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Best Buy has priced a homegrown Android tablet to take on offerings from Apple and Samsung.
The Insignia Flex, which the electronics retail giant revealed on Facebook last week, will sell for between $239 and $259 when it hits the market on November 11, according to a Reuters report. The tablet will feature a 9.7-inch screen and be powered by a dual-core 1GHz processor running Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.
The tablet will be available only from Best Buy, but the page didn’t reveal any additional details regarding memory, storage, screen type, or wireless configurations. CNET has contacted Best Buy for comment and will update this report when we learn more.
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At that price point, the Insignia Flex would undercut the entry level models of Apple’s iPad and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 2, which start at $499 and $399 respectively. The Flex would be priced in line with smaller-screen offerings such as the 7-inch Galaxy Tab ($250) and the iPad Mini, which is widely expected to be announced later this month and start around $250 to $300.
However, the timing of this announcement is awkward at best for the struggling electronics retailer. With more than 1,400 stores, the company has been hard pressed to compete with online retailers. Already late to a party dominated by Apple and Samsung, Best Buy will also be competing with Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Microsoft, and even Toys R Us — all of which have released new tablets recently or plan to do so presently.
Best Buy reported last month that it earned $33 million in the quarter ended August 4, down 87 percent from a year earlier.
The company, which appointed a new CEO in August, is the target of an unsolicited effort to take the Richfield, Minn.-based company private by company co-founder Richard Schulze, who was forced to step down as chairman earlier this year in the wake of a scandal involving the previous chief executive.
