那些“非苹果”的平板电脑们

苹果公司应该还能享受一段统治平板电脑的快乐时光。但2011年假日销售季节各类厂商将推出大量平板电脑，其中许多产品的价格将大大低于iPad。 苹果面临的压力日益增大，而且未来几个月肯定会更大。苹果寻求通过德国和澳洲的法院来保护自己的地盘。 有些人说，价格并不是针对iPad的有效竞争工具。但最近惠普TouchPad的例子说明，许多买主乐意抢购非常便宜的产品，而不愿意为显然引领市场潮流的苹果产品支付500多美元。惠普TouchPad在大幅降价之后，几天内就被抢购一空。 除了通常的PC和智能手机厂商(华硕，戴尔，HTC，联想，摩托罗拉，RIM，三星和东芝)，最近几周我还在电子零售商的货架上看到了以前与电脑市场没什么关系的企业推出的各种平板电脑。进入该市场或者暗示将进入该市场的厂商包括华为、LG、诺基亚、索尼爱立信和中兴通讯。而且这个名单在不断拉长。 例如，Vizio拥有非常有吸引力的平板电脑，与其平板电视一同在美国出售。Vizio 8英寸平板电脑正在作为娱乐设备销售，将“让你在指尖享受娱乐自由”。 这款Vizio平板电脑完全具备其它多数平板电脑的特点：可以浏览网页、观看电视、电影、音乐和应用，而且经过了优化可以充当万能遥控器，可以满足一切娱乐需求。它采用谷歌安卓操作系统，零售价约为329美元，而较低端的苹果iPad还要卖到499美元。确实，它不是iPad，无疑，苹果迷们会这样告诉你。但到12月，Vizio平板电脑零售价可能降到300美元以下，届时可能吸引家长、配偶甚至企业前来购买。我可能给我上高中的孩子买一个这样的产品。 还有热炒的亚马逊平板电脑，预计将在本季度上市，价格同样较低。带着亚马逊的品牌，它可能与该公司其它产品与服务有更紧密的联系，据称亚马逊准备在该平板上面承受一些亏损，通过书籍、音乐和录像等产品的销售加以弥补。 除了iPad，消费者拥有大量诱人的其它选择。在上述产品上市之后，消费者可能就不会担忧可能买不起iPad了。 我对消费者不太担忧，他们处于有利地位。我比较担心生产平板电脑的OEM厂商和生产平板电脑部件的供应商。如果爆发价格战，所有人都会受伤。目前平板市场所期待的利润率，最终会震动市场，但在一些供应商和OEM厂商亏损惨重之前，市场不会受到振动。 我认为，厂商很快就会研究另一种做法。这是一种捆 绑策略，智能手机厂商和电信服务提供商用得不错，即产品大幅折价或者免费派送，只要消费者愿意签署多年期的订阅协议。如果平板产业采用这种做法，我们不仅会看到更加便宜的平板电脑，而且许多产品可能会免费送给电信订户。 如果该产业走上这条道路，有些厂商将被迫退出平板电脑市场，因为确定哪些厂商可以生存的权力将从OEM厂商转移到电信服务提供商手上。当然，有些厂商仍将在边缘生存，但实力较强的厂商将必须与服务提供商结盟。苹果在智能手机领域很好地采用了这种策略，但电信公司是否同样承担折价后的平板电脑的成本？ 编译: Luffy Liu 本文授权编译自EBN Online，版权所有，谢绝转载 参考英文原文: The Other Tablets, by Bolaji Ojo

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{pagination} The Other Tablets Bolaji Ojo TweetinShare0Apple Inc. should enjoy its domination of the tablet PC market while it lasts. A flood of tablets from all kinds of manufacturers will hit the market during the 2011 holiday sales season, and many of them will be priced at a hefty discount to the iPad. The pressure that has been building on Apple, which has resorted to defending its tablet turf in German and Australian courts, is bound to intensify in the coming months. Some people say pricing will not be an effective competitive weapon against the iPad. But the recent case of the TouchPad from Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) -- it sold out completely within days after a severe price cut -- indicates many buyers would gladly snap up a much cheaper device than pay $500 for the clearly market-leading product from Apple. In addition to the usual PC and smartphone vendors (Asus, Dell, HTC, Lenovo, Motorola Mobility, Research in Motion, Samsung, and Toshiba), I have seen tablets from companies not traditionally associated with the computer market on electronics retailer shelves over the last several weeks. Companies that have entered or signaled they will enter the market include Huawei, LG, Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, and ZTE. The list is stretching out. For instance, Vizio Inc. has a pretty attractive tablet stocked alongside its flat-screen television offerings at BJs in the United States. The simply dubbed "Vizio 8-inch tablet" is being marketed by the company as an entertainment device that will "keep entertainment freedom at your fingertips." The Vizio tablet offers exactly what most other tablets do -- access to the Web, TV shows, movies, music, and apps -- and is optimized to serve as a universal remote control for the ultimate couch-potato experience. It runs the Google Android operating system and retails for approximately $329, versus the $499 for the lower-end Apple iPad. Sure, it's not an iPad, as, no doubt, Apple enthusiasts will tell you. But by December, the Vizio tablet may be retailing below $300, making it an appealing purchase for parents, spouses, and even corporate entities. I might buy a product like that for my high schoolers. Then there is the much touted Amazon tablet, which is forecast to make its debut this quarter at a similarly low price point. With the Amazon name behind it, there's the promise of a tighter link with other offerings by that company, which is reportedly willing to take a loss on the device and make up the difference in other sales: books, music, video, etc. Consumers have a lot of tantalizing options to the iPad. And with the kind of offerings I expect to hit the market, consumers may not care they can't afford the iPad. My concern is not so much for consumers -- they're in good hands -- but for the OEMs making the tablets and the component suppliers supporting them. A price war hurts everyone. The kind of margins now expected on the tablet could end up shaking up the market, but not before some suppliers and OEMs suffer considerable losses. There's another solution I believe companies will start exploring soon. This is the bundled strategy that has been well tested by smartphone manufacturers and telecommunication service providers, which heavily discount products or give them away, as long as consumers were willing to sign multiyear subscription agreements. If the industry follows this pattern, not only will we see even cheaper tablets, but many of them likely will be offered free to telecom subscribers. If the industry goes in this direction, some manufacturers will be forced to exit the tablet market, because the power to determine viable players will shift from the OEMs themselves to telecom service partners. Some, of course, will still exist in the margin, but the stronger players would have to ally themselves with service providers. Apple has done reasonably well with this strategy in the smartphone segment, but will telcoms be as willing to suck up the cost of discounted tablets?