The X TABLET is the Next Tablet - You Decide

[bklynjava]

I give up, I guess.

Sorry, but your product is not made in the U.S. of A. Stop trying to argue that it is. You are arguing something few here will agree with. Your own product label apparently says it is not manufactured here, for goodness sakes alive.

Thank you Bob - have a good night.

 

[mikedt]

Bob it is Designed in NYC and assembled in China... Like most companies big or small - everything is practically made in China.
I thank you for you input...

I think that's straight forward enough to do. Set up an LLC in NYC, contract with a Shenzhen manufacturer, tell them what specs you want, ports, case design, package design, accessories, branding, custom software etc,. Usually a 30-day or 60-day lead time on custom, minimum order might be 1,000 or 10,000 pieces, pay by LC or TT, a shipping container full of your products arrives in. Now you have to sell them.

Are you OK with your OEM's QA and QC, because often what comes out of Shenzhen can be truly awful. AFAIK there's FCC and UL approvals as well, before you can legally sell a tech product in the US.

Looking at the specs of the X Tablet, I see nothing really new or special here, that's not already coming out of China, that usually sells for $100-$200 retail. I take it you're marketing it on branding, celeb endorsement and whatever special software and customisations your product has?

 

[Bob Maxey]

I think that's straight forward enough to do. Set up an LLC in NYC, contract with a Shenzhen manufacturer, tell them what specs you want, ports, case design, package design, accessories, branding, custom software etc,. Usually a 30-day or 60-day lead time on custom, minimum order might be 1,000 or 10,000 pieces, pay by LC or TT, a shipping container full of your products arrives in. Now you have to sell them.

Are you OK with your OEM's QA and QC, because often what comes out of Shenzhen can be truly awful. AFAIK there's FCC and UL approvals as well, before you can legally sell a tech product in the US.

Looking at the specs of the X Tablet, I see nothing really new or special here, that's not already coming out of China, that usually sells for $100-$200 retail. I take it you're marketing it on branding, celeb endorsement and whatever special software and customisations your product has?

I would like to see an American made tablet. I know it can be done, but God, what a HUGE effort it would be.

 

[DonB]

Agreed, but difficult as you well know, this country does not do anything to support and help manufactures to create their products here. One day it will happen, just not sure it will be in my time. But agree would be nice.

I would like to see an American made tablet. I know it can be done, but God, what a HUGE effort it would be.

 

[mikedt]

I suspect a tablet could probably be assembled in the US now, probably the case mouldings done there as well, might even be economic. But all of the electronics would almost certainly be Chinese or Korean.

I'm sure there's a lot of electronics made in the US, but AFAICT it's nearly all high-value military and defense stuff. Not low-value consumer electronics, like Android tablets and phones, laptops, TVs, DVD players, etc.

I think companies like Apple, Dell and HP design and develop their products in the US, but then all manufacturing is done here in China. Sometimes even R&D, is done overseas as well in places like India and China. But on the other hand, if it's just some guy in a Brooklyn apartment wants to do his own tablet, He just goes straight to a Shenzhen OEM, who've already done all the R&D for making Android tablets, and tell them what options and branding he wants.

 

[Bob Maxey]

I suspect a tablet could probably be assembled in the US now, probably the case mouldings done there as well, might even be economic. But all of the electronics would almost certainly be Chinese or Korean.

I'm sure there's a lot of electronics made in the US, but AFAICT it's nearly all high-value military and defense stuff. Not low-value consumer electronics, like Android tablets and phones, laptops, TVs, DVD players, etc.

I think companies like Apple, Dell and HP design and develop their products in the US, but then all manufacturing is done here in China. Sometimes even R&D, is done overseas as well in places like India and China. But on the other hand, if it's just some guy in a Brooklyn apartment wants to do his own tablet, He just goes straight to a Shenzhen OEM, who've already done all the R&D for making Android tablets, and tell them what options and branding he wants.

I will likely start doing some work for L-3 Communications. What a huge manufacturing operation they have here in SLC. There are 6-8 buildings currently, and three more to be built in other areas of the valley. Vast facilities that surprised even me.

If we applied the same criteria to Tablet manufacturing that L-3 requires their people to follow, a high quality product is assured. So we need hungry and clever manufacturers following mil spec criteria and we must demand qualified people that are well trained.

If we can build weapon and communications systems here, an Android tablet is fall off the log easy. I did note from the L-3 annual report, they have a drone control application for the Android phone.

I know we can (I spent years doing it) build blank PC Boards. I once worked pat time for a company that made multi-layer boards for other manufacturers. I also worked for a company that manufactured consumer electronics products, so I know we can do that. The PCB fab plant was owned by the Chinese, I think. That does not matter because the work was done here, by us.

We can build plastic cases, metal cases, everything else needed to make Tablets. We can design chips and I know we can manufacturer components.

So where did we go wrong? A loss of American pride perhaps? My theory is we are building sub-standard employees and manufacturers will always opt for the cheapest parts.

In my search for a job, I have talked to people that simply cannot get qualified people to do simple things. They do not want to say words like "stupid" or "possibly illegal" or dumb asses." So they say unqualified.

I read what Apple had to do to get the iDevices to market. It took tens of thousands of workers and thousands of engineers to get it done. They went to Foxx because they did not have any choice.

My theory is had we ever lost manufacturing capability in this country, we would be build iCrap here because the costs would be low and the work perfect. Apple went to China because we blew it.

I have thought long and hard about Apple/Foxx and I am starting to believe that we could do it here if our leaders were qualified and hell bent on keeping jobs here.

We have the smarts, the people hungry for work and the technology that is second to none. Foreigners just seem to have something we do not have and I am not longer sure where the problem lies.

It ticks me off.

 

[A.Nonymous]

I'm probably the worst tablet whore here (double digits in the past 1.5-2 yrs). I'm interested in what the price is. I haven't seen that anywhere and that will make and break this device as far as whether I'll consider it.

 

[mikedt]

I'm probably the worst tablet whore here (double digits in the past 1.5-2 yrs). I'm interested in what the price is. I haven't seen that anywhere and that will make and break this device as far as whether I'll consider it.

According to the website it's $299 bucks. Which seems like a lot of money for this, given the specs. The high price is probably to pay for the Emmy Awards GBK Gift Lounge celebrity endorsements.

BTW a friend in Shenzhen was telling how much Android tablets usually retail for there now. $35 for a 7 inch 4.0 8GB device. And that's the retail price for individual units, nevermind wholesale prices in lots of 10,000.

 

[A.Nonymous]

If I'm getting into the $300 range I'm going to be inclined to pick a brand name like Asus or Samsung (used of course) over a brand I've never heard of. Personally, in order to get me to adopt a brand I've not heard of the price needs to be magnitudes cheaper than what is out there.