Google Tablet Needs a Laser Focus on Right Market Niche

  5. A better price?

By the end of 2011, it was clear that pricing was one of the most important features of any tablet. The Kindle Fire likely wouldn't be as successful if not for its $199 price tag. Google will need to determine the right price point for its own tablet. But if it's more expensive than the Kindle Fire, it might lose out. A cheaper price might be Google's only option as it aims to move into the Kindle Fire's market niche.

6. Wide-ranging availability

One of the main reasons Amazon's Kindle Fire has proved successful is its availability. Each time a person loads up Amazon.com, he or she finds the Kindle Fire on the homepage. Considering how popular Amazon.com is, that's a huge advantage for the retailer's device. To combat that, Google must make its tablet available, well, everywhere. Ubiquity is the only way for Google to stem the Kindle Fire's rise.

7. A clear marketing message

Looking around the tablet space, it's hard to find a single company, outside of Apple and Amazon, that truly understands how to market its tablet. Commercials are abstract and confusing. Online ads lose touch with the average consumer's desires and, along the way, sales fizzle. Google must know what it wants to say about its tablet as well as what consumers want to hear. If it can't do that, it'll be in trouble.

8. Laserlike market focus

One of the key reasons Amazon has been so successful in the tablet space is that it understands what market segment it is trying to reach. It's not going after consumers with boatloads of cash to spend-instead, it is targeting customers who haven't bought a tablet yet but perhaps don't want to spend too much to do so. Google must also determine what its market is and stick with that. If it doesn't, hard times will follow.

9. A 7-inch screen only

There are some people who believe that the best way to beat Amazon's Kindle Fire is to trump the device's screen size with something larger. That's a mistake for one main reason: It risks consumers misconstruing the tablet's competitor as the iPad. The last thing Google should want to do is compete against Apple's iPad. Amazon's Kindle Fire is beatable; the iPad isn't. And to even make consumers think that Google's device is competing against Apple's slate would be a huge misstep on the search giant's part.

10. A commitment to the cloud

Lastly, it's important for Google to focus heavily on the cloud. Although many consumers in the mainstream have yet to make the move to the cloud, it won't be long before they do. What better way to get buyers to choose Google's tablet than to deliver cloud storage and data synchronization services with its device? The cloud should be central to any plans Google might have with its tablet.

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