According to a new report from iGR, iPad competitors need to price their tablets far less than the $499 Apple iPad 2 in order to stand a chance at generating the same level of sales.
The vast majority of respondents surveyed are only interested in an iPad - and it would take a discount well over $100 to convince them to buy another OEM's tablet.
We've got a call out to iGR analyst Matt Vartabedian for him to comment on the HP TouchPad fire sale and the frenzy that followed. We also noticed when the HP TouchPad was being sold for close to $300, our readers were less interested in buying it. You still have a very slight chance of getting an HP TouchPad for free or on sale.
Almost all competing tablets launched to-date that have similar specs to the Apple iPad - i.e., screen size, processing power, battery life, weight, etc. - have cost more than the iPad. One good example is the original Motorola Xoom. Even smaller tablets, such as the original Samsung Galaxy Tab 7-inch or the HTC Flyer, have cost more than the iPad.
And as the march of Honeycomb-based tablets continued, the various OEMs - Acer, Asus, Toshiba, Sony, Lenovo - have all made some sort of compromise in specifications or distribution model to reach that $499 price level.
Potential Apple iPad buyers are more likely to spend $499 or more for a tablet; potential Android tablet buyers are much less likely to spend a similar amount. In fact, they are more likely to spend substantially less than $399.
Potential iPad buyers were also asked how much less a competing tablet would have to cost in order to incentivize them to buy that other tablet. And while the range of answers varied, iGR was able to calculate an average "discount" that a competing tablet OEM should embrace in order to work toward generating the same level of momentum surrounding the Apple iPad.
iGR's report provides an analysis of the overall tablet market in the U.S. and discusses the survey data which led to its conclusion. The report includes an overview of tablet market drivers, including pricing and content, as well as quarterly U.S. tablet sales estimates and forecast by platform and OEM .