More Brits ditch Apple tablets for Amazon, Google, Samsung kit Almost a fifth of the UK’s adult population now owns a fondleslab, and while most of them have a tablet with a bitten fruit icon on the back, Apple’s dominance is slipping. So says YouGov, a pollster, which regularly asks Brits about their technology purchases. During the first three months of 2012, 73 per cent of British …
no.... this is a look at the current market share, and with apples big head start its to be expected they will be the most owned, even I own one and I hate the IOS infrastructure & lock in, my 3 year old android phone is 10 times better at everything I do than my ipad, for the iPad I have to jump through hoops to get anything done!
I think you are technically disadvantaged. There are some good evening classes, idiot's guides and help at Apple shops and resellers that may be able to help, if you are open enough.. But I've never met anyone who needed them. But then again, you are the first one I've seen who seems happy to boast about their incompetence on line on a "technical" site.
Even my 83 year old mother can manage it, as can both fellow software engineers (rather clever ones, mind you) and friends for whom the very word, computer, is challenging. Android and some of the smarter Nokias (real ones, not the windows stuff) caused many to have to jump through hoops, though, at least in the case of Android, not the upgrade hoop as there rarely is one.
Perhaps you should go to China and picket the Apple supplier factories, or at least the parts of them dedicated to Apple parts.
way to miss the point.
He was talking about doing stuff on an iPad which apple doesn't want you to do, which is far too much. I too have to jump through hoops all the time to get around the artifical (and pointless) limitations that apple apply to their technology.
For instance, I'll throw the oldest gripe in the book - getting music OFF the iDevice onto a windows PC. Why is that disallowed? On android, guess what - IT JUST WORKS.
If you want more examples, I can rant all day...
So how much do you get paid to spout such rubbish? If you're having to jump through hoops that's more a sign of your mental capacity.
A 3 year old android phone simply will not out perform any reasonably priced current release tablet. If you're going to say something so stupid then back it up with proof.
you know it makes sense!!!!!!
Well maybe. If you want a very disjointed environment then go ahead. AFAIK (and I'll accept being proven wrong) the Android ecosystem is just not as well integrated/connected as the Apple one.
I have a kindle. I use it for well, reading and that's it.
I had an Android (HTC) phone but I've gone back to a 'Dumb' Nokia so I can't really say for sure but a collegue of mine has given his wife his Galaxy and gone back to his iPhone simple because everything works better FOR HIM. A lot of fandroids seem to forget that not everyone wants to root their phone etc and the old, creaky IOS actually does work very well for an awful lot of people.
Paris because not everything 'shiny-shiny' is gold.
I would have to disagree, the android ecosystem is now very well integrated. When I picked up my Nexus 7 i just logged into my google account, it setup my contacts from my phone and setup all my apps, it even setup my wireless from all taken from my HTC Desire C, I can even go to the google play website and download apps to my devices easily, not sure what more integration you may need?
I would also say that the android system is well connected. Even using my Galaxy Note, I can plug in USB devices (flash sticks, HDDs, usb hubs, keyboards, oh and HDMI projectors).
I can even plug it into my camera (Canon 7D, 5DIII), control all settings, see the live-view display and take photos with it. By contrast, the Apple camera connection kit can't read from CF cards (used to but a firmware update a while back turns off the power when you try), and the "camera connection" just about manages to read a JPG file from the camera, but nothing else. With Android, I can happily copy the photos (JPG or RAW)onto the phone, the phones SD card, or upload by FTP / SMB to the web or my local server and use them in any application I want. Oh, and the android cost? £1 for USB host cable, £2.50 for the very nice remote control app.
Errr, No...
I own both...
From the time I brought an iPad I realised how bad it was, in the end I found it was only useful for games...
at the same time I already owned an android phone, I expected the iPad to be at least as good as my phone, it was not... it was so locked down it was un-believable, no file transfers, video had to be PRECISELY converted...
Now I own an ipad, a Samsung Note 10.1 and an android phone... The android devices are just so much better.... (although I admit there are a couple of iOS only games I would like converted to android, and its purely down to the software companies as they are simple games...)
I get what you are saying but that is not entirely fair, an ipad is not subsidized to lock you into one retailers ecosystem, it is entirely unsubsidized but you are still locked down. I always thought it was a shame they tied the ipad up so much, it has a lot of potential for folks like studio and landscape photographers which is hampered by some of the restrictions. It's still a good product, but like for like against the kindle, the kindle (and nook for that matter) is restricted but you get it cheaper for that.
Interesting, I found the absolute opposite.
I had an ipad, but it was too big/heavy for regular lugging. Picked up a Nexus 7.
However the Nexus 7 has lots of issues with slowing down.
https://www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1GGGE_en-gbGB494GB494&ion=1&ie=UTF-8#hl=en&rlz=1C1GGGE_en-gbGB494GB494&sclient=psy-ab&q=nexus%207%20speed%20issues&oq=&gs_l=&pbx=1&fp=4c2080814f1de16e&ion=1&bav=on.2,or.r_cp.r_qf.&bvm=bv.45373924,d.d2k&biw=1920&bih=955
It's also missing lots of apps, especially education ones (maths for the kids for example)
Whereas something like AVplayerHD app will play everything and anything up to and including 1080p mkv's on it, hd stuff on the nexus stutters.
As for file transfers, what do you want to get on them, that won't go through dropbox?
Finally, where did you bring your ipad from? (hint it's bought not brought)
Here's the thing, if it's not an ipad 1, but a 2 or later, I'll swap it for my Nexus 7, how's that?
I have an iPad mini. I use it for work, education, reading. Project planning, mind mapping, note taking, mathematics, Web Browsing, e-mail and very occasionally games. Perhaps it would have been more accurate for you to admit that YOU were unable to use it for anything other than games. That does not represent the devices weakness but rather your failure to identify and exploit appropriate use cases for the devices.
I doubt it. I suspect a lot of it's on price. And familiarity.
My Mum would have no clue what you meant by walled garden, and after you'd explained it (easy enough), she'd struggle to recognise its application to her iPad. Not because she's stupid, just that tech isn't her thing. Her iPad does all the stuff she wants. I notice stuff I can't do on mine, but she doesn't do any more than web surfing, BBC iPlayer, music, games and photos. An Android tab would do all that too, and we were up at John Lewis the other day for an hour playing with all the options. In the end she fancies an iPad Mini, because it's smaller, and it's what she knows.
I guess that once people have had an Android phone, then 'Droid is 'what they know', and so that's the tablet they'll look at first. Then others will buy on price. And the Google Nexus 7, or the Samsungs 7" and 10" are great value. Personally I preferred the Samsung 7" to the Nexus, much better speakers and I liked the screen more. But my next tablet, maybe in a year or two, I really want to have a stylus. I've tried a good Bluetooth keyboard, and I still think nothing beats a stylus for the odd 4 or 5 paragraphs of writing on a tablet. Which is all I'd expect to do, commenting or emailing. For me, serious work needs a desktop (I hate laptops).
If you don't like what Samsung have done, there's loads of choice - that's why I've gone with Android - you're not stuck with the OEMs launcher.
The "GO" launcher and companion apps makes a nice alternative and means you can unify the experience across all your android devices, if you wish.
I understand what some are saying about the walled garden thing. I own all apple devices and love the iway they all work together. If you use the included apps then yes you may feel walled in because they are working together with iTunes and icloud. Try getting some new apps. I use Downcast for podcast, VDownload for videos, Dropbox for file storage and many more. Remember there's an app for that.
I haven't looked in detail at the figures, or legends on the tables to see what they're measuring. I don't really care enough, as I don't take other people's tablet choices personally... Although your link was a bit short on details.
But Even if Android have 50% of current sales, some of the iPads sold when they had most of the market are still in use. Also you have to be careful about sales figures, as Android could have 50% of sales into the channel, but Apple still a majority of sales to consumers. Also different organisations measure sales differently, so they never quite agree. YouGuv do a lot through online surveys - they have a panel of regulars they survey, I don't know if they top that up with on street or phone interviews. Apparently 8m Brits have never gone online though.
My lads persuaded me to get a tablet last year which cost £200ish. I brought the wife a 2nd hand 1st gen ipad for Christmas, I paid £250. She wanted it to play scrabble at work during breaks but the tablet didn't have the official scrabble app.
I have dabbled with the ipad but other than it being smoother than the tablet I see no real difference.
I get the impression that these really are just play things. Only once did I use the tablet in a support situation, and that was to run some wireless diagnostics which actually proved to be very useful as it was easier to carry the tablet than the laptop.
Im sure I will be heavily down voted, but other than games, internet, social sites and watching movies I see no real benefit in an ipad... or tablet for that matter.
It seems a £47 tablet can do pretty much the same thing as a £600 ipad
Im sure I will be heavily down voted, but other than games, internet, social sites and watching movies I see no real benefit in an ipad... or tablet for that matter.
but apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads, and a freshwater system and baths and public order ... What have the Romans ever done for us?
You are right, it's a luxury. I really wouldn't want to live without a computer, and access to the internet and all the entertainment and practical goodies which all that brings. And I could perfectly happily live without my iPad. Although since getting it, my PC at home only gets used 2 or 3 times a week now, and I can read stuff on t'internet while sitting in a comfy armchair. Plus I can listen to the BBC iPlayer (radio mostly), without having to have my PC in my sitting room. And use the thing as a remote controller to drive music and podcasts through my speakers. Plus play the odd game, look at any of my photos, check my diary when I'm on the phone, take the odd note in meetings, read or play games on the train... It's a long list. All of it can be done with a laptop, but not as conveniently or comfortably.
I was hospitalized for a week recently - in Thailand.
I noticed all the nurses used iPads for keeping patient journals.
Repeat: There are a gazillion vertical applications that are of great interest to people in those markets, none of which you might even conceive. You should probably should try and take a broader view of the world and the use patterns for tablets before you diss them.
Just saying
ps: Your final statement is provably false.
Saw a fascinating article on Groklaw about the Apple-Samsung spat
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20130416214944734
Apple are trying to get the current infringement lawsuit through to the point where they've been awarded damages and the appeals process has been exhausted so they get to keep the money. The rush is that there's a parallel process which may end up declaring the patents invalid, which they acknowledge might not finish its appeals process until 2017. Under the broken US system, if they win damages from Samsung before the patents are declared invalid, they get to keep the money.
I wonder how big the remaining market might be. Some parsimonious persons will be happy to stick to a smart phone and a lap-top and others will wait until they get the free tablet as a remote control for their TV or car. Anybody wants to bet that the tablet market will go the way of the netbook market in the next 5 years?
A pocket-sized 7/8" device is handy for a whole bunch of situations where a 10" device is inconvenient. And vice versa. A hand-sized phone fits into a different category too. The survey graph quoted misses out on reporting the most interesting phenomena going on with tablets by lumping them all together.
YouGov site: " YouGov found that the optimal price point for tablets is £250 amongst hot prospects. Lukewarm prospects and current rejectors of tablets will require prices in the £150 to £200 price range before they become more interested in purchase."
TL;DR version: People want tablets, and unsurprisingly are buying cheaper ones than the ones Apple sell.
It's really not rocket science. The iPad's share of sales will dwindle further unless they innovate. Android tablets seem to be where the innovation is at: a choice of software keyboards, different form factors, pen input on some models and amazing CPU power at an affordable price. Had to laugh a few days ago when a non-techie friend said they were disappointed after they tried the iPad mini out at the apple store - apparently the game they tried runs a lot smoother on her daughter's Nexus 7 and she questioned why anyone would pay twice the price of a Nexus for an inferior product.
Surely it's common sense? If your competitors are building products that do the same thing, sometimes with functionality that improves on yours and has a better price point, that means you're going to take home less of the pie?
Apple are fast becoming the British Leyland of the mobile and tablet world. Happy to sit back and know people will buy their products, but not responding to the fact that their competitors are bringing products that do the same thing (sometimes with added extras*) and are undercutting them at the same time.
(* the reason I use BL as an example is due to all the anecdotes people have about buying a car in the early 70's. The foreign competition produced cheaper, more reliable motors with luxuries like a car radio which cost extra in the equivalent BL ranges. This reminds me of the closed iOS ecosystem, and how jelly iPhone users seem to get when you mention all the cool things Android apps let you do that Apple have deemed unacceptable in their walled garden)
Apple have lost market share. But they've sold a lot of iPads. This is natural - the competition for serious punters just wasn't really there a year and a bit ago. That's now changed.
I own an iPad, an I'm perfectly happy with my purchase. Except that the girlfriend seems to always be 'borrowing' the iPad and I barely get to use it. But a Nexus 7 would be very tempting, given its cheapness. In fact, so would a Nexus 4 in place of my iPhone.
I'll probably keep paying the Apple 'idiot tax' because I'm used to it all. But what I suspect is happening is that a lot of the more casual users, and in particular people who maybe haven't got a pile of cash to burn through just at the moment, are being tempted by devices that are far cheaper than the iPad but lack very little indeed in terms of comparable features.
> people who maybe haven't got a pile of cash to burn through just at the moment, are being tempted by devices that are far cheaper than the iPad but lack very little indeed in terms of comparable features
Thanks for highlighting the core of what's going on. That's much more interesting than poop wars between people whose egos have been invested in a brand or product. Although BTW most comments on this article have been pretty sensible.
At our local, the completely computer illiterate landlord has just got a Nexus 10 and wifi in the bar.
Not only can he actually operate it, it is snappier than my laptop.
All pub arguments can now be solved!
P.S. at a friends house recently I mistook an iPad for a trivet, oops!
<=== A pint of Doom Bar
Its not volume its profits, and when it comes to profits , Apple win on both profit per table and on selling of software as well, while all the other companies have to fight over harware margins in a race to the bottom and the only ones who get any money from the software is google!
Apple has like 7% of the PC market and yet makes more profit than the four top PC companies combined , WORK IT OUT!
Apple makes premium kit and makes money by managing their supply chain efficiently and pricing their products at the premium end. Generally, Apple's products are not significantly more expensive than similarly specced competitors, they are however generally of a higher manufacturing quality, something for which people will happily pay a premium.
I own some Apple products. I don't feel ripped off at all! They have been as durable and functional as I expected. YMMV
Bootnote: Just because you are o member of the jealous poor, there is no reason to advertise it via your opinionated comments.
Just because people choose not to buy apple products does not make then "Jealous poor" I have a iPhone as a work phone and I got my wife a iPhone too, I personally hate the thing, it is great for things like browsing and apps and stuff, it is awful at 2 key thing i use it for though. Making phone calls (Call failed pisses me off especially when i have an almost full signal!!!) and sending text messages. (I have dyslexia so rely on auto correct that is woefully inaccurate)
That is not what I wrote.
I merely pointed out a well known characteristic of people in general. People who cannot afford a product that they would in fact like to own, would rather denigrate said product than admit it is out of their price range. Evidence of this human characteristic is writ in very large brushstrokes across The Register forums.
While price != quality, buying high quality cheap stuff is rather difficult and products which are overpriced for the quality they deliver rarely last long in the market. Whether you like it or not, quite a lot of people consider Apple to be high quality kit, and are willing and able to pay for it.
Lots of Nexus fans here today. Too many missing apps for me, but each to their own. I would be concerned if I was a tablet manufacturer though. How is anyone supposed to make a decent profit when Google and Amazon are practically giving these things away - won't that be a bit of a problem in the long term having set the price expectation so low? As the title says I am just waiting for the new mini before I buy my second iPad and looking forward to watching the F1 stream in the rather nice Sky Sports app over the weekend.
What missing apps? All the main bases are covered, or are you one of those idiots that look for iPad apps on Android? As guess what... An Android owner can do the same, look at Android-only apps and not find them on iOS.....
Almost all application develop occurs on Android first, iOS later.
"Almost all application develop occurs on Android first, iOS later."
Actually there is a lot of evidence that it is exactly the opposite. I think this is wishful thinking on your part and a reflection of you personal preference rather than any reflection of reality.
Android tablets are good.
Ipads are good.
It all depends on what you use them for.
We need the competition between products to drive development.
Without Android, Ipads would become a walled garden because there would be no other way.
Without Ipads, Android would become a walled garden because there would be no other way.
Buy the tablet you like and stop bitching.
If you don't like it then sell it and buy the other one.
If you have to do that more than once you are stupid.
End of.
" it just seems a more secure way of handling my data."
You mean, relying on the underpaid employees of a large company to spot malicious applications when said large company gets paid by sales, not for support?
The Apple qualification process has apparently failed to stop malicious applications that dial premium rate numbers. This just doesn't suggest to me that I would trust them with anything without independent evidence. And if I have to consult forums to find out whether something is really OK or not, why pay extra for the illusion of security?
Can you provide any references? Apple doesn't expose an API for dialling numbers and, at least for me, Google can find no hits concerning any iOS application that has ever maliciously dialled a premium rate number (eg, via a backdoor or other unofficial API route).
In 2012, Apple had 73% of the tablets in the UK. 5% of the population had tablets, so 3.65% had Apple tablets.
In 2013, Apple had 63% of the tablets in the UK. 19% of the population had tablets, so 11.97% had Apple tablets.
Apple are surely doomed, someone call the stonemason.
Is this really such a surprise - lets assume Apple sell 100k tablets and have 100% of the market - along come some competitors. Apple now sell 150k tablets but the competitors sell 50k as well - Apple are still selling 50k more but shock horror their market share had dropped to 75%.
A while later Apple now sell 200k tablets and their competitors sell 100k - Apple still selling another 50k but crikey their market share is now just 66.7% (despite them actually selling 100% more than when they started). Manipulating figures and percentages is wonderful isnt' it...
You say in 2012 5% of adult population had a tablet and now in 2013 18%. If I take an adult population of 44 million then tablets have grown from 2.2 million to 8 million. So Apple (73%) had 1.6 and the rest 0.6 million tablets in 2012 and now in 2013 Apple has 5 million and the rest 3 million. Apple has the sold 3.4 million tablets and the rest 2.4 million so it is clear to me that UK customer still prefer Apple !!!
Whilst I'm interested in the MS tablets as I'm far more familiar with a Windows environment (yeah I know!), having invested a serious sum in my iPad2 less than 2 years ago and its still fine for what I use it for (mail, web, games, books) there is no point swapping out. Yes the walled garden can be annoying, the lack of bluetooth mouse support rendered it useless for VDI for me and I would like it not to weigh as much as a housebrick too, but mostly it does the job.
Got a two year old iPad2 and a Galaxy Note II.
When the iPad gives out or aI fancy a change it'll be to an Android tablet. Probably a samsung Note variety.
I am just sick of the inability to do simple things on the iPad. I download a file - it's not a file the iPad can do anything with so basically it's just gone - I wanted to download it to transfer to my PC at a later date before the file became unavailable. Other times I have to resort to emailing myself files in order to move things from the iPad to another device. At least dropbox is handy here.
On my phone, it doesn't care. It'll just download the file, whatever file, to the downloads directory. I can view my files (wow!, what a novel concept) and do what I want with them from there.
I still dont understande why, of your will to spend several hundred quid you wouldn't go for a window 8 tablet? for simular cash you get a all the fuctionality of any ipad android pad + a netbook/laptop chucked in. it's so much deeper than a simple tablet with app icons in a grid you get a real computer. the only downside is less availiable apps and that really is the only downside. some pretty big ones still missing but by far most wouldn't be missed lets face it. you get a usb port with does all the things it should too, its a no brainer, or should be.
Most people don't want a real computer, and have been turned off by their experience of real computers at work. They want something that does the few things that they actually find useful in a real computer - i.e. email, web, media consumption, and chat but without the hassle, endless popups demanding this that or the other in geek speak. They want a static environment so that they can be in charge, even with their very limited understanding of technology. to people like this, a grid of icons is revolutionary!
As for me, a real computer consumes too much power to be portable but hey a portable gadget is the perfect way to get said real computer to work for me wherever I am... as long as the portable gadget has a proper keyboard... sigh.
It's good to see Apple helping other manufactures.
Until the iPad came out no one thought a tablet was useful, now everyone does.
People think Apple kit is expensive so bu cheaper.
Technically literate people like Android because they can do all sorts of things with it. The point of tablets is that you shouldn't have too. 'Normal' people love the iPad if they try one but don't use Android tablets if they buy one - it's a shame, they buy Android to see what the fuss about tablets is about and then think they are awful.
People that buy iPads just fall in love with them.
For me the entire tablet market is horses for courses.
The hardware is a commodity now, I don't think it really matters what's under the hood provided it operates your apps seemlessly, has sufficient storage capacity and the means to get an internet connection.
The USP is in the OS and applications that are available.
Application providers seem to be launching apps cross platform now so that isn't really a concern although you could say IOS has no place in the Microsoft based Enterprise as everything is a fudge to get things connected.
I've been turned off by IOS due to Apple's orgy for iTunes and seemingly need to make a quick buck out its customers by selling devices like the iPhone 5 that are almost identifical to the iPhone 4S. I really need to spend some time in an Android world bar my Mrs Samsung S2 that I don't get on with at all. Then that leaves Windows 8, that I actually like and further allow me to connect seemlessly to my corporate network, yet here we are 2 months after Surfsce Pro release in the States and Microsoft making their usual gaff at getting it rolled out to the UK.
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