Indeed, there’s a fierce competition among Tablet vendors around the world. The competition has been intensified due to advent of number of low-priced Tablets in the market. An analysis firm “IMS Research” has reportedly released a report which shows decline in an Average selling Price (ASP) of Tablet, plunged to $386 in the Q1 of the fiscal 2012, drop 21% compare to the prior year.
The firm has also accepted the decline in ASP has occurred due to an intense competition in the worldwide Tablet Market. At the beginning of March, Apple reduced down entry price of iPad 2 to $399 with the release of “new iPad” in order to make a greater penetration in the market. Of course, the lowering down the price of iPad 2 is meant to increase a level of competition among Tablet manufacturers.
Amazon launched Kindle Fire in Q4 of the last year and the breakthrough of device had threatened existing players in the market. Now, Apple has decided to launch its 7-inch iPad mini device later this year. At present, dozens of low-priced Tablets are available for less than $200 around the world.
An average selling price of the device are deteriorating due to white-box Tablet PCs, which have made strong penetration in the emerging markets.
The firm has released a statement in its press release, “There are few innovations from vendors to differentiate their tablets; low price seems to be the major factor to attract consumers to buy tablets other than iPads. More vendors are expected to focus on the low-end tablet market. However, to balance performance and profitability with a low price remains challenging for most tablet vendors.”
Undoubtedly, medium, small and white-box vendors are dominating on the low-end Tablet market. However, these vendors are not devoted to provide better users experience, but they are more focused towards the cost of the devices.
These vendors satisfy pre-requisites of price-sensitive users and they are more committed toward emerging countries. These consumers are demanding portable media player, eBook and GPS functions at the nominal price, which are being fulfilled by number of vendors such as Amazon’s Kindle Fire.
Barns & Noble has recently announced to cut down the price of its Nook Tablet. Google is also going to introduce its Tablet later this year at the nominal price, but with maximum number of features. In emerging market like India, where Tablet market is still nascent, users are more likely to own local brands such as Aakash, Micromax “Funbook” and other. Users in the country are more price-sensitive, that’s why, branded vendors are still struggling to make its presence in this market.
