I have just had a brainstorm. What if I bought wholesale OEM tablets and rebadged them and sold them. Like Tabtronics do (but offer more choice).

I know that most OEM tablets are junk but if I picked decent ones with a decent spec people are more likely to buy them. It appears that people aren't often put off by cheap android tablets that have a decent spec. Arnova (Archos) also offer OEM solutions as do other Chinese companies. I would inspect the build quality and make sure they are up to scratch. I could sell them via Amazon etc... I am not saying I will do it it's just an idea.

Opinions/thoughts please

You'd have a living room full of unsold tablets I suspect.

People buy brands. They like to know what they're buying has a company behind it they can go to if it breaks or they've always bought one brand and they always will.

Your markup would be so small that your profits, after all other expenses, would be next to nothing.

The only way you could feasibly do it would be to develop your own ROM which saw them running a stable overclock and some kind of branding which was unique to your company.

But you'd obviously have to do them one by one, or ask the manufacturers to do it, at a much greater cost.

The advantage that the big brands have in doing this is that they can afford it due to the bulk in which they buy the tablets.

Thanks for the reply.

I was looking on Amazon and on these forums and plenty of people have unheard tablets (30 or more reviews on one tablet) but I do know there is a chance that the above could happen and I won't be able to shift them. As long as the Spec is okay and the price is low then I don't think there's evidence of people being put off.

I would offer a 12-month guarantee (by law) and would probably just replace them.

Hmmm, dreaming time here I think but if you could develop a unique program (serious or entertainment or game), burn it onto a rom and put that inside the tablets, and somehow devise a method of avoiding anyone copying it, that could be a winner. Helleva lot of massive if's in there though.

That's what I was planning. Maybe adding my own App store or AppsLib. I will soon get in touch with some OEMs and enquire about pricing. Installing ROMs one by one would be a nightmare so I would probably ask it to be done during production. A Custom Rom would also enhance the user experience.

Although some people don't mind buying cheap no-name tablets, why would anyone want to buy one from you instead of a more reputable supplier?

How much could you make? I doubt you'd be able to bulk buy as much as a proper supplier could and so get them cheap enough to actually make much of a profit.

How would you manage your own app store? How would you attract developers to submit to it and users to download from it?


Sorry, but I see this going the same way as the plan to make money building your own PCs, or running your own social networking site...

No need to apologise, I respect your opinion.

I will enquire about prices and see if it's feasible. I would probably either use Appslib or link to uploaded APKs which would install the app.

They buy from unheard brands like Tabtronics, Arnova etc... Mine would be no different.

It's a pity that Budgie, Minder and Only Fools And Horses are no longer in production. This would have made a good plot for any of them.

Good luck, but I fear that you're going to lose money, not make it.

I wouldn't say that's necessarily true.

If OP had a ROM that could run a tablet at say 1.4GHz for 24/7 stable with branding and priced it £10 more than its factory brother which only runs at 1GHz, then they've got an immediate selling point right there as it'd be quicker than the exact same model.

Include a few bells and whistles in the ROM, with some decent pre-loaded stuff like Kindle App and Angry Birds, hey presto, budget tablet.

The Vega has always sold well at £200 because of its 'modability', so if something like this was on the market competing with the budget tablets that are priced around £100-£150, then who knows?

Exactly my point. People also buy cheap tablets to mod.

The only problem would be that a pre-modded tablet at 1.4GHz for example would allow no overhead for further overclocking.

In my mind, if you're presenting the market with a pre-modded tablet, then your target audience will be the people who don't want to mod, if that makes sense. You've already done the work for them.

Yeah it makes sense. I need to make sure it is stable though. I would provide firmware updates/support via a website.

Just looking on Alibaba at the moment (for an idea).

The other brands (Tabtronics for example) don't appear to be actual companies?

I imagine many also buy cheap when they know what they are doing.

A little effort is worth a heck of a lot. Some people choose to be only consumers though.

If you think it's a goer, buy 5 and see how you get on, without trying to get friends or family to buy them.

I reckon this time next year you'll still have 5, and then of course they'll be out of date and you definitely won't be able to sell them then.

A friend of mine noticed that cheap no-brand phone accessories were available online in the Far East. He set up a small website re-selling them at a moderate markup.

Now:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/b...obile-Fun.html
http://www.midlandsbusinessnews.co.u...d-in-2009.aspx

Just emailed Arnova...

Update: Things are looking good, Archos have said it will help develop a Custom overclocked ROM and an App Store. They also said that I would be allowed to rebrand the Arnova 10 G2 and change some of the specifications (but i'm keeping them the same). Just waiting for a price per unit now.

did they mention the minimum number of units and how much you will be have to pay up front. I can't see it being under 6 figures.

Waiting for a reply. Will keep you updated.

Would it be illegal for me to just upload APKs to my server (for example Angry Birds) on my app store or do I have to ask Rovio?

Yes, it would be illegal for you to distribute pirate copies of software.

Even free apps cannot be redistributed without the permission of the author.

Okay thanks. I wasn't going to pirate apps anyway.

Will get in touch with Rovio and other app/games developers.

Any suggestions for what my custom ROM should have?

I have the plans but am open to ideas.