RIM PlayBook sells 50,000 on Day One; Amazon tablet (probably) imminent

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"Research in Motion’s (RIMM) new tablet, the Android app-compatible PlayBook, hit the streets this week. It also sold better on its first day of shelf life than many expected, moving 50,000 tabs on April 19.

Here’s a quote from MSNBC.com’s Gadgetbox on the subject from its story:

‘The launch appears to have been stronger than the launch of Motorola's Xoom [Android] Tablet, or the Samsung Galaxy Tab, although it's too early to judge sustainability,’ said RBC Capital Markets' analyst Mike Abramsky in a note to clients.

Of course, the PlayBook’s numbers aren’t exactly comparable to what Apple’s iPad pulled down -- 300,000 sold on its first day in April 2010, 19.5 million iPads and iPad 2s sold to date -- but in the increasingly crowded tablet market, it’s not a bad showing, especially given the fact that RIM has been struggling to catch up with Apple (AAPL) and Google (GOOG) of late. Abramsky told the Montreal Gazette that RIM is on track to ship 500,000 PlayBooks by the first quarter of 2012.

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SHOW #100 - NerdBoyTV: Android NOOK Color

In this episode of NerdBoyTV, Ryan Yee shares how some people are getting around the high cost of Android tablets by converting their NOOK Color e-readers into touchscreen tablets with full access to the Android App Market.

Laptops play catch up to the iPad, Xoom

By Nanotech - The Circuits Blog - CNET News

"Market researcher Gartner released a research note Thursday claiming that laptops are not meeting the demands of the social-networking era. So, will mobile PCs become more like the Xoom and the iPad, which are, in turn, larger versions of the smartphone? In a word, yes.

This theory--or fact, depending on how you look at it--can also be restated as the post-PC era, which is the Apple marketing-spin corollary to the Gartner argument.

But let's stick to Gartner's analysis about the unsuitability of laptops in the social-networking era. Here are the most significant points in the note about the average mainstream laptop:

* Battery life: not capable of all-day 'untethered computing'
* Connections: constant and immediate connections are not possible (i.e., no standard 3G/4G)
* Heavy: still too heavy, lacks real mobility

What this means is more laptops need to be like the 11.6-inch MacBook Air: very light, very thin--just like a tablet and, by extension, like a smartphone.

Though small laptops aren't for everybody, it does mean more people will gravitate to this style as companies like Apple upgrade to powerful silicon like Intel's low-voltage Sandy Bridge processor (and its future Ivy Bridge chip) and upcoming power-efficient chips from Advanced Micro Devices.

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Why nobody can match the iPad's price

By WIRED via CNN.com: "When Steve Jobs introduced the iPad last January, the biggest surprise wasn't the actual product. (Many shrugged and called the iPad a 'bigger iPhone.') It was the price: Just $500.

Nobody expected that number, perhaps because Apple has traditionally aimed at the high end of the mobile computer market with MacBooks marked $1,000 and up. And perhaps we were also thrown off because Apple execs repeatedly told investors they couldn't produce a $500 computer that wasn't a piece of junk.

But Apple did meet that price, and the iPad isn't junk. The iPad is still the first, and best-selling, product of its kind. Competitors, meanwhile, are having trouble hitting that $500 sweet spot.

Motorola's Xoom tablet is debuting in the United States with an $800 price tag. (To be fair, the most comparable iPad is $730 -- but there's no $500 Xoom planned, and the lack of a low-end entry point will hurt Motorola.) Samsung's Galaxy Tab, with a relatively puny 7-inch screen, costs $600 without a contract.

Why is it so hard to get to a lower starting price? And how was Apple able to get there?

Jason Hiner of Tech Republic suggests it largely has to do with Apple's retail strategy. Apple now has 300 retail stores worldwide selling iPads directly to customers. That's advantageous, because if the iPad were primarily sold at third-party retail stores, a big chunk of profit would go to those retailers, Hiner reasons.

Apple has partnered with a few retail chains such as Best Buy and Walmart, but those stores always seem to get a small number of units in stock. Hiner rationalizes that the true purpose of these partnerships is probably to help spread the marketing message, not so much to sell iPads.

'The company can swallow the bitter pill of hardly making any money from iPad sales through its retail partners because it can feast off the fat profits it makes when customers buy directly through its retail outlets and the web store,' Hiner says. 'However, companies like Motorola, HP, and Samsung have to make all of their profit by selling their tablets wholesale to retailer partners.'

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Motorola Xoom Available for Pre-Order at Best Buy for $800

By Yahoo! News: "We knew the price for Motorola's upcoming Android tablet, the Xoom, would be $800, but seeing the price on a live Best Buy pre-order page turns this haunting mental image into harsh reality.

You can pre-order the Xoom, which currently comes in only one flavor, now and pick it up Thursday, February 24, in Best Buy stores.

The Xoom is one of the first tablets on the market to run Android 3.0 or Honeycomb, the first version of Android designed specifically for tablets. It sports impressive features: a 10.1'' widescreen HD display, a 1 GHz dual-core CPU, as well as Wi-Fi and 3G support. Add to that the 5-megapixel camera on the rear and a 2-megapixel one on the front, as well as the accelerometer and HDMI output, and you might even be able to justify the price tag.

Besides the Xoom itself, Best Buy also offers several accessories, including a $70 Bluetooth wireless keyboard, a $130 speaker dock, and a $40 portfolio-style case.

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Motorola Xoom Pricing: $600 for Wi-Fi, $800 for 3G

Motorola Xoom Pricing: $600 for Wi-Fi, $800 for 3G - Yahoo! News: "While the 3G version of the Android tablet is looking a bit pricey at $799, the Wi-Fi version will cost around $600, Motorola Chief Executive Sanjay Jha told Reuters.

That would put the Xoom, which has 32 GB of storage, in line with Apple's 32 GB iPad with Wi-Fi. Apple's tablet would still have the price advantage on 3G, which costs $729, compared to $800 for the Xoom. Apple also sells a 16 GB iPad for $499, while Motorola hasn't announced any other Xoom models or prices.

I'm glad to see Motorola hasn't priced itself out of the market, as some tech watchers had feared. The 3G pricing is a drag, but I also think that for a lot users, 3G is a superfluous tablet feature. A lot of new smartphones work as Wi-Fi hotspots, including Motorola's Droid X and Droid 2 on Verizon Wireless, so you could still connect a Wi-Fi Xoom to mobile broadband without the up-front hardware cost on the tablet.

As for release dates, Motorola hasn't formally announced any. The 3G Xoom is widely expected to launch in February or March through Verizon Wireless, and a Motorola executive in Latin America has said the Wi-Fi version will follow in April, but it's unclear whether that will be the case in other regions.

A lot's riding on the Xoom, which Google is positioning as the showcase tablet for Honeycomb, the large-screen version of the Android operating system. PCWorld's Melissa J.Perenson was impressed with the Xoom during her hands-on time earlier this month. Now we just need the thing to ship, already.

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