet somehow Apple has turned into the biggest company on the planet than isn't a bank or oil concern. Apple is selling more and more computers, phones, and tablets year over year, every year. (The only thing that's going down is their iPod sales because everyone's buying iPhones instead.) The whole market is growing--people are buying tablets who never bought computers, and cell phones are literally going to hit the points where 99% of the PLANET owns one. (Did you know their iPhone business--something that didn't even exist five years ago--is bigger than the entirety of Microsoft?)
Apple is not a niche, small-volume luxury company like Rolex. You're comparing a multi-hundred dollar, multi-feature device to a multi-thousand dollar, single-function device--of course Rolex is going to have orders of magnitude less volume.
I always laugh when posts like yours get high "Insightful" mods. You're cherry-picking all these little facts here and there while ignoring the hundred-billion-dollar elephant in the room.
> How will Apple, with all their expensive stores on
> expensive real estate, and a business built on
> huge markups, deal with that?
LOL. Have you ever heard "you've got to spend money to make money"? Apple retail stores have the highest profit per square foot ratio of any retail chain by a HUGE margin. (Almost 2x higher than #2, Tiffany.) And it's been like that for five years.
Also: you really think all these companies with razor-thin margins are going to thrive in Apple's place? You can ask Dell how well that strategy worked for them long-term. And have you ever used a generic tablet? I have, and they all suck in every way you can imagine. Apple's resources give them the ability to make things people actually want.
I'm not saying Apple will reign forever, but it will take them a LONG time to fall.
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Well, having owned an iPad 1, iPad HD, Motorola Xoom, Galaxy 10.1, and a Nexus 7, I and my kids have a different opinion of where the Nexus 7 ranks. The Xoom is the clear loser. My kids won't touch it. The Nexus 7 is only marginally better than the Xoom.
because it comes in at 299 or less I won't flinch every time the seven year runs to show me her latest effort on the iPad
A small size means I can shove it my dress pants pocket, something the Kindle does well but the iPad does not (I have the kindle touch, kindle fire, and an iPad)
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I don't see how it's really a threat to Amazon and B&N at all-- they both have apps that let you read their content on iThings, and they're primarily content companies not hardware companies. The bigger issue might be whether it cuts into iPhone sales.
And depending on what you want it for, it may not be a major competitor at all. I've got a collection of various e-readers and tablets, and the iPad isn't that great of an e-reader. It's big (making it less convenient to read in bed), and the backlighting sucks power and isn't as good for extended reading as the reflected-light reading of e-Ink. And it's too big to fit in your pocket, and doesn't make phone calls... The advantage (to me, focusing on ebook related things) is that it supports equations and is better if you want to to picture books and that sort of thing. I kind of prefer the kindle fire over the iPad (and that's coming from someone who has a house full of old macs of various flavors). And for just plain reading I prefer the eInk versions of the kindle and nook.
I can't understand why people go full retard over buying the iPad. It costs almost double what a laptop does and does not have a keyboard. It has no means of expandable storage (besides SD card), its too big to fit into a pocket and does everything a cell phone does except make calls. Why are these so popular?
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Many reasons to list, but the most salient are: Apple will price it too high. Fanboys will buy it- but ultimately Apple will grasp and miss any kind of foothold as they lose out to the tidal wave in incoming inexpensive Android tablets. It will still be locked into the iTunes store. That exclusivity isn't worth the price of the DRM, sorry. Android tablets will continue increasing in features while the iPad plods behind. Apple doesn't move as fast as technology. Maybe I should have called it an iPlod.
I'm looking at a Taiwanese 7-inch tablet now that does everything I need for $65. This is just like the IBM PC clones that kicked down a huge section of the pricing wall and made entering the market more enticing to new buyers. Apple's days are numbered.
The only thing to do is change their prices. TFA even says "If Amazon and Barnes & Noble are smart, they will cut their respective tablets by $50, pricing the Kindle Fire at $149 and the Nook Tablet at $199."
Did anyone else notice that BN has, wait for it, dropped the price of the Nook Color and the tablets? I (and probably countless others) got a bulk mail last night. Nook tablets now start at $179 and the 16GB is $199. Hell, the BN website still says "get 16GB for only $50 more" and "get 8GB and save $50", even though it's now only a $20 difference.
Amazon will almost certainly do something similar shortly.
Another US-centric story I see. Here in the UK, the story reads to me as "unreleased Kindle Fire and unreleased Nook Color vs. rumoured unreleased iPad Mini and unreleased MS Surface and - shock horror - released Nexus 7". In other words, a pretty useless story for non-US citizens - please try harder next time. Oh, and yes, I have a Nexus 7 because that *has* been released outside the US and is therefore the default 7" tablet winner in my books.
It's like asking how BMW stays in business in a world where you can buy a cheap Fiat that can get you anywhere the BMW can go. In other words, it is missing the point.
I fail to see that it has any meaning at all.
My ebook reader of choice is kindle (software). I run it on my Nexus S and my iPad, and my MBP. I use it because I can crack it, it's cross platform, and the ebooks are comparatively inexpensive.
I have not a single Apple ebook, and I stopped using Google's when my ebook purchased in my US account, with my US credit card, on my US phone, while I was visiting the US failed to open when I came back to Australia ("book is not available in your country"). Oh yeah? How about "no"?
Amazon makes it's money from selling content. Their devices are the same as droid to google: a degree of regaining control over the path to consumer. Apple as gatekeeper scared the bajeesus out of every company. And given Apple's track record, I'd say they were all justified...
Those markets are just what people talk about all the time. Apple has had some outright failures and markets they have competed in poorly. A good failure would be the Pippin, Apple's game console. Apple had a game console way before MS did but it was a total failure and Apple fans don't talk about it anymore.
On the opposite end a product that hasn't failed, but failed to impress is the Apple TV. People buy them and use them, but not in droves. DVD/Blu-ray players with network functionality are more popular in that market (or using game consoles for the same purpose). So it isn't a failure, but hasn't "set the trend" at all.
So what will happen with the 7" iPad? Who knows? For most people a tablet it completely worthless, it is just a toy. Now there's nothing wrong with that, and there's a massive market in selling people toys they want to have for no reason other than they are cool. However, will the be sold on needing another, slightly smaller toy? Maybe, maybe not. We'll just have to see.
However this isn't doing anything new. It is just something that is larger than a smartphone, smaller than the previous iPad. If ever there was a "no real need" niche, that is it. People may decide they want it and buy it in droves, however they may also say "Meh, already have the big one," and leave it at that.
Oh... I dunno... I can get a kindle for under $100... The battery charger for this thing will likely cost more than that. So there's that.
The offering from Amazon and Barnes & Noble are like carburettor sub-compacts without airbag, anti-lock brakes power steering, air condition and power windows
What available from Apple are fuel-injection BMW with all the trimmings
When BMW decides to offer a sub-compact, it will come with all the trimmings (anti-lock brake, air bags, air conditioning, power-everything)
If Amazon / Barnes & Noble want to compete, they better upgrade their sub-compacts with matching trimmings, or risk losing their customer base
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
Meh. Another poorly researched article to slobber some fruity knob. If you look at the authors other articles at least half of them are dedicated to the fruit salad. The author had to go back and correct his article because the first comments were pointing out incorrect info on the IBT site. Move along nothing to see here...
I wonder if it will come bundled with sandpaper “so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one-quarter of their present size.”
Well, if you ignore the dozens of sub-$100 7" tablets that are made in China that do nearly everything the $500 ones do. I'd like to see sales figures for those but if my workplace is anything to go by, they're outselling Samsung, HTC, Apple, etc by a considerable margin.
Since the expensive household-name tablets are also made in China, why even bother with a name brand anymore? And they all run the same OS (except for Apple of course).
I suspect that Malibu Stacey having a new hat is not going to be a problem for Amazon or B&N.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
It is out in a few forms (triton eink, mirasol and there are others), but since it's not emitting light (and a few other reasons) it doesn't look as good as an LCD screen.
I played with a 10 inch "Ectacto Jetbook Color" for a couple of days to set it up for a friend, and it's a nice device but you don't buy it for the colour (you get it for the software). The colour is like coloured comics on cheap 1980s newsprint - there but not glossy. The old Beatrix Potter "Adventures of Peter Rabbit" and the lightly coloured line drawings looked perfect on it, but any photo displayed on it is going to disappoint. Text looks wonderful (since the resolution is huge) but colour is at 1/3 of the resolution and not bright. The software is OK for what it is supposed to do - using WinCE is a bit of a braindead choice for such a platform though since you cannot have an audiobook playing while looking at the text of the same book. If I was getting that hardware for myself I'd probably get the Chinese one that doesn't run WinCE so is probably a bit more responsive, and I don't need the text to speech or educational software which is the reason to buy the Ectacto. I don't know how I'd get it though since it seems to be in short supply, and it may cost just as much as getting the Ectacto version.
So books and old comics look good on it but you can forget about anything else for the colour.
I've never seen a mirasol device, but that's the glossy low power sunlight readable display that is similar to eink but not quite the same and the advertising says colour photos will look like photos on the devices. Apparently one is on sale in Korea but hard to obtain.
If you think that all 100mil Apple Fans still have all their old iOS devices.
Just look at the numbers of old models that appear on Ebay etc just after a new model is released
I know of many families where the older iPads are recycled to other family members.
Disclaimer
I own one iOS device, an ipod Touch 16Gb. 3+ years old and still going strong. My phone is an HTC Sensation.
I'd rather be riding my '63 Triumph T120.
Say it out loud...E-READER! Kindles and Nooks are E-Readers not tablets. What is getting some worried is a TABLET intruding into E-READER space. Not an E-READER intruding into TABLET space.
As soon as Apple's iPadMini hits the market, Apple will sue anyone making a 7-inch anything, for copying their original, and by definition very "cool" 7 inch iPadMini. Then they'll sue sports teams that have a player who wears the number 7, they'll sue Microsoft over the use of the number 7 in Windows 7, and they'll sue me for having a seven-inch cock, which Apple, by the way, can suck.
Apple's MO for the longest has been to steal other people's, (better people's) ideas, refine them until they're slicker than snot on a doorknob, and then sue others for "copying" them.
So, for the millionth time, FUCK APPLE. I think I may actually even change my name, legally to "Fuck Apple".
Signed, Mr. Fuck Microsoft
Dictated but not read.
I've had a Nexus 7 since launch and my experience hasn't been so mind-blowing. It's fast enough, but not noticeably faster than my iPad. Scrolling really bugs me when reading a web page, but other than that (which is my main use for a tablet) it's okay. The app selection for Android tablets still lags behind iOS, and I'm not a huge fan of the 7" form factor. On one hand, it's great for portability but on the other, it's not as comfortable to me to read on, so I don't. Do it as much. I'm on a trip to visit family and guess which tablet I brought. Yep, the Nexus 7 is sitting at home on the charger and I'm typing this on my iPad.
Your argument essentially boils down to this:
Do not underestimate the power of human stupidity.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
It may be good for displaying text ,,,, but as it is right now, it is useless for anything else.
To play any kind of decent animation or video, you need a minimum of 23 fps (frames per seconds). eInk can't barely handle 2 fps.
eInk is no where near acceptable to be use for anything but static text and low resolution images.
So unless there is a huge leap in eInk tech .... right now, eInk is completely useless for a tablet.
Fiat is such a crappy brand, you may not be able to get to the same location as a BMW. Chances are it will break down 1/2 way to your destination.
Apple machines are hardly what I would call quality. Sure they aren't gateway levels of garbage, but they are not some beacon of quality that you seem to be making them out to be.
Apple laptops are notorious for their heat output, and getting dents in their stylish bodies. I've never seen an Apple laptop survive the 'trip down a flight of stairs test', as well as a Thinkpad, or even some of HP and Dell's business grade material. I've personally repaired dozens of liquid related damages on Macbook pros, and Thinkpad T series, and I can tell you that the Macs are absolutely awful about handling spills with their patented hole free design. I've also seen stupid numbers of broken hinges on the Macbooks, as well as disproportionately high numbers of damaged screens due to pressure on the back. You can get a Thinkpad for 1000 dollars that is as powerful as 2000 dollar macbook, and it's orders of magnitude tougher, while also typically having a far heavier feature set. What's more you can service the things with tools found on many pocket knives rather than having to special order magical tools made by gnomes on mars to deal with the latest retardation in bit technology.
You are full of trash. Apple's mythical quality is just that, a myth. The business world will be waiting for you with superior products when you wake up from your dream.
The problem that confuses and infuriates we tech people is that we don't understand the success of Apple. Their products are over-priced and feature-limited. It turns out, that most people don't care about that. So Apple succeeds by catering to what most people care about -- fashion and limited but easy-to--use features. They can abuse their customers and charge what they like as long as they do that.
I always do a lot of comparison shopping when I buy something. I consider all companies, including Apple, even though I have yet to find a scenario where they had the best product. Popular doesn't always mean best.
As long as it make them happy, let the people give their money to Apple. There is nothing wrong with a little ignorant joy (not sarcastic, Homer was better with the crayon). I just wish there wasn't so much praise and gushing over Apple as there is.
Easy the bulk of us out here want nothing to do with Apple. I won't buy the mini, much in the same way I didn't buy a iPad, iPhone, touch, iPod, Mac, etc, etc, etc
Apple's resources give them the ability to make things people actually want.
People also want cheap. If it's isn't brand recognition that's driving the "luxury" price, then when a competitor achieves reasonably similar results for cheaper, things will change. I would say that Apple's phone "reign" was relatively short lived, I would expect the same for the tablet.
Millions long for immortality who do not know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon. -- Susan Ertz
Two things... battery life and screen quality in the sunlight. eReaders are perfect for vacation on the beach ( or sitting in the park, or on the porch, or reading on the bus.)
AC
Barnes and Noble is fine. Their strategy is to convert their current customer base to digital. When these customers come into the store they see a big display case of Nooks with a saleman behind the desk to push them. They have the best location in the buisness to sell a tablet to a book buyer. Apple can only get the book buyers who are comparison shopping. Apple also can get people who want a tablet for video and gaming. But these people don't buy a ton of books a year. They are low volume customers for B&N.
I just wish they'd release the damn thing outside of the US already... Goddammit!
That's just flat-out wrong. Even if we ignore the styling and the media connectivity - airplay, etc... heck, even my stereo system understands airplay - IOS has a selection of applications that nothing else can touch. The disparity is large enough that even when a tablet can offer really useful features over IOS devices (like card slots and USB ports and IR emitters and radio and TV and cordless charging and multicore CPUs, for instance), that the IOS devices have thus far continued to trample them in the marketplace.
IOS isn't perfect, and there are fairly obvious marketing vulnerabilities, but if you ignore the elephant -- applications -- you can't make valid comparisons. The real value of these devices (for people who actually use them and aren't just carrying them as fashion accessories) is in what they can do for the owner, and that brings you right to the question of applications.
Amazon already has an iPad app. They could easily do an Android app with the full capabilities of the Kindle Fire; they just haven't chosen to do it yet. The Kindle line isn't about making money on hardware; it's about delivering a sales device to people and then making money on those sales. Amazon likes the idea of the Kindle because they're the only seller there, but their store is strong and will be able to sell media (as well as physical goods) on other platforms. I have no interest in a closed tablet platform like the Kindle Fire but I might be persuaded to get an Amazon Prime subscription for my Nexus 7 if they offered it.
The main danger to Amazon is that the hardware companies could choose to make it difficult or impossible for them to do so. Apple has total control over what can be offered on the App Store and could withdraw approval of the Amazon app. Microsoft appears to be planning a similar model for the Surface. Android is the one space where Amazon appears to be safe. Google can't close Android to outside developers without destroying its unique selling proposition; Android's openness to everyone is a big factor in people choosing the platform.
Barnes and Noble is in a more difficult position. They don't have as much to offer as a merchant (they're doing fine with books but they don't have the other media content that Amazon does, let alone the physical goods), so it's not clear whether they can survive on platforms that are also open to other sellers. One possible survival path for B&N would be to use their strong academic ties to become a specialist in publishing e-textbooks.
I'm your average hardcore computer geek and didn't like the iPad-induced tablet hipe all that much - mostly because it favours devices that factually arent turing complete because I can't programm them (Apple Developer Lockin, iTunes lockin, Controll over Deployment, etc.), Android fragmentation hassles, etc.
Anyway:
6 months ago I gave in and bought the only tablet that I've seen to date that is or was actually interesting to me: A special bargain offer of the HTC Flyer. Turns out, I use it every day. It's a very neat device as far as tablets go, and I maybe even swap my smartphone (HTC Desire, also very nice) for a dumbphone somewhere down the line, because usage on the Flyer is so much more comfortable.
It's quite good right up to very great for almost anything besides programming. It's small enough to fit anywhere, the enclosure is the best on the market (even better than the Apple stuff), it runs Android 3, it's great to watch movies on, it's great to read novels on. - Neal Stephensons Reamde is my first Kindle Book and I've been reading it on the Flyer exclusively, using the kinlde app. I use it regularly in situations where a Notebook - even the MB Air I'm typing this on - just wouldn't suffice: The Bed, the Beanbag, leaning back in the seat on the train, standing at the bus stop, checking prices and reviews at the store or checking my schedule in meetings.
Everynote is a great experience, and the calendar, albeight not quite as good in functions and features as the blackberry ones (those are the best imho) is still awesome. And the stylus is great for navigating tricky stuff on the browser that isn't built for tablet navigation yet.
Long story short: The HTC Flyer showed me that tablets can actually be worthwhile for the relatively small niche they service. And the Flyers 7" size and its slightly elongated cinema display formfactor tops it off.
I expect this 7" hipe to continue and become the dominant formfactor of portable tabletcomputers. I for one will now probably slowly move away from dead-tree reading to this sort of tablet. From my experience in the last 6 months I think it's safe to say that that time has now actually come.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
I don't get the appeal of a 7 inch tablet at all. If you want to read novels on a 7" screen, go with e-ink. For comic books, technical articles, web, etc. a 10" screen is WAY more appropriate.
Use one.
No, seriously: Use one. Borrow one for a week or so. You'll be suprised. Same with me. I'd almost bet money that the usage patterns are noticeably diffferent than with a 10" tablet.
I'd never thought that I'd be carrying around and using a tablet each and every day, but the 7" formfactor actually is very neat. Weight, space, handling ... my hands are actually big enough to hold both edges of my 7" HTC Flyer with one hand.
I was very late in the tablet-game, but I think now I'm hooked. A 10" would be to cumbersome in most situations where you'll be using the smaller one. And, no, a smartphone is not a substitue. I've had my HTC Flyer for more than twice as long as my HTC Flyer, and I'm using it considerably less nowadays.
We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
For about a year, Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble were almost completely alone in the 7-inch tablet market.
At the risk of inciting a slew of "that lone BlackBerry user" trolling, PlayBook was not only around for the past year, it predates both of those by quite some time...
Bow before me, for I am root.
How will they survive?
By selling stuff, like they always did, I guess.
Amazon is so big, I don't think it matters if they sell 10% more or less tablets. They've got plenty of other things to sell.
Amazon is in the content business. If they can sell books on an iPad mini I'm sure they will be happy to get the profits.
It'll be another overpriced, underwhelming device, like everything else they release.