New Tablets: Taking Off or Falling Flat? (Part 2)

I recently wrote a post concerning the new e-reader by the Philadelphia Media Network, the Arnova 10 G2 tablet. That post mainly focused on the challenges that the Philadelphia Media Network faced in creating this tablet & highlighted negative aspects of the tablet, but there are quite a few positive aspects to the tablet as well, aspects that may have been overlooked by those who are or have considered buying it.

There are a few plus sides to purchasing this seemlingly obsolete tablet. Besides working in the price of the Daily News, Inquirer & Philly.com apps into the cost of the tablet, customers are given a large discount on the subscription via the preloaded Arnova app as opposed to having to pay the price of a regular newspaper subscription. According to Osberg, "a couple of loyal print readers... were drawn in by the cut-rate deal and soon became comfortable with the unfamiliar medium." With that being said, this tablet should (at least theoretically) be able to draw in those who are familiar with & already reading the Daily News, Inquirer & Philly.com. If the Arnova can draw in a few already loyal PRINT readers, then perhaps it can do the same with non-loyal readers, thus rejuvenating this newspaper and bringing up sales (& possibly sparking back up interest). A newspaper is just a newspaper & an e-reader is just an e-reader but this tablet is special because it is combining the two functions for a very good price, giving the reader the best of both worlds.


In addition to this, the Arnova's creators definitely seemed to have the reader in mind when creating the tablet. Two different editions of the newspaper can be downloaded via wi-fi in a few minutes: one version is for those who are more newspaper- orientated with a layout very similar to that of an actual newspaper & the other version is for those who are more technologically- geared because it looks more like a regular website in a compact form. Another plus is the access to books & magazines via the Amazon app store.

So, to sum things up, there really are a few positive aspects to purchasing the Arnova 10 G2 tablet. The main convenience is that it's basically a cheaper alternative for the actual print newspaper, allowing for the readers to get more for their money. It was a good idea to make the app for the newspaper designed to look exactly like the newspaper itself & this tablet would be far more successful in terms of sales if it weren't attempting to compete with the brand name, all-ready-known tablets that have already been circulating for some time now. Alan Mutter, a San Francisco-based media & tech analyst says, "if you are offering your own, proprietary tablet from some company people never heard of, you are fighting the market. Nobody wins by fighting the market." Perhaps close relationships with the companies that have created the more well-known tablets would have been better suited for Osberg & his team, perhaps this would have helped the tablet actually take off. Still though, Osberg is confident in the tablet's success predicting that, despite his inaccurate first week calculations, the tablet "will be profitable within two years."

There are many different viewpoints on this particular situation & I invite anyone who would like to share their viewpoints to comment on the post. Will the Arnova 10 G2 ever really take off? Do the perks outweigh the disadvantages? Will loyal tablet users even pay attention to this new addition to the tablet competition, or just ignore it as a insignificant competitor? Only thing left is to wait & see...