There is a new round of Google Nexus tablet rumors this week and it looks like it will fire up the competition not to the iPad but to the 7" Kindle Fire.
The price point is where it gets good, the Nexus tablet is expected be priced at either $199 or $249 and be made by the most popular Android tablet maker around, Asus reportedly by DigiTimes.
The Nexus tablet may be announced as early as May.
The 4G Huawei MediaPad is available from AT&T at various prices for enterprise users.
The MediaPad is optimized for AT&T's 4G network with a 7" IPS multi-touch screen and Android™ 3.2 (Honeycomb) operating system.
Other specs include 1.2 Ghz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 5MP camera, 1.3MP front-facing camera, 1080p HD video recording/playback, GPS, 4100mAh battery, Wi-Fi, microSD slot with AT&T Hotspots.
Although tablet owners don't represent a large market share, they spend more. Tablet holiday shoppers spent $325. However, computers are the preferred way the way to shop according to a news Zmags study. Only 4 percent of consumers prefer mobile apps for shopping. An Adobe study also showed big spending by tablet owners.
The study shows the new connected consumer who is female and around 40 years old. 52 percent of connected consumers are women with a mean age of 40; and have a mean household income of $63,000. She carries multiple Internet-connected devices In addition to owning a PC or laptop, 43 percent of connected consumers also own smartphones, and 16 percent own a tablet.
Here's what they also found:
Adobe surveyed U.S. retail web visits. tablet visitors spent more per purchase than visitors using smartphones or traditional desktops and laptops. Adobe believes that tablet visitors were the most valuable online customers in 2011.
Tablet online retail visitors were more likely to buy products than smartphone or traditional computer web visitors and spent as much as $20-$50.00 more than other visitors.
The survey found:
The Kindle Fire competition is heating up at CES with some tablets having more features but more importantly tablets with a TouchPad fire sale price. Although there have not been any super cheap 10" iPad competitor tablets like the HP TouchPad fire sale. Viewsonic will have a 7" Android 4.0 deal "coming soon." The ViewPad e70 will have Ice Cream Sandwich and rock bottom pricing of $169.99 MSRP.
Features of the ViewPad e70 include a 1GHz processor, 4GB storage, 800x480 resolution, micro HDMI, Wi-Fi, Micro SD slot, Amazon Appstore for Android and Kindle for Android.
The Kindle Fire costs $199, runs Android 2.3, has a faster processor and 8GB of onboard storage but lacks HDMI output and amicroSD card slot. The Kindle Fire was named one of the top tablets of 2011. The ViewPad e70 running Android 4.0 is a viable alternative.