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Monday, 14 March 2011 08:06

As The Tablet Margin Crunching Parade Marches On, Consumers Benefit From The Cheapest Prices Of The Best Products

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If BoomBustBloggers remember, I recommended that tablet purchases be held off for a quarter or two while the vendors slug it out in margin and technology battle to the near death. Well, Apple came out with its sleek, sexy (although incremental) iPad 2, with lines forming around the block in major urban area stores.

A quick note before you go through these videos. As I searched YouTube for videos to post, Apple made it very easy by creating an iPad 2 channel, complete with a whole portfolio of fully produced videos. It created quite the impression and was easy to use in an attractive interface to show the features of the new product. Of course, this does absolutely nothing to make the iPad 2 a better product but it does go to show how Apple easily outmarkets its competition. What I find incredible is that creating a YouTube channel is not only child's play, but is necessary in this age of social media, web video and viral marketing. Soooo... What the hell is wrong with everybody else? This is not Apple executing as a superior company, its a case of everybody conducting their marketing campaigns as dimwits thus allowing Apple to run away with the show. Case in point, the new Samsung tab is quite slick. It is thicker than the iPad 2, but also more capable from a tech perspective and through the Google software suites, slick as hell from the soft side as well. Of course, very few will know this because Samsung doesn't seem to have a Tab channel on YouTube, but Apple does. The Apple iPad2 channel has over 2 million views already! This is naught but a wasted opportunity for all of its competitors and the implementation of such is simply common sense. No wonder why Apple has such a lead...

[youtube Z_d6_gbb90I]

Here we have the Motorola Xoom, released a few weeks ago with beta software to steal mindshare from Apple's iPad 2 release. It is a very fast machine, overclockable to 1.5 Ghz. For non-techies, that means fast as hell for a handheld device - the fastest to date.

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Panasonic tablets with wireless media sharing via Panasonic flatscreens. Whoever is impressed by this, or Apple Airplay, or any similar tech should realize that that the vast majority of media sharing services are already available for free on most Windows, Apple, android and iOS UPnP™ and DLNA®-certified devices - which is most of them. Then again, nothing like reinventing the wheel and marketing it as a sportscar, right?. I must admit that Panasonic has extended this a little, though. I wrote in January, If You Need More Proof Of Apple’s Inability To Keep Up With Google’s Android & Over 100 Other Android Hardware Vendors…- explaining that the sheer technological weight and might of all of these companies innovating full steam, and in real time will rapidly overcome Apple. Well, check out the future of the TV remote control.

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And it finally looks like RIM is going to release the Blackberry Playbook. I have lost faith in this company's management in this new touchscreen era. They don't seem to get it, not does their stuff come across as sexy or capable as the new crop of iOS or Honeycomb products, but you never know.

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Samsung has admitted publicly that they will drop the pricing on their 10.1 inch tablet for they don't feel it is competitive enough with the iPad 2. Many took that as meaning the Tab would be inferior to the iPad 2, but after looking at the video below it becomes apparent that Samsung's goal is to absolutely outdo the iPad 2, not simply match it. Inadequate is definititely not an adhective to be used with this device.

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An interesting comparison of a (now, remember admonitions about margin compression) $190 Nook Color (or $290 customized as is) vs the $400 iPad 1. Guess which is faster?

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Keep in mind that most of these competing tablet products haven't been released yet, and they are just the JV team - not the heavy hitters. In a few months you will see even harder hitting tech at a fraction of the current prices, and these prices are actually dropping in real time.

On a side note, the Microsoft Kinnect has sold over 10 million units, making it by far the fastest selling retail consumer electronics device in the history of the industry. It is being hacked to perform all types of functions from replacing a mouse to creating CGI characters, ala Smeigel (from Lord of the Rings) style. Remember, don't count Microsoft out just yet.