Carphone Warehouse joins low-cost tablet battle

As Tesco and Argos battle it out to become King of the low-budget tablets, Carphone Warehouse has announced the price-cut of its seven-inch device to under £50.

At £49, Carphone Warehouse’s Avoca 7 tablet undercuts both retail brands by more than half, offering the latest Android system.

However, Carphone Warehouse hasn’t quite managed to pip all low-budget tablet rivals to the post; Datawind announced the launch of a £29 tablet earlier this month.

“Retailers are going mad for own-label tablets,” says Newsline columnist Dominic Mills, as he asks who we can expect to enter the market next.

“More retailers? Or is there a logic to other, non-retailer categories entering the market?”

Whatever happens, Mills wonders if own-label tablets are going to be able to keep up with the technology of the branded variants. “If they can’t,” he says, “they’ll just drive consumers to trade up.”