Has Apple Just Destroyed the Chinese Tablet Market and its Many Clones?

This past weekend saw the 2 go on sale. As expected the launch was a sell out success with some industry analysis's predating may have shipped as many as 500,000 2 tablets just this weekend! Here in we are still waiting for the camera equipped 2 to launch. No time frame has been given and the only hint that it’s on its way is the sudden drop in price of the iPad. Official stores and outlets have slashed the price down from 3900 Yuan to 2888 Yuan! Not only is this huge drop in price a great indication the new is making its way to China, but it also marks the first time have been so aggressive with pricing after launching an upgraded version of its product. Consumers in (and the rest of the world where 2 has yet to arrive) are faced with the problem of whether to wait for 2 or to snatch up a bargain priced while they are marked so low. consumers, however have always had a cheap option at hand even before the iPad’s price cut, the Shanzhai, or cloned .

As regular reader will no doubt be aware, companies have been making the most of the iPad’s success by trying to imitate the 10 inch with home-brewed versions running Android operating systems. It’s not only the copy cats that have had their fingers in the Android market however, big names such as Hanvon, ZTE and Lenovo all have (or plan to launch) Android tablets, and this is where things might get messy. Before the price drop these Shanzhai Android tablets looked like a great way for someone to get in to the market on the cheap without having to fork out nearly 4000 Yuan for an iPad, unfortunately most homegrown units are heavy, extremely buggy, have poor battery life and generally offer a pretty poor user experience, but worse of all is that many of them cost in excess of 2000 Yuan!

Those heavy and buggy tablets may have had a market before the iPad’s price drop but we highly doubt that will continue.
And it gets worse for local Chinese manufactures!
The original iPad was such a runaway success last year that it singlehandedly ate up the whole supply of 10 inch capacitive screens, and it was only a few months ago that Chinese manufactures were able to ensure a supply of screens so they could sell their own iPad inspired offerings. These shortages are likely to be kicking in again now due to the high demand for the iPad 2, which means either Chinese companies will have to make smaller tablets, that don’t seem to be as popular (ask Samsung) or try to source 10 inch screens for themselves, meaning higher prices!
Even if the screens weren’t a problem, the quality and function, not to mention the longevity of a Chinese tablet (warranties, spares, software updates) would need to improve ten fold to go up against even the original iPad!
So did Apple just destroy a whole Shanzhai tablet industry, or do Chinese manufacturers have some fight left in them?
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