Much ado about nothing comes to mind with all the hype over the release of the Apple i-Pad or the HP Slate. Who knows what Apple originally intended, the bottom line is that their tablet is designed for a “rich multi-media experience”. The HP Slate was originally conceived as an e-book platform that also gradually morphed into a rich multi-media Swiss army knife. I think the pundits are missing the boat. A good e-book platform at a $99.00 price point would be a run away best seller. Another notebook without a keyboard is likely to be not so much.
I’m an avid reader. I have 75 books loaded into my pda which also has a version of Excel and Word as well as a version of media player. I purchased an infrared keyboard for it and with it’s built in WIFI it is an adequate substitution for a laptop that fits in my pocket without looking like I am overly glad to see you. The screen is way smaller than a Kindle but bigger than my cell phone. I own it. It is paid for and I own it. See where I am going? Why would I pony up $300.00 or more to buy another gadget that I can read on?
I can get a digital photo frame with a 7”LCD for $50.00 that plays music, has speakers, takes sd memory and usb flash drives. It has a remote and I can watch a movie on it if I want to load the movie onto a flash drive. Why, oh why are the e-book and rich multi-media toys over $300.00? Why didn’t some young smart ass just take the guts out of the existing pda technology and add in a larger screen? The PDA technology has been amortized, it has been researched and it works well, marry it to a larger screen and retail it for $150.00 and people would buy it.
I’m a tech-nut. I love this stuff but I still find myself wondering if anyone ever does a focus group or marketing survey to see what the price point might be to sell some of the new toys. $49.99 and I would have a e-book reader, $100.00 maybe, $300.00 or more, not a chance and I love this stuff. How are they ever going to sell it to people who are luke-warm or anti-tech?
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