Motorola has the Xoom, Samsung has the Galaxy Tab 2 with a 10.1″ screen and others are also coming up with a Honeycomb tablet with a super hardware backing it up. And yet I say that all of them are DOA when seen as a competition to the iPad or the upcoming iPad 2! Google has taken its own year to build the tablet version of Android and Honeycomb does look impressive in many ways, but if only the hardware makers would make the most of it.
The Motorola Xoom is loaded with features and the cost we are hearing is $800 or even over $1000. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 has a 8MP shooter doing full HD video recording (do you need that on a tablet?). But how many apps do we have on the Android Market to make use of the tablet interface? It will be a long uphill battle to catchup with the full 1 year advantage that iOS developers have had. Add to that the upcoming iPad 2 that would make the choice even tougher for the developers.
For years smartphone makers struggled to catchup with the iPhone and now its the iPad. The fact is that Steve Jobs himself gave away the reason for competition not matching upto the iPad. Its the price to a large extent. With a $800 or $1000 price tag, you cant compare with the iPad’s $499, which in all likely hood continue as the price point for iPad 2. Putting a 8MP HD shooter on the tablet might be a lesser value add than reducing $200 in price. Its an evolving market and Apple has got the right momentum at the right price. Call me a fanboy or burn me alive: this is my bet!