People are still probably recovering from hangovers or holiday bliss, but 2012 is already here ready or not, so Happy New Year!

2011 was quite eventful in the tech sector; a lot of product launches, scandals and intrigues shook business, so don’t expect 2012 to be any different.  Companies are already prepping for more product launches, they need to be always a step ahead everybody else if they want to play with the big dogs.  That’s never been more clear than today’s mobile industry wars.

Sony cuts tablet price

Sony started 2012 with a $100 price cut on their series S tablet, bringing down their tablet price to $400 for the 16GB Tablet S and $500 for the 32GB Tablet S.  Other Android tablets also slashed their prices, or priced them very low from the beginning, like the Amazon Kindle Fire for $199 and the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet for $249.

It seems like lower prices is the only way to entice people to get an Android tablet instead of an iPad.  Apple rarely cuts their price, they only seem to do so when they have a new product coming out and they really have no reason to offer their stuff at a lower price.  They’ve created quite a culture (and a revenue stream) around consumer’s ability and comfort level with Apple pricing.

You’d have to think, “Why do people keep buying Apple products though there are a lot of Android devices, which are priced lower, to choose from?”  Well, the question already has the answer in it: there are a lot of Android devices to choose from while Apple only has a few.  It’s like Apple is telling everyone that Apple products are the only ones you need, nothing else.

Apple has this air of exclusivity in their products, making people feel somehow special, like they’re buying a rare piece of jewelry.

Nevertheless, Apple has been showing some signs of competition in the pricing and availability arenas, provisioning more devices through more carriers and expanding their existing product line to include scaled down versions of their top gadgets.  As Android has been able to infiltrate the smartphone market through price and availability, Google’s certainly hoping the same can be done in the tablet sector.

Google and its partners are still working on a tablet OS and device combo that can compete more comparably to the iPad, and that’s one reason Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich was such an important OS upgrade.  But the devices have yet to follow, leaving the iPad a strong winner as we move into 2012.