Mar 8, 2011 12:24 GMT  ·  By

It is reported that recent rumors implying that tablet makers had seen their plans struck hard by the arrival of the iPad 2 may have quite some truth to them, although possibly not in the way it was originally expected.

Over the past couple of months, quite a few new tablets were officially revealed and even made available for sale.

The Mobile World Congress (MWC) and CeBIT 2011 expos saw the arrival of various models, most powered by ARM chips and running the Android 3.0 OS.

On the downside, however, is the fact that most such tablets have fairly steep prices, like $700, $800 or more.

As such, when Apple launched the iPad 2, essentially an improved and thinner iPad priced at $500, an alarm may as well have been sounded.

Reports were quick to state that notebook makers' tablet plans had been hit hard and that Samsung thought its own Galaxy Tab was too expensive, though it did not delay it.

Since the iPad 2 came out sooner than other companies expected, it was assumed that the latter would speed up their launches.

Now, however, it is reported, again by Digitimes, that the opposite is occurring, meaning that notebook brand vendors are delaying their slates.

Mostly, the prices are expected to make it all but impossible for any sort of success to be seen as far as all the Android models go.

As such, the releases will be made about 1 or 2 months later, to reimagine the configurations, while some that have already been previewed may be abandoned altogether.

Either way, in order for any sort of real success to be seen, the average price in this segment will have to become US$399. Needless to say, none of the existing ARM-Android or Intel-Windows products are close to this figure.

Overall, if non-iPad tablets manage to secure 20% of the tablet market by the end of the year (2011), it will actually be a great accomplishment, according to the sources cited.