HP TouchPad running a Flash video at a recent tech conference. No vendor to date has been able to take on Apple effectively in the U.S.
Confusion continues to be the rule rather than the exception for the Android tablet buying experience at stores in the U.S. That will keep Apple in control of the tablet market for the foreseeable future.
That lede may rankle Android enthusiasts. But let me begin with a vignette that illustrates the confusion that prevails with tablets other than the iPad.
A few tech blogs posted headlines on Thursday and Friday proclaiming that the Motorola Xoom had dropped to $500 at Costco.
I decided to swing by my local Costco in suburban Los Angeles Friday night to verify this, since one of the biggest criticisms of the Xoom has been its high price vis-a-vis the iPad. Why make the trip to Costco and not just verify this online? Well, that eye-catching price didn't show up online(where it's listed at $589).
So, on entering Costco, the first section I ran into was electronics. And the Xoom is prominently advertised: banners are in your face at the entrance and hard to miss. That's good. Unfortunately, the buying experience went downhill from there.
The first hint of trouble was the complete absence of pricing. No $499 banner that I had seen in the tech blog. Not even a small price tag. Nothing. So, of course, I asked a clerk about this. She apologized about the lack of a posted price and then promptly excused herself to find out what was happening. Apparently, it wasn't an easy question to answer, because it was a long time before she returned.
What took so long? She had to talk to her manager because there was some confusion. About the price, of course. Or lack of it. The verdict: $789.
People buy tablets "on impulse," the clerk said. They take the newfangled device home and then realize that they can't do all the things on a tablet that they can do with a laptop. In an unusually high number of cases, the tablet is returned, he said, adding that the store had a growing collection of open boxes in the back. "There's nothing wrong with them. It's not that they're broken," he said. It's that some people don't understand what a tablet is before they buy, and they end up returning.
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