Vendors To Delay New Notebooks Price Rethink Due To iPad 2

A number of notebook PC brand vendors plan to delay launches of new tablet products following Apple’s launch of the iPad 2, according to sources quoted by Taiwanese newswire DigiTimes which is close to factories making the devices.Hefty price cuts also appear likely in a bid to match Apple’s US499 starting price for the new iPad. Many would-be rivals were expected to have prices of $700-1000, which now are expected to be drastically revised downward.

Though DigiTimes did not name brands likely to be delayed, they could include new models from Asus, Hewlett-Packard, HTC, Toshiba, LG and Lenovo.

Tablets known to be in the works for release in coming months – with forecast launch dates in brackets) – include: Asus Slider (May), Transformer (April) and MeMo (September); H-P TouchPad (northern summer); HTC Flier (June), Toshiba tablet (June); LG Optimus Pad (May) and Lenovo LePad (June).

Canadian vendor Research in Motion plans an April launch for its 7-inch Blackberry Playbook tablet, but – unlike some of the others – the expected pricing of around US$500 is on a par with the iPad.

A Samsung spokesman this week denied there were plans to delay introduction of a 10-inch version of its Galaxy Tab in the northern spring – though observers believe internal revisions and a price cut could be on the cards.

DigiTimes’ sources noted that the “low” US price of $499 for the much improved iPad 2 has left rivals with “no room for survival” if they go to market as is. The new iPad is much slimmer and more powerful than its predecessor and features front and back cameras, allowing video chats.

Also affecting the potential market are large price cuts by Apple – more than A$200 in some cases in Australia – in pricing of its existing iPad 1 line.

DigiTimes sources say some vendors are now planning to postpone their tablet models’ launch schedule until they can redesign the specifications and reduce related costs.

The sources said that tablet PCs would need to be priced at US$399 or less to have much chance of making an impact on the tablet market, and none of the current Wintel or ARM/Android platform would be capable of achieving such a price level.

Other observers say an added complication in vendors’ plans to cut pricing is that Apple has tapped its cash reserve pile to make huge forward orders on many tablet components, making it difficult for the newcomers with much smaller orders to gain supplies at a competitive price.

Apple expects to ship 40 million tablets this year, possibly grabbing around 80 percent of the global market. That leaves 10 million units to be split up between 10-20 competitors, observers note – meaning even the big names will be struggling to score more than 1-2 million sales.