14 DAY TRIAL // While IT players are generally enthusiastic about the tablet market, there seems to be no shortage of what one might call frustration at the fact that sales of Android slates are not as good as their makers would like.
The thing about the tablet market is that, even though a bunch of Android slates have been revealed and/or released, they still have a hard time stealing sales form the Apple iPad.
Granted, some models, like the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, are said to be in too high demand, although component shortages also seem to be a problem.
Regardless, it is the opinion of a certain NVIDIA chief executive officer that the real problem with tablets is that they are too expensive, among other things.
As revealed in a sort of interview with CNET News, there are several issues that, Huang thinks, slate makers have to solve before any success can be seen.
For one, manufacturers are asking too much for their tablets, which makes the $499 Apple iPad 2 all the more appealing.
There is also the fact that Android slates have a rather low library of apps that slate owners can acquire and play with, unlike the multitude of Apple apps.
What's more, the CEO says that 3G connectivity should be dropped from the base configurations, so as to enable the making of affordable, fully-configured WiFi models.
"It's a point of sales problem. It's an expertise at retail problem. It's a marketing problem to consumers. It is a price point problem," Mr. Jen-Hsun Huang said.
“Tablets should have a Wi-Fi configuration and be more affordable. And those are the ones that were selling more rapidly than the 3G and fully configured ones."
Fortunately, companies appear to have realized the so-called flaws in their marketing efforts and will, hopefully, find ways to revamp their slate projects.
"But those problems are all getting solved. The rate at which these Honeycomb Tegra 2 tablets are being improved is really stunning. I think all of the manufacturers have now recognized that and readjusted their plans."