Tablet PC price war is fierce: Lenovo has cut prices

As the "11" consumer season is approaching, the price war on tablet PCs has become fierce. The first to open fire is Lenovo. On September 23, its flagship product, Pad A1, dipped from a high of 2,499 yuan to 1,000 yuan. The sharp price adjustment not only made consumers screaming, but also made the major manufacturers unpopular, forcing Taipower, Newman and other second and third line products to drop to around 500 yuan. A few days ago, Nandu reporters discovered from Huaqiangbei that because the fire was too fierce, many flat-plate manufacturers (white and small brands or no brands) had gradually withdrawn from the market. Analysts believe that due to the impact of large-screen smart phones, the demand for tablet PCs may become weaker and weaker, and more manufacturers will “escape” in the future.

Flat-panel price war is fierce. From a time point of view, after Jobs retired, Apple's competitors seem to immediately see the opportunity to take advantage of the attack. On the rivers and lakes of the tablet, the challengers have all displayed a strong trend, especially Samsung, Dell, Lenovo, and Acer, and the new products are constantly released. They want to “enclosure” Apple and divide the cake of the market. However, due to the serious homogeneity of products based on the Android system and the price as the sole weapon of the manufacturer, a price war is rapidly spreading.

A few days ago, the prices of tablet computers have been so low that they cannot be recovered. In addition to Lenovo, Acer, Dell, Samsung and other first-line brands have generally dropped to the 2000-3000 yuan range. ZTE, Huawei and other second-tier brands, in 2000 yuan, but the product generally with 3G capabilities. Taipower, Newman and other domestic brands are basically below 1,000 yuan.

"After Lenovo's price reduction may trigger an avalanche effect, in the short term, Samsung, Acer, etc. will surely follow suit and suppress the overall selling price. Most small and medium-sized brands in Shenzhen have almost no room for survival because low-end tablet PCs are already at very low profit. The state of the company.” Yi Yi consulting CEO Zhang Yi said.

If several months ago, the market for small and medium-sized tablet PCs was still somewhat warm, Shenzhen is now a cold world. According to traders at the Longgang company, in fact, there are no more than 1,000 units shipped at the best time, and 80% are sold overseas. There is no room for domestic survival.

"Most of the tablet computers were transformed from the Shanzhai phone, but the transition did not succeed. Instead, they lost the previous ones."

Lenovo lower prices intended to sell?

"Lenovo's price cuts are unprecedented, giving a very obvious signal to throw goods." Zhang Yi is very optimistic about the tablet market, Apple's "innovation" when the iPad price reduction is only 25%, while Lenovo Music Pad has reached 60 %, is not in the "processing of the old models", which is equal to the rate of HP's announcement to withdraw the TouchPad from the PC market. "If manufacturers realize that the market is weak, they will significantly reduce their prices."

In fact, Apple's days are not good either. Nandu reporters from an internal data obtained by Apple in a major Shenzhen foundry company, Apple's production orders issued in the fourth quarter of 2011 from the 17.5 million units in the third quarter, downgraded to 12.9 million units. However, people in the industry believe that the reduction is not necessarily due to sales problems. The shortage of raw materials and the production of iPad 3 may be a certain reason.

In fact, the embarrassing status of tablet computers has been plaguing the manufacturers. Shenzhen electronics industry analyst Wang Bin pointed out: "The demand for tablet PCs has been magnified by Apple in a certain sense. In fact, consumers do not have enough purchasing power for this type of computer-to-cellphone products. At the same time, smart phones The screen is getting bigger and has been able to complete the function of the tablet."

According to the latest data from AiMei Consulting, in the 2010-2011 survey of Chinese tablet users' online use, the time users spent on tablets in the first three quarters of 2011 was getting shorter and shorter. The average daily use of tablet PCs by users was less than 0.5 hours (or not used) from 23.3% in the first quarter to 56.6% in the third quarter, while the proportion of users with 0.5-2 hours in length decreased from 39.8% to 26.1%; The average daily usage time of more than 4 hours was reduced from 5.6% in the first quarter to 2.2% in the third quarter. The report stated that “users are rational and enthusiastic about the use of tablets and their consumption has gradually returned to calm.”

Appliance manufacturers react too slowly?

At the beginning of September, Shenzhen Skyworth launched a new M8 tablet computer, priced at 1,680 yuan. Then on September 21st, another Shenzhen-based company, TCL, announced that it would enter the field of Pad. It will launch two tablets based on the Android system for the first time. The minimum price is only RMB 1999. However, it now appears that their prices have not been competitive. Zhang Yi believes that traditional large-scale home appliance companies have entered this field and have been making decisions, planning, and preparing goods for at least several months. The original market judgment may be correct. However, what many people did not think of is that the tablet PC market will go awry. "We can only blame everyone for following the trend. In the past two years, Apple's App Store was successful. Domestic manufacturers swarmed and now they see iPad sales. It also followed. However, the manufacturers did not seriously conduct market research."