Google Apple War

There are rumors that Google will launch a Nexus tablet in collaboration with Taiwanese vendor Quanta Computers for jut $99 in the 2012 Christmas season. Note the cheapest decent tablets in  the US market come for at least $150-200. The cheapest iPad sells for $399 though the upcoming iPad mini is said to have a price point of $299. But this ultra low price point of Google’s new tablet could radically change the market of tablets and computing as a whole. Note white box vendors in India and China are selling very cheap tablets in the $75-150 range which run on the Android O/S. However these tablets lack both finesse and brand appeal. However they have managed to win a huge market in the semi urban and rural areas where the buying power is low. When Google launches a product within this segment, it could meet a huge untapped demand for low priced good branded tablets.

Also read why Apple is a short.

DigiTimes

Google, following the launch of Nexus 7 tablet models in June 2012, will unveil a Nexus tablet model for US$99 later in the fourth quarter of 2012, according to Taiwan-based supply chain makers.The US$99 Nexus tablet is equipped with an ARM-architecture single-core processor 8950 developed by China-based WonderMedia Technologies, and a HUVA TN panel made by Taiwan-based HannStar Display, the sources said. The tablet will be produced by Taiwan-based Quanta Computer.However, Quanta declined to comment and Asustek Computer, a Taiwan-based vendor developing Nexus 7 through cooperation with Google, indicated that it has no plans to launch US$99 Nexus.

At the $99 price level, the spend would not require much thinking on the part of the buyers and could generate huge volumes for Google. Note Google could eviscerate Apple’s revenues and margin from the iPad segment as Apple would be forced to react. Google has already declared a war on Apple and this could be the start of one of the biggest battles between the world’s two most valued companies.

Schmidt Interview

“The Android-Apple platform fight is the defining fight in the industry today,” he said. “We’ve not seen platform fights at this scale,” he said. “The beneficiary is you guys (i.e., consumers). Prices are dropping rapidly. That’s a wonderful value proposition.”As for patent battles, Schmidt said he couldn’t talk about them, for two reasons. First, he said, he doesn’t understand all the details; and second, the topic makes him too upset.“These patent wars are death,” Schmidt said, noting that software is always overlapping, and that there are an estimated 200,000 patents covering the software industry.

Indian Tablet Market has 90 tablet vendors

But now, they are established players and little-known companies in the tablet space are doing unto them what they did unto Nokia and others. Aiding the new upstarts of mobility – among them Kolkata-based Chirag, Bangalore’s Lacs, WishTel from Mumbai and Noida-headquartered Zync Global – are India’s smaller towns and cities. Places such as Ludhiana, Wardha, Hubli and Vijayawada are lapping up their tablets that cost around Rs 6,000 apiece while the bigger brands concentrate on larger towns with products priced at around twice that amount.

According to technology market researcher CyberMedia, India’s tablet market has become hyper-competitive with the entry of new vendors. About 90 of them are estimated to have launched tablets till the end of the second quarter of the current fiscal year. The likes of Chirag, Lacs and WishTel have opened hundreds of exclusive stores in India’s tier III and IV towns to improve market share and catch up with homegrown incumbents such as Micromax and HCL.

Read how Apple is killing the Wintel Duopoly.