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BBY Employee: "7" iPad, Xoom is a bust"

B

brayhite

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 21, 2010
873
0
N. Kentucky
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Stopped by a Best Buy today, overheard two employees talking. One (presumably a manager?) said, "It looks like they're coming out with an iPad that's 7 inches," then continued on discussing the iPhone 5 possibly coming out this June. 

He then said to the other that, "I guess they realize the Motorola Xoom is a bust. The sales are just so low."

Now let me say I know I'm not stating anything new to what most people on here have heard already. I just wonder if any of this jives with the recent BBY news that's come out.
 
Of course best buy employees know absolutely nothing about upcoming product launches, not even Apple retail employees know that. However they probably would know that they haven't sold a lot of the xoom.
 
I just don't have much use for a 7" tablet. I guess it's fine as an e-book reader--but I prefer my Kindle 3 for that as it's lighter, gets super long battery life and the e-ink is easier on the eyes.

Other types of reading--pdfs, comics etc.--7" is too small for me. Hell even the 9.7" screen is a bit too small for some PDFs.

Same with web surfing, videos etc.

But to each their own, there seems to be a market for 7" tablets based on Galaxy Tab sales, posts with people wanting a smaller iPad on other forums etc.
 
He's probably repeating the same unfounded rumors others have been on the Internet. I don't think a Best Buy employee, especially one who might have been a manager, would know anything. Even if the future proves this to be true, I don't think that guy had any inside info.
 
9.7 inch is absolute minimum size I will take for tablet. No 7 inch for me please.

Thats' iphone for that type of activity.
 
If apple is doing a 7 inch device, I am not sure it will be called ipad. It's not really a tablet experience on 7 inch device for me. I do expect apple to come out 7 inch device to compete with Amazon's kindle and nook's ebook reader.

Maybe, they will add safari and some basic apps with aggressive pricing.

Then fine... but, 9.7 inch is necessary for me to read magazines, newspapers and etc.
 
hcho3 said:
If apple is doing a 7 inch device, I am not sure it will be called ipad.
Click to expand...

iPad is more than a device. It's a huge brand, like iPod. Look how many products of all different shapes and sizes fall under the iPod brand. Dunno if there will be a smaller tablet at some point, but if there is, you can guarantee it will be called iPad something.
 
An iPad Mini, perhaps?

Actually I do like the 7" size of the Galaxy Tab. It's much easier to carry around in my purse.

Xoom sales being low is no big surprise. By the time Motorola released the WiFi-only version there were too many future release announcements from Android competitors. (Personally I'm waiting until Summer to pull the trigger on an Android tablet.) Also would be nice if Netflix and Skype would get their act together in decent video apps for Android.

I'm spoiled. I waited until late August to buy an iPad1 last year. I missed the 4 months of early adopter development and growing pains iOS suffered. It was torture enough waiting for iOS 4.2 between September and October.
 
I think a 7" iPad would be nice. The reason I was ever interested in the samsung tab was the size.
 
Because we all now BB employee's are so qualified to have all the insider info! :rolleyes:

I'm impressed when they can actually count change without looking at the register... err nvm, I've never actually seen that happen.
 
There is absolutely no way store employees have any advance knowledge of unannounced Apple products!

But they are in a position to see how many Xoom's are picking up dust on the shelves ;)
 
At my local BB I don't recall seeing a single customer browsing the Xoom or Galaxy Tabs. They're not really conspicuous like the Apple display so all technical considerations aside, most people won't see them and will instead automatically go to the iPad display.
 
Now I remember why I don't like Best Buy. I still think Apple's association with them is a bad thing and agree that these guys don't have a clue what is going on at Apple. Matter fact even Apple employees don't have a clue and if they leak anything they get fired.
 
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Like I said, I don't expect anything to be new or fact. Just found it interesting that the day the Best Buy news become popular, employees are discussing future Apple products they may carry in the same breath of competing products.

But don't think my intentions were to reveal some groundbreaking information.
 
I work at Best Buy, and I know that no one in the store knows when any future product is actually coming in. They use placeholder skus based on rumors and stock. That is not decided by the employees in the store, it's by corporate.

There is very few knowledge that we actually get that a lot of people don't know about, and it's usually not Apple or any of the major brands. :p
 
I finally saw a Xoom in person today at Futureshop. I was really blown away at how bad it was. I was expecting something decent because of the hype it's got and Android 3.0, but that thing and the software is nowhere near complete. The whole back of the device felt plasticky which was amplified by the fact that it was running really hot for some reason. The viewing angle of the screen is pretty bad for a tablet since tablets are less stationary than laptops and it's expected that you hold it in different ways. Additionally, I really dislike the widescreen formfactor on a tablet. The only benefit is no black bars during movie watching, but for everything else it just feels disproportional and awkward to hold. I had to put that thing down after a few minutes.
 
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