[cletus]

I've had this argument far too many times.

Specifically regarding the iPad vie put several theories forward regarding the 7" vs 10" tablets:

1. Apple has tied up the world supply of 10" capacitative touch screens. That's not far-fetched;

2. Price: as per Gruber's argument;

3. Fear: no one wants to directly compete with the iPad so they're seeking some form of differentiation. Nikon did this with DSLRs and Canon. It wasn't necessarily fear but Nikon DSLRs weren't positioned directly against Canon equivalents: they were in between; or

4. Volume: to Apple's credit they bet big on a market with very little evidence. To the victor the spoils. The rest are much more sheepish hoping something sticks before going all in. This is much like the "shotgun marketing" vie mentioned previously.

I'm reminded of a scene from "How I Met Your Mother" several years ago. Barney made a video resume. His argument was that Corporate America wants someone who looks like a bold risk-taker but does risk anything because taking risks gets you fired.

There's a lot of true in that and the response to the iPad can be construed as a collective aversion to risk by all the people involved.

Once more all this highlights the importance and strategic advantage of having a committed product guy at the helm of a tech company.

[netcan]

All these might be true, but still be on-the-margin effects.

In the PC world (and I think the old audio player world), any new Apple product was met a competitor with the similar specs (often better) at close to half the price (taking into account sales and such). Like the post concludes, if it was possible to make an android tablet (even a 7" one) that was a direct alternative to the ipad at $350 someone would be

[ZeroGravitas]

Archos 10 inch tablet: $300.

http://www.archos.com/products/ta/archos_101it/specs.html?co...

I'm not saying it's the best tablet ever, though on a spec checklist it might actually win (camera, HDMI out, USB host, multimedia formats etc.). I'm more interested in the fact that the vast majority of Gruber-style pronouncements about how special Apple is require you to not have any knowledge of what's actually happening outside the Apple bubble.

It's also worth noting that the Samsung Galaxy Tab price has been on a constant downward trajectory. Last I saw the Carphone Warehouse in the UK was selling it for £489 for 32GB (compared with $599 for iPad 32GB) a £110 difference rather than the $30 dollar one Gruber quotes. Comparing list prices favours Apple since they, somewhat unusually, rarely if ever sell below that price.

[adolph]

Is the Archos 10 actually available anywhere? B&H says "Approx. Arrival December." It's not even available on the Archos store:

https://store.archos.com/archos-internet-tablet-p-5005.html

[ZeroGravitas]

There's a brief review here from a guy who got his from the Archos store, though apparently they're sold out at the moment:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/e3zeb/my_thoughts_o...

[farmerbuzz]

If its anything like the Archos 7 it will have a resistive touchscreen and a less powerful CPU, which probably explains the price difference. Android is painful to use with a resistive touchscreen because of all the swiping gestures and the pressure needed when using a resistive touchscreen.

[ZeroGravitas]

Archos 70 and 101 (the new 7" and 10" models) are both capacitive and have 1GHz Cortex A8 chips. I think some of the smaller ones (32 and 43 maybe?) are still resistive even in the new models.

It's also interesting to note that the 70 and 101 have similar internals apart from the screen and only have a $25 price difference.

[GFischer]

What? 7'' "APad" tablets are being sold even in Uruguay, at far less than U$ 350 (U$ 199), so they're probably closer to U$ 80 or so in another country:

http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.uy/MLU-20365527-tablet-pc-7...

Edit: here's an English post:

http://www.ubergizmo.com/15/archives/2010/04/the_apad_is_ano...

which says that it has a resistive touchscreen variety (instead of the capacitive multitouch like in the iPad) and thus much worse.

[andreyf]

There's a lot of true in that and the response to the iPad can be construed as a collective aversion to risk by all the people involved.

Except Apple ;)