“A recent story posted on Bloomberg says Apple plans to launch a smaller version of its market-leading iPad by the end of this year,” Richard Saintvilus writes for TheStreet. “It is expected to be priced comparable to Amazon’s popular Kindle Fire and Google’s recently announced Nexus 7 tablet, both $199. Though Apple has yet to confirm this report, it is speculated that a 7-inch iPad might be the talk of the market as early as October. It could be another blow to competition already unable to keep up.”
“If it is true Apple’s smaller iPad will be priced to undercut Google and Amazon, Microsoft might feel pressured to preemptively announce pricing or the date of availability for the Surface. The current iPad ranges from $499 to just a little over $800; Microsoft may be left with very little room to decide which market it wants to enter,” Saintvilus writes. “Amazon loses on each sale of the $199 Kindle Fire and Google only breaks even on the Nexus 7, but they serve essentially as storefronts for content distribution and the acquisition of ad market share. Microsoft does not have such a luxury. What does it stand to benefit by undercutting itself?”
Saintvilus writes, “Conversely, it can’t price Surface too high if gaining market share is a part of its strategy. Either way, Apple wins again. The big losers are going to continue to be Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Samsung and essentially every Microsoft and Google partner — particularly those of the latter.”
Read more in the full article here.
