[Discuss] Google's Nexus 7

[kentborg at borg.org (Kent Borg)]

Richard Pieri wrote:
> It doesn't matter how much better Jellybean is to either iOS
> or prior versions of Android because the technical superiority of the OS
> has never been a factor in the public's eye. 

But price *does* matter and Jelly Bean is good enough that someone's Mom 
will be able to figure it out. (And she might like that it is physically 
small and light.)

Assuming that 7-inch tablets are compelling and useful (an open question 
to me, but I don't understand 10-inch tablets either), I think Apple is 
going to lose market share to the Nexus 7, driven by raw price. They 
will have to compete with an affordable Ipad Mini or continue down the 
"Lawsuits in Motion" path and try to get injunctions against the sale of 
the Nexus 7. Very possibly both.

If they do introduce an Ipad Mini to match $200 tablets, Apple will be 
in two bad places:

- Low margins; Apple loves their fat margins, charging 100x their
cost for flash (I might be exaggerating here) is a juicy business, and

- Aggravated screen size problems; Android has been trying to deal with
a splintering of devices all along where Apple has had few devices and
fewer screen sizes, but a mini tablet might be a new technical problem
for Apple and their app developers.

Apple is on top, a nice place, but when you are king of the hill, there 
is but one direction to go. The Iphone business has started down that 
path, the Ipad business is at risk. The question is when, how, how fast, 
and does the Ipad fall at Apple's own hand or that of others? The Ghost 
of Steve can offer them limited guidance.

-kb