
Google set to blow open the tablet market later this year with $99 Nexus tablet - zacharye
http://www.bgr.com/2012/09/27/google-nexus-tablet-price-99/
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macavity23
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've
fought there way upwards from virtually nothing, whereas with tablets they're
starting with the dominant ecosystem.

~~~
riffraff
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) ?

~~~
bilbo0s
I think he means, in layman's terms, Apple wants to sell Mercedes...

Someone else can sell Kia's.

Edit: Not sure how that will work out in the tablet market, but it certainly
works with cars and laptops.

~~~
16s
Newer Kia's are the best value money can buy. They are solid and very reliable
automobiles. And, they cost 10 times less than a Mercedes. Smart buyers buy
them.

~~~
potatolicious
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.

~~~
phaus
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 extreme standards of precision that
high end cars are manufactured to may actually make them less reliable. Maybe
it's similar to the way that an AK-47 is the most reliable assault rifle
because it is cheaply made, while our m16 jams if you don't clean it
constantly because the machining is extremely precise.

~~~
potatolicious
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.

~~~
phaus
This a website where people discuss things, often their opinions. Not every
single response on hacker news is going to have a peer-reviewed study attached
to it.

I used to inspect auto parts for a factory that made ball-joints for a couple
dozen different auto companies. It was a parts supplier for everything from
low end asian cars to Humvees, Corvettes, and BMWs.

The part selection you speak of isn't always better. When we pulled defective
parts off the production line, they were inventoried and put into storage in
case the factory failed to meet their quota. When this happened, the defective
parts were shipped to the auto manufacturers along with the good parts.

That being said, I agree that there's nothing wrong with owning a luxury
vehicle. People have to take a look at their own finances and determine what
the best decision to make is. For the average American, it is much smarter to
buy a KIA, because the average American can't afford a Mercedes/BMW/etc. If a
person can afford it, then good for them.

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eckyptang
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 anything groundbreaking to
add.

~~~
levesque
For me, the tablet clearly does not replace a laptop for serious emailing and
browsing. However, it's perfect as a window to the internets. I read my RSS
feeds on it, check my facebook, browse some hacker news (although I still find
clients lacking). That's about all I do with it, but that sums up to a good
1-2 hours per day so I would hardly call it a waste.

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

~~~
levesque
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.

~~~
eckyptang
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.

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EwanToo
Asus have aparantly already denied this, not that it means much. [1]

It seems pretty unlikely to me, most of the $99 tablets available on
AliExpress are significantly underpowered, especially around the areas of
battery and screen quality. Google haven't released a sub-standard Nexus
device yet, I'm not sure why they'd do it now, when according to all the
reports I've seen the Nexus tablet is doing pretty well.

1 -
[http://www.reghardware.com/2012/09/27/asus_rumored_to_reject...](http://www.reghardware.com/2012/09/27/asus_rumored_to_reject_99_dollar_nexus_7_rumor/)

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JoelSutherland
If this is true, I would wager it has the same specs as the current Nexus 7.
The Tegra 3 that is currently used is printed on an out-dated 40nm process:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tegra#Tegra_3>

Printing the same chip on say a 32nm or 28nm process (Like the iPad 2,4) would
dramatically reduce the cost.

This would also allow them to use a smaller battery and achieve the same
battery life.

The major challenge is the LCD panel. It's plausible they could continue to
use the same IPS screen, but using a nice TN screen is another place they
could cut costs. They could also just wager that these are going to sell like
crazy and work out a deal at volume like Apple does.

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martythemaniak
Well, the low-end N7 has a $152 bill of materials and has some fairly high-end
hardware, so putting in slightly lower-end hardware (dual core chip, 1,024 x
600 display etc) can get the tablet close to $99.

The other thing to note is that Google can probably afford to lose a bit of
money on these, since it'll only take a few months (say, q2 '13) for them to
really drop to $99. Seems like having the only $99 this holiday season is
worth a couple of hundred millions (think of it as a huge advertising
campaign).

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dj2stein9
I hope all Android OEMs are fully aware that Google has tricked them all into
a race to the bottom. That's pretty much been Google's strategy against all
its competitors to date.

~~~
bryanlarsen
There was essentially no Google Android tablet market before the Nexus 7, only
the Amazon & Nook forks. Manufacturers will be happier having a market with no
margin, than no market at all.

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jareds
I’d be much more willing to spend $99 on a Google tablet then $99 on another
cheap Chinese tablet. I bought a Novo 7 several months ago to test out the
accessibility of Android verses iOS as a blind user. Since it was Android
somewhat modified by the manufacturer I needed sited help to install a TTS
engine as well as install the talkback screen reader. I then had to remove a
bunch of crapware, and deal with the fact that the tablet was somewhat
underpowered providing me with a substandard experience. I was not very
impressed with the tablet’s accessibility, but don’t know how much of that is
Google’s fault verses the manufacturer. In comparison with iOS I can take a
device out of the box, turn it on, hit the home button three times, and it
starts talking. After this experience I won’t be buying no name $99 Chinese
tablets, and since I have an iPhone that works fine I can’t justify $199 for
another device that would be nothing more than an excuse to test the
accessibility of an OS I most likely won’t switch to any time soon. If you
reduce the price from $199 to $99 and it’s a stock Android experience with the
accessibility software preloaded I can justify $99 to test out the
accessibility of an OS I most likely won’t switch to any time soon.

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zaptheimpaler
I just picked up a Nexus 7 today :| May have been a bad time to buy. Any
thoughts on whether I should sell it? It's still completely packaged, haven't
opened it yet.

~~~
iLock
Not because a cheaper one is coming, that is always the case, but because
pretty soon you will find out that there is not much utility to it... IMO

~~~
wetyeti
I'm curious as to what you mean by lack of utility? Could you explain please

~~~
matwood
iLock just doesn't like tablets. Most geeks are going to want more from any
device they own (including a typical computer). The average consumer thinks
otherwise though. Consuming and posting little blurbs is the majority of what
consumer do, and tablets are great for that use case. The N7 is the first non-
Apple tablet that I think really challenges the iPad for that average
consumer. The N7 at $99 could change the tablet landscape.

~~~
wetyeti
See I know the limits of a tablet. It is not some fancy all singing device. If
I want serious power I get on my desktop or laptop. But as a device to surf
the web or read an ebook it is much nicer to use a tablet than have a laptop
on my lap

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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).

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mikecane
A quality $99 name-brand tablet would impact the eInk device market the most.
Why would someone buy a $139 Nook or $179 Kindle when they could get a tablet
for less? (Yes, I know how eInk is "better for the eyes" -- but we are talking
the general population here, who have not embraced eInk in droves and who
probably don't want to read books, either.)

~~~
rkudeshi
This is already happening. I don't have a citation handy, but about a year
ago, I believe Barnes & Noble was saying that its Nook Tablet was outselling
the e-ink Kindles (this was before the Kindle Fire was introduced).

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error54
A quick google search (<http://bit.ly/RkNKpF>) shows that there are plenty of
tablets under $99. I think sub $100 tablet by Google will be good for the
market but not any huge game changer like the article makes it out to be.

~~~
indiecore
Yes, pretty much all of those are junk though. The Nexus line is very much NOT
junk and coming from Google means they have to stake a bit of their reputation
on it. Personally I'm excited if only because it'll be a good way to get a
tablet sized device to test apps on.

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frederico
Great.. another low budget tablet that I'm going to need to support when
developing android applications.

why didn't I just stick to iOS?

~~~
recursive
Maybe you wanted access to a faster expanding market?

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graham_king_3
You can already get a 7" android 4.0 tablet off aliexpress.com for $53,
shipping included.

~~~
GFischer
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.

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el_duderino
Lol, bgr.

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Toshio
It will be interesting to see what kind of tradeoffs are required to go that
low on the price - 2GB RAM, weaker GPU?

~~~
zalew
my wild guess is the $199 will get 4g, while the $99 will be wifi only like
the current nexus7. and obviously less storage.

~~~
damian2000
BYO memory card storage perhaps.

~~~
zalew
I may be not far from the truth
<http://www.bgr.com/2012/09/03/nexus-7-3g-release-date-rumor/>

