the tablet war is heating up

[Umbran]

This hasn't proven true so far in the tablet world.

Well, the the tablet world is still young - the Android tablet world younger still. These developments take some time, you know.

 

[renau1g]

And the Playbook hasn't even been released. I'll be very interested in this one, both as a Canadian and a supplier of services to RIM, to see if they can capture the Enterprise market as they have with their BB's.

 

[Glade Riven]

Well, I'm enjoying my Intuos 4...

Oh, wait, not that kind of tablet. Apple, Android, or Windows...tablets aren't where I need them to be to do what I want with them. Sure, web browsing and ebooks around the house on a screen larger than my G2 would be handy, but not worth the price any company wants me to pay right now.

 

[Janx]

This hasn't proven true so far in the tablet world.


Really? I don't see this at all. Apple has worked exceedingly hard to ensure that they have a lock on essential components.

What the prior quoted post refers to is that foxconn is building apple and other products on the same assembly line.

I have had to wait at inventec untill the dell boxes cleared the belts so we could go on the floor to watch as our boxes started coming in. They keep vendors seperated, but its the same belts

 

[Fast Learner]

What the prior quoted post refers to is that foxconn is building apple and other products on the same assembly line.

I understand that. I was referring to the way that last year Apple bought the majority of the year's future production of flash RAM just before they released the iPad so that (a) they could keep a lock on the price if the iPad took off and they needed to produce a ton of iPads, and (b) any potential competitors would be effectively unable to purchase enough RAM to make any real quantity of tablets.

This year they pre-purchased over 60% of the screen manufacturing capacity in Asia for the same reasons, including investing large chunks of money in those companies so they could expand production and produce new screens of the quality and capacity that Apple is looking for.

Because they sit on a huge pile of cash, Apple has the ability to pre-purchase bilions of dollars of future production in order to stay in the lead. Due to simple cutthroatefficient business practices it will be a real challenge for tablet competitors to come out with anything cheaper or of higher quality, especially in any real quantity. That they all come off the same assembly lines is, in this case, a serious disadvantage for competitors.

 

[falcarrion]

The funny thing is the other companies had a chance to buy the screens and either bought small or failed to buy at all. No wonder certain ceo's are being let go. It's not like the Ipad wasn't sucsseful last year. And this year Apple can't keep up with the demand. Every where you go the Ipad 2 is sold out and ordering online it will take 3 to 4 weeks. No other tablet out on the market right now have sales even close to the Ipad 2. Until the other makers can close the gap. Apple will stay on top.

 

[nedjer]

The others didn't buy the stock, much of which comes through their usual contractors or themselves, because they didn't have a tablet ready OS.

When Samsung has a product design, an operating system and enough apps, it'll get it's own flash memory fabrication to turn out the chips. Much as it, and others, are starting to.

A £200 iPad2 'beater' will be out within a year - it's more than likely to run Android 3 and have Micro SD storage. Unless more earthquakes or unpleasantness in Korea tanks the fabrication facilities.

 

[falcarrion]

I found this the other day and thought some of you might be interested in this app. "Line of Sight Checker "

 

[Relique du Madde]

I don't view the tablets as getting quite there yet. If they're going to become anything significant and not be something extra you don't need, they need to get better processors and more power.

Honeycomb looks good, but I know it's not "complete" yet as Google admitted they rushed it out. Still the future is Android.

You know, I hate how people always say that. How complete is it supposed to be? AS is it beats Froyo and Gingerbread. To say it's incomplete then you'll have to say that android is incomplete...

Though, I have to say.. Xoom was/is incomplete, but I think that's mostly on Motorola (did they even do the micro sd update yet?) and Adobe (Flash beta isn't as cool as normal flash).

 

[Janx]

You know, I hate how people always say that. How complete is it supposed to be? AS is it beats Froyo and Gingerbread. To say it's incomplete then you'll have to say that android is incomplete...

Though, I have to say.. Xoom was/is incomplete, but I think that's mostly on Motorola (did they even do the micro sd update yet?) and Adobe (Flash beta isn't as cool as normal flash).

What does "complete" mean?

If Apple was less blocky of apps (no porn or malware) that would probably open the door quite a bit to features you wish you had.

Apple could provide a solution so IT shops can load internal apps onto their iPads. Solving that business problem.

Who needs an SD card when you can transfer files in and out over wireless?

I'm not anti-Android (though I'm not a fan of the idea of it yet). My Droid phone should be arriving today to replace my dead BB.