[jdminhbg]

Say this Google tablet changes the tablet market from being "lots of early adopters" to "everyone remotely tech-savvy." In that case, Apple would be way happier with 40% of 10x the market they currently have 70% of -- it'd be more than 5x their current business.

Additionally, a popular $99 Android tablet means that Android is now the bargain tablet. Other Android tablet makers will have to compete with Google, leaving Apple the high end, just like Apple currently owns the high end of the laptop PC business.

[ajross]

Apple doesn't remotely "own" the high end of the PC laptop business. They're doing very well among web developers, so to a poster here maybe it seems that way. They're merely the largest single manufacturer among a very long list of PC vendors.

And the bit about "bargain" vs. "high end" presupposes there are features there that justify the distinction. A $99 tablet isn't going to have a 4G modem (though it's unclear if Apple's $300 item will either), but beyond that and its physical size the current Nexus 7 is a very feature-comparable device to the retina iPad.

[jdminhbg]

> Apple doesn't remotely "own" the high end of the PC laptop business.

Hm? Apple went over 90% share of the $1k+ PC market way back in 2009: http://betanews.com/2009/07/22/apple-has-91-of-market-for-1-...

[ajross]

That's pretty spun. It's true, of course, but by excluding the $950 laptops of other vendors (which are spec-wise very comparable with the Apple offerings) as "not high end" it's mostly just true by construction.

A similar number for "total units of 15 inch laptops with 4+GB memory and discrete GPUs" (my personal guess at a "high end" definition) would tell a very different story.

[moheeb]

If I sell one $50 million dollar laptop I'll have 100% of the $50 million dollar laptop market!

[esrauch]

I don't really understand what point you are making. Do you think that $1k is too high to be the "high end laptop market"?