Dear Google: If you ARE Making a Tablet, Please Read this First
By: Hillel Fuld
Today’s tech news, which seems to have significantly slowed down after the holidays and new years, is about a Digitimes story regarding the possibility of Google working on their very own “Nexus” tablet to compete with, not the iPad, but the Kindle Fire.
The Fire reportedly “stole” two million dollars of sales from the iPad over the holiday season, which leads many to believe that Amazon is becoming a major player in this space. So Google wants a piece of that action. Makes sense.
Of course, this Google tablet will be Google-branded like the Nexus phones are, or more accurately, it will come without a layer made by Samsung, HTC, or any other manufacturer, the way many Android devices come.
But what does Google need to do here for this tablet to win? After all, Android tablets till today have been a complete mess, not to mention failure as far as the market is concerned. How can Google reverse this trend? Here are three of my suggestions:
1: Learn from Nokia
Yes, I just said Google has to learn from Nokia. Still reading? Good! Nokia and Microsoft just did something many regard as borderline genius. They entered the US market with their Windows Phone platform. That is not the smart part, how they did it is what will be regarded as one of the most effective strategies in the mobile space, in a long time. They did not go after the iOS or Android beasts. They did not go after the early adopters or geeks.
Nokia and Microsoft just launched their new smartphone, the Lumia 710 in the US. for… wait for it… $50! Now, you tell me, if you are like the millions of other consumers who now use a feature phone because of its price point, but are getting pretty sick of hearing about all the cool apps your friends are using, are you going to buy an iPhone for hundreds of dollars, or are you going to stick at the same price point and get yourself a fully functional smartphone with real Office, Xbox integration, and 50k apps?
Google is creating a tablet? Go after the millions of people who have been hearing about this new category of device, the tablet, but are not sold on why they need it or how they will use it. If the price of the new Google tablet is low enough, these people will snatch them off the shelves just so that their kids think they are cool. Wouldn’t you pay $150 for your kids to think you’re cool?
2: Prove Zuckerberg Wrong!
First Nokia, now Facebook? What does Zuckerberg have to do with this? I am not sure if you remember, but last year, Zuckerberg held an event he called “Facebook mobile”. He addressed the Facebook mobile apps, the new partnership with Skype, and other “mobile” related issues. But when someone in the audience asked him where the iPad Facebook app was, Zuck got mad and promptly replied “The iPad is not a mobile device”.
He was wrong then, and he is wrong now. Tablets are for on-the-go content consumption and creation. The iPad might not be the best example of that since typing on-the-go on the iPad is not an easy thing to do, at least it wasn’t before the split keyboard in iOS5. However, the Kindle Fire, the Nook, and other tablets like the Galaxy Tab, and the recently discounted Playbook, are the definition of a “mobile device”.
A Google tablet has to finally give a definitive answer to the question of which category of device the tablet falls under. Is it is small computer, in which case, it should be compared to the laptop or netbook (R.I.P) or is it a large mobile device, in which case it should be in the phone section of the store? Google, people want portable, they want small and comfortable, and a ten inch device is none of those things. The new Google tablet should not be a millimeter larger than 7″ and I wouldn’t particularly oppose to a 6″ display either, but that might be pushing it.
3: What is not clear about “Mobile”?
Now that we established that the “tablet” device is indeed a mobile entity, that means one thing, it has to give you the complete mobile experience no matter where you. Wifi just doesn’t cut it. The Google tablet, assuming it wants to truly stand out, should be a connection/communication hub, the likes of which we have not seen yet on any tablet device.
I am talking Wifi, 3G, and if Google really wants to go all out here (which let’s face it, they need to after their track record in the tablet space), maybe even include 4G/LTE. I am talking full cellular functionality, calls and all. Then the connections: HDMI, USB, and using adaptors doesn’t count, Google!
I already see the first ad for the new Google tablet showing some iPad users looking for a Wifi hotspot to surf (yes, I know there is a 3G version too) or putting down the iPad/Fire to take out their phone and make a call. In comes the Google tablet user and does it all simultaneously.
The bottom line is this. Google needs to go nuts with this tablet since it has established itself as the underdog here. Apple owns the space and will for the foreseeable future. Amazon and its Fire are hot right now (see what I did there?) and the company intends on maintaining that temperature throughout 2012.
Google is to tablets like Microsoft is to cellphones and we already discussed just how aggressive Microsoft is being right now with its marketing of Windows Phone.
So Google, you have what to learn here from Nokia, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft. I sure hope someone over there knows how to do some serious competitive analysis and research. But, the good news is, the tablet space, much like the entire mobile industry is still in diapers so it is wide open to competition. Now get to work.
