The sky is falling! And by the sky, I mean non-Apple tablet prices

If you bought a non-Apple tablet for $500, I offer you my condolences. 

After many long months of crappy sales, iPad wannabes are finally accepting that the overwhelming majority of consumers share the same thinking: Why the heck would I buy a non-iPad for the same price as an iPad?

HP learned the hard way but others are trying to keep their tablets alive. I've covered the PlayBook price drops at length, but RIM isn't the only one. Android-powered devices are going on sale all over the place too. In Europe, Motorola's Xoom is lookin' cheap, and more locally, Best Buy is poised to toss the HTC Flyer into the sale bin.

If the iPad couldn't convince competitors alone, I'm betting Amazon's new Kindle helped light the Fire under their ass (ba-dum-tsss!). Loss-leading for a tablet? Cool! Targeting a different consumer demographic? Neat! My only question is, why did it take so long to develop this thinking? I guess tablet makers don't monitor the daily deals space, for one—it's pretty obvious that carbon copying Groupon is a recipe for failure for virtually everyone who tries. First mover advantage plus superior resources (in this case, Apple's top-notch manufacturing deal lockdowns) equals dominance.

Keep your head up in case more prices start falling.