Viewsonic: There's no G Tablet ‘manufacturing defect,’ it's a user experience issue
In case you missed it, this weekend Staples announced that it was no longer offering the 10.1-inch Viewsonic G Tablet because of a “manufacturing defect.” Well, as it turns out, Viewsonic is claiming there's …
Context & Ripple Effects
Three days after Staples stopped stocking the 10.1-inch G Tablet over what the retailer called a manufacturing defect, Viewsonic is publicly reframing the problem: its position is that there is nothing wrong with the hardware and the issue is one of user experience. That puts the retailer and the vendor on record with contradictory diagnoses of the same product.
The stakes are wider than one SKU — the G Tablet was already noted as one of the Tegra 2-powered tablets seeing retail availability dry up in mid-December 2010, so this dispute lands squarely in the question of whether early Android tablets can keep physical retail distribution at all.
First-order effects
- Staples' shelves no longer carry the G Tablet, and Viewsonic now has to win back that channel by convincing buyers the fault is software and experience rather than units that need replacing or repairing.
Second-order effects
- Other retailers weighing whether to stock the device get two conflicting explanations from manufacturer and merchant to choose between, and the safer read for a buyer is to de-prioritize the product either way.
Third-order effects
- If vendor-versus-retailer blame disputes become the norm for early Android tablets, manufacturers without Apple-style direct stores depend entirely on third-party retail goodwill — a structural weakness as the 2011 tablet field crowds.
The trend: Early Tegra 2-era Android tablet makers are fighting to hold brick-and-mortar retail distribution while their products struggle to match the iPad's polish.