MobilityLeaks: Can the iPad Fend Off Android?
Got another behind the scenes writer exchange worth forking onto the site. We’re talking iPads, we’re talking cheapness and I’m handing the torch off to you because the well that is their collective knowledge on this subject has run dry. I can only do this once in a while or they’ll catch onto me and create another secret mailing list. Have a read and agree with me and talk trash particularly about David K.
On 1/31/2011 4:17 PM, Chris Leiter wrote:
Is it just me, or have people gotten cheap (and spoiled by being so)? My best friend has a Samsung galaxy tab, and it is nice, but he’ll be the first to admit that it doesn’t hold a candle to the iPad.
Maybe 3.0 android and the new dual and quad core SOC tablets can really cut into the iPad, but unless they fix a lot of what’s wrong with android, I don’t see it happening. Apple sells a shit load of product because of their standards and quality, not the price.
David K:
call a spade a spade. There’s no great reason to get a non-Honeycomb Android tablet…except for price or marketing. It’s like getting a Blackberry because you just love BBM. And Blackberry is still selling a shitload of devices. Sales don’t mean you’re the best…the new Moto commercial BGR is showing is very effective. Notice there’s not a single screenshot of a device to be found. What does it show? That on paper it kicks the shit out of most things (well the iPad 2 will had a dual core 1.2ghz chip I hear but that’s a side point). Anyway, Android is going to be on $250 tablets and people will buy it and think that’s what a tablet is. It’s the good and the bad…same as a PC when you get a $250 PC and then say Windows sucks…
Murani Lewis:
That’s true. People take the cheap route then expect top tier performance. Their own mistake is placed in denial and the blame is shifted to the manufacturer.
Doug Simmons:
Well, just as in addition to cheap Android phones there are top shelf Android phones that hold candles somewhat close to the iPhone, some companies may find that there’s a market for overall-superior or at least more or less equally decent tablets to the iPad and fill that market. Though they do a good job delivering that impression Apple does not have a patent on making the best stuff.
Ramon Trotman:
apple? making the best stuff? I’ve never seen the bezels on a dell/ibm/hp or any other brand laptop chip after a year of use. But i have seen it on EVERY SINGLE MACBOOK! Btw, how is that apple tv working out? no sales numbers? I’ve also never seen a cell phone drop calls because you hold it at the "wrong angle"
hmph….sounds like a perception issue more than anything. F█ck apple…and half way f█ck google! But most importantly…f█ck apple!
Doug Simmons
Ramon, your passion .. it comforts me.
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Doug Simmons
Biographical info.. hmm. I have a history of not being able to strike the balance between what is "safe" to put into these forms and what is, in my mind at least, funny. Can't do it.
Android is really a phenomena that shows people love free or cheap stuff. Its like an insatiable desire that people have no intentions of correcting. Case in point, the obvious and public announcement of Honeycomb and its features. Why in the world would anyone rationally run out and by a Galaxy Tab now? That is akin to someone running out to get an iphone 4 when the iphone 5 will arrive within the next 6 months.
Cheap, emotional based buyers are the scourge of all marketers. Its like dumbing down your intelligence and the way you speak to teach little kids. Darn Fisher Price consumers, grrrr!!
Simmons, I understand what’s going through your head and what I see is a little void, a void that’s forgetting you’ve never laid eyes or hands on a product that’s at parity, let alone superior, to Apple’s counterpart which by the way leads the way.
Here’s what I see: A market for people who aren’t too serious about owning an using a tablet that’s running the same thing as their phone, I see people who are in heavy debt, are generally frugal, or in foreclosure or bankruptcy but still really need a tablet and then I see a group of people who’ve contributed to society in a way that was both helpful and resulted in them being compensated well — and wants a tablet.
Guess which group heads to their nearest Apple store (or the website).
@David K:
You’d best do some careful stepping these days with that particular idiom.
Murani: Not a fan of capitalism?
Murani: Really? Let’s google down a recent US Android handset distribution and see if the biggest slices of the pie are made up of the likes of the Backflip like you’re suggesting or the EVO. The free market rounds these things out toward matching what different types of people want. I’m the type that financially prioritizes getting the next Nexus phone over paying the rent without going into debt. Then there’s my wife who only got the Nexus S because I successfully coerced her but was otherwise perfectly happy with her old Pearl with an email-only data plan. Neither of us are alone.
Capitalism? Sure. Just raised to spend extra for quality. When dealing with tech always favor quality over price. Thats not to say go the Apple route because they have bloated prices and you can get a superior product for cheaper.
I have a ASUS laptop that to this day kicks the crap out of the best MacBook Pro laptops and it cost me $300 less than their base unit. HDMI, Blu-Ray drive, 500 GB memory, 4 GB RAM, 17″ widescreen monitor, 1.3m pixel camera that rotates 180 degrees, 4 USB 2.0 ports, card reader, DV connection.
I’m not into status, i’m into technology that works.
First of all since when does “less expensive” mean Cheap? What exactly is cheep about the Moto Atrix ? The Nvdia dual core cpu? 16 gb ram Gorilla glass???
Second this is what is called a marketing war! Anybody remember the VHS verses Beta tape? Now in that case initially everyone ‘knew’ that VHS tape was not as good as Beta yet Beta lost to VHS mainly because of longer tape time per tape and lower price!
Why are we talking about the price difference between the Android Tablets and the iPad? The XOOM will be right at parity with the iPad 2. Both Flagship devices for the platforms. The build quality of the XOOM I have no doubt will be outstanding, just like the iPad. Which leads me to David’s fragmentation article and criticism not too long ago. As it turns out, engadget discovered WVGA Support in the SDK Honeycomb emulator which should all but end that argument and do some damage control to the Android Marketplace. Now granted that the WVGA smartphone variant of any Honeycomb OS Device would not support the widgets, but as we see all to often, the Device manufacturers pollute the UI with their own shit anyway. (XPERIA)
Price matters and quality matters because for every Xoom there’s an Android tablet sold in Walmart with a resistive screen for $200. The calculation as to sales include them all. Oh and it turns out those sales figures were shipped not sold. I’ll fill you all in shortly but this is MS math in action 🙂
Let’s revisit this one with some new found clarity… How do android based tablets sell compared to the iPad? Hmmmm…..