[Asus  Eee Pad Transformer Prime] e.mote:
Throwing in my 3 cents...

Sure, it sounds reasonable. Android tabs are foundering, and Goog needs to make a major move before Win8 ate its lunch (and dinner..and breakfast..). Goog's Rubin dude said as much himself at MWC.

Win8 preview has issues with integrating the WIMP UI. Mouse/keyboard frankly sucks on it, but it excels with its touch UI. It will do well against iPad, since it targets a different market. Being a full-fledged OS, it will power primary computing devices, whereas iOS/Android can only power secondary devices. Apple itself has no worry. The iPad has established a solid ecosystem, with good hardware, good adoption rates in both business and consumer, and large software base. It has the lead. Android has none of these advantages. It's not catching on outside of phones.

There are two ways to make people buy your wares: Make it good, or make it cheap.

Make it good: Goog can't improve Android to be a full OS overnight to compete with Win8. Similary, it can't conjure a large base of tablet-specific apps overnight. The geek set aside, hardware specs isn't that important for normal buyers. In short, the "premium" option is out.

Make it cheap: HP Touchpad and Amazon Fire have shown that cheap tabs will sell. It's a reasonable option to take a page from Amazon and launch a dirt-cheap, barebone device to jumpstart adoption rate, which will in turn get devs to start making tablet-specific apps. If Amazon and B&N can be successful in making cheap tabs, Google can too.

The point isn't to make money per device. It's to ensure Android's relevance outside of phones. That's worth spending money over.

Why Asus for its "Nexus tab"? Because most other vendors have bailed. Asus is the only one left that's actually still making new Android tabs for the mainstream market. And whereas most other vendors are still on the "iPad-parity" pricing, Asus has the angle on the cheap-but-good pricing, with the MeMo 370T. If Goog wants to go with a "cheap but good" device, Asus is the natural choice.

BTW, the $300 10" tab will come sooner than you think. Both Amazon and B&N are expected to launch successors to their 7" tabs this spring. Given that the main appeal for tabs is video watching, it's a safe bet that those will be 10" size, since watching vids on a 7" is pretty crappy. Both the Acer A200 and Moto Xoom Family are already selling for $350, and a barebone 10" should sell for less--ergo $300. Spring = 2-3 months away.

Of more immediate interest is the iPad 3 launch. If the latest rumor bears out, that iPad 3 will keep same pricing, then it means the TP700 will have the same $500 base price, as it can't sell for higher than the iPad 3 w/ QXGA res. If so, then Prime will disappear. TP300 will take up the lower $400 slot, and TP700 will replace Prime. We'll know in two days.

Q&A:

>Why is Sony a non-factor?

Because it was never a factor in the tablet market. Sony's MO is premium-but-proprietary, and cheap tabs just ain't its thing.

>Samsung being a no show at MWC?

Showing wares at trade shows doesn't translate to wares on the retail shelf. A Samsung exec is on record as admitting that its tablets aren't selling well. Samsung, like Sony, is still on the "premium" strategy. 2011 should be definitive proof that you can't compete with iPad on a price-parity strategy. All of the announced Samsung wares are premium-priced, some even more than the iPad.