I'm perusing the Staples flyer, and seeing Android tablets on sale. Pricing for a decently-spec'ed Acer Icona tablet for $199 -- 3 Days Only!
In an earlier time, I would have jumped at paying a mere $200 bucks for such a device. After all, I'm the guy who was happy to pay $800 for Sony's very first PalmPilot-compatible PDA. (And a fabulous device the Clie was, with me buying a second one after the first eventually broke down.)
In these times, however, information flows rapidly. So rapidly that we already know some of the specs of the Android tablets that will be shipping next year after the next generation ships this summer.
- Dual-core CPU? Bah! 5-core is out now.
- 1024x600 screen? Bah! 1920x1080 is the new norm.
- Honeycomb OS? Bah! Google will probably be announcing Jelly Bean (Android 5) in two weeks.
- $200-price for last season's model? Bah! Acer and Google are promising $250 for brand-new models.
It's the same deflationary dilemma freight-damage stores face when they sell electronics. Their discounted price is more expensive than that of current models.
So, will I buy the 5-cored, 1920x1080'd, Jelly Beaned, $250 tablet? Probably not, because we are already starting to learn about next year's specs. That, plus I have two tablets already that I use rarely. The supply is willing, but my demand is weak.
Seriously, though, I expect tablet development will have hit its inflection point this year, with future development being incremental instead of leaps and bounds.
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