To sell more tablets, the manufacturers need to reduce their prices, say analysts from Forrester, a market research firm. According to the analysts, price is a critical factor, though the companies also need to build complete ecosystem of content and business apps. The content providers also needed to concentrate on optimising their content to be delivered in the browsers instead of downloaded apps.
The Browser based content can be easily viewed on all tablets whereas apps can be viewed only on the platform they have been created for. The assertion that reduced prices may mean more sales seems an obvious one but reducing the margins may not be healthy for the tablet manufacturers in the long run.
The same phenomenon was witnessed in the netbook space as well where the manufacturers had to reduce the prices so much their margins became very small, but this didn’t help the product in anyway.
Additionally, price wars have never worked against Apple products. For example, there are numerous cheaper media players in the market competing with iPod, but this didn’t make competition with iPod easier. There are numerous smartphones cheaper than iPhone but iPhone continues to remain a bestseller in the market.
Taking the bigger picture in the account, out innovating Apple seems to be a better option against the company rather than just reducing the price blindly, without thinking it through.
The analyst firm Forrester says most of the initial buyers for the iPad were those who belonged to the higher income bracket, but 44 per cent of the users surveyed by the company said high prices were the biggest factor stopping them from owning a tablet.
“The price of the device is high enough – on top of that, the monthly charge for 3G service puts broadband-enabled tablets out of range of a mainstream audience,” said analyst Sarah Rotman Epps.