ASUS tablets

[Rhyyker]

For the love of god let it be April, not May...

Here here!

 

[bbasiaga]

There is obviously huge support for a tablet in the $400 range. I'm not sure why no one is working on something in this range! I hope this is it. Otherwise, me and a bunch of other people will continue to wait on the sidelines until something affordable comes along.

-Brian

 

[moosc]

if so many folks are waiting for a 400$ plenty of them out there. the saying goes you get what you pay for. ill take quality or cheapness

 

[Gameboy70]

There is obviously huge support for a tablet in the $400 range. I'm not sure why no one is working on something in this range! I hope this is it. Otherwise, me and a bunch of other people will continue to wait on the sidelines until something affordable comes along.

-Brian

When a company like Motorola develops a tablet, they contract the manufacturing to Foxconn, so they can't sell it for $400 and make a profit. That's why they launch with carriers first instead of selling wifi versions to consumers from the outset. They can sell thousands to Verizon up front, but they're probably just break even the moment they start selling unsubsidized versions in Best Buy. Apple also contracts to Foxconn, but gets better margins due to economies of scale (they're projected to sell, depending on your source, between 20 and 60 million iPads this year) and a higher lifetime value per customer vis-a-vis the App Store, iTunes and iBooks.

Asus, on the other hand, is a manufacturer. They don't have to contract the production out to a third party, so they have less overhead to eat into a $400 product. The same goes for Samsung (who also have their own stock of NAND flash and Hummingbird processors), Acer, and probably LG and HTC. I don't expect Moto to do well long term in this space, which most of the demand is for wifi-only, contract free versions (88% of iPads sold are either wifi-only or unactivated 3G models).

 

[.46caliber]

My Asus netbook has been great. One of my two HDs ticked, but they replaced it under warranty with no problem. I'd put this tablet up against a Xoom no problem. This one I believe actually has SD support.

I also use Asus motherboards, some of the best in the business.