Ouch, Apple Just Priced themselves out of the Mini Tablet Market.

     

 

© Apple.com

     Yes its official Apples iPad Mini is going to cost $329. The magic number for me would have been a simple $300 if you really want to take away the market from players like Google's Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire HD.

     

     Apple has had a lot of success with the iPad and has been dominant in the tablet market but this is not going to do them any good. Millions of Units would be sold no mistake about that but it wont be long and consumers would soon realize that Android is a better alternative when you consider price. The only way apple can stop this mistake is if they introduce some truly unique feature that would keep the iPad mini a way better device than others. They have only succeded in bringing their tablets into a position where it is fair game to compare an apple tablet to other android options. If Apple's competitors were making poor quality products this would be a wise option but android has improved vastly on quality and are now legit alternatives.

   Apple you might have brought more harm to yourselves than good. The type of harm you would only realize years later. Mark my words years later. If you have run out of ideas for creating a wow factor entering another competitors space doesn't necessarily solve the problem.

Google's New Chromebook for Everyone, It Starts at $249

            Yes, finally Google is getting it right with their Chromebook.

Google's Chromebook for everyone © Google

           The first time I heard of the chrome book I was filled with excitement. I have always been a supporter of this type of a product and if not for my financial situation (just being honest) I will definitely have been creating a similar product. I was happy that Google were taking a brave step with the Chromebook which would definitely yield lots of rewards but the price of $550 just made my heart sink. To think of moving out of your comfort zone and moving into the cloud and yet costing you more was just ridiculous. For me it just seemed to move against the whole concept of moving into the cloud and would help reduce costs or at least that was what I was made to believe by all these tech companies reducing prices to get people on the cloud.

       Google’s new Chromebook brings us closer to seeing that happen because it comes in at $249, which I find a huge improvement its previous $550 plus models.

Google’s SVP of Chrome and Apps, Sundar Pichai, announced this new Chromebook for everyone on Google’s official Blog. 

General Specs

Screen: 11.6-inch

Weight:  2.5 pounds

Processor: Samsung's Exynos 5 Dual (Based on ARM's Cortex A15)


I must say I like the direction in which Google is going with the Chromebook                                                                                         

Apples Rumored iPad Mini Could Totally Destroy The Competition

The First Generation  iPad: Image © Evan Amos from Wikimedia

               Another Apple product is about to be born, the iPad mini. This tablet device is targeted at taking a piece of the growing mini-tablet market. This market created by Apples competitors allowed them to create a niche in the tablet market upon which they could grow. But there seems to be a lack of optimism in the stock market after seeing Apple stock fall in the past month. 

 

               This move by Apple might just break the back of its competitors. The iPad is priced at $499 and the price point for Google's flagship tablet the Nexus7 and the Kindle Fire are both priced around $200. Now the big question that Tablet manufacturers will be asking themselves is this, what will be the price of the iPad mini. If Apple prices their new tablet at $300 or $250, all hell will break loose. The orders will sky rocket. I see 10 million iPad minis being sold before the end of the year. This is really crucial for the direction of the tech industry, with windows getting ready to release its first tablet together their amazing new operating system Windows 8 which is also being priced around the $200 price mark. I don’t know about you but this is going to end up being a very revealing month for the tech industry, with reports of the PC market slowing down what is going to happen to Microsoft and android if Apple come up with a price point tempting enough to cause people to finally switch to Apple? That could cause Apple to see its share of the tablet market increase dramatically (a market in which it comfortably dominates and is regarded as the standard). 

             

         I think Apple will go for a price point of 300. We know Apple prefers low volume high margin, that has been their model for sometime under Steve Jobs, but Tim Cook is now calling the shots and he decided to create a smaller tablet that Steve never approved of. We can only keep guessing until Apples reveal day rumored to be 25^th October 2012

Google takes Street View under the Sea

Google adds underwater panoramic pictures to its famous Google maps Google street view. I had to talk about it. When Google maps first came out, I was excited. The fact that I could travel to any place was just cool. Then street views came, that was even more exciting, I could find myself in any street in the world(well not every). But this just beats everything I was expecting from the service.

It is a lovely tool to have(ie. going under water) but I am not sure how many times I am going to use it although it gives the chance to spend more time under water than I can normally do.

Looking at all the efforts Google puts into maps I wonder, how does Google profit from map, what is the real ROI for Google Maps.

Google Launches A “Google For Entrepreneurs” website

Google for Entrepreneurs

In celebration of their 14 birthday Google has launched a website dedicated to helping entrepreneurs Google for Entrepreneurs. This is to serve as resource for entrepreneurs bringing together Google resources that are designed to help small businesses. It will also bring together programs and partnerships that Google has with organizations that help start-ups around the world. 

This is a Google move and I absolutely love the idea. It is true that there are a lot of resources Google provides that entrepreneurs benefit from. But putting all of this together in a concerted effort to help the startup community not just in the United States is something that I greatly admire and I am full of praise for Google. Of course they will benefit from more business using Google products but the fact that they are reaching out makes me glad.

Google for Entrepreneurs web page

The announcement as made in a blog-post by Mary Grove, the head of global entrepreneurship outreach, which stated that Google's work concerning entrepreneurship was focused on three areas

1. Partnerships with strong organizations that serve entrepreneurs in local communities
2. Google-led programs to bring Google teams and Google tools directly to entrepreneurs
3. Placing relevant Google tools in the hands of start-ups as they are getting off the ground and ready to scale. 

So spread the word and let everyone know about this great website.