Journal Of Life: 2013 平板電腦將進入加速殺價時代 ( Tablet will go into a period of the price drop in speed )

據知情人士說﹐宏碁股份有限公司(Acer Inc.)計劃明年年初推出一款售價在99美元左右的安卓(Android)平板電腦。

以出貨量計﹐宏碁是全球第四大個人電腦製造商﹐該公司希望成為第一家推出低價平板電腦的大品牌公司﹐從而與中國白牌平板電腦製造商爭奪發展中國家的消費者。

這款名為Iconia B1的平板電腦屏幕大小為七英寸﹐分辨率為1024×600﹐配備了1.2GHz雙核處理器﹐規格與亞馬遜的Kindle Fire以及巴諾書店(Barnes & Noble Inc.)的Nook Color差不多。但這名知情人士說﹐宏碁計劃把這款平板電腦的價格定在99美元左右﹐低於上述暢銷平板電腦139美元的售價。宏?將按照國別確定在各國的最終售價。

當然﹐需要說明的是：這款電腦針對的是新興市場。儘管這款設備已經被提交給美國聯邦通訊委員會(U.S. Federal Communications Commission)進行審批﹐目前還不清楚這款產品是否會在美國上市。

這名人士說﹐為了應對競爭對手推出的定價激進的產品﹐宏碁於今年秋天匆忙啟動了推出這款低成本平板設備的計劃。該計劃標志著總部位於台北的宏碁公司的戰略發生了轉變。該公司今年大多數時間都在通過高端產品提升利潤率。

這名人士說﹐過去幾個月﹐我們已經根據平板電腦市場的重要變化對項目的詳細計劃做了更改。Nexus 10的發佈（谷歌(Google Inc.)和三星電子(Samsung Electronics Co.)共同推出的產品﹐起價399美元）改變了有競爭力定價的前景。

這款藍色邊框的宏碁Iconia B1的圖片本月出現在一個塞班(Serbian)論壇上。一名熟悉這一項目的人士證實了這些圖片的真實性﹐這款產品也是宏?對同城競爭對手華碩電腦有限公司(Asustek Computer Inc.)動向的回應。有傳言稱﹐華碩正在醞釀明年推出類似的低價安卓平板電腦的計劃。

華碩的發言人張偉明說﹐公司目前沒有生產售價100美元的平板電腦的計劃﹐並拒絕對其即將推出的產品進一步置評。

另一名熟悉宏碁平板產品的人士說﹐除了Iconia B1﹐該公司還計劃於明年年初推出一款使用英特爾(Intel)處理器和Windows8操作系統的平板電腦的低價版本﹐因為現有的型號太貴了。

大和證券公司(Daiwa Securities Ltd.)的分析師Christine Wang說﹐宏?尋求推出低價平板電腦將會使利潤降低﹐但是將會幫助其在快速增長的中國市場獲得更穩固的地位。

她說﹐中國的白牌平板電腦製造商預計明年將售出大約6,000萬台平板電腦﹐這的確是一個非常大的市場﹐目前還沒有一家大型個人電腦品牌推出了價格可與之競爭的平板電腦。

七英寸平板電腦市場今年的競爭越來越激烈﹐為了挑戰亞馬遜和巴諾書店推出的這一尺寸的暢銷產品﹐蘋果(Apple Inc.)推出了售價329美元的iPad Mini﹐谷歌與華碩合作推出了售價199美元的Nexus 7。據IDC的數據﹐宏碁在第三季度跌出了平板電腦製造商五強之列﹐其在全球出貨量中所佔份額還不到1.4%。

傳宏碁低價平板將推Win 8版

宏碁(2353)繼日前傳出搶進7吋低價Android平板電腦，搶攻新興市場，今日外電再傳，宏碁除Android版本外，亦針對中國市場推出搭載英特爾處理器的低價Win8平板電腦，強化現有Windows機種平板電腦產品線。

宏碁已將平板電腦發展列為明年三大重點策略之一，近日已傳出將於明年推出7吋Iconia B1平板電腦，搭載聯發科雙核處理器，並通過FCC測試，規格與亞馬遜的Kindle Fire以及邦諾(Barnes & Noble)Nook Color相當。

不過，市場傳出，宏碁首批產品價格將不會訂在100美元之下，可能依個別市場與細部規格有不同價位，但仍屬低價格帶產品。

另外，外電也報導，宏碁除Iconia B1外，還計劃於明年年初推出採英特爾處理器與Win8操作系統平板電腦低價版本。

筆電品牌大廠相繼傳出搶進低價平板市場，除宏碁外，先前華碩也傳出與谷歌合作或自行推出低價平板，但公司否認有相關規劃。另手機品牌大廠諾基亞先前也傳出明年可能推出Win RT版本10吋平板電腦，與宏碁可能推出的低價Android平板電腦同樣傳由仁寶代工。

The Decline of Tablet PC Prices ( 平板電腦的價格持續下降 )

Since 2012, we’ve seen the release of Motorola’s Xoom 2, Blackberry’s Playbook, the Apple iPad3, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, and most recently the Google Nexus 7, just to name a few. Due to the intense competition in the tablet PC market, we dissected our price data over the past 13 months to see how the extreme competition has affected tablet PC prices in the online European market.

We analysed the prices from millions of clicks on more than 1,200 tablet products from 149 manufacturers across Idealo comparison sites in Germany, France, Great Britain and Italy. Our analysis of the price fluctuations in this market based on our extensive click data is meaningful, due to the sheer volume of clicks and the consumer interest each click represents. Idealo is one of the biggest price comparison sites in Germany, with sites in four other European countries.

As seen in the above graph, between quarter two of 2011 and quarter two of 2012, the average price of non-Apple tablet PCs declined 13.61%, while the average price for iPads decreased only 3.42%. Non-Apple tablet PCs decreasing at a rate 4 times more than Apple tablet PCs validates a June 2012 comment from IMS Market Analyst, Gerry Xu, who stated:
“There are few innovations from vendors to differentiate their tablets; low price seems to be the major factor to attract consumers to buy tablets other than iPads”.

The only period which non-Apple tablet PC prices increased was from the last quarter of 2011 to the first quarter of 2012. Analysing the price data on a per month basis, the results show that the average prices of non-Apple tablets increased only during the holiday season, from November 2011 through January 2012.

When shifting our focus to a per month analysis of 2012 (graph below), we see a steady decline in the average price of iPads from January through March 2012. It appears this price decline reflects a reduction in prices after the holiday season (iPad prices rose 2.56% from November 2011 to January 2012) coupled with the reduced price of the iPad 2 prior to the Apple’s worlwide mid-March release of its newest iPad. Clicks for Apple’s iPads increased on Idealo by a factor of three from February to March 2012.

Archos 平板電腦的平均價格為二月至2012年6月跌幅最大，下跌27.2％。三星，華碩和Archos的平均價格下降了17.5％，在這段時間內從€四百五十五.〇二到€三百七十五.三七，與蘋果iPad的價格只下降了4.5％。華碩平板電腦的平均價格跌破第一次在2012年6月份的蘋果。 The average price of Archos tablet PCs declined the most from February to June 2012, decreasing by 27.2%. The average prices for Samsung, Asus and Archos dropped 17.5% from €455.02 to €375.37 during this time period, with Apple iPad prices decreasing only 4.5%. Average prices for Asus tablets actually fell below those of Apple for the first time in 2012 in the month of June. Prices for Apple averaged €518.37 that month, while Asus prices hit their 2012 low of €511.45. In the three months after the release of the new iPad, the average price of Archos tablets fell 16.4%, prices for Samsung tablet PCs decreased 17.7% and Asus tablet prices dropped 12%.
Acer tablets were the only tablets from a top five tablet manufacturer on Idealo to have had a consistent price increase since March 2012. After a 3.5% price decrease from February to March 2012, the average price of Acer tablet PCs increased 10% from March to June 2012. The average prices of all non-Apple tablets excluding Apple’s four biggest competitors on Idealo (i.e. Samsung, Archos, Asus & Acer) declined 4.3% from February to March 2012 and 5.3% from March to June 2012.

Average tablet prices of both Apple and non-Apple tablets increased slightly from June to July 2012. Non-Apple prices have increased each of the last two months, up 1.9% since May 2012. This marks the first time prices have increased for non-Apple tablets since the month of November 2011.

The tablet PC market continues to evolve with the recent release of Google’s tablet and the expected release of the Kindle Fire in Europe later this year. There are also rumours of Apple releasing an Apple mini to compete with Google, Amazon and the many medium and small brands that currently dominate the low-end tablet PC market. It will be quite facsinating to see what price implications these new tablet PCs will have on the tablet market in the upcoming months.

iPad and Beyond: The Future of the Tablet Market

The tablet market will grow from next to zero in 2009 to more than 320 million units sold in 2015. The way consumers will think about, and interact with computing devices has changed for good. This portion of Gartner's special research collection on tablets provides a glimpse of what consumers, enterprises and vendors can expect as this market continues to unfold.

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