UK broadband comparison site Broadband Genie has polled over 1,300 visitors to its site and over 60% say they would never pay the £400 asking price for an Apple iPad, and another 20% say the thing is poor value for money. If 80% of consumers act with those convictions, then the high UK price tag for the device will mean sales go slow here.
Most consumers seem to want the devices subsidized by cellular operators, which means that the strategy of the Samsung Galaxy Tab ‘ offering only 3G devices through operators ‘ may pay off better. Funnily enough in the US the Galaxy Tab has had the 3G components removed and it is sold as a WiFi device only.
Broadband Genie editor Chris Marling commented: ‘There’s a clear message here from British consumers ‘ while they like the idea of a tablet, they aren’t willing to pay through the nose for one.With ereaders, smartphones, netbooks and even laptops now available for a fraction of that price, it’s a tough ask for people to see the value in a tablet costing up to £700. And with cheaper tablet models already appearing, some running on the popular Android OS, it’s easy to see why.’
Broadband Genie sees two likely scenarios. Potential customers will wait to see how much mobile networks are willing to subsidize top end tablets via 3G SIM contracts. Secondly they will balance this against the quality of the cheaper models that are now arriving.