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Tuesday, May 13, 2008

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Are You Kidding Me? GigaByte MID Priced at $1131?

You read that headline right. Apparently the GigaByte M528 MID is now available for pre-order but at a price of $1131 US? I’m confused. Sounds like the folks at GigaByte are too as that price dropped quickly from the original pre-order price they came out with of $1450 US. Interesting that mate Hugo Ortega’s company Tegatech is offering the pre-order. (Tegatech is an Australian company so the prices listed here are US). So, Hugo give us the inside skinny here. What’s up with that pricing? That’s quite a price premium for being the first out of the chute for a class of devices that supposed to cost, er… um… well… not that much. UMPCPortal thinks the price drop from $1450 to $1131 is a bit more acceptable. From where I’m sitting if MIDs don’t come in under $600 they are dead before they start.

But hang on. Is this a MID or a UMPC? TegaTech lists it as a UMPC. Most of the world has been calling it a MID up until now. Do I sense some confusion reigning? You betcha.

So here are the questions for GBM readers. What’s the price you’re willing to pay for a UMPC these days? What’s the price you’re willing to pay for a MID?

UPDATE: Chippy’s been doing some math and I’m not sure the conversions make sense or they are just wishful thinking, but he’s now estimating that price in US dollars at about $750. I’m guessing this is far from over, but hey, this still has to come down a bit from $750 before I’d think about this.

via UMPCPortal

Tags: GigaByte

Hardware | Mobile Internet Devices | Ultra Mobile PC

5/13/2008 6:03 AM MST

Are You Kidding Me? GigaByte MID Priced at $1131? Comments [6] | Digg This | del.icio.us | Citations

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 6:44:31 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Have in mind that the US Dollar is becoming increasingly worthless, thanks to Bush and his cronies. As a result you will see imports into the US, particularly new products, to be priced a little on the high side as this is the result of the inflationary pressure caused by such a weak Dollar. (Oil prices are having their effect too.)

Note also that the Dollar is, for the moment at least, likely to fall further, so Gigabyte need to cover themselves. Introducing a price increase after launch is never a good idea and there is no point selling at a loss.

With 1119 AUD converted to Euros the price is 730, which although is still higher than we would want for a MID, is comfortably below most UMPCs.

Face it, the US is screwed as far as cheap consumer electronics are concerned for the forseeable future. Get used to it!

Ian

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 6:56:09 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Hey Warner,
I have to agree with you regarding the MID prices. I live in Australia, and so my interest was peaked with the announcement of the Gigabyte's availability here - unfortunately, the price is too high. I was thinking that with the moniker Mobile Internet Device, that Gigabyte should price their devices accordingly based on the available competition ie. Nokia N810 (~$650AUS), Apple iPod Touch (~$629 AUS for 32gb), or even the Asus EEE ($380-$500AUS).

Anyhoo, on the time of this writing, Tegatech has dropped the price to $1199AUS, but I still think that's a bit steep - maybe that means I'm not the target market, I don't know.

To the manufacturers: the Asus EEE kicked butt because of its low price...think about it.

Patrick
(iPod Touch and ASUS EEE owner)

Patrick

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 7:16:09 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

There's no question the Dollar is affecting the overall market. However, so are the units that are available for sale. Just a little over a year ago I dropped $2,500 on the purchase of an UMPC. In today's market I'm only willing to pay about a third of that because there are two very capable UMPCs out there: The Fujitsu U810 and the Samsung Q1U. Both are offered for less than a grand and there's no reason I can justify a purchase for more than that. As far as MIDs are concerned, it's all a matter of expectations. I believe that most people are expecting a price close to the high-end smart phone or PDA phone. The market will adjust what the price should be, just like it did to UMPCs.

D

Big D

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 7:19:48 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

If this is indicative of where the MID pricing is going (just as the UMPC pricing never got near the $500 mark), I don't see how the form factor is going to compete with Apple's mobile Internet devices, especially if the rumors of iPhone 3G and price subsidies hold true.

Sumocat

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 7:23:11 AM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

This reminds me the following:

Neither the Ipod, nor the Eepc and certainly not the Nokia tablet has HSDPA with them.

Including a look at the price of these devices HDSPA module with a purely internal, which is costing 249 euros and the price is already not so unrealistic.

However, I prefer a Everun purchased. HDSPA I get on my E90 and I am satisfied. I would under no circumstances be 734 euros for such a device to pay. If I 5xx for € Everun without an operating system can buy. A OQO model 1 + costs only 5xx euros.

(Apologies the poor English, English is not my language)

siberia21

Tuesday, May 13, 2008 1:02:21 PM (Mountain Daylight Time, UTC-06:00)

Around 700 Euros seems reasonable with included hspdpa compared to the N810 for around 400eur. So the price of around 1100 USD is okay given the current change course. 1 euro is worth 1.6 dollars.

If you take a look at other manufacturers located in the US that want the same price in euros than their products cost in USD, the Gigabyte pricing would be one of a few products where the european people do not pay a lot more for the same product. In example Motion computing - the german pricing is a rip-off. Would love to get myself a LE1700 but not at that price.

Just my 2 euro-cents

mfl

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