{"id":6988,"date":"2013-07-11T06:15:41","date_gmt":"2013-07-11T06:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=6988"},"modified":"2013-07-11T06:16:37","modified_gmt":"2013-07-11T06:16:37","slug":"tablets-to-overtake-pcs-by-2015-as-prices-plummet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=6988","title":{"rendered":"Tablets to overtake PCs by 2015 as prices plummet"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
A tablet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tablet prices are plunging amid a flood of new devices and cutthroat competition for market share.<\/p>\n

Amazon has slashed prices of its Kindle HD tablets to as low as $169 in the US and 139 pounds in Britain, while Barnes & Noble has cut the price of its Nook to as low as $129, and has announced plans to outsource production of its tablets.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince Hewlett-Packard launched its tablet, there has been a lot of pressure on prices,\u201d said Rob Enderle, analyst with Enderle Group.<\/p>\n

HP sells its Android-powered seven-inch Slate for as low as $139, helping make the paperback-size tablet computer an affordable commodity.<\/p>\n

A Gartner survey suggests tablet sales globally will rise 67.9 percent to 202 million units this year, but analysts say the market is cooling after a couple of years of sizzling growth.<\/p>\n

Gartner said the red-hot growth in tablets and smartphones will taper off as these devices gain longer life cycles. The report said many consumers are opting for \u201cbasic\u201d tablets to cut costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looks like the market may be tiring of tablets and as makers get desperate, you may see more pressure on prices,\u201d Enderle said.<\/p>\n

Some retailers are selling tablets for less than $100, but Enderle said the flood of poor-quality devices may eventually backfire and turn off consumers.<\/p>\n

Jitesh Ubrani, analyst at the research firm IDC, said many of the low-cost tablets come from small, sometimes unbranded \u201cwhitebox\u201d vendors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decline of the PC market makes it increasingly important for PC vendors to compete in the tablet space,\u201d Ubrani said<\/p>\n

\u201cAs more top-tier brands introduce low-cost products, we expect to see a reduction in the number of whitebox vendors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even so, the analyst said, average prices for tablets is likely to drop further, and that tablet shipments are expected to overtake all PC shipments in 2015.\u201d<\/p>\n

The market leader, Apple, has so far kept above the fray, keeping prices steady on its iPad line of tablets, although it introduced the lower-cost iPad mini last year at $329, less than the $500 for its full-size iPad.<\/p>\n

\u201cApple does not look at the competitive marketplace to determine its strategy,\u201d said Jeff Orr, analyst with ABI Research. \u201cThey look at their buyers. Because of that I would expect their price points to remain consistent for the foreseeable future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enderle said Apple is seeking to remain a \u201cpremium vendor\u201d but faces a difficult choice \u2014 lowering prices, which can hurt its profits and worsen its share price declines, or giving up market share.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder Steve Jobs, when a product started to commoditize, they would come out with something new,\u201d Enderle said. \u201cApple needs another premium product. It is overdue for whatever the next big thing is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Microsoft has also aimed at the high end of the market with its Surface, which debuted with a starting $500 price tag, but it has cut the price as low as $199 for education buyers.<\/p>\n

Orr said some of the manufacturers may be forced out of the market if tablets are not part of their \u201ccore\u201d business.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery brand believes it has an audience which will be interested in their device to connect to their ecosystem,\u201d he said. \u201cThe reality is not every player can survive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amazon sells its Kindles near the cost of production, in an effort to direct the buyers to Amazon content and apps. The others, including Apple, Google and Microsoft, also want to keep their customers tethered to an ecosystem for advertising and sales.<\/p>\n

But Orr points out \u201cthere is none of that brand loyalty that some of these vendors had expected.\u201d For example, an iPad user can still use Google, and Kindle users can buy from non-Amazon sellers.<\/p>\n

Enderle noted that Google, which makes a $199 Nexus 7 tablet, \u201chas a subsidized model in which advertising makes up the difference\u201d of any lost profits from the device itself.<\/p>\n

But he noted that Barnes & Noble faces an unusual predicament because it is primarily a brick-and-mortar bookseller, and needs to bring customers into its physical stores.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery Nook tablet sold causes them to lose a customer who might also go into the store,\u201d he said. \u201cThey may need to go fully online and compete with Amazon.\u201d<\/p>\n

IDC\u2019s Ubrani said it may be difficult for players like Barnes & Noble to compete with Amazon by subsidizing the tablets.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot every tablet vendor can afford to utilize this business model,\u201d he said. \u201cYes, each can offer movies, music, apps, etc. to help subsidize the tablet, but none have the same scale and product selection that Amazon does.\u201d<\/p>\n

Enderle said that even though it seems to be a good time to buy a tablet, he advises people to wait.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are just short of a refresh\u201d for many tablet makers, said Enderle. He expects new versions of the iPad, Surface and several Android models. Amazon is also reportedly working on new tablets.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will see a raft of new products in August and September,\u201d he said. \u201cUnless you find a really good buy. I would wait.\u201d – AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tablet prices are plunging amid a flood of new devices and cutthroat competition for market share. Amazon has slashed prices of its Kindle HD tablets to as low as $169 in the US and 139 pounds in Britain, while Barnes & Noble has cut the price of its Nook to as low as $129, and … Continue reading “Tablets to overtake PCs by 2015 as prices plummet”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,86],"tags":[2876,1203,3865,3863,3864,3862,3861,438],"class_list":["post-6988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-technology","tag-amazon","tag-apple","tag-barnes-and-noble","tag-ipad","tag-kindle","tag-pcs","tag-tablets","tag-textbooks"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/tablet_10_1_inch_atom_processor_tablet_pc_with_integrated_intel_gma_x3150.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6988"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6992,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6988\/revisions\/6992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}