Hmm, I think I'll order an iPad Mini on Amazon ... Oh no I won't Amazon has weighed into the tablet pooh-pooh battle, following Apple's blow by blow comparison with a Samsung Galaxy Tab during the iPad Mini launch last week. The gloves are off down at Tablet Club, and this time the iPad Mini is on the receiving end. Amazon is taking a direct swipe at Apple's littlest Pad with a point by …
Android tablets are a shame. Waste of money.
iPad Mini is just an outdated repackaged iPad 2.
And Microsoft Surface Windows8 RT or Windows 8 x86 tablets just plain suck.
iPad 4 is the only true tablet to buy right now.
Whoever buys anything else is just wasting money on bad products.
Mind you, they're all as bad - & Amazon don't have the advantage of a dickhead HMRC boss giving away huge rebates like Vodafone do. The Vodafone episode made the UK look like mugs - Dave Hartnett the twat agreed an enormous tax break without any tax lawyers present .
Private Eye have done some excellent articles on the fiasco.
But Private Eye are just plain pig-ignorant. Vodafone paid the tax it was legally required to on German sales in Germany to German pundits. Quite why the UK taxman pushed by utter fuckwits like the "Tax Justice Network" thought they had any chance of claiming additional tax is kind of hard to see.
Great meme, greedy corporate doesn't pay the taxes we think that they should pay so we can waste it on buying votes, but utterly dishonest.
I have an Android tablet (well, a firesale touchpad with Android installed) and I'm happy with it. I use it a few times a week to read books and play the odd game, and I've been known to watch films and TV shows on it when travelling and bored. I don't feel i wasted my money, partly because I didn't pay much in the first place but also because I get some good use out of it.
I expect the experience on most of the current crop of Android tablets, especially the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire would be similar but more polished, and I would be more than happy to pay the price of the Nexus 7 and the Kindle Fire if I were in the market for a new tablet.
Conclusion, I don't agree with you, but I'm certainly not saying your opinion is not valid.
It's the return of Joerg! The rabid, foaming at the mouth, teeth-gnashing, jihadist, android-chewing kindle-spitting-out and surface-tramping-into-the-dirt fanboi extraordinaire.
Youv'e missed a few articles out, but it's good to have you back, you entertain me no end with your barking mad posts.
"It's the return of Joerg! The rabid, foaming at the mouth, teeth-gnashing, jihadist, android-chewing kindle-spitting-out and surface-tramping-into-the-dirt fanboi extraordinaire."
Yeah, he's more interesting than the other mentally impaired one-note wonders like Obviously!, RICHTO or JaitcH(sic)- his thought processes are often so mangled that it's often unclear what he's actually cross about. It's a fun game to see what the object of ire really is, under all the spittle.
mmm, personally I really can't see the point of any tablet, they are horrible pointless devices. However, the android ones seem as capable as any other, microsoft are microsoft - so pretty good in general with a few well published blips, apple are apple - plain expensive, generally more restricted and less good than the competition, but being vastly over priced for what they are appeal to the sort of 'I'm richer than you' fool who thinks people are impressed by how much cash they can squander. Frankly I'll stick to a laptop with a keyboard...
@Dave 15: The only good use I have seen for a tablet is reading a book (still like the book itself better) or as a remote control for an over-complicated automated house setup. If I have anything with even the smallest scrap of seriousness to accomplish I will pick a full desktop when available or a laptop when not. Nice to have if it is free and non-exchangeable but otherwise a waste of money.
"mmm, personally I really can't see the point of any tablet"
Fair enough - you don't have a use for one. I'll be using mine tonight as an adjunct to the laptop because it gives me multitouch control on faders when I'm mixing the band tonight from wherever I want to listen in the venue... and yes it is Apple because that's what the software's available for and frankly the price pales into insignificance compared to the rest of my audio system
Well you might use one for that, but it's still nothing that hasn't been done before by devices (most obviously by actual mixers). Also sad to hear software only being produced for the minority of Apple users - we hear Apple uses whining when companies "only" support the 90% of Windows users, but now it's okay to only support the minority with an ipad? I find this sad.
I agree because, PERSONALLY, I have little use for tablets BUT (and here it is) our household does have a Kindle Fire that gets A LOT of use. 1) Wife watches Food Network while keeping website up on Kindle. Bookmarks recipes and then sets the Kindle up on a stand while cooking (don't try THAT with a laptop or while holding your smartphone close enough to you can read the recipe). Tablet wins.
2) To keep my toddle from driving us both insane on 1-2 hour drives, we hand him the Kindle and he watches movies in the car (we can also strap it to seat)
3) If my phone is charging and the wife needs use of a full desktop and all I want to do is read some news, I take the Kindle and use Pulse.
4) We have one TV. My son might be watching something on the DVR or Netflix, my wife might be on the computer (we also have one laptop) so I pull up HBO Go or Netflix or Amazon Instant and watch something if I don't read.
So the Kindle is mostly for my wife and son with me being an occasional user. I really wish the Nexus 7 had been available at the time I bought the Fire but for a $180 item (got it on sale), it was worth the price.
@Gussy2000 (or other Kindle Fire owner).
As you have one, can you tell me how open the device is? Personally both the iPad mini and Kindle Fire look like fun devices. But the price differential makes it obvious that the Kindle is subsidized with the expectation they'll make more money from content purchases. So how open is the Kindle? Can you play movies, get books, buy music from anywhere or does it have to be via the Amazon store? Any gotchas with it of that nature?
Companies have been repacking older tech and selling it on years later for ages. Apple is not the first and will not be the last.
Smaller iPad2, maybe. But then you could argue that the PS Vita isn't much more than a PS2 thats been shrunk down a bit, and I can pick up a PS2 on ebay for next to nothing, so by the same virtue an iPad mini should be really cheap - oh, wait, it costs less than the iPad 2. Erm.
@ Andrew James...
But then you could argue that the PS Vita isn't much more than a PS2 thats been shrunk down a bit,
You could argue that, but you'd be laughed at for stating something so obviously incorrect. The PS Vita is roughly as powerful as a PS3/360 (some games look exactly the same on the PSV as they do on the PS3) so if they had the hardware support they would be able to play PS2 games without breaking a sweat.
Yeah, I wonder sometimes if I wasted $125 on my Android 4 iPad MIni .... er Archos 80 - about same screen size, same resolution, microSD slot, micro USB, full USB, mini HDMI. Granted it is about twice as thick/heavy, but I can't hold anything that big for long anyway without getting my carpal tunnel aggravated, and it does not matter much since I can prop up the Archos on its trademark built-in kickstand. It does all I want from a non-true tablet - not sure what I would do with a "true" tablet that is bigger and harder to hold, and locked down to Apple's walled garden and costs over 3 times as much. But for the price (even times 2 - got the wife one, and that is all she has taken on several trips now to check email/FaceBook/etc), I don't feel enough pain in the wallet to care about it.
YMMV
Well I'll be hornswoggled...It's the Old Time Religion. You don't get that kind of evangelical fervor from today's fanbois (sorry bunch of johnny-come-lately's and where were they when the rest of us were in the trenches fightin' for our last Performas)
"iPad 4 is the only true tablet. . ."
Let me hear you say AMEN !
Is it really taking the high ground to state that a screen larger than 720p — and about 77% as many pixels as what Amazon calls 'HD' — is "standard definition" and to imply that the iPad has no Wifi? I'm also unclear how they arrive at the claim that the iPad can't be used for viewing HD movies or TV in the sense that the Kindle can.
If I were Amazon I'd have pushed the pixel density (for tick box feature completists) and price (for normal people) issues harder, ignored the more tenuous claims and put an icon for whatever maps application Amazon ships into the screenshot as a dog whistle. Since it's a Kindle-branded product, boasting about the Amazon digital book library versus the iBooks storefront would probably also have been appropriate.
I think maybe the inability to play hd was based on the idea that even at 720p (being nominally hd at 720 by 1280 pixels) the iPad mini would have to down scale to fit it on the screen (due to the 1024 screen width) therefore not supplying 1:1 mapping possible on the kindle.
I agree, not full HD, but if it can't even play 720 at full resolution and therefore requiring the processor to work resizing the video, they've got at least half a point.
A bit non-sensical when you won't get the most out of the picture quality at that size screen. Seems like Amazon is confused what it wants to advertise it's products as.
Looks crap with the huge bezel around it and it's almost 100 grams heavier in shabby plastic. They didn't tell me that in this ad.
bezel is an advantage for kids/elderly.. my mobile has a tiny bezel and my kids took ages to learn not to push the soft buttons when holding it..
That said a 2 year old who can unlock and play games on my mobile including searching YouTube is impressive to me.... I dind't start using computers until I was 7
Not particularly surprising. The Mini is a direct competitor, but the compromises made to make it viable, like the same pixel count as the iPad2, also screw it over. Those compromises are the exact reason Jobs didn't rate the idea of a SFF tablet. Of course, Amazon can charge whatever the heck it likes, as they really don't care about making a profit on hardware. Sales only mean more people buying content, whereas the iPad Mini has justify its existence.
The only real question remaining is; Will they blend? (The Fire, probably, the Mini not so much)
"Sales only mean more people buying content, whereas the iPad Mini has justify its existence."
Which sounds like a logical argument until you realise that the only official way to use an iAnything is through purchasing from Apple's store, where they take a pretty cut from the revenue.
The profit margin on the device is massive, but they know that (within reason) the masses will still buy enough to make it a commercial success.
"Which sounds like a logical argument until you realise that the only official way to use an iAnything is through purchasing from Apple's store, where they take a pretty cut from the revenue."
Except that this argument is as old as the hills and still not true.
There are apps for Kindle, Lovefilm, Netflix, Spotify and Zinio to name a few, all of which allow you to use content you purchased directly from them (yes, you can also buy via Apple in some cases).
In fact, most of these apps are also available on Android, so it's somewhat ironic that the Android-based Kindle is probably one of the most restricted tablets out there.
>Which sounds like a logical argument until you realise that the only official way to use an iAnything is through purchasing from Apple's store, where they take a pretty cut from the revenue.
Not true. I have iDevices, but very rarely buy anything from the Apple stores. Apps are usually free, and music and video are sourced, converted and loaded though other channels.
Apple shot themselves in the foot with that mini thing.
It's pretty much like the Porsche Boxster. While the performance may be similar to the real thing and most parameters are broadly in line with the 911 the only real reason anyone buys the Boxster is because they cannot afford the 911. Consequently what all Boxsters "scream of" is Couldn't quite afford the real thing and this is what I settled for.
This may work with Porsches but don't think it'll work with the iPad.
Sometimes, backbone and principles are more important and this move will certainly contribute to undermining Apple's image long-term. I mean, Apple managed to get an iPad (any iPad, for that matter) in a comparison with a Fire, something unthinkable with the proper pads (AFAIK Amazon didn't dare go on a side-by-side comparison with either iPad2 or 3; could be wrong though).
@ Dave 15
Name 2 British firms who make proper sports cars (as opposed to track day toys, so excludes Ariel, Westfield, Caterham, and Radical)..
@Turle_fan
Shows how too many people judge people based on stereotypes. I have several friends with Boxters and I almost bought one as well. None were because we could not afford a 911, but because we wanted rag tops, some thing the Boxter is very good for, but the 911 Cabrio is flawed (due to chopping off the roof and adding extra strength else where, rather than being designed from the ground up as a soft top).
I admit it never occurred to me that a soft-top could ever be a selling point given that whoever I spoke to about cabriolets (and there's quite a few here in Switzerland) they all complain about soft tops and their noise at speeds above 100kmh (65mph).
And as for Porsches in general if you exclude the Cayman, I can't say I like the looks of any but that's just individual taste.
With the two most recent generations of Porsche 911 (ie: 991 and 997), the cabriolet is infact the base model - the coupe (or targa for that matter) is essentially a cabriolet with some extra metalwork. Not the other way around.
And for the previous generation to those (ie: 996), the coupe and cabriolet were developed in parallel with each other - and also in parallel with the 986 Boxster, with which they share an alarming number of components.
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Except the iPad Mini's competition is both BETTER (spec-wise) AND lower priced so people don't have to "settle" for anything. The same can't be said for a Boxster S which for the price outperforms all other roadsters. And when did buying a $50,000+ car with two seats that you can't drive all year round qualify as "settling" in this country? You must be one of the 1%.
"I wouldnt take either side of that comparison as accurate or truthful. About the only 2 thing that unequivocably true is the speaker and dpi comparision."
Those are the two truths that count though. Apple have miscalculated here and seem to have forgotten what the mini should be all about: growing their ecosystem. Offering a bit of hardware that is in some ways inferior to the competition and also more expensive is not likely to achieve this; especially where the competition have strong ecosystems of their own.
why did this statement of the reality get down voted? The apple fanbois on the defensive again.
Same factories, same workers, same material, same chips, same displays, same batteries. I had a feeling that there was one chip designed by apple buried in amongst the rest but I am not actually certain about that - I think they are now all from outside suppliers. If the one chip I recollect is an 'apple' chip then it is still made by someone else anyway.
The real truth (sorry apple fambois) is that the product is just the same as everyone elses but just priced higher. Put another way, where the hell did you think all that profit came from - the fairies? No it comes from charging you a premium for the badge. Up to you all if you want to pay it, but don't pretend it buys you anything other than a badge.
Assembled by, and designed by are not the same thing.
Apple designs its own chips and then passes the specs to someone for manufacture. So the performance of said chip is not identical to a similar item churned out at the same factory, but designed elsewhere.
Where i work we make packaging. Sometimes the customer provides the spec, sometimes our in-house design team does the work from scratch. A carton of identical size may have a very different specification in terms of material used, shape and size of tabs and interlocking components, tearaways etc.
Just because samsung production lines manufacture components doesn't mean they designed them. Its just very good business to utilise the spare capacity you have in your factory to make a margin from someone elses product :)
"Assembled by, and designed by are not the same thing."
But if the phrase "build quality" refers to either of those things, it must surely be the former, so I think the OP's question stands. Perhaps the answer is that this is advertising, and since the "build quality" is actually identical, it follows that the advertising must pretend otherwise. Otherwise, where's the FUD?
But the issue was "build quality", not performance - are you suggesting that some CPUs just fall apart or something? But Apple's don't because of the "design"? If you're talking performance, then that's a spec that can be measured. And that's precisely the thing that the Apple fans here are claiming shouldn't be used to compare - it's not about performance, they say, it's all about "build quality".
Really, I'm with the OP - what is "build quality"? We're talking phones, not furniture. It reeks of "let's make up a random hard to measure stat, and just assert Apple are the best" tactic that Apple fans love to play.
Most of the design is by ARM, btw.
I don't think anyone's on the defensive. It got downvoted from me because the AC said "very similar". The iPad is aluminium, all the others (as far as I'm aware) are plastic. If you think aluminium and plastic are very similar then perhaps the reality distortion field has infiltrated the world of materials.
I can compare the build quality of my iPad with that of my wife's Samsung Galaxy Tab and the iPad is better built.
The iFan's version of 'Build Quality' is basically that it's got a metal case. Last year, 'Build Quality' meant it had to have a glass case.
Honestly, though... If the vaunted 'Build Quality' is all there is to strive for, wouldn't we be better off with cast iron or concrete? Then they'd be even harder, so therefore have better 'Build Quality', right?
@AC Glass Case
Good point. Fanbois seem to have forgotten all the shed tears over the cool looking glass construction of the iPhone 4, et. all.
For the record, I have the nexus 7. The build quality could be better, as it suffers from the lifting left corner like so many others do. But for the money and the performance, I'm willing to let it fudge a little. Build material? Really, I think the ruberized backside is probably a better choice than aluminum. Yes, aluminum is sweet and light (I love using it on my boats), but not particularly grippy on its own.
You should read the DigiKey catalogue. We live in a world in which there are at least 351 competing choices for a 0.1uF 0402 capacitor. You don't think there's any differentiation in chips, displays and batteries from various suppliers, nor any variation in case engineering tolerances at different price points? Because I would say there probably are.
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"why did this statement of the reality get down voted? The apple fanbois on the defensive again."
Because you're being mentally lazy, you're a prat *and* you're wrong?
The iPad's build quality is fantastic, it is solid as hell, really nicely made. Much moreso than any of my other devices.
Of course, I prefer to use my Nexus 7 while commuting, as it's comfortable to hold in one hand while strap-hanging.. it is smaller and lighter. Actually, there are a few other things about it that I prefer about it, as compared to my iPad, but I digress.
I would have to be some sort of ludicrously feeble advocate idiot who divides the world into who is or isn't in the pathetic tree-house gang du jour, investing far too much of my self-esteem in what brand of mobile wossname I own to claim that the iPad isn't far more study and robust. Making specious arguments from ignorance or mendacity just to support the bug up my ass would really really weak.. amirite?
Thank god that this is a respectable forum for local people, and there no poo-flinging tribal bellends of that sort around here, eh?
(Breathes. Honestly, you people. Can't you all just start religions and blow each other up or something? You suck)
I think people consider plastic to be inferior... although if build quality = able to survive a rough life, then plastic wins out... with plastic it flexes.. with aluminium & glass it don't, it shatters &dents.. my aluminium macbook has DENTS, my 3year older laptop that I treat much rougher, has a few scratches on the case,... no dents...
I really want a Carbon Fibre device...
"More likely it demonstrates that even the Apple employee who uses that particular tablet doesn't want to upgrade to iOS6."
I wish I hadn't, I had morbid curiosity about the new Maps shizzle. However, it cost me my jailbreak. Of course, I am too lazy to work out how to roll back, I will just wait for Absinthe or Redsn0w to catch up with a5/ios6. For most things, I prefer the nexus 7 anyway.
"Sense" of humor possibly? I'm a long-time Apple user myself, and I plead guilty to past fanboiage. Um, well, yes, perhaps the occasional relapse. Also eating the pint of Chocolate Fudge Brownie in one sitting. And speeding. Once. Maybe twice. (ahem)
But DJGM still owes me a new keyboard.
I hate this kind of comparison chart... Why not add:
Number of Tablet-specific Apps available: Fire: 5,000(?) iPad: 300,000+
Can use 3G data: Fire NO iPad: YES
Sync with iTunes: Fire: NO iPad: YES
Use iCloud to backup and sync: Fire: NO iPad: YES
Has an apple on the back: Fire: NO iPad: YES
Sadly, people will think these comparison charts are the *only* difference between the 2 devices... :/
So 'years upon years' is four? (2009 for Google - if you look it up).
(ps not wishing to get into the whole platform thing - I probably did that in the eighties and grew out of it - but four years isn't 'years upon years'. 'Years upon years' has a certain gravitas in the English language which denotes a cultural and social acceptance as a norm over a significant period of time - which three years doesn't come close to.
Technically, the phrase "years upon years" is accurate, and would surely only require 4 years, minimum.
Taking "years" to mean at least 2, the least amount required to make the word in plural form, then 2 years on 2 years would indeed be 4 years.
It's a reductio ad absurdam, but it points out a real problem with advertising in general, and some types of feature comparisons. Both tend to mislead buyers, and neither consistently answers the primary question:
Will the product do what the buyer needs it to do?
Is it a tool capable of performing the task the buyer has in mind?
I can look at Amazon's comparison - or MaFt's sarcastic version - all day, and they're equally useless for determining if I can, for example, transfer all my MP3s, from an ext2 formatted USB flash drive, then play them in order or shuffled or in playlists...Oh, and also have the tablet check the Internet for associated album covers once a day to fill in ones I'm missing.
Yes, an absurd example. But MaFt is correct, "Sadly" a number of buyers will be misled by a product comparison of the type posted by Amazon.
Seeing two items compared leads people to believe they are comparable. Worse, it leads some to believe they are equivalent.
Advertisers know this. It's part of the psychology of advertising. No matter how irrelevant the information for the buyer's intended purpose, advertisers and marketers know a clever comparison will inevitably make a percentage of people believe even wildly different products are somehow interchangeable.
Let me repeat that:
Comparison charts like Amazon's are designed to make a certain number of buyers believe two products are equivalent. Interchangeable. Capable of performing the same functions. Close enough to each other, there's no "reason" to buy the more expensive one.
Like MaFt, I dislike that kind of chart. But what he attempted to say via sarcastic example, I prefer to say flat out:
I dislike those charts because they are designed intentionally to mislead consumers. Every word in them may be true, but the end result is much a lie as the most blatant false advertising, which to my mind makes them worse.
So one upvote from me for MaFt
So Kindles aren't about selling hardware -- they're about selling media. Unfortunately, Amazon's media offerings are nowhere near as simple, unified, and visually nice to look at as what Apple does. The combination of Manage Your Kindle, Amazon Instant Video, Amazon Cloud Player, etc., etc. is a confusing mess to Amazon employees, much less customers who are looking for a slick alternative to Apple.
It's the user experience part that Amazon still isn't getting. Remember when the iPod first came out, and all the reviewers said it would fail because on technical, point-by-point features (not including user experience) it didn't seem nearly as good as alternatives already out there? They were missing the point then, and they're missing the point now.
I don't know what Amazon have done to Android, but if they've really botched it, just get a Nexus 7 or Nexus 10. Better specs and lower prices than equivalents from Apple, and the user experience is just as good if not better (finally get copy/paste, did you? How are those maps looking?)
"Remember when the iPod first came out, and all the reviewers said it would fail because on technical, point-by-point features"
No, all I remember is wall-to-wall media hype and free advertising, just like every Apple product gets before its released, whilst other better alternatives are ignored. The media don't claim Apple will ever fail - that's reserved for products like Symbian, Android, Windows (all of which have gone on to sell far more than Apple's platforms).
Plus comparing on specs is all Apple and its fans do these days - remember PPI and "Retina"? Oh wait - it's okay to compare on a meaningless spec and parade it as the single most important thing ever when it's Apple that it benefits (same with multitouch), but when they're outdone on the very thing they said was important, you suddenly retreat to this wishy-washy argument of "well specs don't matter, it's better because of this magical reason that I can't explain why".
No, competing products do just fine on user experience.
Er... I have no problem comparing on specs. Comparing on specs is fine, that's my point.
It was the other person claiming that we shouldn't compare on specs, instead preferring vague terms like "build quality" - and I'm just pointing out that actually, comparing on specs is what Apple fans themselves do all the time anyway.
Talk about completely missing my point.
How soon we forget. And same thing happened when iPad was introduced. I'll see if I can find some links that still exist.
There are Apple fans that actually have different opinions than the few that post here--amazing, I know. Specs are the last thing I look at when considering Apple--I check specs before buying, but it's not the first thing. I don't argue about specs on this board. And I never use the phrase "build quality". That means nothing to me. UE isn't magic or wishy-washy--it's a discipline like any other, just harder to measure.
Early iPod reviews from 2001:
www.geekosystem.com/ipod-2001-ipad-bad-reviews
www.wired.com/gadgets/miscellaneous/news/2001/10/47805
www.mobileindustryreview.com/2006/03/the_ipod_what_a.html
Technology Business Research analyst Tim Deal said in 2001: "Clearly Apple is following Sony's lead by integrating consumer electronics devices into its marketing strategy, but Apple lacks the richness of Sony's product offering. And introducing new consumer products right now is risky, especially if they cannot be priced attractively."
Stephen Baker, an analyst at NPD Intelect, said that the iPod will likely stand out for its large storage capacity but predicted that the device may have trouble digging out a niche in the market.
____________
early iPad reviews from 2010:
www.asymco.com/2011/03/04/flummoxed-again
www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/29/apple-ipad-review-photos_n_441770.html
John Biggs, TechCrunch:
"The device, as it stands, is so close to the original iPhone that you get a sense of Deja Vu when you open the box and are exposed to the empty canvas bare of apps. Out of the box it is, at best, a large iPod Touch."
On the other hand, Walt Mossberg said presciently:
"It's about the software, stupid", meaning hardware features and build are less important to the iPad's success than software and user interface, his first impressions of which were largely positive.
The clear winner on price point *and* freedom has got to be the Nexus 7, yet marketing wise, things have been a little quiet from Google - at least, on the sites I've been visiting.
I saw a TV ad a while back for the Nexus 7, but I have to admit, I avoid TV advertising for the most part.
Whilst the iPad 2/3/4 is clearly a class act, the price point and the walled garden leave little to be desired.
The Kindle Fire, as far as I'm concerned, is little more than a store front - it's Amazon's own walled garden. Sure, you can bung on a custom rom to unleash it, so it's an option.
The Nexus 7 is surely the better option for a cheap tablet - I'd expect Google to be making a lot more of a song and dance about it. Then again, it's actually quite refreshing they aren't, so that's the one I'll be getting this Xmas.
add to that the new prices and it's hard to imagine anyone competing with the nexus 7.
while their earlier attempts at hardware failed, google branded hardware has started gettting it right on features at prices that are very attractive.
apple might as well have named the ipad mini as the ipad vista.
They aren't in this fight because this is a fight being publicised & financed by Amazon, on their own website. Of course they aren't going to compare to the Nexus 7.
"Hey, I hear you're after an iPad mini ... well, have you considered the Kindle Fire HD? Its better & cheaper ... oh, but did you also realise you can get an even better & cheaper product from Google? No? Well, go check it out at google.co.uk/nexus and then you can order from them direct and cut us out completely! You're welcome."
Nope. Not going to happen.
Personally, I leave my hexacore i7 and honking great GPU box at home and use my Nexus 7 when commuting- it's getting increasingly hard to find somewhere to install it all during the morning commute. Damn privatisation!
(Trans: You, sir, are a curious cross between a dickhead and a dinosaur- and startlingly ill-informed, to boot.)
The new iPad mini needs to be either 1/2 the price or twice the spec. It's like the spec of a no-name tablet, made in same country but x3 the price.
Only fans or people doing no research into subject will buy it. Cook better hope that Jobs really is dead and not faking or Forstall won't be the only one looking for a new job.
If you have no intention of buying Amazon content then a Samsung might be better. If it's Amazon content you want (and hardly any is eBooks), then the Fire looks best.. If you only want Amazon eBooks then the "paperwhite" is best.
I would definitely avoid the 800x600 7" tablet nonsense, that's too low-res; however my open-box HTC Flyer is fine and IMHO beats the higher res Google, Amazon and Apple ones because it has a micro-SD slot.
Out of the above 3 new small tablets, the Amazon looks the most competitive. The Apple Tablet is plain uncompetitive, underspec'd, and the bumps to 32GB and 64GB take the P.
It's funny that Apple fans tout 'quality over quantity' all of the time with 'build quality' and other nonsense, but then blather on about how many more apps the Apple store has.
As long as you don't need 300 different apps that do the same thing (or 300,000 in the case of fart apps), then there's no need for 500,000+ apps.
@ all
I don't get the app count thing really. I have about a dozen or so core apps that I use on my tablet and my phone (both android). Beyond that, who cares?
As for quality, well, I think 1200 x 800 is better quality than 1024 x 768, no matter how you spin it, pixel density is going to win. Unless you walk around with your screen on full bright all day long, you won't ever realize the supposed difference in any of them.
Amazon: Store front, good price, great if you are a fan of that company.
iPad: apple store front (no different than amazon really), lame price, low spec, obviously a fan of that company.
nexus 7: barely a store front, good price, and you get to do what you want where you want how you want to do it, along with the same high res screen as the kindle plus the bonus of a GPS, accelerometor, and compass.
(OK, i was fanboing it up a bit there at the end, but you get the picrue)
I would LOVE a lower cost option dude. Call me a fanboi all you want but I use what works. Let me tell you a quick story. I have used apples since the late 90's. Last time I upgraded my computer (which happens every 5 years or so) I bought a lower cost dell studio 15 inch which had top of the line specs at the time. I went all out on it because it still cost less than an apple. I was very excited to get a faster machine etc., until I tried to plug the thing into my home studio. Not one thing worked with that bitch machine. It was so full of oem ware it was constantly fighting everything I wanted to do. It took me weeks trying to figure what was plug and play on a Mac. If I was lucky enough to get it working at all it didn't work like it should. Then the whole thing started to fall apart. I upgraded my studio gear several times trying to work around windows and oem ware. I went high end spending way more than I should have negating any attempted savings. YESTERDAY I pulled out my g4 PowerBook 1.6 gig powerp.c. And plugged in my 2011 audio interface into it ... Just to try out of exasperation. HOLYCRAP, not only was it plug and play, it actually listed the device in the drop down menu. WTF, that PowerBook was built ten freaking years before the audio device. It's running unsupported PANTHER. How did it do that? I was and am floored. As far as my version one iPad is concerned. I have three pages of semi professional apps that are NOT available for android. If they were I would use it. Not only do they not have the apps, but the ones they do have look like they were done by high schoolers. Not only do they not have the apps except the ones that look like a waste of money, but they don't work half the time when you do buy them. They may work on one device... sometimes, and then not work on the next device. I don't want to use apple... I have to, because the android and windows community can't offer me what I want or need. Get the apps, get them to work, and I will buy in.
In all the talk about what is better between iPad Mini, Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7, the real price/performnace winners are being missed. Chinese branded tablets driven by SoCs from companies like Rockchip, AMLogic and Actions Semiconductor can be bought for for half the price with superior specifications, screens that blow the iPad mini's out of the water and features like removable microSD cards, HDMI output and USB host functionality. Just look up names like Ramos, Onda, Cube, Ainol, Zenithink.
People don't go to Amazon to look for a "tablet" to buy, they presumably already know if they want to buy an iPad, a Galaxy Tab or a Kindle Fire since Amazon is not exactly a great place to do product comparison. But if this gave Apple buyers some doubts and caused some to switch to the cheaper alternative (I could see this happening if buying it as a Christmas present for someone else, saving the buyer $130) then Apple could stop selling to Amazon with little or no effect on their sales since people looking to buy an Apple product aren't going to give up just because Amazon doesn't carry it.
If I was looking to buy one and Amazon didn't carry them, I'd check Newegg or whoever. The only reason I'd be buying from Amazon in the first place is avoidance of sales taxes, but there are certainly other places that don't have a nexus in my state I could buy from - I just check Amazon first out of habit.
Looking at the picture in the article, it seems to me that the Kindle looks a LOT more like the iPad than the Samsung Galaxy or Slate. Round corners, black, even the same aspect ratio as the iPad.
So why aren't Apple suing Amazon's arses off for billions like they did with Samsung? Surely that Kindle must violate dozens of Apple's rectangular-round-cornered-object patents?
Of course, it couldn't be anything whatsoever to do with the fact that Amazon is also an American company, could it?
I have a Transformer Prime, it is a flippin great tablet for me. I read books on it, I watch movies and tv show on it. It gets used every day. Well worth the money I paid for it.
If I were in the market for a tablet now, I'd get the Nexus 7, wouldn't even bother with the iPad mini, it is an afterthought, Apple are just chasing cash with that, it is purely a kneejerk reaction to the success of the Nexus 7 and the smaller tablet size.
So Amazon release a "selective" side by side comparison - woopee. Show me a manufacturer who doesn't do this - Apple included.
However, I do think Amazon need to watch what they say here, as two immediate issue jump out the Ad regulators will want to explorer. And guaranteed Apple, being the litigation happy company they are, will already be exploring a way to get this ad retracted.
1. Can't play HD. Actually the ipad mini can, but not at HD. Semantics, I know, but other advertisers have fallen foul of worse.
2. Comparing radio hardware, but not listing Apple's hardware. Again, they have to watch here, especially as The mini does Group N, plus LTE and bluetooth 4.0. They've maybe go a point with MIMO, but the regulator won't care.
If Amazon essentially makes a free Kindle Fire HD included with Amazon Prime with advertising etc. I might be tempted. As it is, nah, I don't want to buy(er, rent) eBooks to be honest. I prefer to own my books and be able to do what I want with them, including lending them to folk(assuming they'll give me them back natch;)).
The iPad mini is a waste of cash. The retina version will be out in 6 months with a faster processor, etc., etc. and that might be worth the cash but I like the original iPad size for reading, browsing, so I probably won't bite then, either.
I got a Nexus 7 because that runs stock Android although it doesn't really have a killer app. It's a toy that might become more useful at some point.
I use my iPad 3 every day for reading newspapers and browsing. Don't think I'll be buying another until at least iPad 6. It is the mutt's nuts as far as I'm concerned but I must admit to slavering over the new Nexus 10 which is a bit of a bugger. I don't think I can justify having two Nexi.
If the Kindle Fire HD speakers are as crap as folk say, I'll wait until they've fixed them to buy, if ever.
As for the fanboyism, can't we all be fwiends?
Ignoring the hillarious first post, the iPad mini is just as hillarious. Overpriced oooh-shiny-shiny for brandists who will cough up for anything no matter what. And more hillarious is any attempt to defend this over-piced, under-specd thing which has't been made by the gods (cough, I mean crapple)
Let me quote you something in a recent apple advert on UK TV.
How can something be both bigger and smaller....
How can something contain less, yet contain more....
Apple trying to "quote physics" in order to affiliate with their "ooooh-shinny-shinny fans".
So what apple are saying here? is it that they have invented physics or that they have defied the know bounds of physics? whilst claiming that they are providing you with somthing no one else can provide you with because it is afterall apple's version of physics, which should now forthwith be refered to as iPhyscs
So, when will apple be applying to patent the laws of physics?
Back in reality, as any human being with 1/8th of a working brain can tell you, electronics get smaller all the time. Nothing new here, been happening since the dawn of the transistor.
Let me re-write this ad for you apple, to fit your iPadMiniOnFeaturesMaxiOnPrice.
How can something provide bigger profit and give you smaller functionality (easy , make an iPad Mini)
How can something contain less and yet contain more (profit) (easy, sell the iPad Mini to the brainwashed devotees, who are so flush with cash that they deserve to be fleeced anyway).
Oh and while I'm here quoting TV ads, apparently apple have invented a "gosh" non-round headphone because as no one else has noticed in the entire human history, ears are not round, they are in fact odd-shaped! Fuck off apple.
I've ordered an iPad mini because I can afford it! :-)
I have Macs (laptop and desktop) for development purposes as they're the most flexible for what I need (Linux, iOS and Android dev). I bought an iPod years ago so when it needed to be replaced I went for an iPod that also happened to include a cell phone, i.e. an iPhone. I didn't move over until they did everything I needed (I was happy with my old Sony Ericsson candybar phone). I have a Google Galaxy Nexus as an Android dev phone but I prefer my older iPhone 4 as my day to day phone. It does what I want it to do and its less hassle.
Basically when I get home from a 10 hour day I don't want to be faffed with having to be techy to get something to do what I want it to do. I just want it to work simply, quickly, easily. i-products do that for me. The cost is not an issue and I know I'm paying for the convenience, so be it.
So yes the Kindle Fire may be better for someone people, the Google Nexus 7 for other, but for me the iPad mini fulfils my use cases. Any one who is pro an iPad because its Apple, anti an iPad just because its Apple, pro an Android tablet because its supposedly more open, is just a loon if that's your only rationalisation! If it does what you want it to do then great. But I'm not going to cut off my nose to smite my face.
Why do people buy BMWs when they could buy Kias? Because they're nice, they can afford to, and they want to. What's wrong with that?
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