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Why do so many manufacturers not put microSD slots on their tablets?

May 18, 2012 4:25 PM

if the kindle fire or hp touchpads had a microsd slot, they would have SOOOO much more potential and I'd wager that sales would have been a lot better. It can't cost more than a few dollars per unit, and the increased sales figures would more than make up for that few dollars.

I really like my kindle fire, but the 4GB of storage is killing me!

kamikazeken kamikazeken

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vote-for3vote-against

I cant imagine it being a big deal for manufacturers, but dont they have to pay licensing costs for being able to read the secure digital format? I heard that the future windows media center wont be able to read DVD's because of licensing costs, so perhaps that is a factor for SD readers...

rooopert2002 rooopert2002
vote-for3vote-against

Yeah the lack of an sd slot on my fire also bugs me but i make do.

As others have said it's usually to discourage you from hacking it or pirating or, in the case of tablets like ipads, to get you to pay a huge markup for the more expensive model with more storage.

In the case of the kindle fire, they want to make it harder for you to put your own books and media on it and thus pay for it from the amazon store.

If a nook tablet had been on sale for 139, def would've preferred that. Oh well, still very happy with my kf.

portezbie portezbie
vote-for3vote-against

when i first read your question i thought it was from moosezilla because there was no capitalization. :)

edit: you did the SD.

jsimsace jsimsace
vote-for6vote-against

Beyond what has been said already, another aspect is support; something goes wrong with the slot, now you (the manufacturer) is dealing with it, even if it was the customer's fault to begin with. No slot, no worries of somebody wedging in a MicroSD in backwards, sticking paper clips into it, filling it in with caulk to waterproof it, etc.

narfcake narfcake
vote-for13vote-against

Because they don't want you rooting it.
Because they want to be able to charge more for different storage amounts.
Because at some point even a penny more (cost) is not worth it to them.

Because it would make us happy :) I completely agree on the Fire, but I think Amazon took a page out of Apples book and thought it would make sense to attempt to ensure content was consumed from Amazon.com.

jha1223 jha1223
vote-for8vote-against

I'd have to agree with @djp519 on this one.

Memory is so cheap, I bought a 8GB Samsung SD card the other day for $3.49 with free shipping.

And Woot! was selling a 64GB thumbdrive for $29.99 the other day (albeit a low quality one..)

Though... Apple likes to price gouge.

grimskull89 grimskull89
vote-for5vote-against

"It can't cost more than a few dollars per unit, and the increased sales figures would more than make up for that few dollars." When you are already losing $2.70 per item sold, volume will not make up for additional costs. The main people the Fire is designed to attract is those with Prime or those who are likely to shop on the Amazon Marketplace.

tellingson tellingson
vote-for6vote-against

@djp519: Agreed on the Apple bit which is why I will never own one.

I'm sure it all came down to some marketing guys at Amazon deciding that customers preferred price to features. As it is the Kindle Fire costs Amazon $201.70 yet they are selling it for $199. I would bet they stripped off everything that wasn't essential to get it down that far.

tellingson tellingson
vote-for8vote-against

For companies like Apple who sell multiple SKUs with different memory capacity, they do this so they can charge a premium for the next model up. Not like it costs them an extra $100 to jump from 16GB to 32GB memory on an iPhone or iPad, but that's what they charge customers to step up.

But for a product like the Kindle Fire, with only one model available... good question!

djp519 djp519
vote-for7vote-against

I have to agree. I bought my wife a Fire for her birthday, and then realized that I was just buying a device to allow Amazon to sell me stuff.
I am not knocking it, for $199 it is still a deal, but without Prime it is pretty worthless.
Amazon does not want people to use any content etc., unless they provide it.
Good for business I guess.

atd15 atd15

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May 18, 2012 4:25 PM
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kamikazeken
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