Broken Record

I’ll say it again and again, but I am getting fed up with all these manufacturers all claiming that their tablet will be an iPad beater. Yet they are comparing as usual their offerings to the current model of the iPad.

They did the wise thing last year and waited for Apple to release the iPad before releasing the models that they previewed at CES. But Apple surprised them then not with just what the iPad was but in the thing that killed off most of the offerings in having a $400 version of the iPad. Everyone had been planning on the rumoured price point of between $800 - $1000. When Apple came well under that they killed off a lot of the competition who just weren’t able to compete.

The $400 iPad also forced Amazon to drop the price of the Kindle. Which was a positive move for the Kindle as sales of it have increased since. If it had remained at it’s previous price it would of died from the competition of the iPad.

Now we have RIM with their vapourware that has been delayed from the planned launch of early next year because they have technical issues with the battery life. Apparently it isn’t very good, and doesn’t compare very well with the current iPad battery life (10 hours on the wifi model). And as I have pointed out all their rhetoric has been to compare their vapourware (which no one has had hands on with, and now we know why) with the current iPad. By the time the RIM offering hits the streets iPad2 will be imminent or will have just come out.

That’s a dangerous game to play for a manufacturer to launch in the shadow of an Apple product release. Look how well that worked out for Palm with the Pre (we will over look the under powered hardware). 

Samsung tried to distinguish their tablet from the iPad rather well I thought. They made the screen smaller (7”) so it was more portable, and gave it cameras (which apparently aren’t that great). But then they go screw it all up in the pricing and letting mobile operators control it. The Tab is more expensive than the iPad and you get tied up with a two year contract!! Yes I know that UK mobile companies are now doing similar deals on the iPad, but the iPad initial cost is cheaper than that of the Tab.

I think that the wise manufacturer should stop comparing their unreleased product with the current iPad. I’d even go so far as to stop mentioning the iPad all together in relation to their product. How about just concentrating on what your tablet will do well, and why I should buy it, instead of trying to compare it to a moving target.