Last week I wrote and published my blog post about the Samsung Galaxy Tab. In it I pointed out how Samsung and other manufacturers (Archos, Toshiba, Advent, etc.) would be on their own with their devices and left behind in a bit of a mess when it came to the longevity of their products and ability to provide firmware updates.
A few events over the past week show how some of the main retailers in the UK offering these "early" Android tablets are maybe having a case of cold feet (no weather pun intended during this cold snap...).
On Saturday, Tesco, the UK supermarket chain which has a rapidly growing electrical and non-food department, marked the Samsung Galaxy Tab as "discontinued" and reduced the price by an other £30 to £469. (At launch the price was £529 before being reduced a week later to £499 and then to £469).
During the past weekend, PC World (part of DSG) has "pulled" the Toshiba Folio 100 (a 10" Android Tablet) by raising its price from £329 to £999.99 (making it unsellable). This is apparently after negative feedback from customers and high return rates.
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| A Toshiba Folio 100 at PC World on November 15th 2010. |
Maybe jumping in at the deep end of the Android tablet pool without Google's support is going to hurt brands (Samsung and Toshiba) as well as retailers because of disgruntled customers and their negative impression of Android on tablet computers. As usual, often it is the first impression that counts, especially with computers and user interfaces. Hopefully there will be the long awaited launch of Android Gingerbread (Android 2.3) soon, and we will know which manufacturers and devices will be left behind and which will be able to march on with their Android Tablets in their jacket pockets...
The HTC Wildfire S is slightly smaller than the older HTC Wildfire, but has a higher resolution screen (320 x 480 pixels vs 240x320 pixels). The camera and processor are the same, while the Android version is 2.3 Gingerbread vs 2.2 FroYo.