As Apple will reportedly launch a 7.85-inch iPad in the third quarter of 2012, other vendors are concerned because it would bring large competitive pressure on them, according to sources from upstream component makers.
Samsung Electronics has recently announced plans to launch Galaxy Tab 2 with a Wi-Fi version priced at US$450 and 3G version at US$550, while Asustek launched its Eee Pad MeMO 171 priced at NT$17,900. At some point, Asustek plans to launch another 7-inch tablet PC, MeMO 370T, featuring quad-core Nvidia Tegra 3 and Android 4.0 and priced at US$249 to challenge Amazon's Kindle Fire.
Meanwhile, Google is also rumored to be planning to launch a 7-inch tablet PC in the second quarter with cooperation from Asustek priced at US$199 with some market watchers even speculating that Google's 7-inch machine is actually a white-box MeMO 370T; however, the rumors are unconfirmed by the two companies, the sources noted.
The sources pointed out that non-Apple tablet PC vendors can still survive in the 7-inch tablet PC market because Apple has not yet entered the segment; however, since both Google and Apple are reportedly planning to join the competition in the near future, the non-Apple vendors may soon have difficulty to survive if the rumors come turn.
Asustek rumored to have cooperated with Google new tablet PC
Photo: Shihmin Fu, Digitimes file photo
Article translated by Joseph Tsai
