There has to be a compelling reason for a tablet to compete with the iPad.
You mean like price, because that is what it will be.
Apple is following the same pricing model as it uses for its laptops. Great little units, but they cost almost twice as much as an equivalent windows PC.
The iPad runs what...about $500-$800 depending on features? If the competing pads can come in the $300-$500 range, then they will get plenty of attention.
And yes, I know YOU would happily pay more for the “Apple quality,” but there are plenty of people for who price is a genuine concern.
But so far they haven't. The Moto Xoom and Galaxy Tab are good competition, even superior in ways, but they're both high-priced. The low-priced stuff has so far been pretty disappointing.
Also don't forget that hardware assessments vary by time. Apple is one company with about a one-year mobile hardware lifecycle competing against multiple companies with multiple product releases. Buying an Apple product on release will get you a great deal compared to the competition, it will be innovative and very high-powered. But over the year the competition will copy eventually with pretty good specs, so the Apple hardware will start to look dated. The trick is of course to never buy Apple hardware near a product line update.
Hint: The iPad 2 is currently in production, rumored for a March release. Do not buy an iPad right now. In fact, don't buy any tablet unless you absolutely need it right now. Wait until the iPad 2 and then compare what's on the market.
Now, let's look at Reality for a little while.
HP cancelled the origional Win7 based tablet for a year. It's been re-released using Palm's OS without a price listing. That's funny? They have made it, but have no idea what to charge for it.
Folio jacked the price of their Android unit up to $900 so no one would buy it. It was of shoddy constuction, full of bugs and had a 3 hour battery life. Credit - jacking the price up to avoid competing with Apple is a unique method.
Galaxy Tablet is $799, half the memory of the iPad; using a free OS; and is still more expensive than the comparable 32 GB Verizon/AT&T iPad. If not for discounts for bundled sales via Verizon/AT&T, they would have sold very few units. Their CEO announced that their unit sales were very small
Motorola's entry is at $799 for the 32 GB version, and you HAVE to open and use a 3G data account before the software will allow you to use the built-in Wi-Fi. Doesn't that smack of extortion? Leave it up to Motorola to create customer regret before they open the package.
Even when Apple gives the competition a target, a feature set, specifications and a price point and a YEAR for them to steal a design; the competition managed to screw the pooch.
So far, NO ONE has made a tablet that comes anywhere near the price of an iPad, or near the performance of the iPad - at ANY price; let alone at the same or lower price. Personally, I find the fact that they cannot even copy an existing design, with a FREE Operating System nothing short of pathetic.
You're completely wrong on this. the industry was predicting the Apple iPads would have an entry point of approximately $800 to $1000, but Apple shocked the world with an aggressive entry price of just $499 that the competition cannot beat!
Take, for example, the Samsung Galaxy Tab, with a 7" screen, 16GB of Flash drive, a smaller lower capacity 7 hour battery (compared to the 12 hours of the iPad), plastic case, and an OS that is not designed for tablets. Despite the fact that Samsung makes both the screen and the Flash memory in house (they are Apple's primary supplier of Flash drives), they have a suggested retail price of $749.
That's $20 more than the retail price of $729 for a 32GB ~10" Apple iPad.
Another example is the new, not yet released 10" Motorola Xoom Android Tablet with 32GB will be retailing for $799 and requires at least one month of 3G subscription to even activate WIFI to be usable. $70 more.
Apple's prices are aggressive and competitive.
Yes, there are some less expensive tablets. But they're junk.