Retrevo sets a price for Apple's rumoured so-called tablet product

Jonny Evans
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October 26, 2009
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O RLY?. This report’s generating lots of coverage, we note - so we’d best chime in too....seems that Apple’s still unannounced, unconfirmed and currently undetailed purported tablet/slate thing needs to sell for $600 or less to appeal to the wide church of PC users, apparently. 

Retrevo tells us, “Apple’s going to have to be very aggressive on pricing if they want to win over PC owners.”   Uh huh?

Assuming Apple does intend taking on the netbook market with its tablet, the research warns: “The study also found Apple had better hurry up if they want to capture any of the netbook market because many consumers, both Mac and PC owners, have already bought a netbook and many more plan on buying one soon.”

“It’s also possible they’ll position it more as a mobile media player and computer and treat it more as a netbook to compete with all the other netbook vendors currently grabbing laptop market share. If they go the netbook route they will have some catching up to do. The Gadgetology study indicated that 37% of Mac owners already own or plan to buy a netbook this year. Even worse for Apple is the fact that Apple has already lost the early adopters like the 59% of the iPhone owners who responded to the survey saying they already own or plan to buy a netbook this year,” the report also informs.

We can understand the logic - as with the iPod and iPhone, Apple does eventually need to get its products into the hands of Windows users to grab mass market share. Price is important, but thinking back to the launch of previous products, we recognise Apple’s very good at bringing advanced products to first adopter audiences, who then do an equally good job showing everyone else how good (or, sometimes, bad) their new devices are.

However, in a recession-hit market, price is certainly going to be something Apple execs are considering. Perhap ad-supported applications and operating systems may help reduce costs?

The data for this report came from a study of online individuals conducted by an independent panel. The sample size was 753 distributed across gender, age, income and location in the US. The study sample emanates from the Retrevo price comparison site.
 

Comments (15)

Retrevo (not verified) | October 26, 2009 - 1:50pm

We're glad you like the study.

To clarify, the respondents were not those using Retrevo.

Thank you,

-Retrevo

ulfoaf | October 26, 2009 - 1:56pm

Nobody knows what it is or what it can do, so it's a little early to say how much you'd pay for it. PC users are probably perceiving it a touchscreen netbook. From what you read, it sounds like it is that and a media player/game device.

9to5Mac regular (not verified) | October 26, 2009 - 2:41pm

Indeed!!

But Apple has always been cautious about their products pricing. Starting with huge margins at the beginning of the cycle (probably in case the product never take off).

If we take the iPhone/tv/iPod as exemples, the first buyers were «trendsetters» (or Apple devotees) paying a bit of a premium... and then the prices got down to massmarket prices (in case of the iPhone and iPod it was to attack the market, but for the tv -wich was more or less a flop- it was more like a defibrilator shot).

And of course (without knowing the «killer features» that Stevo’s gonna emphasise on) we dont know what products it is going to be competing with...

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 26, 2009 - 2:28pm

I'm not buying one at all unless it has a keyboard. I already have an iPod touch, and have no need for a second touchscreen device, no matter what it does or what it costs.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 26, 2009 - 4:10pm

I'm with you. No way in hell will I by a tablet without a keyboard. Also, it will NEED to support BluRay and HDMI. Get with the program, Apple! Also, please add a CF slot and eSATA. Pros use this stuff too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

the Cappy (not verified) | October 26, 2009 - 6:25pm

Yeah, yeah that's the ticket! And real-time 3D ray-tracing. Oh! and anti-gravity! Plus a 4 week battery life. And a price no higher that $99.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 26, 2009 - 2:28pm

"To sync your slate, you need a mac - It' sonly way we could give our users teh bes tpossible experience."
Price $899

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 27, 2009 - 1:29am

"To sync your slate, you need a Mac - It's the only way we could give our users the best possible experience."

grognaard (not verified) | October 26, 2009 - 3:15pm

I also am waiting for a MacBook Air Low Cost- I was hoping that is what the Mac Book update would be but wasn't .It can be done by Apple in the $699 range and won't be 'Junk' as the wintel machines. The more wireless and wifi/wimax, 3g/4g connections that are out there, the more this makes sense. Sure it will eat into the Pro sales a bit, but, so did the NANO into the original IPod sales despite less storage. Its the way of tech..... The Table/Slate or whatever is a new device not the natural evolution of the laptop.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 26, 2009 - 4:13pm

I agree. Core2Duo is way to much for why I do. Give me back my 1.2 GHz Celeron and 1 GB of PC-133 RAM! If ACER can do it, why can't Apple?

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 26, 2009 - 4:40pm

Hadn't people bought a portable music player when the iPod came out? What about phones when the iPhone was released?

The initial price reductions where not elegantly crafted to bring them down to the mass market. Especially in the case of the iPhone they looked like a panic attack due to poor sales.

5to9Mac Noob (not verified) | October 26, 2009 - 7:13pm

I think the MacPac (or iSlate or iTablet or whatever) could eventually be split into two lines: one with and the other without 3G cellular connectivity.

The high end model, as always, would come out first with 3G + WiFi + BlueTooth. Plus Kindle-like eBook + animated "LP" playback, plus iTunes music & video playback like a super-sized iPod Touch. And, of course, new games. $799 - $899 depending on the RAM option, subsidy from the data plan, etc.

Just as with the iPhone, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple eventually releases Xcode-for-MacPad and adds 3rd party MacPad apps to the App Store. Then, a year after the original model is released, a cheaper non-phone version could be released. It would have everything the more expensive model has, except for 3G cell connectivity (or maybe 4G by that time.)

This gives Apple a year to build the hype, which creates demand for the cheaper model, say $599. No physical keyboard. Sorry. Both models would sync transparently with your Mac or PC, and optionally with Mobile Me. They would both shoot video which users could upload to the data center Apple is building in North Carolina.

Those $599 and $799 price points would give Apple a near-continuous range of prices, products, and features, from the iPod shuffle all the way up to the Mac Pro. The only gap, currently, is between iPhone and the white MacBook. There's room for two versions of the MacPad between iPhone and MacBook.

Also, Apple has established summer as the "new iPhone season", and fall as the "new iPod season". Now that they're no longer locked into MWSF in January to announce or release new products, they can turn spring into the "new MacPad season". That would leave winter as the "new Mac season" possibly. Steve could do a keynote at CES, to get in Ballmer's face and announce what would be the most highly anticipated product of 2010, then ship it in the spring.

Just my $0.02.

5to9Mac Noob (not verified) | October 26, 2009 - 7:14pm

I think the MacPac (or iSlate or iTablet or whatever) could eventually be split into two lines: one with and the other without 3G cellular connectivity.

The high end model, as always, would come out first with 3G + WiFi + BlueTooth. Plus Kindle-like eBook + animated "LP" playback, plus iTunes music & video playback like a super-sized iPod Touch. And, of course, new games. $799 - $899 depending on the RAM option, subsidy from the data plan, etc.

Just as with the iPhone, I wouldn't be surprised if Apple eventually releases Xcode-for-MacPad and adds 3rd party MacPad apps to the App Store. Then, a year after the original model is released, a cheaper non-phone version could be released. It would have everything the more expensive model has, except for 3G cell connectivity (or maybe 4G by that time.)

This gives Apple a year to build the hype, which creates demand for the cheaper model, say $599. No physical keyboard. Sorry. Both models would sync transparently with your Mac or PC, and optionally with Mobile Me. They would both shoot video which users could upload to the data center Apple is building in North Carolina.

Those $599 and $799 price points would give Apple a near-continuous range of prices, products, and features, from the iPod shuffle all the way up to the Mac Pro. The only gap, currently, is between iPhone and the white MacBook. There's room for two versions of the MacPad between iPhone and MacBook.

Also, Apple has established summer as the "new iPhone season", and fall as the "new iPod season". Now that they're no longer locked into MWSF in January to announce or release new products, they can turn spring into the "new MacPad season". That would leave winter as the "new Mac season" possibly. Steve could do a keynote at CES, to get in Ballmer's face and announce what would be the most highly anticipated product of 2010, then ship it in the spring.

Just my $0.02.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 27, 2009 - 1:22am

Here's a spot-on Macalope comment on what to think of Retrevo's "research" and "analyses".
http://www.macworld.com/article/143483/2009/10/macalope_herbs.html

But other self-proclaimed mac experts would nicely fit in. Announce an expectation: $300 per share, new $600 tablet etc. If Apple doesn't meet this out-of-thin-air expections, I, the analyst, was right and Apple failed. Hence, I downgrade Apple.

9to5Mac Noob (not verified) | October 27, 2009 - 8:30am

isn't this the same group that said that Apple was going to utterly fail in it's back to school quarter because it didn't have a netbook? Oh yeah, it is the same group. Hmm, let's see how close they were on that prediction... Nope - blockbuster record sales during the BTS quarter for apple - sold more macs than ever before and amazed all the analysts.

Why does some jackhole running a website from his mommy's basement get so much attention for an online survey? sheesh...