You remember how — back when people still bought MP3 players — almost everybody had an iPod? I say “almost”, as there were some holdouts who opted for non-Apple players. But they weren't buying Sony or Samsung in any numbers. They were buying the cheap-o players that cost pocket money.
And so I think it will go with the iPad. The PlayBooks and Xooms aren't going to sell more than a handful of units, but a super-cheap, stripped down tablet might. If somebody has $500 to spend on a tablet, they're buying an iPad. But there will be people who want a tablet but will never have that kind of money to spend. They will go for the cheap, no-name tablets.
Which brings us, at last, to the Next3. It runs the “latest” version of Android (v2.1), has an 8.4 inch touch-screen, an accelerometer, a speaker and a “built-in battery” (I told you it was stripped down). There's no 3G, but you do get Wi-Fi.
The Next 3 is being positioned as an e-reader, and had partnered up with Borders to put free books on the machine. Since launch, Borders has filed for bankruptcy, and now the Next3 can be had with the Kobo reader app and store. Kobo is a pretty good e-reader that works on pretty much any device.
The price for the Next3? $300. Even that may not be cheap enough, but at least somebody is trying to make crappy tablets for less than an iPad gadget, rather than crappy tablets for more than the iPad gadget.
Source
