HTC, ASUS delay tablet launches according to report

By on Apr 15, 2011 at 10:30 AM
Tablets April 15, 2011

Several companies have reportedly decided to postpone tablet launches as a result of concerns over the state of the industry and possible component shortages due to the recent earthquakes in Japan. DigiTimes cites anonymous industry sources in reporting that ASUS will delay the release of its Eee Pad Transformer tablet. The report also claims that HTC will push back the date it had previously set for volume production of its Flyer tablet, though it will supposedly still launch the device in the second quarter. DigiTimes also states that XOOM sales are failing to meet expectations, though we don’t think sales have been terrible so far and we also don’t recall Motorola ever having revealed any targets or estimates. In response to the report, HTC said its tablet roadmap had not changed, though the company did not reveal any details regarding launch timing.

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20 Comments

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  • http://mindmirror007.blogspot.com/p/home.html Sathya

    Do you honestly write these blogs to tickle your”fruit”self? Do you even read the source at all? Isn’t the news ASUS tablets coming end of April not already old and rotten? And again you don’t give any dates that are in fact given in source articles! Just like to create chaos? Shame on such bloggers!

    • http://twitter.com/Aleis Jayrock

      thank you.

  • Anonymous

    There’s an iPad market and a secondary tablet market. One of these markets exists. The other does not and never will.

    • Anonymous

      “Secondary tablet”? What does that even mean? There is a tablet market and Android is part of it. People are dismissing Android tablets just like they dismissed Android smartphones, and we all know how that turned out.

      Is there an iPad killer right now? No. Honeycomb needs to be refined and solid devices like the Xoom are either overpriced or a little rough around the edges (no functioning microSD, 4G not working, etc). I won’t even go into the cheap Android 2.x devices. Is there an iPhone killer right now? Yep…lots of them. I expect the same thing will eventually happen with the iPad.

      • Anonymous

        The smartphone market and the fledgling tablet market will play out very differently from each other.

        Smartphones are heavily subsidized by carriers, and everyone wants some sort of a phone, no matter how cheap or crappy. In the next few years, everyone with a feature phone will be transitioning to a subsidized smartphone, and the majority of sales will be the free or BOGO deals, which Apple hasn’t gotten into yet.

        Tablets, in general, are not going to be subsidized by the carriers, so you won’t be seeing any BOGO deals on tablets. Think of tablets as more like the MP3 player market. Except instead of music, apps will determine the market leader. The iPad launched with 1,000 apps. Honeycomb launched with less than 50. The iPad now has over 70,000 apps. Honeycomb now has a little over 120. It’s going to be really rough for Honeycomb manufacturers.

        Even if you discount the app number discrepancy, Motorola, HTC, and Asus can’t buy tablet components at low-enough costs to score even a small profit margin on their sales. Unless their willing to take huge losses on each tablet sold, they’ll be exiting the market by the end of 2011, if not earlier.

      • Anonymous

        “Tablets, in general, are not going to be subsidized by the carriers”. You make that statement based on what? The tablet market is in its infancy and we already have carrier subsidies. Why would you think that’s not going to continue? Carriers want people to sign contracts and manufacturers want to sell devices for exorbitant prices, but still have people actually buy them.

        All Android tablets need to make an impact on the market is a solid peace of equipment and good marketing. No one cared about Android smartphones when the G1 came out. However, when the sexy Motorola Droid came out with all of Verizon’s marketing, Android took off. The average consumer still calls all Android devices “Droids”. We all know what Apple’s marketing machine can do. It’s to the point now that people will line up for Apple products just based on brand recognition. They just assume they want it because it’s Apple. It doesn’t help that most tech news sources follow along like a bunch of sheep. 50-70% of the iPad’s success has to do with people being brainwashed into thinking they have to have one.

        Regardless, it will take time for Android to be established in the tablet market, but I can assure you it will be established. Manufacturers shot themselves in the foot by rushing unfinished products into the market just to compete with Apple. Once some real contenders show up and companies get serious about price, things are going to get very interesting. The price of components will come down as the market grows and technology advances.

        As far as apps…they’ll come.

      • http://twitter.com/parallelogram parallelogram

        Android handsets are not outselling IPhones because of Buy one get one.
        The newer handsets put the IPhone to shame.
        But Apple has something coming now to compete. Do you know what it is?

        Yes a WHITE IPHONE!

      • Anonymous

        iPhone killer?! Please. No such thing. First the market is strong fir ALL players to profit in, but the reality is Apple is making more money per handset than ANY other hardware company and software company. So iPhone killer?!! Think again!!

  • Fred Norris

    BGR stands for Boy Get Real according to report

  • Anonymous

    I dont get it… Why do we listen to speculation? Isnt speculation the reason we are at $4 a gallon of gas?

    Ugh…

    • Anonymous

      Because it has become the iAmerican way. Wasn’t always that way, we used to have standards; we used to demaand integrity; we used to expect accountability; now, everybody just wants to be politically correct, even if it means repressing their thoughts, speech, and writing. Just do it the iAmerican way and “go with the iFlow”!!!!

      Oh, well, gotta’ go; RIO 3D about to start!!
      :)

    • Anonymous

      yup, speculators are the AntiChrist.

  • Anonymous

    HTC sells millions and millions of Android phones, why would they shift resources to make a tablet to meet the fate of the Xoom or the galaxy tab. Moto makes peanuts out of each Xoom it sells and still having problems selling them.

  • Anonymous

    According to the report, the ASUS has delayed it to End of April instead of 15th of April. In 15 days what is gonna happen, Is Japan gonna full steam for the production? Are other tablets gonna sale like crazy?

    This article does not make sense at all….

  • Anonymous

    “DigiTimes also states that XOOM sales are failing to meet expectations, though we don’t think sales have been terrible so far and we also don’t recall Motorola ever having revealed any targets or estimates.”

    Yeah, I remember that article where you said, in essence, that 100K Xooms meant $60 million sold, and that therefore, the Xoom isn’t a flop. The obvious problem there is that you don’t consider Motorola’s costs of developing the product, costs which alone may be well north of $60 million, not to mention the unit costs. But hey, why bother being thorough?

  • Anonymous

    I’ve got my eye on that Eee Pad Transformer. Xoom specs at a reasonable price. Come to papa!

  • http://twitter.com/Nobreadforme Ted Yates

    This is not going to succeed for the same reason the Galaxy Tab didn’t succeed. I wholeheartedly believe that putting Samsung Galaxy S UI or HTC Sense’s UI on a midsize tablet will not compete with the iPad, even though that is exactly what Apple did. Samsung and HTC don’t have the marketing clout to pull it off. Also, the market for this size tablet (5″-7″) is not established. I don’t see it succeeding in the US let alone denting Apple’s market share (what like 96%?).

  • heyhey

    how about those OEMs stating the real reason behind the delay….

    honeycomb being crappy and not worth the hardware…..

    look at the xoom; what a waste of awesome hardware….such a shame…

  • Anonymous

    The XOOM is sitting on store shelves, and it’s not selling, I’d bet there are 100,000 XOOM’s sitting around collecting dust on store shelves.

    Look for some killer discounts in the coming months…

  • Bringit

    iPAPiNYC to delay his wedding to Tim242. He wants to keep his anus wide open, drooiiid style. Like his momma last night.

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