Asus Transformer Prime launches at 49999
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Hardware costs for a typical tablet should not be more than $200 regardless of the brand whether Apple, Samsung or Asus. The rest is based on brand and product perception. Companies have additional costs, but they wouldn't translate to more than into too much of a cost difference.
absolutely! coupling them with the supply costs it should not really cost more than 300 $ at max.unfortunately in india we have a perception of brand recognition and status which pretty much dictates the pricing.its a sad sad state for people like us.we are the bggest losers,noone else.
aproxymate
Adept
[font=arial, sans-serif]"ASUS fanboys"? Is there even such a thing? [/font]
[font=arial, sans-serif]I am pretty sure there is a good reason why new technology is expensive. Everyone so easily chooses to ignore the millions spent in R&D for a new product (and its successor). It is just not the same as upgrading hardware in your PC. That $300 maybe the cost of raw materials and other tangible stuff but I am sure man-power would add a significant amount to that number. And all of this is just guesstimate. [/font]
[font="arial, sans-serif"]Also remember that HP and RIM were compelled to take 50% off of their tablets as their products were deemed as failures and they wished to clear stock. The transformer prime enjoyed considerable success and thus its successor is in a position to charge a premium. In any case, one should always be prepared to pay more for new tech as this has been the case since forever. Components become cheaper to produce as time passes, bringing down the overall cost.[/font]
[font=arial, sans-serif]I am pretty sure there is a good reason why new technology is expensive. Everyone so easily chooses to ignore the millions spent in R&D for a new product (and its successor). It is just not the same as upgrading hardware in your PC. That $300 maybe the cost of raw materials and other tangible stuff but I am sure man-power would add a significant amount to that number. And all of this is just guesstimate. [/font]
[font="arial, sans-serif"]Also remember that HP and RIM were compelled to take 50% off of their tablets as their products were deemed as failures and they wished to clear stock. The transformer prime enjoyed considerable success and thus its successor is in a position to charge a premium. In any case, one should always be prepared to pay more for new tech as this has been the case since forever. Components become cheaper to produce as time passes, bringing down the overall cost.[/font]
your argument would have been solid if the tablet pricing was same all over.the context of the discussion is the pricing method being used it india.49 k is an absolute joke and believe me there is noway production cost will exceed 300$.
I agree with #vantheman5211, 49K is not justified at all, even if it has some new tech.
However, what I would want to know is that how much of a premium will be charged by the Samsung, etc companies affected due to law suits?
However, what I would want to know is that how much of a premium will be charged by the Samsung, etc companies affected due to law suits?
No one's ignoring the cost of R&D. It is definitely there but it shouldn't be high enough to justify the 50k price tag. A typical company spends less than 30% of its budget towards R&D. Companies like Apple, maybe even less. Ultimately, its the material cost and the marketing costs that contribute to the cost a lot more than R&D costs.
The US price of $499 and $599 for Transformer Price is still alright considering all the factors involved, but then why would it translate to a cost of 50k in India if not for perception based pricing. Do they mean to say that it costs them more to get the product from china to India as compared to china to US.
cooleagle
Adept
Asus fanboys are the ones which root for Asus & buy Asus products(e.g. Asus Transformer TF101) because some of them feel & have a perception that Asus makes better Android tablets and other products.
Like Apple has its fanboys so does Asus. I hope you get it.
Going by the price difference in its cost for India(Rs. 49999= apprx $ 994.28) and for US($600 & $500), do you mean the recovery of the R&D costs should only be made only from Indians while everyone else in US just pays for the hardware and subsidized R&D costs?
And not stupid!
Asus fanboys are the ones.....
Like Apple has its fanboys so does Asus. I hope you get it.
So Asus has fanboys too!!
cooleagle
Adept
You need to checkout some Transformer forums on how they defend the Transformer when pitted against an iPad or any other Tablet to understand what I am saying.
Just noticed that the price seems to be for the 64GB model + Dock bundle. Considering it costs $750 in US which translates to 39k and the actual selling price here is 46~47k, that's not too shabby a price if we take into account the duties.
aproxymate
Adept
Ok had the prime for a week and I must say its not worth the money. Weak wifi, lack of tablet apps for android and excessive power drain on standby just kills it for me. The new iPad is 2x better when you consider the overall experience.
^^ Functionality wise iPad is utterly useless for me. Last week my sis in US bought an iPad2 16GB for my mom and started using it herself to see if buying a new iPad for herself would be worth while. Interestingly she came to the same conclusions as me that the restrictive nature of the device makes it mostly functionally useless and redundant. Like me my sister too wants a tablet that would make a decent net book replacement. Since my moms sole purpose for the device would be to check email and video chat and absolutely nothing more, it would serve her well, but not for us.
aproxymate
Adept
#[member='Lord Nemesis'], tell me what do you plan to do with a tablet? If your only motive is extreme customization (custom roms, widgets etc.) then any cheap android tablet will do. Personally, I have been tinkering with PCs all my life but for a tablet, I just want things working well out-of-box. The ipads functionality is increased manifolds once jailbroken and I am anxiously waiting for one to come for the new one. AFAIK as Flash is concerned, I tested it extensively on the Prime and though it works, it is far from perfect. Also, many sites are now adapting HTML5 which is fully supported by iOS.
The other problem with android tablets is the acute lack of tablet specific apps. Trust me, apps for phones do no justice on tablets (you would've known if you saw the keynote). I am not sure what you mean by "restrictive nature" as I mentioned before, jailbreak apps add a lot more to iOS.
True, sd card support and HDMI support are sorely missed. Also,android has fantastic google apps which shine less on iOS. But overall, after using both devices for a couple of weeks, I can safely say that the ipad provides more bang for the buck simply because it is a true tablet and not an afterthought like many android tablets are. But really, to each his own. I'd suggest you spend a few weeks with the tablet before reaching a decision.
The other problem with android tablets is the acute lack of tablet specific apps. Trust me, apps for phones do no justice on tablets (you would've known if you saw the keynote). I am not sure what you mean by "restrictive nature" as I mentioned before, jailbreak apps add a lot more to iOS.
True, sd card support and HDMI support are sorely missed. Also,android has fantastic google apps which shine less on iOS. But overall, after using both devices for a couple of weeks, I can safely say that the ipad provides more bang for the buck simply because it is a true tablet and not an afterthought like many android tablets are. But really, to each his own. I'd suggest you spend a few weeks with the tablet before reaching a decision.
^+1 to that.
Even before jailbreak ipad was far more productive for me compared to the stupid 10 inch galaxy tab I bought.
Pages, Keynote and iphoto take care of all of my daily needs.
But for people looking for cracked apps may find it restrictive before jailbreak.
In fact this restrictive nature of ios is protecting it from going down the drain like Android.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Even before jailbreak ipad was far more productive for me compared to the stupid 10 inch galaxy tab I bought.
Pages, Keynote and iphoto take care of all of my daily needs.
But for people looking for cracked apps may find it restrictive before jailbreak.
In fact this restrictive nature of ios is protecting it from going down the drain like Android.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Custom ROMs - No, Customized UI with Widgets - Yes. Any cheap tablet will not do. I want some level of hardware flexibility/connectivity from the device. My idea of a tablet is that is a computing device even if its not very powerful and not just a media consumption device. There are some things that I expect it to support both in terms of hardware and software.
This is why I don't care for Apple or Samsung tablets simply for their hardware inflexibility.
If I can't get around running shitty software like iTunes for managing content on the device, and I need another computer just to get content into and off the device, then for me its far from a personal computing device that works out of the box.
As long as websites using flash are in existence, I won't be buying any tablet that doesn't support it. If tablets don't support it, then I won't be buying a tablet at all. I would rather buy a net book, than buy a tablet that costs twice as much and still can't handle a technology that is in widespread use.
Also, there is no such thing as full HTML5 support since HTML5 itself is work in progress. While the basic HTML5 features work, last I checked, iPads are very lousy at handling HTML5 interactive content. Most of the stuff doesn't work at all or plays real bad. Android is also at the same state with HTML5.
Not having a shit load of apps is not going to be a problem are along as I have apps that I do need. As for restrictive nature, I mean stuff like being able to hook up the device to any computer (Windows/Mac/Linux based) and have quick access to the device as a mass storage or being able to copy stuff to and fro without need for another computer at all.
To me, iPad is no where close to being a true tablet. If this is what a tablet is, then I have absolutely no use for a device called tablet. This is exactly the reason why I haven't bought a tablet till now and the only reason I am even considering a tablet is because there are at least a few tablet developers who share some of my ideas of what a tablet should be.
I have already tried an iPad2 for some time at work and while I would be working closely on multiple tablet platforms in future (as a developer), for personal use at least, I have already concluded that its absolutely useless for me. Transformer Prime many be far from perfect and in the end may not live up to my expectations despite looking good on paper, but iPad on the other hand doesn't come close to my expectations even on paper.
aproxymate
Adept
#Lord Nemesis I figured it would take too much time for me to quote your posts so I am just going to address the main points you raised
[font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]- You do know many widgets that fetch data in bg (weather, news, email etc.) tend to suck juice out of the battery, right? And without a good battery life, a portable tablet is not much so.[/font]
- Why do I get the feeling your ipad 2 is jailbroken and you have file managers and third-party music players to break free from iteunes? Though not out of box, I presume doing so doesn't warrant too much effort. Plus, most android notebooks will have bloatware to remove which you need to root.
- As I mentioned before, flash is not the greatest on android (Tested on TF201, current best tablet). Besides, I don't understand how will not having flash support hamper your experience? Most flash elements on the web are annoying ads or games. I presume you don't care for the earlier and as far as the latter is concerned, there is no dearth of iOS games.
As far as HTML5 goes, I would right away dismiss your claims due to firsthand evidence. I work in an international bank's technical dept. Just last week, we had a presentation for their soon-to-be-launched website which is going to be all in HTML5 as it saves on dev. time. The elements auto-adjust to fit the screen according to the device use and it was quite impressive to say the least. I am sorry but I can't see why they would invest so much on a platform that doesn't work for mobile browsers which are now used extensively.
- I mentioned "tablet specific apps", not shitload of apps. Try using facebook and twitter on the ipad and same on android tablets and let me know which provides a better experience. And there are many more like them. If I am on a tablet, I'd want apps which are made for it. Don't us PC gamers lament those careless console ports?
- Well that's quite harsh on a notebook, don't you think? I know numbers don't mean a thing but millions of ipad users can't be blind fanboys, can they?
- I'd rather you consider iOS too if you want to reach out to a large (paying) user base.
[font=helvetica, arial, sans-serif]- You do know many widgets that fetch data in bg (weather, news, email etc.) tend to suck juice out of the battery, right? And without a good battery life, a portable tablet is not much so.[/font]
- Why do I get the feeling your ipad 2 is jailbroken and you have file managers and third-party music players to break free from iteunes? Though not out of box, I presume doing so doesn't warrant too much effort. Plus, most android notebooks will have bloatware to remove which you need to root.
- As I mentioned before, flash is not the greatest on android (Tested on TF201, current best tablet). Besides, I don't understand how will not having flash support hamper your experience? Most flash elements on the web are annoying ads or games. I presume you don't care for the earlier and as far as the latter is concerned, there is no dearth of iOS games.
As far as HTML5 goes, I would right away dismiss your claims due to firsthand evidence. I work in an international bank's technical dept. Just last week, we had a presentation for their soon-to-be-launched website which is going to be all in HTML5 as it saves on dev. time. The elements auto-adjust to fit the screen according to the device use and it was quite impressive to say the least. I am sorry but I can't see why they would invest so much on a platform that doesn't work for mobile browsers which are now used extensively.
- I mentioned "tablet specific apps", not shitload of apps. Try using facebook and twitter on the ipad and same on android tablets and let me know which provides a better experience. And there are many more like them. If I am on a tablet, I'd want apps which are made for it. Don't us PC gamers lament those careless console ports?
- Well that's quite harsh on a notebook, don't you think? I know numbers don't mean a thing but millions of ipad users can't be blind fanboys, can they?
- I'd rather you consider iOS too if you want to reach out to a large (paying) user base.