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.

At a time when everyone is talking about how to create and maintain a paperless office which can help reduce their carbon footprint while saving money and increasing productivity, Members of the Parliament (Rajya Sabha) have shown the way to achieve it.

In the current session of Parliament, the committee for the provision of computer equipment to Members of Rajya Sabha has enhanced the financial entitlement of members by Rs 50,000 to facilitate the purchase of approved e-reader compatible devices such as Apple iPad2 and Samsung GalaxyTab – to reduce their dependency on paper copies of Parliamentary documents.

Sharada Subramaniam, joint secretary, Rajya Sabha Secretariat, said to ‘The Mobile Indian’, “Around 60 MPs of Rajya Sabha including the Vice President of India are using tablets manufactured by Samsung and Apple.”

She further said, “Our MPs are quite excited about using the new technology available that can help them in managing their recourses and time in a productive way.”

Also, in order to enhance the tablet experience of the MPs and to reduce their dependency on paper, NIC (National Informatics Centre) and Samsung have developed a widget called Rajya Sabha, which facilitate easy access to daily Parliamentary papers.

Using this widget, Members are be able to access the latest list of business, papers laid on the table of the House, as well as Parliamentary bulletins, questions lists, and members’ birthdays.

Subramanium further said, “Shortly we would be adding a Lok Sabha TV feed in the widget through which members and general public can view the proceedings in the Lok Sabha live on their mobile and tablet screen.”

NIC has made the widget for both iOS and Android platforms; Whereas Samsung has it for Android. The widget can be downloaded by anyone from Samsung’s App store.

Motorola will soon release sleeker and cheaper WiFi-only tablets, its chief executive officer, Sanjay Jha, said. The company will focus on building a single brand for tablets and smartphones and on launching its products around the world faster than it has been.

“Price points move much faster than we anticipated. We needed to launch globally with WiFi much earlier. In the second half you will see us launch tablets with much more aggressive form factors, and much greater differentiation in terms of enterprise capability, in terms of multimedia and in terms of distribution,” Jha was quoted as saying by Droid-Life at the Oppenheimer Annual Technology & Communications Conference.

He also said that the upcoming tablet of the company, which is expected in the second half of the year, will feature the latest Ice Cream Sandwich version of Android. It will be the first device to do so. Motorola’s Xoom was notably the first device to feature Android Honeycomb.

Motorola seems to be taking a leaf from Samsung’s branding strategy. All of Samsung’s Android products are Galaxy devices. Motorola is planning a similar umbrella brand for Android devices and is likely to adopt the name ‘Kore’.