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Acer Cuts Iconia Tab A500 Price to $395 to Boost Sales. Is it Enough?

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Acer cut the price of the Iconia Tab A500 Honeycomb Android tablet from the launch price of $449.99 down to $395.

The company wants to push up sales to reach the goal of shipping 2.5 to 3 million tablets this year. The company already dropped their stated goal down from over 5 million tablets shipped in 2011 when the 10 inch Honeycomb 3.0 tablet didn’t sell well.

Now that Acer has updated the Iconia Tab A500 to Honeycomb 3.1 and dropped the price, they might be able to reach the shipping figure, but I doubt it. Even if they do, the number is well below what Apple has already shipped with the iPad 2.

Acer Iconia Tab A500

Acer Iconia Tab A500

The biggest competition for the Acer tablet at its new price point is the ASUS Eee Pad Transformer, which started out at the $400. The lower price and in faster updates on the ASUS make the Eee Pad Transformer a better choice.

I had an Acer for a month before exchanging it for the ASUS tablet and in that time received only one update. Since I made the exchange three weeks ago I have already received two updates and there was one before I made my purchase. This last one didn’t go as smoothly as I would have liked, but it was much better than my experience updating the Acer to Honeycomb 3.1, which would not install no matter what I did. That was one of the contributing factors to my exchange.

The other was that I learned I could return the Acer and only pay another $100 and get a the ASUS Keyboard Dock along with the tablet. The combination of the two makes a nice netbook when I want to do some typing and a great tablet for surfing the web, playing some games, or reading.

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer

ASUS Eee Pad Transformer

The price reduction is a step in the right direction. Better updates and accessories will make the Iconia Tab a more appealing option than it is now. However, a much bigger problem exists for Android tablets in general. The app selection and quality is far behind the iOS platform. Dropping the price of Android tablets might spur a slightly higher sales total, but will not fix the bigger issue making Android a serious contender with the Apple iPad.

17 Comments

17 Comments

  1. Bfm Magee

    08/02/2011 at 1:30 am

    Make the most of your Iconia Tab.  Visit https://IconiaTabForums.com

  2. Tablet Cases

    08/02/2011 at 7:42 am

    if you cant beat iPads on technology & performance, you have to do it in price

  3. isaac

    08/02/2011 at 8:58 am

    very attractive price but they need to work on the tech & performance

  4. Anonymous

    08/05/2011 at 9:04 am

    It beats the 3G iPad2 hands down. I have an iPad2 3G  and it sucks so badly it is now a toy for my four year old. Acer already kicks Apples arse from here to next year with the A500 and A501!

    Don’t listen to the Apple religious nutters! They will run down any and all competition to an Apple product without ever trying them… though they will lie through their teeth and claim that they own them.

    • Frugero

      08/06/2011 at 5:22 am

      Well said I mean I bought the Acer iconia simply because I couldn’t afford the Ipad but I wanted the ipad but just couldn’t afford it so I gave the iconia a500 a shot thinking I will return it tomorrow but I never did because its simply amazing

  5. Nathanhall38

    08/23/2011 at 7:46 pm

    i have an acer iconia tab i paid 829 dollars if i wanted to pay for it all at once but if i pay 1ce a week it will cost me 1700.00 from rac. it is great though

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