Acer slashes tablet sales forcast by 60%

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
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Well it was a bad sign when you saw MacMall selling the just released new Acer tablet for $379 on Ebay. MSRP was $450.

380 is closer to where it should be priced anyway. These are basically netbooks, and should be priced accordingly.
 

s44

Diamond Member
Oct 13, 2006
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This is partly Google refusing to approve the 7" Honeycomb tablet...
 

Dulanic

Diamond Member
Oct 27, 2000
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Biggest reason IMO? They thought a $500 tablet would sell...then Asus beat them by $100 which took away most of its thunder.
 
Feb 19, 2001
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It takes a price advantage, and a pretty substantial one, to compete with Apple to begin with.

Price parity won't do it. Look at how people fared against the iPod. $299 vs low $200s, and Apple still won. $500 Android tablet vs $500 iPad will be tough.
 

poofyhairguy

Lifer
Nov 20, 2005
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The issue seems to be European sales, as they claim North American sales are on target.

Plus you have to consider- Acer's Android tablet is only a part of their tablet lineup. They have way more Windows models.
 

OBLAMA2009

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Apr 17, 2008
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tablets are never gonna take off until they have mobile data at a reasonable price. not that many people are going to get a tablet just to use wifi on their couch when they already have a computer

acer also has the disadvantage of having a low quality reputation. they have a huge overstock of laptops right now as well are are supposedly going to be dumping them soon
 

Mopetar

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2011
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tablets are never gonna take off until they have mobile data at a reasonable price. not that many people are going to get a tablet just to use wifi on their couch when they already have a computer

I don't know about that. I essentially purchased a tablet for largely this reason, although I did not previous own a notebook so in many ways I was filling that gap with a tablet.

Also, unless you're getting a smaller device, it's probably not portable enough to warrant its own data connection. People can already use their smart phones for anything that they could look up with a tablet, and any tablet small enough to truly be portable ends up being an overly large phone and loses some of the properties that makes tablets useful (in my opinion).

For me, data connections are pretty much useless for tablets. I would be curious to see statistics for the percentage of tablets that have the ability to use cellular data and how often cellular data is used for those tablets.
 

Imp

Lifer
Feb 8, 2000
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Tablets are too new and they just don't have a "standard" yet. I am just plain confused about all the offerings. Completely overwhelmed despite being a nerd.

I have a Playbook because it's from RIM. If I weren't a RIM fan, I'd just say eff that, and go buy an iPad 2 because that's what everyone else has. The hell is this Asus, Acer, Galaxy, Xoom, etc. stuff... Proper marketing is probably going to make or break specific tablets.
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
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tablets are never gonna take off until they have mobile data at a reasonable price. not that many people are going to get a tablet just to use wifi on their couch when they already have a computer

I see your point, but I think the majority of people would prefer the WiFi only tablets to avoid the monthly data plan costs. WiFi is pretty common, its very common at various restaurants, shopping centers, hotels, airports, even some cities.
 

Fingolfin269

Lifer
Feb 28, 2003
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I see your point, but I think the majority of people would prefer the WiFi only tablets to avoid the monthly data plan costs. WiFi is pretty common, its very common at various restaurants, shopping centers, hotels, airports, even some cities.

That pretty much describes my use for a tablet. I've been going back and forth over whether I want to buy an iPad 2 or not. After all, I'm a geek who likes gadgets and it's been awhile since I've bought a new gadget.

With that being said, by the time I decide to buy one the iPad 3 will be around the corner and the ever fun technology waiting game will begin. I guess it never ends. :p
 

OBLAMA2009

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2008
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That pretty much describes my use for a tablet. I've been going back and forth over whether I want to buy an iPad 2 or not. After all, I'm a geek who likes gadgets and it's been awhile since I've bought a new gadget.

With that being said, by the time I decide to buy one the iPad 3 will be around the corner and the ever fun technology waiting game will begin. I guess it never ends. :p

i dont think ipad3 will be a $500 device. its supposed to have a high res retina display and cpu and graphics to support it
 
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OBLAMA2009

Diamond Member
Apr 17, 2008
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I see your point, but I think the majority of people would prefer the WiFi only tablets to avoid the monthly data plan costs. WiFi is pretty common, its very common at various restaurants, shopping centers, hotels, airports, even some cities.

yeah but a lot of times, at least where i live, you have to ask for a code at the restaurants, and then you have to log on, that is if its working at all. public wifi is just a pain. i almost never use it. ive never used it at all on my phones
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
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yeah but a lot of times, at least where i live, you have to ask for a code at the restaurants, and then you have to log on, that is if its working at all. public wifi is just a pain. i almost never use it. ive never used it at all on my phones

The only place I've had to ask for a code has been at hotels, and its a 3 second phone call to the front desk to get it. If its not printed in a book in the room. Most other places, you have to open a browser and accept an EULA before it'll fully work.
 
Feb 19, 2001
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yeah but a lot of times, at least where i live, you have to ask for a code at the restaurants, and then you have to log on, that is if its working at all. public wifi is just a pain. i almost never use it. ive never used it at all on my phones

Yeah. I don't even bother with my phone. Data all the way. I paid for a phone. I paid for data. The fact that you have to scan and search for a wifi hotspot, and hope its open and usable is annoying. Don't even think twice when I open gmail using 3G.

Tablets on the other hand... I see them as less portable devices. Not always in my pocket, so I'm going to take them to places where I know I probably will get wifi. It's similar to the laptop. I'm not going war driving with my laptop hoping to leech someone's wireless. I'd do that with my iPod Touch a lot more.
 

Slammy1

Platinum Member
Apr 8, 2003
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I wanted an e-Reader, decided to spend a little extra for some bells and whistles.
 

MrX8503

Diamond Member
Oct 23, 2005
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For a tablet to be competitive to the iPad, it has to be cheaper. That or the tablet has to be substantially better.
 

Munky

Diamond Member
Feb 5, 2005
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I'm waiting for a nice Windows 7 tablet. There's no way I'd spend $600+ on a mobile OS device when I can have a vastly more capable OS for the same price.
 

Mopetar

Diamond Member
Jan 31, 2011
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i dont think ipad3 will be a $500 device. its supposed to have a high res retina display and cpu and graphics to support it

ARM SoCs are being moved to newer processes. I think the A5 is on 45nm bulk, but the next SoC is probably going to be on a 28nm process. That's going to allow them to cram in the power necessary to drive a graphics display like that and not have the costs spiral out of control.

Apple also invested several billion into display manufacturers this last year. They've already spent the money to make sure that their suppliers can give them a large number of these panels at a reasonable cost.

It might eat into Apple's profit margin a little, but they'll probably eat the costs if they can deliver a tablet that no other competitor can touch for at least eight months.