Toshiba announced at CES 2011 in Las Vegas its new tablet, and if you go by the specifications, it could turn out to be an interesting device. Could turn out to be because not only is it due to be released in Spring 2001 (the lack of date suggests that they aren’t sure when it will ship) but there is no news on the price. Price could be a game changer as it could kill the tablet there and then.
What is more intriguing is that the Japanese company is taking a very Western approach to marketing – attacking the market leader whilst spinning itself into oblivion.
If you visit www.thetoshibatablet.com on an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch, you won’t get to see the “goodies”. Why? Because it’s in flash. Worst, they thought they might make a bigger point.
You will thus see this message:
“Such a Shame. Add this to the list of interesting places on the Internet you can’t see on your device. Of course, if you had a Toshiba Tablet you would enjoy the entire Internet. Yep, Flash sites too.”
Ironically I can actually see a lot more of the Internet with my iPad than the Toshiba tablet. Why? Silly, it doesn’t exist!
Shouldn’t it read something more along the lines of “…if you had a Toshiba Tablet you would enjoy the entire internet… in 3-4 months time… maybe…”?
If they only stopped chasing Apple and actually tried to innovate.
I actually believe that the number of tablets that are being launched almost simultaneously may actually create an adverse effect. As humans we are actually very irrational and hate choice though we do always need something to compare. In this case, the shear number of devices being launched each with their own “selling points”, the consumer may inevitably choose the iPad even if they didn’t want to – “rationally” it’s got to be the best choice.
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