Apple Tablet Release Date Gets Narrowed Down, Prices Get Estimated
The Apple Tablet has been one of the most rumored gadgets of 2009, now reports are surfacing that Apple will put the Tablet intto production by February 2010, allowing for a sale date of March or April. Those same reports are also suggesting that the units may be subsidized if 3G ends up being included, an option that will drive down the cost of the devices significantly.
According to Oppenhemier analyst Yair Reiner, the 10-inch, multi-touch device will cost around $1000, while selling anywhere from 1 million to 1.5 million tablets every quarter of 2010.
While we appreciate Reiner’s pricing and sales estimates, many other reports have put the cost of the device around the $800 mark, which would make sense considering the $499 price tag recently revealed for the JooJoo 12.1 inch capacitive touch device by Fusion Garage. Albeit the Apple Tablet will do a whole lot more than that device.
Pricing as previously suggested could also fall if a wireless company (more than likely AT&T) picks up the device for use on their cellular networks, an option that would likely shave off hundreds of dollars from the devices final sale price.
Further details are also surfacing that an e-book publishing deal could also be in the works, a deal that would see Apple take significantly less revenue for each book than Amazon currently demands for Kindle downloads. Given Apple’s amazingly efficient content delivery systems, it could prove to be a big headache for Amazon.
According to Electronista:
Apple also wouldn’t play favorites in its content deals or preclude advertising, which to date hasn’t been allowed for the Kindle even with magazines and newspapers.
While everything is still up in the air at this point, multiple rumors over the last year have reported that Apple has been in talks with publishers, to what extent they’ve been speaking is still unknown.
Whatever the Apple Tablet ends up offering, we just want to see the gadget come to market, like yesterday.
