I think this is unfair. Certainly true in the past, when pre-Jobs-revival Apple execs openly boasted about their ridiculous profit margins.

But in the Jobsian Apple universe, the products cost about the same as a decent equivalent, with perhaps a 10% premium because it's Apple. Don't forget too that Apple only just broke even on early iPods because the hard disks were so expensive. They're a company that's prepared to take a risk to dominate a marketplace.

If Apple were to release a Nokia tablet competitor, I think they'd price it at around $299. It would be a little more than the N810. Apple also tend to sell at full price, rather than discount.

But I think even this is dreaming. The problem is that nobody can get a grasp on what the Nokia tablet is. It's really hard to sum up the functionality without sounding lame.

Did you see the Apple Expo presentation when Jobs introduced the iPhone? it went something like this.

Jobs: It's an iPod!
Crowd: CHEER!
Jobs: It plays videos
Crowd: CHEER!
Jobs: It's a cell phone!
Crowd: CHEER!
Jobs: It's a portable internet device
Crowd: (silence, with some concerned mumbling)

I can't remember the exact phrase he used to describe the internet connectivity, but it was something really clunky. Yet that Internet connectivity is one of the main selling points, beyond the key functionality.

Of course, the whole point of Apple is that they take a technology that's clunky and make it usable (the iPod being a superb example, but also the iPhone). So they could pull this off. But it's going to take a massive amount of creativity and marketing.