Why Android Tablets Suck and Will Continue to Fail

I just bought an Android tablet – the Motorola Xoom. I like it. I’d probably love it if I didn’t also have an iPad. I’ll likely keep it (my wife says I should send it back and get the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 that I wanted originally). It’s not that the Xoom isn’t as capable as the iPad. I think it is. I just miss the apps like the Wall Street Journal and New York Times that I use daily on the iPad. The Wall Street Journal app isn’t available for Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) devices and suffice it to say the New York Times app for Android looks like it was designed by 2nd graders compared to the iPad app.

The dearth of quality apps for Android tablets is certainly a result of poor tablets sales. Why would companies put money into products that don’t have enough traction to warrant the effort? Poor tablet sales, however, is directly correlated to Android tablet companies attempting to be just like Apple rather than forging their own path. Poor tablet sales is the result of bad marketing strategies.

By almost any ranking, Apple is the number one brand in the world. Samsung, the Android tablet manufacturer ranked next highest on BrandZ’s list of the top 100 global brands is at number 67. What everyone fails to realize is that Apple, in its pole position, can do things that others marketers cannot or should not do. Namely, while Apple can target its device at seemingly everyone (or at least everyone solidly middle class and higher), doing so is generally considered a path to failure for almost any other product (except toilet paper). Yet, that is exactly what every Android tablet manufacturer has done.

Motorola, Samsung, ASUS et al have created devices with no clear target audience in mind because they were following Apple’s lead. Good marketing says the 4Ps (product, price, placement, promotion) are critical and key to getting the 4Ps right is understanding your audience. When you assume, as Android tablet companies have, that your target is the same as your lead competitor’s, you are bound to fail. When you convince yourself that your audience will ignore the marketplace leader because of your high profile promotions and good partnerships (a la cellular carriers) — all in spite of a clear lack of product distinction and poor pricing — you are bound to fail.

Amazon will launch its Android tablet within the next few months. I have a sneaking suspicion that they’ll sell more devices before the end of the year than all of the other Android tablets have – combined. Their device will have a clear audience — digital content consumers who want to read eBooks on an affordable tablet device. This idea isn’t all that much of a stretch – especially considering that Barnes & Noble was estimated to have sold more than 3,000,000 Nook Colors as of March, 2011 — making it the best selling Android tablet.

For other Android tablet companies to achieve anything close to those numbers, they’re going to have to stop copying the Apple playbook and get back to good, ole fashion, tried-and-true marketing.