Jen-Hsun Huang, the CEO of NVIDIA, had some teasing words to say recently in an interview with the New York Times. During the interview one of the topics of conversation was the possibility of a $199 Tegra 3 powered Android tablet coming in the Summer. Huang said, “We took out $150 in build materials, things like expensive memory. At $199, you can just about buy a tablet at a 7-Eleven.” This hint could be directed toward the rumored Asus & Google team-up Nexus Tablet device. For weeks we have heard several rumors of the mythic device. One rumor pegged the device at this exact $200 price-point. A separate rumor suggested that instead, the tablet will not be a Tegra 3 device, and will be only $149. Still another rumor suggested that both of these options were part of the equation, and that we may see multiple devices ranging in power and price. In fact, previously Asus themselves shared at CES that they plan to market a Tegra 3 powered small Android tablet called the MeMo 370T (pictured above). Maybe Asus struck a deal with Google to "transform" their Memo 370T into the first Google Nexus tablet...
Despite speculation on the potential Google Nexus tablet, Mr. Huang could simply be referring to a completely different tablet as well, or just a new trend in Android marketing strategies. In just a short time, the Kindle Fire has become the number one selling Android tablet by a huge margin partially because of its Amazon ecosystem attachment, but also because of its very affordable price point. Perhaps the best way for Android to compete with Apple's iPad tablet is to simply not compete with it at all. From the beginning, all the Android tablet OEMs have done was to try and create a tablet that was bigger and better, and around the same price as the Apple iPad. Based upon sales results, amongst other things, this was a failure. It is starting to become obvious that the rise of Android in the tablet world must come at the bottom end of the market instead of trying to compete directly with Apple on their home turf.
Perhaps this summer we will see the tablet wars heat up with the beginnings of a vast army of cheap Android devices to eventually topple the giant that the Apple iPad has become. Share your thoughts.
Source: TalkAndroid