Online retailer Kogan Technologies is set to release its own tablet computer within the next few months, even though its founder, Ruslan Kogan, doesn’t understand the hype surrounding the product.
Kogan makes no apologies for the fact he and the company are cashing in on the demand created for tablets by the recent announcement of the Apple iPad, which is also set to hit shelves this month.
“The iPad did kick start this, because our business doesn’t create demand, it services that demand. Creating demand is a very expensive business, and costs billions in marketing. You’ve got companies cashed up like Apple who very capable of doing that job.”
“Now we’ve got the iPad coming out we have a huge increase in customers contacting us and asking when we are going to bring one out, along with comments on our blog. So we asked our customers what they would like to see from such a product.”
A prototype Kogan tablet features a seven-inch LCD screen, which comes with 2GB of internal memory, a pre-installed Android operating system, 512MB RAM, HDMI outputs, USB ports, and SD card slot and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
Like all of Kogan’s products, the retailers will also offer a dramatically reduced price of just $200, depending on the model. But Kogan says he isn’t too sure whether customers actually understand their desire for the product.
“Most people can say they want it, but many don’t actually know why, and this is actually where I sit on the device as well. We could have launched this product a month ago, but being hesitant I don’t really see why I would use one.”
“For every product in our range I see a use for it, the Blu-Ray player, the TV, etc. But I don’t really see where this sits.”
But despite his hesitancy, Kogan believes the demand for the product is strong and sales will follow as a result. He believes that as the iPad is released, more customers will find uses for the device and that will push up demand.
“A lot of the uses will become apparent as millions of these devices start coming out. But we want to make sure it’s not just the hype.”
“In our blog there has been a lot of conversation of people emailing us, and from all of that we know there’s definitely going to be demand. I showed it to a few journalists at KickStart who said they wouldn’t know what they would use it for, but for $200 they would buy it.”
Patrick Stafford is a freelance journalist and a former deputy editor of SmartCompany.
