Sony cuts Tablet S price by $100, now starts at $400 for 16GB
New year, new pricing strategy? We just got word that Sony's cut the price of its 9.4-inch Tablet S by $100, so that it now starts at $400 for the 16GB model, and $500 for the 32GB flavor. The move follows a temporary $50 price cut …
Context & Ripple Effects
Sony's 9.4-inch Tablet S only reached shelves in September 2011, when the company unveiled what had been codenamed the S1 as its first Android tablet. Four months in, the launch pricing has not held: a temporary $50 holiday discount has now been replaced by a permanent $100 cut, taking the 16GB model to $400 and the 32GB model to $500.
The move rhymes with an older Sony playbook — the company made a similar early price cut on its Blu-ray player back in 2007 when adoption lagged. This time Sony is also leaning on software: it confirmed in late December that both Tablet S and Tablet P will get the Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich update, giving discounted units a fresher story at the new price.
First-order effects
- Buyers get a permanently cheaper tablet — $400 for 16GB and $500 for 32GB — roughly four months after launch, with the earlier temporary $50 cut effectively doubled rather than allowed to lapse.
- Sony resets the Tablet S's shelf price heading into 2012, pairing the discount with the confirmed Ice Cream Sandwich update to keep the device sellable against faster-moving Android rivals.
Second-order effects
- Rival Android tablet makers face added pressure on their own entry pricing, since a major brand's flagship slate now sits at $400 — a level that squeezes mid-tier devices priced between budget tablets and Apple's iPad.
- Retailers carrying the Tablet S absorb the repricing on existing stock, while Sony's own accessory and content attach rates become more important to recoup margin lost on the hardware.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, premium-brand Android tablets enter a cycle where launch prices erode within months, pushing vendors toward either lower launch pricing or faster hardware refreshes to protect margins.
- Sony's willingness to cut deep and early — as it did with Blu-ray players in 2007 — suggests established consumer-electronics brands treat tablets as a market to buy into with price rather than differentiate into with features alone.
The trend: Sony is extending its long-standing playbook of steep early price cuts on new formats — deployed on Blu-ray players in 2007 — to keep its Android tablet competitive in a market where launch pricing rarely survives the first quarter.