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Jason Hidalgo

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By Jason Hidalgo, About.com Guide to Portable Electronics

What Would You Pay For an Apple Tablet?

Monday October 26, 2009

Retrevo Apple tablet study

Can Apple catch lightning in a bottle a third time?

With talk about Apple's oft-rumored tablet reaching a fever pitch, the question now is whether demand for such a device can match all the buzz currently surrounding it. Apple has certainly established a great track record with its iPod and iPhone line. But for any Apple tablet to gain the same kind of across-the-board market share, it will have to hit a sweet spot in terms of price, according to Retrevo's Gadgetology report.

So far, rumors point to an $800 price tag for the Apple tablet, according to Retrevo. But any prospective tablet from Apple has to be priced around $600 or less in order to attract interest from 64 percent of the non-Mac faithful (for Mac fanatics, that would be the unwashed masses known as PC users).

Unsurprisingly, Mac users &mdash who are used to paying a premium for Apple's devices &mdash are a more forgiving lot when it comes to price. About 68 percent of them said they're willing to pay more than $600 to take a bite at an Apple tablet.

So what would you be willing to pay for a tablet courtesy of Mr. Jobs?

Photo © Retrevo

Comments

October 27, 2009 at 3:13 pm
(1) technoskeptic says:

More than $800? Are they insane?

October 27, 2009 at 9:26 pm
(2) klickster says:

Yeah – I’m a mac user (have two) and would NEVER pay $800 for a tablet which is supposedly just a bigger iPhone/Touch. If it was a full fledged machine with quality SSD storage I may go as high as $600. I want the CrunchPad!!!! That thing is awesome and supposedly will only cost $299 ;-)

October 28, 2009 at 3:43 am
(3) Jason Hidalgo says:

It would be great if the CrunchPad could stay at that $299 price point. But I’ve seen recent articles saying the price might end up being around $400 now (which I guess is still less than, say, a Kindle DX). It would be interesting to see what the CrunchPad’s final specs/capabilities end up being.

October 28, 2009 at 3:37 pm
(4) darwin2009 says:

I would not buy an apple computer or lap top, if given to me for free… of course I would take it, I have way too many friends, family, acquaintances and everywhere I go, work, other business places, airports use PCs.

I will not even buy an Itouch until they release one with a built in FM radio transmitter. I dont care how many new apps or if they made a mouse without buttons or scroll wheel… make an itouch with an FM radio already!!!

October 28, 2009 at 10:50 pm
(5) Liv says:

If Apple is able to surpass the excellent Fujitsu tablets, why not pay $800? BUT Apple should take over some of the qualities of existing tablets.
They need to make their tablet work with both fingers (touchscreen) AND stylus (active digitizer).
Better use the MacOS than producing an oversized iPhone/iPod Touch. I have a Fujitsu Stylistic 5030 and sometimes I would like to use the fingers. However, most of the times the stylus is more useful. You cannot imagine how fast you can “type” by using your natural writing (at least in English :-) ).
The new iTablet should have most of the characteristics of Fujitsu 5010 (especially the mixed screen input), plus some Apple inventions that would make it desirable for the “non-believers”.
Some side buttons should exist, for one of the main uses should be book reading. I mean PageUp, PageDown and such. It would be a device killing the too expensive Kindles.

October 29, 2009 at 3:46 pm
(6) Norbert says:

I am just waiting for an Apple Tablet. After the old Apple // was discontinued I was forced into the PC side of the business. Now I have an HP Tablet with mixed satisfaction: it is a great machine and causes no problems but it is not a Mac!!! Considering that Apple and Microsoft are getting closer and closer to one another’s feature list, may be there will be a time when they will look almost identical, but then there will still be the problem of making an OS that is designed for a specific hardware, and that will stay a problem for the PC side forever. So, the choice would still be the Mac Tablet.

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