the tablet war is heating up

[Banshee16]

For what it's worth, that's certainly not my viewpoint. Android phones and tablets are certainly better for some people, even much better for certain people.

My opinion is, though, that for the vast majority of people the iPad is the best option. If ICS had come out two years ago and, as a result, app developers started building for both platforms more frequently (or Android first), and Google closed the many security loopholes and runaway app issues that make task manager and anti-virus apps so popular on the platform, Android might well be the dominant tablet OS today.

That didn't happen, though, so, again, I believe iPad is best for the vast majority of people for these reasons:

• Incredible selection of apps
• No need to give the slightest thought to viruses and similar intrusions
• Very solid, high-quality hardware (not saying some Android tablets don't have this, just that all iPads do)
• Help with any issues and, if needed, immediate repair or replacement at one of the very many Apple stores
• The newest OS features are available the day they're released to the public, for at least two years after you buy
• "Dumbed down" OS makes it much less likely a non-techie user will get "stuck" or screw something up

There's no USB port, and if you want to use a memory card directly with the device (to retrieve photos, say) then you have to buy a $40 adapter dongle that is ungainly compared to something built-in, and it doesn't have an additional-battery-and-features hardware dock. If those things -- or some other OS features that Apple prevents access to -- are super important to you, then indeed the iPad might not be your best choice. I just don't think those are important for that many people, at least not in comparison to the iPad's advantages.

Lastly, to be super clear, I'm not at all saying the iPad is best for you, or that you or anyone is wrong or uncool or anything else for intelligently choosing a tablet that works better for them. Just that the iPad is currently best for most people.

Ok, that's fair. I do think marketing has a big part of it....but....the iPad is still a well built device. It's got a great app store. And Apple has better customer support post sale. As much as I love my ASUS, the service level isn't the same as for my iPhone.

And for many customers, that makes a difference for their purchase decisions.

That having been said, I've read several articles pointing out Android tablets are catching up quickly. They jumped to something like 46% of new sales....internationally, in Q4 last year. That's a fairly significant gain. Some analysts are projecting them to pass iOS in the next 3 years in the tablet market. Of course, that's predicting the future. I don't know whether it'll come to pass.

I *can* say that the Android tablets are getting better and better. Some manufacturers such as ASUS are really refining things quickly. The TF101 was pretty good on its own, and the Prime is even better....and the upcoming Infinity (I wish they just fixed the back on the prime instead of launching a new model) will have everything the Prime has, 1080p resolution, and better WiFi/GPS reception.

I agree the manufacturers are hurting themselves by putting out so many models. And as a result, getting updates is more tricky. Given what I've seen, I don't think I'd consider an Android tablet from a company other than ASUS. They've very actively supported this tablet since I bought it, issuing updates, fixes, and new features pretty much every month that I've had it. And they updated the OS to ICS pretty quickly. I personally wouldn't go Samsung as I don't trust them the same way.

I can also agree that the features I care about in my Android tablet don't appeal to everyone....just as not everything in an iOS device appeals to me. I'll point out that things like security concerns are overblown. You have to keep in mind that many of those reports come from companies like Norton and McAfee who have an interest in convincing people to buy antivirus software. At its heart,, Android is still Linux, which is traditionally a stable, pretty safe OS. I've never run into a virus. But I don't download porn or "get free music here!" apps on my tablet so maybe there's a connection Of course, given how virus prone Windows is supposed to be, I've only picked them up a handful of times in almost 20 years. And, outside of one time where I was researching a client's website that was infected, the few times I picked something up, it was because I got careless and ignored my own rules.

In any case, your post here does make sense. And I don't disagree. I'm thankful if you're not one of the ones insisting "you must be using it wrong". My business partner pulls that all the time......"those features only matter to you because you're following an outdated method of computing that is no longer relevant in the modern age". To me, a statement like that is just ignorant.

I happen to like having physical, removable memory, as I can easily move things around between devices. I *hate* putting stuff in the cloud. My personal theory is "don't put anything in the cloud if you don't want some guy in a data center looking through your files". We put alot of trust on the honesty of the people hosting these cloud services.

Some other features like Bluetooth are instances where yeah, Apple has it as does Android....but because of Apple's arrangements with content owners for the iTunes store, much of what you can do with Bluetooth is locked down. You can't stream music to a Bluetooth headset for instance. And you can't transfer any file you want from one device to another. You can move *some* file types, plus contacts...and that's about it. With Android and Blackberry, I can move *anything* between devices. It also means that my Android and Blackberry devices connect to 3rd party services like Ford Sync much better than my iPhone does.

And searchable e-mail. I had it on my BB, and used it alot. Losing that with my iPhone was something I was VERY unhappy about BECAUSE I used it. When I was doing my prepurchase research, the people I listened to insisted the e-mail was just as good. Now that I've used it for a year, I can say it is not......not if I want to use it for work, and have search, and the ability to individually delete e-mails off my server, device,, or both, etc.

For those casual users, idevices are great ideas. I tend to be a power user, so I run into limitations very quickly, because I'm always pushing the limits of what I can do, whereas other people I know seem to not run into limitations, because they're not trying to do anything fancy.

And that's fine. Each person has different requirements.

As to those who asked if I know people who have few apps, yes, I do. But I tend to be an app fiend. I had about 150 on my Transformer before the update to ICS. I've removed a bunch, as not all have been updated to ICS yet. On my iPhone I have a similarly high number of apps, movies, music, files etc. On a 32 GB device I've used up about 31 GB of space. Many people I know don't use their devices to nearly the same degree. Similar to annecdotes posted by others here, my wife also has an iPhone 4, and she has very few apps. In fact, probably half of the few that she DOES have are ones I put on it for her. She just doesn't use it for that. At the end of the day, she uses it for phone calls, to respond to e-mail, surf the web, and that's about it. And, for those purposes, it doesn't serve as well as some other devices like her old BB, which was a more reliable phone, and easier for her to type on. Several of my family members also have iPhones. But the only other family member with a smartphone who actually uses it with all the apps is my brother who's an engineer. Like me, he likes to tinker. He got a Samsung Galaxy S II though.

I'm referring to a limited sample though.....maybe 10 people I know who have them? I know some power users like me, who get lots of apps...but I'd still say they're outnumbered by those who barely use their phone.

I have observed that there are many apps on Android that do very similar things as ones I have on iPhone. If I switch phones out, I think I'll lose SOME things, which will suck...but, by and large, there are alternatives available for most of what I use. Where I'll lose is on games, and on some iOS exclusives.....but if I assemble a list of the apps I have on iPhone, *most* have a version on Android as well.

They're interesting times we're in. I don't know whether PCs will ultimately die, or be relegated to the dustbin for 90% of users for whom a smartphone or tablet will be sufficient. I guess we'll see. But when I see that in the next version of Android, the phone will carry a full version of Ubuntu, and be able to serve as your desktop computer when you plug it into a monitor and bluetooth keyboard, I just think back to my original IBM PC Junior, and shake my head about how much things have changed

Banshee

 

[Fast Learner]

The arguments about the size of the app stores I honestly don't understand, mostly because I don't see the appeal in having a HUGE amount of apps on either of my Android devices. I have the apps that came with my phone plus a few I've added, and most of the pre-installed ones I don't really use. Same for my NOOK, but that's a more limited app store to choose from. People say the fact that the Apple app store has X more apps available than the Android store doesn't make sense unless an app is platform specific and you want and/or need that particular app rather than one just like it. Because let's be honest, there is a vast majority of apps which all do the same thing or are similar enough to not matter, and that's probably what makes up what's in the stores now.

I'm writing a blog post about it now so I won't go into great depth here, but a larger app store helps in several ways:

Vertical App Availability: You touched on this; if you want an app that helps you with certain embroidery knots, for example, a larger app store is both more likely to have such an app and you're more likely to find a quality app that meets your needs since there's a much greater chance there will be multiple embroidery knot apps.

App Quality: Sturgeon's Law appropriately notes that 90% of everything is crap, leaving 10% as non-crap, with maybe 10% of those being actually good, and 10% of those being truly great.

If you want, say, a to-do app and your app store has 50,000 apps then there will be, say, 250 to-do apps, with 25 of those being non-crap, 2.25 of those being good, and only a 25% chance that one of them will be truly great. If your app store it ten times that size, 500,000 apps, then you have a ridiculous 2,500 to-do apps of which 250 are non-crap ones, 25 of those are good, and 2.5 of those are truly great. Once you filter for the kind of to-do app that suits your style, with the larger app store you might well find there's a great one for you and a really good chance there's a good one.

App Variety: If you like, say, puzzle games, having 100 different puzzles available to you sounds pretty great, though odds are only 3 or 4 of them will be ones you really like. With 1,000 different puzzles there's a great chance there will be a bunch of them that you enjoy, such that whenever you get tired of one you can find another fun one a few taps and 99 cents away. With a smaller store it's quite likely you'll find yourself cycling back to the ones you played before and eventually just getting bored with the device, never using it again for puzzle games.

There are disadvantages of a larger store, obviously, with findability being the biggest issue; trying to find the good 50,000 apps in the iOS app store and ignoring the 450,000 crap ones is highly challenging. Apple could do a lot more to improve that, including working harder to cull the pure crap entirely.

 

[Alan Shutko]

That having been said, I've read several articles pointing out Android tablets are catching up quickly. They jumped to something like 46% of new sales....internationally, in Q4 last year. That's a fairly significant gain.

I see this report, but I note that it talks about shipments, not sales. As we saw with the HP Touchpad and the RIM Playbook, it's really easy to shove tons of units in the retail channel without having them actually be sold.

From my perspective, here's what Android manufacturer's need to work on to be really competitive with the iPad:

1. Provide software updates rapidly for several years. The Google Update Alliance really ruined my faith in vendors since it's already been forgotten by almost every Android vendor who signed on.
2. Work on getting more Android apps to support tablets natively. Right now, many apps just work in "really big smartphone mode" and don't intelligently reformat for tablets. This is pretty easy to fix, and mfrs could probably just throw free tablets at a few influential developers to help ease the transition.
3. Work on cost by minimizing device count and working on as much economy of scale as possible. Right now, it's very difficult to compete with the iPad on price, since Apple has extremely good deals with component vendors. Helps to sell in insane volume, and it helps to have a huge amount of cash to lock in great prices on components early. As long as Android mfrs are working on zillions of different form factors and spec lineups, it will be hard to get the volume deals needed to compete with Apple on price.
4. Differentiate! Focus on the things that the iPad does not do well. If the review ends up "This costs as much as an iPad, and does the same stuff as an iPad, but isn't as smooth, or as intuitive, or have the same app catalog" then only people already invested in an Android ecosystem will buy your tablet. Find ways to make your tablet do things the iPad can't.
5. Work for the enterprise market. It's crazy to say this since Apple usually raises a finger at the enterprise, but I've heard a lot of security folks in my company who are more comfortable with the mobile device management in iOS than they are in Android.
6. Make fewer models, but make them more significant. The gap in time between the Transformer Prime (Dec 2011) and the Transformer Prime Infinity (April 2012) is fine for the computer commodity market, but no good for the consumer electronics market. Why buy now when in four months you'll have something even better to look at? Oh wait, in four months, you know something ELSE will show up!
7. Provide ecosystem compatibility over the long term. Apple has done an insanely good job at this and nobody else has really tried. I can use accessories from iPods six years ago and they work just great with the newest iPhone. The dock connector is much reviled, but it has stayed mostly consistent (with the exception of firewire charging removed from the iPhone 3g in 2008) for years. What that means is that it makes sense for speaker makers to have dock connectors. Car head units can control the iPhone. I've actually had AirPlay support for four or five years, because the hardware I bought which was compatible with iTunes AirTunes works with the newer devices. What this means is I can gradually accumulate stuff that works together, and when I look at a new tablet or phone, I'm naturally biased to stuff that works in the same ecosystem. Too many android devices need a new car charger, and new other accessories, and all that newness opens me up to looking at other devices.
8. Tell carriers to go ******** themselves. The single best innovation that Apple did was that they told the carriers that the users come first, and that they WOULD NOT BE ALLOWED to mess with the experience.

Whenever I hear that "Android is great, you just need Cyanogenmod" I know that it's lost a bunch of customers who really don't want to have to screw with their ROMs to have a good experience.

And searchable e-mail. I had it on my BB, and used it alot. Losing that with my iPhone was something I was VERY unhappy about BECAUSE I used it.

As an inveterate Apple fanboy, I have to say I completely agree with you.

 

[Fast Learner]

And searchable e-mail. I had it on my BB, and used it alot. Losing that with my iPhone was something I was VERY unhappy about BECAUSE I used it.

I'm pretty sure I'm missing something with your setup (and Alan's), mine must be different. On mine, on any screen with a list of messages I can just pull the list down and a search box appears.

Perhaps it's related to what mail service the mail is coming from? This is a gmail account on the back (with multiple other accounts feeding into it).

 

[Relique du Madde]

I see this report, but I note that it talks about shipments, not sales. As we saw with the HP Touchpad and the RIM Playbook, it's really easy to shove tons of units in the retail channel without having them actually be sold.

From my perspective, here's what Android manufacturer's need to work on to be really competitive with the iPad:

1. Provide software updates rapidly for several years. The Google Update Alliance really ruined my faith in vendors since it's already been forgotten by almost every Android vendor who signed on.
2. Work on getting more Android apps to support tablets natively. Right now, many apps just work in "really big smartphone mode" and don't intelligently reformat for tablets. This is pretty easy to fix, and mfrs could probably just throw free tablets at a few influential developers to help ease the transition.
3. Work on cost by minimizing device count and working on as much economy of scale as possible. Right now, it's very difficult to compete with the iPad on price, since Apple has extremely good deals with component vendors. Helps to sell in insane volume, and it helps to have a huge amount of cash to lock in great prices on components early. As long as Android mfrs are working on zillions of different form factors and spec lineups, it will be hard to get the volume deals needed to compete with Apple on price.
4. Differentiate! Focus on the things that the iPad does not do well. If the review ends up "This costs as much as an iPad, and does the same stuff as an iPad, but isn't as smooth, or as intuitive, or have the same app catalog" then only people already invested in an Android ecosystem will buy your tablet. Find ways to make your tablet do things the iPad can't.
5. Work for the enterprise market. It's crazy to say this since Apple usually raises a finger at the enterprise, but I've heard a lot of security folks in my company who are more comfortable with the mobile device management in iOS than they are in Android.
6. Make fewer models, but make them more significant. The gap in time between the Transformer Prime (Dec 2011) and the Transformer Prime Infinity (April 2012) is fine for the computer commodity market, but no good for the consumer electronics market. Why buy now when in four months you'll have something even better to look at? Oh wait, in four months, you know something ELSE will show up!
7. Provide ecosystem compatibility over the long term. Apple has done an insanely good job at this and nobody else has really tried. I can use accessories from iPods six years ago and they work just great with the newest iPhone. The dock connector is much reviled, but it has stayed mostly consistent (with the exception of firewire charging removed from the iPhone 3g in 2008) for years. What that means is that it makes sense for speaker makers to have dock connectors. Car head units can control the iPhone. I've actually had AirPlay support for four or five years, because the hardware I bought which was compatible with iTunes AirTunes works with the newer devices. What this means is I can gradually accumulate stuff that works together, and when I look at a new tablet or phone, I'm naturally biased to stuff that works in the same ecosystem. Too many android devices need a new car charger, and new other accessories, and all that newness opens me up to looking at other devices.
8. Tell carriers to go ******** themselves. The single best innovation that Apple did was that they told the carriers that the users come first, and that they WOULD NOT BE ALLOWED to mess with the experience.

Whenever I hear that "Android is great, you just need Cyanogenmod" I know that it's lost a bunch of customers who really don't want to have to screw with their ROMs to have a good experience.



As an inveterate Apple fanboy, I have to say I completely agree with you.

Let me just pop in to say something.

Their are two reasons why the update alliance failed.
1) Device specs. Too many devices are being made with specs that fall below (or at) the current minimum often because the manufacturers made no thought about future android requirements. What is worse is that since Android is being made by a consortium with only one "google experience" phone/tablet being produced per version, the number of manufacturers who know the min specs of the next version is limited to one or two manufacturers until the announcement date.
2) The same reason why "Android is great but you need Cyanogenmod" because manufacturers force you to use their crappy UIs and try to keep their root access locked. Life would be eaiser if Motoblurr, Wiztouch, and HTC Sense was a UI you could choose to install or remove..


-Sent via Tapatalk

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Differentiate! Focus on the things that the iPad does not do well. If the review ends up "This costs as much as an iPad, and does the same stuff as an iPad, but isn't as smooth, or as intuitive, or have the same app catalog" then only people already invested in an Android ecosystem will buy your tablet. Find ways to make your tablet do things the iPad can't.

Solid Marketing 101.

Make fewer models, but make them more significant. The gap in time between the Transformer Prime (Dec 2011) and the Transformer Prime Infinity (April 2012) is fine for the computer commodity market, but no good for the consumer electronics market. Why buy now when in four months you'll have something even better to look at? Oh wait, in four months, you know something ELSE will show up!

Solid Marketing 201.

 

[Relique du Madde]

Personally I can't wait for The Windows 8 Tablet.

All their marketing has to be is:

Want to play WOW while on a bus, or would you rather play "Angry Gerbils? With a windows Tablet you can do both."

They could also be sneaky and show someone navigating to iTunes.

-Sent via Tapatalk

 

[Banshee16]

I'm pretty sure I'm missing something with your setup (and Alan's), mine must be different. On mine, on any screen with a list of messages I can just pull the list down and a search box appears.

Perhaps it's related to what mail service the mail is coming from? This is a gmail account on the back (with multiple other accounts feeding into it).

Possibly it's related to what e-mail account you're using. Mine's a hosted gmail account. If I try to search, and I go to "all" and type in a keyword from an e-mail I sent last week (for instance), it won't find anything. Occasionally it will....but it depends how long ago it was. The further back than a week that I get, the less likely it finds anything.

If I use the Google Apps app, and go into the Gmail section, and do a search there....then I find anything back to when I started the e-mail account.

Something with Apple's search is wonky. It's gotten better since the 5.1 update a few days ago....but it's been terrible for months.

Banshee

 

[Banshee16]

Let me just pop in to say something.

Their are two reasons why the update alliance failed.
1) Device specs. Too many devices are being made with specs that fall below (or at) the current minimum often because the manufacturers made no thought about future android requirements. What is worse is that since Android is being made by a consortium with only one "google experience" phone/tablet being produced per version, the number of manufacturers who know the min specs of the next version is limited to one or two manufacturers until the announcement date.
2) The same reason why "Android is great but you need Cyanogenmod" because manufacturers force you to use their crappy UIs and try to keep their root access locked. Life would be eaiser if Motoblurr, Wiztouch, and HTC Sense was a UI you could choose to install or remove..


-Sent via Tapatalk

Keep in mind that Google is changing how this works. They've dictated that manufacturers must have the default themes installed.....they can install custom looks on top of the default...but they can't be *replacing* it anymore. Thus, it reduces the incident of devices being impossible to update, and dependent upon the manufacturer. I remember reading something about that before Christmas.

As to manufacturers not honouring the agreement, at least on the tablet side, I think they're doing a pretty good job of honouring it. If you look at the major Honeycomb tablets launched last year, pretty much all of them are slated to be upgraded.

Now, I think the manufacturers are holding on, because there are a number of people who received ICS updates who have complained about things like rebooting in sleep mode etc....and it's only happening with devices upgraded from Honeycomb to ICS....not ones with ICS installed at the factory. So I think that's causing delays as they're trying to figure out what's going on and fix the problem.

But ones that we know are getting updated are the Transformer Prime (done), Xoom (done), Transformer (done), A500, A100, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Tab 10.1, Thrive, Sony tablet......all the major ones are getting the upgrade.

I'm not as familiar with the phones as I've never had an Android phone. So I can only speak for the tablets.

One of the problems, as I understand it is the very fact that there are so many phones. So, there are crappy, cheap android phones that give the OS a bad name....and then there are powerful ones like the Galaxy S II that run circles around iPhones. But regardless of which end of the line they're on, they're all Android phones, so the bad ones drag down the rep for the entire assortment of phones. But a customer shouldn't expect a free phone to be as good as one that costs $250.

Banshee

 

[Fast Learner]

Want to play WOW while on a bus, or would you rather play "Angry Gerbils? With a windows Tablet you can do both."

Only if Blizzard rewrites WOW for a touch interface and an ARM processor.

If they were going to do that, they'd surely do it for the iPad first anyway, no?