Walmart is Planning to Launch Its Own Budget Android Tablet
An FCC filing has revealed, and Walmart has confirmed to Bloomberg, that the world’s largest retailer is getting ready to launch a budget tablet under its ONN brand.
According to the filing the 8″ tablet runs Android 9.0 Pie on a quad-core Mediatek CPU with 2GB RAM. It has both front and read cameras, 16GB internal storage, a microSD card slot, a single speaker, and a 3.5Ah battery.
There is also FCC paperwork for what is probably Walmart’s ten inch tablet, although I have far fewer details to share about it. From what I have gleaned in the photos, I think it will have almost the same specs as the 8″ model, only with dual speakers.
I have to say that I was surprised by this move; I wouldn’t have thought there would be enough money in budget tablets for it to be worth for Walmart to make the investment. Current budget tablets are so cheaply made that the margins are razor thin. Also, the average build quality is poor enough that the tablets have high failure and discard rates.
While there is money in Walmart letting someone else make these tablets and then selling them, the problems inherent in budget Android tablets make them a risk not worth taking.
FCC via Bloomberg, Liliputing
Comments
Chris Meadows March 18, 2019 um 12:31 pm
Even Samsung has a budget tablet now. Seems that Amazon proved there was enough of a market at the low end to be worth going for.
Richard Hershberger March 18, 2019 um 12:59 pm
I have a general rule against buying electronics or anything with moving parts from Walmart. They are notorious for inducing manufacturers, even respected name brands, to produce cheap crap for the Walmart market, often branded nearly identically with the once-respected manufacturer’s quality products. A budget tablet is a perfectly reasonable purchase if you just want it for stuff like Netflix and light gaming. I doubt that Walmart can produce one enough cheaper than the competition to tempt me.
Disgusting Dude March 18, 2019 um 5:59 pm
If the price is low enough it might work as the kind of gadget you give to a careless kid who’ll break it before it implodes on its own.
Jeffrey F. Smith March 18, 2019 um 6:54 pm
Considering how many budget tablets the Walmart I work at sells a year this might be that the PTB at headquarters have decided that quantity has a quality all its own and want more of the money from the sales pie. I’m a front end cashier and I still sold over thirty this past weekend and the electronics department sold over 200. While atypical for me 10 is a good weekend for me this is not an unusual weekend for this store overall. And we are a store that is on the low middle end of the spectrum.
Disclaimer: I am not speaking for Walmart just out of my own experience while working for them.
Jeffrey F. Smith March 18, 2019 um 7:04 pm
Ok now that I spoke about what i thought Walmart’s reasoning might be my own thoughts. If it is inexpensive enough after my employee discount I may purchase one to use when I don’t want to use my Fire tablet or laptop. I don’t like taking my Fire tablet to work and my laptop isn’t exactly portable enough all the time. I’ve never liked the budget tablets we carry and hope they care enough (we’ll see) that one with one of our brand names on it is better built.
Mike Cane March 20, 2019 um 8:48 am
Huh. I wonder if this will have the Kobo app pre-installed?
How’s that whole Kobo thing been going for them?
Jrffrey F. Smith March 20, 2019 um 11:31 pm
I think it would be going better if you know we actually had the KOBO readers IN the store.