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Galaxy Tab Pricing Up In the Air. Probably Needs to Come Back to Earth

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Yeah, new Tablet/Slates have to pass the Pinky Test. That’s a must. But, if what I’m reading about prices on the Samsung Galaxy Tab come to be, that’s going to keep a lot of pinkies wrapped tightly around fists, tucked into a lot of pockets that could be pulling out credit cards. CrunchGear has the latest post on this info that I’ve been seeing and hearing. Understand, Samsung hasn’t come completely clean with its pricing structure yet. But trial balloons are being floated around the $800 and up mark. Let me just say this.

WRONG.

There’s no middle ground here in my thinking. Again, if the rumors and trial balloons are true (don’t think Samsung isn’t testing the waters here), it will keep the Galaxy Tab firmly in the early adopter range with a geek audience only, and come no where registering on any sort of consumer adoption scale. There’s a lot of folks hoping Samsung can pull off a winner with the Galaxy Tab and provide some competition for the iPad. Pop that trial balloon now, Samsung. It’s full of hot air and you don’t want to see your efforts look like a deflated helium balloon three days after the party you are planning on throwing when you do launch.

16 Comments

16 Comments

  1. Ben

    09/03/2010 at 7:51 am

    I’ll agree that $800 won’t make it very competitive with the iPad. However, the iPad only STARTS at $500 and goes up for more storage and 3G, for 6 options in total, the most expensive being $830. So the Samsung Tab at $800 isn’t too off-mark, depending on the specs of the $800 model. However, I believe it would be wise to try to undercut the iPad a bit more at each price point, say by $100 (as long as quality isn’t sacrificed).

  2. Todd

    09/03/2010 at 8:45 am

    They should price it at $399.99. There is already main stream press out there saying it’s really not an iPad competitor. Unless they’re aggressively priced, Samsung will lose when people inevitably do the side-by-side feature/spec chart comparisons of the Tab and the iPad.

  3. Randall Garrett

    09/03/2010 at 8:52 am

    Suspect this is “retail pricing”, not much unlike that seen on other upper end, desirable SmartPhones and that we will see “subsidized” sales from carriers as the norm (?)… BGR is already reporting (albeit rumor, of course) that the Tab is coming to Sprint with 3g/”4G”… I have no dog in this hunt, but I say “bring it on”… Just ship it already! :-) Still wish more people would at least offer a decent outdoor screen option like 3Q1… I like using my devices outdoors, LOL.

    • Randall Garrett

      09/03/2010 at 10:15 am

      Pardon my typos – meand “3G” and “3Qi”…

      • Randall Garrett

        09/03/2010 at 10:17 am

        And, of course, “meand” should be “meant”…
        Wish one could edit one’s own comments…
        Of course, I COULD simply CHECK my own post before selecting [Submit Comment]… ;-)

    • Randall Garrett

      09/07/2010 at 9:01 am

      Ahh, so… in WC’s own words, a scant 4 daye later:

      “There may still be some confusion over the pricing of Samsung’s first Galaxy Tab, but there’s no confusion that Samsung is planning ahead for the second wave of Galaxy Tabs. Xavier reported earlier today what many are saying about the $799 price tag for the Galaxy Tab, and the Wall St. Journal is reporting that with a carrier subsidy we might see a price between $200 and $300. It is still to early to slap a price tag there obviously, but maybe the press release Samsung issued on its next wave offers some hints.”

  4. grwisher

    09/03/2010 at 9:20 am

    We should not be surprised about the pricing (relative to the iPad) of competitive tablets because:

    1) Apple spreads their component prices across 4 different products – iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad and now the Apple TV. What other single vendor does this.

    2) In addition, Apple has sold over 120 million iOS devices which absorbs the R&D costs of every one of these products, including the iPad.

    3) Finally, Apple buys their components for these devices in far greater numbers than their competitors and many times paying large sums in advance in order to insure their supply. This makes these components more scarce and therefore more expensive for the competition.

    And as far as better iPad performance, battery life, size, Apple stores, etc., well, just don’t get me started.

  5. Xavier Lanier

    09/03/2010 at 10:27 am

    They should take a cue from their competitors and their own notebook PC department and have a low “starting at” price.

  6. dstrauss

    09/03/2010 at 10:52 am

    Quoting one of my favorite cult classics (Used Cars)…”That Price is Too $(#@^&% High!”

    The highest priced iPad is $830 and it is an established brand, fully suported by thousands of Apps with a full feature store. How can anything from Samsung, Viewsonic, Toshiba, or any other vendor compete with an untested device at that price. They have to discount it substantially even to tease nibbles, much less compete.

    • Randall Garrett

      09/03/2010 at 12:01 pm

      FWIW, Chippy is reporting that the €799 is with Germany’s 19% tax, so think €670 pre-tax. Also reporting an O2 program at €99 for 24 months.

    • Ben

      09/04/2010 at 9:40 am

      Samsung is as much an established company with experience in electronics and mobile devices as Apple, and, when the iPad came out, it was just as much of a new and unestablished product as the Tab is now. The iPad was released not that long ago, and the $830 top-end price hasn’t changed since that day. Furthermore, because the Pad runs Android it is also supported by thousands of apps. So Samsung isn’t really doing anything different than Apple.

      The main differences are that Samsung 1) isn’t Apple and doesn’t have their powers to influence consumers, and 2) isn’t first.

  7. Brianflys

    09/03/2010 at 1:57 pm

    The Samsung Window XP Tablet X1EX is still selling on their site for $749. And it was pretty much abandoned as soon as it was released (my tribulations trying to get Win7 installed are posted on my blog). So almost $800 for an old tablet with old operating system. No wonder it is a dud.

    So don’t look to Samsung to be too bright when it comes to pricing or supporting their products. They will grab what they can early, then move right along to the next device.

  8. Brianflys

    09/03/2010 at 1:58 pm

    Nuts. That was the Q1EX tablet. So much potential and so poor execution by Samsung.

  9. Mike

    09/03/2010 at 8:00 pm

    I could not agree more.
    I was awe-struck when I saw these early pricing rumors.
    And not in a good way.
    They should enjoy every penny of the profit they make if they sell it at such an inflated price point.
    It will not be very long before it is wiped out as a viable product by apple itself or other competitors if they go with this high-price/few-sales approach.

    • Ben

      09/04/2010 at 9:43 am

      You can always lower the price, but consumers won’t respond favorably to increasing the price. Therefore, starting high is a safer bet.

      • Mike

        09/04/2010 at 7:51 pm

        Their prices (rumored) are too high by 100% or more.
        To come at that price and then drop to something reasonable should truly tick-off the people who did buy early.

        It’s nice they are going to have cameras, etc.
        But so will apple by next spring probably.

        The hardware slots are already in place.
        And such an upgrade is classic apple.
        It is just a matter of time.

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