[jamesbkel]

That was my initial reaction... I mean it's no mystery that for $100, it simply cannot compete with the iPad and also be profitable.

That said, for only $100 I would be willing to give up a rich multimedia experience/gaming like the iPad for something that did an acceptable job browsing/email.

[DarkShikari]

That was my initial reaction... I mean it's no mystery that for $100, it simply cannot compete with the iPad and also be profitable.

Not everyone in the world earns $120k/year at a Silicon Valley technology job. For much of the world, $500 is a lot of money to spend on a tablet, especially for those outside the United States. In Brazil, for example, after accounting for import taxes on electronics and difference in incomes, spending $500 on a tablet is similar to spending $5,000 on a new tablet in the US. And if you're comparing to a high-paying tech job, that might be more like spending $15,000 on a tablet.

If the iPad was $15,000, would you buy it?

Wherever there's a successful high-end product, there's an even larger space for a lower-priced, lower-end version of that product for the billions of people who can't reasonably afford it. Those who look outside the Silicon Valley bubble realize this, and know that there's a lot of money to be made, even if it's at low margins.

[genbattle]

I completely agree on the overpriced gadgets front.

For example, here in New Zealand an IPad will set you back about NZD$800-$1300 depending on your model (16GB Wifi->64GB Wifi+3G). Our currency is currently trading at around 87 US cents, so someone is making a huge amount of money off gadgets in this country.

If tablets reached our shores at something like a reasonable price, people might buy them. Plus this tablet would make a nice testing/development tablet if it can deliver decent performance for the price.

[wmf]

But maybe people would actually be better off buying nothing than a frustration-inducing $100 tablet. A tablet is a luxury, so why buy a non-luxurious one?

[nooneelse]

Also, for $100 this might be nice (read: "nice enough") for home automation and home theater control. Even if you also have a better tablet that you would always pick up given the choice, that better one might very well go with you when you leave the house. This would be the cheap one that stays at home for others to use and the kids to play with.

Or a quick and dirty POS system using Square (or whatever other payment processing people like these days).

Cheaper opens up more applications, ones that "also crappier" doesn't always preclude.