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Yesterday, HTC announced the seven-inch Flyer, an impressive-looking seven-inch tablet with stylus and gaming support. Although we’d long since given up on 7-inch Android tablets as tweeners, the Flyer actually looks pretty good… but a lot depends on when it is released (before the iPad 2?) and how much it’ll cost (less than the iPad 2?).
In regards to both release and price, HTC isn’t saying, although a pre-launch rumor has the Flyer pegged as a March release, which should slip it into stores a few weeks before the iPad 2. So far, so good…. but what about the price?
Absolutely staggering, according to Amazon’s German website. They claim that the 3G version of the HTC Flyer will cost a whopping €669… which translates to over $900 with VAT, or around $730 without.
That’s absolutely nuts for a 7-inch tablet… yet it’s pretty much par for the course. The Galaxy Tab cost something similar at release… and it’s worth noting that manufacturers are being cagy about the price of most of the tablets announced at Mobile World Congress this year.
What gives? Across the board, these tablets are more cheaply constructed than the iPad, and they run Android, which — while not free — is at least a cheap option as a tablet operating system. A lot is said about the so-called Apple Tax on notebook and desktop computers, but in the mobile realm, it seems, Apple’s the only company that even knows how to begin manufacturing a competitive, sub-$500 tablet. It’s really time for the competition to get its act together: a year in, and they still don’t have any competition to the iPad WiFi 16GB
