More Google News: Google Happy Acer and Asus Undercutting Nexus 7; Nexus Q Dropped

dgstorm

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Here's some more interesting Google news for this fine Friday morning. In case you guys have missed some of our earlier reports, both Acer and Asus are coming out with Android tablets in the $149 dollar range for several different world markets. Despite the fact that this undercuts the Nexus 7, Google is supposedly quite happy they are doing this. Here's a quote with some more detail,

As Acer and Asustek Computer will soon launch 7-inch tablets for sale at about US$149, Google, although having cooperated with Asustek to develop the Nexus 7, is not worried about the competitive impact of US$149 tablets on sales and instead hopes the launches will increase the global market share of Android tablets, according to supply chain makers.

Acer will launch 7-inch tablets equipped with processors developed by MediaTek at US$99-149 in Asia and South America initially at the end of January, with target shipments of 500,000-600,000 units for the first quarter, the sources indicated.

Asustek will also launch 7-inch tablets at about US$149 in Taiwan, China, India and South America at the end of January, with target shipments of five million units for 2012, the sources said. Asustek, in order to minimize production costs, adopts processors developed by VIA Technologies and touch panels and key components supplied by second-tier makers for the tablets, the sources indicated.

If you think about it on a larger scale, it makes perfect sense that Google would be thrilled about this development for three reasons. One, a greater market influx of affordable Android tablets across the globe can only be a good thing for Android. Two, it was Google's intention to begin with to jump-start an inexpensive tablet revolution to finally help the Android OEMs compete effectively with Apple's iPad. Three, Google's primary business is search and advertising. More tablets in people's hands means more people browsing the web and clicking on ads. For them, it's nothing but win-win.

That's not all the news out of the Google camp for today though. Apparently, it looks like Google finally decided to "shelve" the Nexus Q Media device concept, at least for now. If you go to the Google Play Store, the device is now listed as "no longer for sale." For the most part we are sad to see this device go. Yes, it needed quite a few enhancements to make it a viable product, but it definitely was a cool concept. Perhaps it was simply too far ahead of its time, or perhaps its current form needs to evolve into something else before it can truly realize its potential. Some ideas need to "percolate" a bit longer.

Source: DigiTimes
 

johnomaz

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Plus, the Acer and Asus tablets have less value than the Nexus 7 does. Hardware wise, they should be cheaper.
 

clintro

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Asus makes Nexus 7.... how is that less value? Maybe the are able to make it cheaper using economies of scale?
 

mountainbikermark

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More tablet sales means more aftermarket sales. Amazon has carried this business model for a while and when I saw the price of the Nexus7, got one and saw the free Play store money,I figured an Amazon like strategy was in play. Apple makes a crap load of its profit in aftermarket sales as well but missed the boat on less expensive devices to enhance iTunes sales and profits. As someone else said, if not for the huge outlay many have in iTunes purchases, the Apple device sales would be less than they are. I'd like to see a stat of new sales vs repeat for Android, Amazon Fires and ios. That'd probably be very revealing of the future directions of sales of os platforms. It'd probably prove, as many suspect, that ios is quickly returning to niche status .

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trestevenson

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Asus makes Nexus 7.... how is that less value? Maybe the are able to make it cheaper using economies of scale?

From what I've read, this new 7" tablet from ASUS will have a display with a lower pixel density than the Nexus 7. The GPU will likely not be as powerful, the battery will be smaller, the processor isn't going to be as efficient (or clocked as high), and it will be a slightly heavier device. For the extra $50, I'd have to go with the Nexus 7. I don't know anything about the Acer tablet, however.
 
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