When Google unveiled its new Nexus 7 (2013) tablet yesterday, it came with a small price increase over the original models. But other manufacturers are pushing the price of tablets down rather than up. Case in point, Digitimes reports that Hewlett-Packard is working with Walmart to offer a US$99 7-inch tablet for the back-to-school shopping season.
Only a few details are known about the still-unnamed tablet. Built by Chinese company BYD, it will sport a single-core Intel Medfield processor and the aforementioned 7-inch display of unknown resolution. It will presumably be powered by Android.
It was only about a year ago that the US$199 price point was considered low. Acer pushed the envelope lower earlier this year with the Acer Iconia B1-A71 priced under US$150. Then came the ASUS MeMO Pad HD 7, priced at US$129 in a 8GB configuration.
HP has been slowly reentering the tablet market after dropping out when it abandoned its webOS platform. It announced the Windows 8-powered HP ElitePad 900 last year and followed it up with its first Android tablet, the Slate 7 earlier this year.
It remains to be seen if HP will have more luck with this entry-level tablet than it did with its past models.
Source : Digitimes