Can Apple maintain iPad 3 price?

Stan Beer
Tuesday, 23 August 2011 08:53

Opinion and Analysis

Thus far, consumers have been prepared to pay $500 to $1000 for the pioneering Apple iPad tablet range. However, as demonstrated by the previously unsaleable HP TouchPad, which sparked a consumer tsunami when offered for $99 in a fire sale, sub $200 tablets is what consumers want - and Apple had better take heed.

 

As an iPad 2 owner, I can say that I was happy to have spent a small fortune for my top of the range model earlier this year because quite frankly there was nothing else on the market that came close - in fact it was even hard to find a store that had the full iPad 2 range in stock.

Today and tomorrow, however, the story is and will continue to be different. Tablets from a number of suppliers are coming on to the market in droves and Apple cannot expect to hold back the tide with lawsuits against major rivals.

It will not be long before Android based sub-$200 tablets hit the market that offer greater versatility, similar features and possibly more than the iPad 2.

As has been the case with notebook computers, Apple has shown that it's willing to meet the market with well priced products.

That being the case, unless the iPad 3 is something out of this world, it is almost certainly in Apple's interests to start getting more aggressive on price in the tablet space.

Otherwise, Apple may find itself facing an uncomfortable situation against a powerful foe in Google licensing its operating system to a wide range of tablet makers which together gradually squeeze its market share down to low single digits. Why does that feel like a deja vu moment?