Gartner: Apple rivals can't touch iPad Pretenders to Apple's fondleslab crown will not overcome the domination of the iPad any time soon if the beancounters at Gartner are to be believed. In one of their less challenging predictions, the analysts said that rivals remain so far behind Apple and its shiny slates that the US giant will have a "free run" of the market …
“So far, Android’s appeal in the tablet market has been constrained by high prices, weak user interface and limited tablet applications,” Milanesi said.
I must have been mistaken in my belief that my ASUS EEE Pad Transformer was comparatively low priced, with an excellent user interface, loads of expansion potential and a perfectly acceptable number of very useful and entertaining applications that do everything I want.
I'd better throw it away immediately and buy a iFad so I can have an expensive device, limited multitasking, no expansion, no keyboard and access to a massive number of applications, of which 5% are any good and which are available just the same on Android.
What matters is apps, until you have an equivalent selection and quality of apps as Apple do, you won't be able to compete with them head on... Your product will always be seen as inferior, and people won't be willing to spend the same on it as they would on an Apple device.
Instead, you have to offer your tablets cheaply and compete from below. Slash your margins, or even put out a loss leader ala HP... Had HP not dropped the touchpad, and simply offered it at the price they did anyway they would likely be sitting on a respectable market share right now.
Once you have the user base, apps will be developed... Few people will develop apps if there is little or no target market for them, and few people will buy a device for which there are very few applications. It's a catch 22, and something drastic like an extremely low price is needed to overcome that.
when Android Ice Cream Sarnie is established and has unified the Android phone and tablet OSs, Asus's Transformer and Slider have gotten more of a foothold, Archos' G9 tablets have bedded in and Samsung's Note has perhaps proven that what many people want is a "tablet!" they can hold in one hand like a big phone.
The iPad's dominance now is not surprising, 12 months ago iPhone/iOS ruled the smartphone roost but now Android has much the larger market share and the gap is widening.
It's all to play for.
They may have the right prediction, but their reasonning is WAY off.
"This, she reasons, is because Apple has built better tablet hardware, software and content"
Unless you're comparing the El Cheapo Android tablets the hardware is more or less the same. As for software and content, Android is the clear winner. Seriously, I've tried to use an iPad. The thing is limited as hell.
And content? I can't imagine a less user friendly process for getting apps than what Apple has put together. To get one app I had to put in my iTunes password twice AND THEN confirm. I've done this for every single app I've gotten. On top of that there are far more apps available in the Android market. And that's without having to go to any of the various third party markets for Android.
And on price, what Android tablet costs more that the iPad2?
All in all I'd say this was a very biased report
I never said that iPads weren't outselling every other tablet on the market combined. The point I was trying to make is that particular trend has little or nothing to do with the comparitive quality of the products. More sales does not always equate a better product. Sometimes it's just better marketing or, in the case of iOS devices, just a whole lot of hype, or any of dozens of other factors. In fact I would go so far as to say that the best selling product in any given field is rarely the highest quality one.
Flexibility to me means I can make my tab work and look anyway I want, eg. limited like an iPad or with all kinds of dynamics. I like to make those choices myself and I need a real multitasking OS to do my daily workflow. My desktops are specifically tailored to tasksets, and I make extensive use of scrolling widgets for appointments, announcements and alerts. Granted I had to install a 3rd party desktop manager for that latter feature but at least I could do that.
And installing apps is much much easier too, also a form of flexibility that really does appeal to the masses. And of course no iTunes, the ultimate benefit.
Anyway, I sincerely think that many iFans should take a serious look at the Androids, I'm certain many won't look back.
I am sorry but it's not all about apps. I have a IPad, and I like to use it for browsing the web, and only have a few apps. And I can say that the web browsing on the IPad is painful at best, lousy formatting and frequent hits on not being able to view content because of no flash, etc. . I just want the it to work. (and don’t get me started on having to connect to ITunes before I can use it)
Now I got a shiny new EeePad, and compared to the IPad it's a joy to use. No plugging it in to something to get approval to start using it, nice easy interface, the apps are easy to get, and most all the web browsing is a joy. It just works, which is what I want
I am a big android fan and i want a tablet but, honeycomb is a bit poo. worse still thats not the real problem, the problem is i want to used the device in portrait and both honeycomb and manufacturers dont like that. they seem dead set on insisting the only F ing thing you could want to is watch video and so you must use it in landscape and have a 16:9 screen
i want a 10 inch tablet but a 4:3 one.
>>> i want to used the device in portrait and both honeycomb and manufacturers dont like that <<<
In what way?
I use mine in portrait mode 90+% of the time. That's for reading e-books, mail and browsing.
Of the top of my head, I only remember using it in landscape for Android Market and for playing Angry Birds and Sprinkle.
You will only know how important 'open' and 'flexible' are in practice if you try it yourself. Let's just hope that the 'user-friendliness' of iOS doesn't spell another 2 decades of shitty public standards like Windows did 15 years ago. I see an equal danger looming and that alone is reason enough for me to avoid Apple like the plague.
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