(source) For months all we heard about from the Android camp was how the Xoom was going to kill the iPad 2. We all knew it wasn’t going to, but it was kind of fun to sit back and watch the hype build, and then eventually just disappear because the Xoom ended up being […]
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Asus Goes for the Jugular

Apr 13th 2011 by

 

(source)

For months all we heard about from the Android camp was how the Xoom was going to kill the iPad 2. We all knew it wasn’t going to, but it was kind of fun to sit back and watch the hype build, and then eventually just disappear because the Xoom ended up being rushed to market (had all the flaws that come with doing that) and also because frankly Motorola priced it well beyond what most folks were willing to pay for it. Note to Motorola – Time to hang up the skates folks. You haven’t done anything smart since the Razr.

So, who’s the next iPad killer? Well, the other day I posted a bit of a thought experiment and mentioned how Samsung had brought out the WIFI only Galaxy Tab for a relatively cheap $350. I caught a lot of backlash from that post, and quite a few people mentioned (as I did) that while the price was good, this was last year’s tech and wasn’t exactly worth running right down to the store to buy. Well, let’s take a minute to ponder another scenario. I wonder what would happen if you took all the guts of the Xoom (Honeycomb, 16GB Memory, 10.1 – 1280×800 screen, 1 Ghz Dual Core Tegra 2 processor) and then chopped that insane pricing ($599 on contract / $799 off contract) down to $100 under the cheapest iPad 2.

I wonder what would happen if someone did that. What would happen if for $399 you could buy a very capable (darn near exactly the same as the Xoom) iPad 2 competitor? Not only would Motorola likely wet itself and watch its stock plummet yet again as they sell their last ever Xoom, but I bet you’d see a lot of competitors start looking at how to drop their prices as well. I wonder if Apple would notice?

Well, all this wondering is about to become reality later this month when Asus drops the Eee Pad Transformer on the US shores for the low, low price of $399. Anyone starting to see my point of how to win the tablet war?

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