The Clipboard Tablet Company's Product Lines

Acer has a degree of control over its prices and a considerable amount of non-price competitions exists, which ultimately leads to price discrimination (University of Phoenix, 2011). As such, Acer should focus on attaining and retaining loyal customers. Their non-pricing strategy should be focused on the development of products that are unique

Apple's iPad has revolutionized tablet computers in many ways. Ipad3 is the latest version released by Apple on March 16, 2012 and is sleek and faster than its predecessors. While other manufacturers are struggling with innovation in the tablet computer section, Apple seems to handle it with relative ease and this is one of the main reasons for its presence as a market leader in this segment.

According to Motley Fool, Apple’s share of tablet market only has 20.3% in the third quarter of 2015. It has dropped substantially. It was nearly 90% in 2010.

One issue Chatter Box believes could affect the competiveness of our tablet compared to the tablet produced by Apple is the loyal fan base that the company has for their products. Apple has a loyal backing therefore, their fans pay a high price for the tablet. We believe there could be some opportunity to take advantage of Apples higher prices, and this will help us sell more tablets.

Continuing the work and analysis begun in the first three SLPs, we again project ourselves back in time to the year 2012. I am in responsible for decisions on product development and pricing for the next four years for our line of tablets. I will show the score, financials and market data at the end of the four year period from my previous time discussions. Finally we can make a detailed discussion and analysis of the data using CVP analysis, and will explain why I recommend specific pricing and research and development (R&D) costs for the next four year period.

In 2010, in reaction to rumors of a 7-inch tablets being introduced into the market, Steve Jobs simply said, “7-inch tablets are tweeners: too big to compete with a Smartphone and too small to compete with the iPad” (Chen, 2010). While Apple has stayed true to this, many tablet manufacturers have introduced tablets smaller than the iPad, and they are having success. Samsung has introduced the Galaxy Tab, which is generally just 7 inches, although it also comes in a 10.1 inch version. flouting into a market with so many sellers is easy, but success is not guaranteed. One must look at the firm considered to offer the most competition,

“Imagine a tablet, maybe half an inch thick, shaped when held one way like an open book or magazine, when turned sideways much like a single page of a newspaper. It weighs six ounces. It’s somewhat flexible, which makes it easy to transport. Its screen, utterly glare-free, neither flickers nor fades nor grows dull” (Okrent 579). This is a description of a tablet Okrent saw back in 1999. That doesn’t seem too far off from what’s available today. Actually, it sounds a little better. Okrent later makes a good comparison in the format in which cell phones are sold today and how tablets may be similarly sold in the future. He argues it’s less about the vessel and more about the content in which they wish to sell you on that vessel. As cell phone companies do when

LibraTech’s new eReader can compete with the best on the market. You know it, I know it, and all that is left is to get the consumer

when compared to Android because it has a richer and more interesting history, sells more

After analyzing the results from the previous quarter, it was determined that the prices set for each segment were not sufficient. Product sales priority were also not properly adjusted. With the R&D investments, sales priorities needed to be changed for the main focus to become the most profitable market segments. Prices were not competitive which in turned decreased revenue, market share, and profitability. To become more competitive we altered the prices in each market segment. The Workhorse product was the first to change, the price was lowered to $2500 in an attempt to increase sales; at this price Team 4 was still making a profit on this product, as well as making the price much more competitive. The Workhorse sales priority was also lowered to 3rd in Americas and 4th in APAC and EMEA. This product was not selling as well as we had hoped, and was no longer as profitable as it once was which led to this decision. Next, the Innovator product’s price was adjusted; this involved a price increase to $4100. This price was adjusted to include the new

A large, local hospital has requested consulting assistance with a technical research and specification project related to the selection of a tablet device for use in their medical practice. This tablet will be used by personnel for medical and administrative purposes throughout the hospital.

We knew that while making our product we had to keep in mind that different type of customers wanted different things all depending on how much they were willing to spend on the product. For example, Our Workhorse demanded more Easy to use, Low price, has a distinct look, able to store a lot of data, After-sale service and support, can link with other computers, Fast and powerful. They needed something reliable and less expensive since they are the hardworking people that don not have too much money to spend The chart here explains a little better on the Workhorse needs and want. The price that the workhorse was willing to pay for the product was 2,500.

The Asus Fonepad Note 6 is a 6-inch Android tablet with a built-in stylus and has all the bells and whistles of a 3G smartphone. Sound familiar? Well, this is ASUS’ obvious attempt to chip in on the stylus renaissance. Samsung, LG, ZTE, and Huawei have all manufactured devices that begin to blur out the lines between tablets and phones, so why wouldn’t Asus join in the “phablet” party? Considering the starking similarity in the name as well as the stylus functionality, ASUS’ pioneer “phablet” product was pigeonholed as the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 wanna-be. Available in the colours black and white, the ASUS fonepad Note 6 would be seen as a small tablet instead of a huge smartphone at first glance due to its thickness of 10.3mm weight of 210g. Even so, the ASUS Fonepad Note 6 is still light enough to hold one-handed, and just about squeezes into a jean pocket.

For 2013 to 2014, the no changes were made to the prices of the tablets, the R&D of the X5 was reduced by 5% and the X7 increased by 5% bringing the X5 to 5%, the X7 to 56% respectively. The impact of this move was the break-even point in units sold for X5 model with decrease of 9,600 from 619,200 to 609,600 and reversed effect for X7 model which increased by 10,000 from 414,500 to 424,500. For 2014 to 2015, the decision was made not to change the prices, but R&D was adjusted for the X6 to 15%, and the X7 increased to 85%. The X5 was discontinued due to its decline in the market. The breakeven point in units sold decreased for the X6, while the X7 increased.

Over the past few years, Clipboard Company’s product portfolio has included three tablets, namely X5, X6 and X7.Noting that the three products have varying prices and features, customers have varying preferences with respect to the company’s products. Further, the company’s objective has been to maximize revenues by varying prices, output and research and development proportions. However, the most optimal strategy with respect to research and development, and prices for the abovementioned product needs to be determined by analyzing results from SLP2 and different R&D and price scenarios using the CVP analysis. In this regard, the current study will analyze different R&D and price scenarios, thus provide a revised strategy for