Why a $35 Tablet Would Never Succeed in the U.S.

[mm0ety]

[citation][nom]captaincharisma[/nom]it wouldn't succeed because it does not have an apple logo on it an cost an insane amount of money.[/citation] this is being over used. I bet if the article was about pumpkins you would still say something stupid about apple.

 

[milktea]

$35 sounds like something the schools or the library could afford to.

 

[rosen380]

"$35 sounds like something the schools or the library could afford to."

It's perfect. cheap enough that they can buy a bunch and shitty enough that no one would steal them

 

[mergatroid]

If this tablet was sold as an eReader there would be no problems. As someone else mentioned, the Kindle sells just fine.

If this was marketed as an eReader with music capability the customers would know what to expect from it before purchasing it.

I have seen many cheap tablets/ereaders and even the absolute worse ones at under $150 have satisfied owners. Those units that are too cheaply built and have hardware problems get the most complaints, while units that work as they are supposed to get hardly any complaints because their owners know what to expect from a "tablet" in that price range.

No one is going to claim a $50 eReader/Tablet should run like a $500 tablet. At least, no one with a brain.

 

[tacoslave]

i think Wolfgang Gruener better stop smoking that ganja its hurting his career.

 

[Stardude82]

If you look on e-bay, there are many $70 tablets which you can buy, some have halfway decent reviews on Amazon, too. All of them have much better specs than the Aakash...

I had a $130 Samsung Android phone built for developing markets, it was okay, but not in the league of my new Atrix.

 

[maddy143ded]

[citation][nom]ojas[/nom]I couldn't agree more. $600 may be average for you Wolfgang, since we all know you love apple.The average smart phone costs $250, most people in cities have one that costs $200 and rural folk don't usually have smart phones. The average phone they buy costs between $15 to $100. And most of our country is on pre-paid services, and pay about $2 for unlimited text messages and $0.002 per second for calls. I pay $0.002 for each SMS and $0.01 per minute for calls on a post paid connection. So I'm really at a loss to understand what you're talking about. It's not like you NEED an iPhone to be able to call someone.[/citation]


and we also have the option to get a billing connection or a prepaid connection with unlimited calling all over the country for just $6 per month. and about 100 SMS per day for $2 or so.
I also have a 3G data plan (2mbps dl, 384 ul) with unlimited data usage for just $15 per month.(have to pay 6 months rent together) but it is 3G and wireless.
AND things are going to get still cheaper......

 

[maddy143ded]

[citation][nom]maddy143ded[/nom]and we also have the option to get a billing connection or a prepaid connection with unlimited calling all over the country for just $6 per month. and about 100 SMS per day for $2 or so. I also have a 3G data plan (2mbps dl, 384 ul) with unlimited data usage for just $15 per month.(have to pay 6 months rent together) but it is 3G and wireless.AND things are going to get still cheaper......[/citation]

the SMS is 100 SMS per day for $2 per month.........

 

[maddy143ded]

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, there are currently 635.5 million active cell phone subscribers in India, which translates to a market penetration of 54 percent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communications_in_India#Telephone
Telephone

On landlines, intra-circle calls are considered local calls while inter-circle are considered long distance calls. Currently Government is working to integrate the whole country in one telecom circle. For long distance calls, the area code prefixed with a zero is dialed first which is then followed by the number (i.e. To call Delhi, 011 would be dialed first followed by the phone number). For international calls, "00" must be dialed first followed by the country code, area code and local phone number. The country code for India is 91.

Telephone Subscribers (Wireless and Landline): 900 million (July 2011) [5]

Land Lines: 34.29 million (June 2011)[5]

Cell phones: 851.70 million (June 2011) [5]

Monthly Cell phone Addition: 11.41 million (June 2011) [5]

Teledensity: 73.97 % (June 2011) [5]

Projected Teledensity: 1 billion, 84% of population by 2012.[30]

 

[maddy143ded]

there were many more landlines in 2000 - 2005 era. but most have disconnected them in favor of WLL sets and/or cellphones.

also most of the 3G networks are already being deployed with 21 - 28 mbps limits.(thought the speeds are not there yet.)

think about it ...
1 billion cellphones by 2012......
even china which makes nearly 90% of telecom equipment wont have that kind of penetration.

even if only 10% of the connetions use smartphones , thats still 100 million smartphones.
Samsung is going to be the king of Smartphones in near future because of this.

 

[runswindows95]

[citation][nom]dark_lord69[/nom]http/www.amazon.com/Kindle-eRead [...] d_i=507846[/citation]

Trust me, dark_lord69, I want a Kindle, but if I can get a basic tablet for $50, I rather get a tablet.

 

[Guest]

most americans have big e-penises, so they cannot allow to buy "underpowered" tablets.

 

[Guest]

I think people are missing a massive point. Android and open projects allow end users to do so many things with said device. I can see these sold as portable photo viewers? I would be glad to use one for my HTPC and XBMC in my media room as a nice remote system. How about basics? Email? MP3 player? Hell, e-reader!

Lots of things to do with a tab other than HD video and flash based web! You don't get much for $35-50, Thats half a Kindle - Any price out a Logitech touchscreen remote?

 

[SteelCity1981]

hell yeah it would sell in the us are you insane. I'm buy one right now for 35 bucks. I spend more then that per month with my highspeed connection.

 

[SteelCity1981]

hell yeah it would sell in the us are you insane. I'm buy one right now for 35 bucks. I spend more then that per month with my highspeed connection.

 

[SteelCity1981]

heck yeah it would sell in the us are you insane. I'm buy one right now for 35 bucks. I spend more then that per month with my highspeed connection.

 

[abhinav_mall]

Your article is absolutely correct and well researched. Great work Mr Wolfgang.
However I would like to add a fact that such are the levels of bias are prevalent in my country that every member of Indian political system is lauding #Aakash but government is doling out loaded iPad2s for them.
Forget about US, when members of parliament are so condescending, you can easily imagine how well it will perform in India.

 

[subaru41]

It looks like it could compete with the inferior pad 2, I mean iPad 2. It has about the same specs and probably runs just as good. LOL.

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]Jason D[/nom]I could see purchasing lower-end tablets, though more for specific uses. Not everyone needs to play videos and games.I'd purchase one to control my HTPC when the TV is off and I'm playing musicMaybe have it in the kitchen with the weather, news, recipes, calendar, etc[/citation]

i was going to write allot but you summed what i was going to write all up. i could have it in a base station permanantly, plop in a 32gb sd card, and have it be a dedicated mp3 player

i could attach a wireless rf (whateer tvs use) and use it as an advanced controler for my tivo like device, so the menues are on the tablet instead of the tv.

i could rubberize/water proof the device, and put it in the kitchen, for recipies/music/news and such

i could take it with me, and use it like a portable e reader, but with an external battery

i could use it to take emergency notes, assuming that pens that work with ipad work with this too.

stuff it in the car, and load local maps of where im going to it, and attach a exturnal gps device.

i mean there are SO many applications of a sub 100$ tablet that its amassing. sure its not going to be the BEST but its going to be something, and for many of the applications i listed, more than enough. but lets take this a step further.

im a proponent of bare bones tablets with a base station, the base station does all the work, and sends the info off to the tablets. think of having a tivo like device, that costs 600$~ it would be basically a 600$ pc, that the tablets ran off of. now, this would make the tablet devices less mobile than they are now, but i personally haven't seen my mom who owns one ever take it out of the house. and with how popular they are, i never seen one outside. the tablets would effectively cost 100$ and less, per person who wants to connect, and could drive the cost down significantly, look at a family of 4, where the kids each want one, and so do the parents, but the parents can share, its the difference of about 1800$ or 800$

 

[pythy]

Does the 36.2 million wired phone connections in India include the call centers?