Lesson from HP: Non-Apple Tablets, It’s About Price!
In the past 12 hours, I’ve seen more friends buy HP Touchpads than all the days leading up. In fact, I personally didn’t know a single person who bought a HP Touchpad ’til now. What made all the difference? The price dropped, to $99.
HP Touchpad Now $99
Competition needs to be in price
The irony is that for the days leading up to HP’s announcement on the Touchpad (and the subsequent price drop/fire sale), HP had spent millions of dollars on advertising, hiring celebrities like Lea Michelle and Manny Pacquiao. What’s become evident now is that consumers weren’t moved by the branding or the messaging. It all came down to the price point. The HP Touchpad is now selling out. Had HP utilized those advertising dollars on price cuts or offers, the TouchPad may have lived on.
What HP has provided though, is a valuable insight into the tablet market. Lately, several analysts have suggested that the tablet market doesn’t truly exist – that consumers weren’t looking for tablets per se, they just wanted the iPad. Perhaps that’s not entirely true either though. With this rush for TouchPads, there definitely is interest. It’s more a question of value and worth. How much is a consumer willing to pay for a non-Apple tablet.
In all other devices including smartphones, laptops, computers, etc., nearly every competitor of Apple is priced much lower than the Cupertino giant. Strangely, despite coming in much later to tablet market, companies like Motorola, HP, Toshiba, RIM, and HTC have been pitting their tablets directly against the iPad, even when it comes to price, with prices in the $500+ range. However, they fail to recognize that Apple (and the iPad) carries an additional brand value that no other tablet maker has been able to replicate. Thus, when you stack these tablets against one another, Apple wins out. The key, perhaps, is to mark down the pricing, even if it means taking an inital loss.
Android smartphones have been able to dominate the market by becoming a low cost alternative to the iPhone. Same can be said of the Blackberry of the last few years. Tablets, whether of Android, RIM, or WebOS origin needs to consider this strategy. Forget the branding, multi-million dollar ad campaigns, or trying to “be” the iPad. Instead, offer users with a similar experience for half the cost of the iPad. It’s not the prettiest thing to hear, but it can potentially save other tablets from going down the same route as the Touchpad.
