The State of Android Tablets: Better Marketing Needed?

[BenLand150]

So, normally I write my “articles” in the Galaxy Nexus thread to keep that section a little more lively once in a while with other things other than the normal, “my phone his *this* problem” and things of that nature because I feel this forum should also be as fun as possible other than coming on to post about what issues you are having. Though, helping other people is just as fun for me, personally, as well. But I decided to put it in here in hopes more people may see this one this time.

My topic today is on the State of Android tablets.

A few days ago I stumbled upon a video from TheVerge called, “Trolling the iPad Line – On The Verge”. While watching the video you will find it is quite humorous, and at one point he gets in line talking to a girl who is waiting to buy “The New iPad” and asks her if she would give up her spot if he would give her an iPad 2. She responds with a yes with the reason being, should just go back to the back and play with that and then buy the newer one still, and around 1:55 into the video he asks this question;

“What about for an Android tablet, would you still trade your place in line?”

“A who..?”.

You can check out the video here:
[video=youtube;NUpM_Y6J__8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUpM_Y6J__8[/video]​

This isn’t very surprising at all to be honest. At my school, 90% of the people I know are iPhone users and the people that do use Android, aren’t “internet” Android users and don’t exactly know much about Android as a whole, or even their own phones for that matter. If I bring up the terms “root”, “ROMs”, or “Kernel”, they don’t know much about it other than the fact I’m obsessed with these things completely.

This poses the question that, at least advertising wise, should Android Tablet makers step their game up? I have the Asus eePad right now and friends of mine have no idea what that is. When the new iPad came out the tried to shove it down my throat(they know I don't like Apple) and when I said that I'd rather have the Transformer Prime or something like that, they had no idea what I was even talking about.

I don’t watch TV that often but when I do, I find myself seeing a commercial for The New iPad at least once during the show’s I am watching. How often do or have you seen a commercial for the Xoom, Galaxy Tab, or Prime? Not often if not at all. And when you do it’s almost just a “cameo” appearance in Verizon’s 4G LTE marketing scheme. They never show off the tablet’s and what they can do and what they do have over the iPad(besides screen resolution, for now). However, is this on purpose maybe?

To me, I like having stuff other people don't have. Makes it feel a little more special almost. Maybe their state of mind is, we want people that take the time to find out about other tablet(s) to be the only ones with them. Why (try to) put it into the hands of people blinded by a brand name that wouldn’t consider the tablet if they did see it advertised? While this is flawed it may actually be true. Well, while I do like being the few of my kind where I’m at.. it’d surely be nice to have shared interest among other friends. Maybe when I go off to college in a few months I’ll find more people with the same interests as me.

Anyways, leave a comment on whether you think Android Tablets should be marketed more to compete with the iPad or keep as is. If they would market it more like Amazon does the Kindle Fire, the $200-dollar price point to keep up with the competition may likely be non-issue. I mean, people are willing to pay 700bucks for an iPad, why shouldn’t it be the same with Android? Will the new Nexus Tablet be marketed just as well? Or is their hope people will magically find out the new tablet is only going to be 199-249 dollars on their own?

Thanks for reading and be sure to follow me on Twitter if you like my work! @BlackBlizzNerd (You can click the button in my signature)

Source(s): TheVerge.com

 

[Droid-Xer]

I think when the XOOM dropped, Google/Android/Motorola really put a negative light on high end Android tablets by asking a premium price. I paid $880 on launch day for my 3G XOOM, which was to be upgraded to 4G "in the near future" (read: it took 10 months for the 4G upgrade).

Asking an iPad premium price for an unknown tablet and OS, was extremely ineffective. They should've let the specs talk for itself and price it less than the iPad. Motorola had some snazzy commercials for it but you couldn't find a display of the XOOM on launch day at Best Buy or even in VZW stores.

Android tab sales have increased thanks to lower prices and a more refined OS. Its sad that its taken over a year for Android tabs to barely crack the mainstream.

 

[BenLand150]

I think when the XOOM dropped, Google/Android/Motorola really put a negative light on high end Android tablets by asking a premium price. I paid $880 on launch day for my 3G XOOM, which was to be upgraded to 4G "in the near future" (read: it took 10 months for the 4G upgrade).

Asking an iPad premium price for an unknown tablet and OS, was extremely ineffective. They should've let the specs talk for itself and price it less than the iPad. Motorola had some snazzy commercials for it but you couldn't find a display of the XOOM on launch day at Best Buy or even in VZW stores.

Android tab sales have increased thanks to lower prices and a more refined OS. Its sad that its taken over a year for Android tabs to barely crack the mainstream.

Yeah, that is true. I'd never pay that much for a device I've never heard of. And I am glad sales are going up, but not skyrocketing. I think there's still more to be done with them marketing wise that shows off the tablet, something Android commercials as a whole need work on.

 

[Droid-Xer]

Ya, apple does simple commercials. Everything is white and they highlight the things that make the iPad standout, which is always the screen. Android should have a commercial showing the multitasking capabilities of the OS. All these android commercials are so overproduced and overhyped, they never touch on the OS.

 

[BenLand150]

Exactly. I don't need to see my phone in a commercial racing through the sky and getting struck by lightening then morning into a Bionic with super-human abilities..:icon_eek:

 

[guidot]

This is my take:

First of all, excellent post!

Second, I'm similar to you in life regarding what I like. I like when people ask questions about what I'm holding. They know its not the Iphone, but they aren't sure so they have to ask. It started a long time ago, when I first got into computers and building them. AMD was the low man, and I was sold on their, "less clock cycles, but carrying more" slogan. However, explaining that to customers was difficult. What does 1800+ mean? Why isn't it just 1.8GHz? So I think with the common customer, Intel won out because they could recognize that 2GHz was faster than 1.8GHz, no matter what processor.

So, I think it's similar to this. Obviously the Android phones are doing well worldwide, but the tablets are dwindling. I don't even own a tablet, mainly because I have a Chromebook, a work laptop, a MacBook and a Gaming PC. I just don't see where a tablet would fit in there. And also, I can't justify purchasing one for $400+ when I could get a whole new MB, CPU and RAM for my PC for that!

I almost bit on the Fire, because of the integration of Amazon movies and such, but I'd want to hack it up, and then I'd break things!

I think Google et al, need to do some work if they want to be a true competitor in the tablet world, and hopefully the "Nexus" brand will do it.

 

[tjk629]

They need to do the level of advertising they did with the OG DROID.

Everyone knows there are android tablets out, but the average person thinks that they are "subpar" to the iPad. That the iPad is the best tablet out there, and nothing can compete with it. They need to show that android tablets are just as capable and powerful as an iPad. IMO, if you do this for just one android tablet the rest should follow. Kind of like with the OG DROID. Sure it was for a verizon android phone, but once others picked up they could just go get an android phone, and have roughly the same experience.

 

[BenLand150]

This is my take:

First of all, excellent post!

Second, I'm similar to you in life regarding what I like. I like when people ask questions about what I'm holding. They know its not the Iphone, but they aren't sure so they have to ask. It started a long time ago, when I first got into computers and building them. AMD was the low man, and I was sold on their, "less clock cycles, but carrying more" slogan. However, explaining that to customers was difficult. What does 1800+ mean? Why isn't it just 1.8GHz? So I think with the common customer, Intel won out because they could recognize that 2GHz was faster than 1.8GHz, no matter what processor.

So, I think it's similar to this. Obviously the Android phones are doing well worldwide, but the tablets are dwindling. I don't even own a tablet, mainly because I have a Chromebook, a work laptop, a MacBook and a Gaming PC. I just don't see where a tablet would fit in there. And also, I can't justify purchasing one for $400+ when I could get a whole new MB, CPU and RAM for my PC for that!

I almost bit on the Fire, because of the integration of Amazon movies and such, but I'd want to hack it up, and then I'd break things!

I think Google et al, need to do some work if they want to be a true competitor in the tablet world, and hopefully the "Nexus" brand will do it.

Haha, and thanks for the reply! And I also love that fact that people have to ask what phone I have and I give probably too much of an in-depth response. But I love being the guy my friends and family come to for technology help and stuff.

I agree with that as well, there's plenty of Android devices out there, but people just don't know what reasons why they should venture out and get a Galaxy Tab vs an iPad and stuff like that. Which really does stink in my opinion.

They need to do the level of advertising they did with the OG DROID.

Everyone knows there are android tablets out, but the average person thinks that they are "subpar" to the iPad. That the iPad is the best tablet out there, and nothing can compete with it. They need to show that android tablets are just as capable and powerful as an iPad. IMO, if you do this for just one android tablet the rest should follow. Kind of like with the OG DROID. Sure it was for a verizon android phone, but once others picked up they could just go get an android phone, and have roughly the same experience.

I don't even really think they need that level of advertising. Because advertising for the DROID was absolutely crazy, that'd be insane. But I get what you mean. They really do need to step it up some, because minus the screen right now, I don't think the iPad truly has anything over android. Especially OS-wise. Their app support is still a bit better but I don't think there's many MUST HAVE apps that a person should base their buy off of.