Where Did The Successful Android Phone Strategists Go? Android Tablet Strategy Appears Non-existent

Android phones have struck a chord in the U.S. The most successful Android phones (the Droid, Droid X, and Evo come to mind) did this by offering some combination of clear advantages over the iPhone: Physical keyboard, higher resolution display (at the time), user replaceable battery, simpler setup (just sync with a Google Mail account), or a choice of carriers and form factors.

Many of these same firms are now making Android tablets. But, they seem to have missed the reasons for the success of the Android smartphones. The various tablets may offer some features missing in the iPad (most notably cameras). But, these tablets will be released when the iPad is 7 or 8 months old. In other words, if Apple follows their normal 12 month upgrade cycle, the Android tablets we are reading about now will have a window of just a few months before they have to compete with the second generation iPad. The features that are somewhat interesting today will probably be matched and surpassed by Apple by early 2011. And, price? Engadget reports that Toshiba plans to price their unreleased Android tablet with a 7-inch display at 399 Euros. That’s over $500 US at today’s currency exchange rates. That is a bit more than the $499 for the WiFi-only iPad with 16GB storage.

Toshiba Folio 100 goes official, lands in Q4

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