Why 2012 Will Be the Year of the Android Tablet 584
lseltzer writes "The iPad has dominated the high-end tablet market so far, but that is about to change. At CES in Las Vegas in a couple weeks you will see tablets running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) everywhere and at prices that will make an iPad a lot harder to justify. The competition from the OEM model in the Android markets will massively shift market share away from Apple, just as it has done in the smart phone market."
2012 will be the year of the... (Score:3, Funny)
...first post
This is it! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This is it! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This is it! (Score:5, Insightful)
This was my thought exactly... these 'this is the year of *insert personal preference*' get rather repetitive. People seem obsessed with whatever they like being accepted by the majority as the 'right' solution.. I guess it is an extension of the 'I am smart, there is one ideal, so if other people do not agree with me either I am stupid or they are stupid, so it is important that my choices for my use case are universally correct, otherwise my ego hurts' meme.
Re:This is it! (Score:4, Insightful)
Desiring your prefered platform to "win" is not about wanting to feel superior. It is about wanting your platform to gain enough market share that vendors produce products for that platform.
Re:This is it! (Score:4, Insightful)
There was a period where Mac's market share fell to around 2%. But it was always a premium 2%. The 2% that were most interested in quality and willing to pay. That's why Mac when it was around 6-7% market share represented something like 50% of all the profits. Mac users, spend much more on hardware and software.
And that carries over. For example the iOS market place is 7x the size in dollar terms of the Android, Blackberry and Nokia marketplace combined.
The problem for the Linux market on the desktop is not just the lack of share but the lack of a market. Linux wants the low end. Microsoft however, unlike the server market, is willing to price themselves down far enough to compete for the low end. In the server market Microsoft (like Apple) choose margin over marketshare, on the desktop they choose the reverse.
Re: (Score:3)
I don't know about that. The mid 1990s was the time period of the Quadras and the Powerbook.
-- By 1996 you had switched over to power, putting you well ahead of the x86s in terms of CPU. And before that the 68040s were better than 486s.
-- You had SCSI and not the cheap IDE/ISA drives that were common in PCs.
Those were much better machines. Prices were a bit high. I certainly thought you were paying way too much.
Essentially the PC world was catching up. But 2% market share happened in the mid 2000s. It
Re: (Score:3)
Playing a startup sound would simply involving editing a login script.
Setting up multiple screens (with Gnome at least), just involves invoking System->Administration->Display. I can't see how easier that could be. Only the user can know the relative orientation of each monitor to its peers, as well as the preferred resolution. I doubt if it would be practical for some GUI software wizard to try and guess what the user wants. Maybe they might want screen at 1024x768 resolution because that's the fixed
Re: (Score:3)
You are both right and oh so terribly wrong. The days of edit config files are ever so safely still in place with Linux and will remain so for ever. For the noobs 'er' inexperienced users GUIs interfaces are available but for the experienced user the editable config file remains.
The reason why this is prefferable, because you can shut down the service edit it's individual config file and start the service up again, without rebooting the whole system, this is a must for servers. Of course for desktops, sm
Re:This is it! (Score:5, Funny)
To be precise, December 21, 2012 will be the day of Desktop Linux.
Re: (Score:2)
iPad vs. all Android tablets (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets (Score:4, Interesting)
Isn't that a good thing though? With iPad you get very little choice as to what you want, everyone's iPad is the same excepting how much space it's got and whether it has 3G.
With Android tablets though, because they come in such varieties and with such a selection of features you can have a much more personalised experience. Not to mention the fact that individual manufacturers can customise the interface, like HTC Sense and Samsung TouchWiz, to give you more opportunity to pick one that you like. iPad only offers one choice as far as that goes.
Re: (Score:3)
Sorry, but... what has that really done for HP or RIM? What will make things different for Motorola (again), HTC, or Asus? Samsung might be a special case, but I would argue for all the wrong reasons-- purely imitating the iPad!
Options are great, and strong-armed dominance is dangerous... but it is pretty hard to justify the idea that ICS is going to be the catalyst to make Android tablets successful. I'm biased though as a happy owner of an iPad.
Re: (Score:3)
Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets (Score:4, Insightful)
Most of the Android phones were sold at carriers other than AT&T and at much lower price points. 2012 when Android comes up for renewal at Sprint and Verizon will be interesting. You'll have iPhones at all the same Android price points and available from the same carriers with the same data options. It really will be (excuse the pun) an apples to apples comparison. Many of the key aspects of Android like:
-- Poor / no updates for OSes
-- Incompatibility for apps.
-- Crippled features from carriers
-- Microsoft taking a licensing fee
are starting to bite.
I sincerely hope that Android continues to do well. While I'm an iPhone user I think the competition is in every consumer's interest. And certainly when I bought my iPhone I looked long and hard at some HTC models. While software helped, it was ultimately hardware, not software, that made me pick the iPhone.
Re: (Score:3)
Most of my friends who got Android Phones for Verizon because that was the best alternative to iPhone at the time on that carrier are either replacing their android phone with an iPhone or have already done so even buying an iPhone without the discount of a new contract. When I asked them, they all pretty much shrugged that Android was "okay", but originally what they WANTED was an iPhone, just not with AT&T.
I'm not sure with my friends on Sprint, but I've known people that have abandoned AT&T and
Re: (Score:3)
LUL! What? I could get a free iPhone from the very first day iPhone was being offered.
Other than stealing it, no you couldn't.
Re: (Score:3)
Nobody asked for your opinion either... but look! There it is.
Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets (Score:5, Informative)
I agree "Innovative" was the wrong word for the Transformer. "Awesome" would, however, be more the right nuance.
I bought the first netbook (also ASUS, of course, the Eee PC) because the form factor worked for me as something you didn't hesitate to carry everywhere - and lightened the load on vacation while still being able to keep up with E-mail and handle all my photo review / tossing-out / rotating / cropping / blogging.
I love the "pad" style touch interface (I'm having to hold back from touching other screens now), but I'm just not terse enough to do E-mail with a screen keypad. Only useful for typing in passwords and short URLs. No E-mail, no-take-on-vacation. End of story.
An iPad with a keyboard accessory could cure that, but the Transformer is much more - doubling the battery life (and the way it does it is very clever: plug a depleted pad into the keyboard and it will actually charge it up until the keyboard is nearly depleted, so a mid-day session of catching up E-mail can have you ready to go back out to the field again; I never bring the charger to work), and providing an SD port and two USB ports. That's "killer app" compared to an iPad right there. (Oh, and Transformers have a micro-SD slot right on the Pad, so you can either increase your storage with it, or even use one in your camera and be able to review photos on a 10" screen...)
YMMV, but in my location, the price of the Transformer with keyboard and 32GB was the same as the iPad2 with 32GB and no keyboard. Case closed.
Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you really think business students represent mainstream users? There are iPad docks, but you're talking about one with a battery and USB ports, turning the tablet into a netbook. People don't want that. They don't want the old, clunky computer designs anymore, and they don't want to deal with a mess of cables. Mice and keyboards are wireless now. Hell, even iOS devices can sync wirelessly.
There's just this fundamental disconnect between what techies want and what the rest of the world wants. Techies want more ports, more specs, more everything. The rest of the world wants reduced complexity, not more of it.
Please, put down the crack pipe and step away from the kool-aid. When I'm out in town using my Transformer the first thing people assume is it is a netbook. Then I take it apart and after they pick up their jaws they're asking what is it and where can they get one.
Whereas not everyone wants it, there sure as hell are a lot of people who do and not just the implied "techno geeks" you're thinking of. Lots of iPad users see it and do wish they had such a dock.
You're just going to have to get used to the idea that while the iPad 2/3/whatever is nice, the ass kicking that is about to be handed to Apple outside their core fanboi base is going to be absolutely Epic.
Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets (Score:4, Insightful)
For many people, more choice is a bad thing [ted.com].
Re: (Score:3)
That web site gets my award for the very worst site of 2011, and maybe the century so far. The actual content, the talk itself, is in a little bitty two inch wide by two inch tall window that puts each sentence in a separate line; it's as unreadable is it can get. Sorry, but I can't respect any data or opinion that comes from a site that damned bad -- gees, ten year olds had better sites in Geocities.
So I copied the talk to Notepad and read it, and the fucking TALK was content-free!
Thanks for wasting five m
Re:Divide and conquer (Score:5, Interesting)
You just described the death of Android.
I'm not seeing Android die anytime soon from where I'm sitting.
Re:Divide and conquer (Score:5, Interesting)
As somebody who has both a HoneyComb tablet/Samsung 7" tablet and an iPad (original and 2) I have to say I am really really disappointed with Android. Android has four flaws:
1) Hardware update support SUCKS! I have both a Sony Ericsson Xperia phone, and Acer Iconia Tablet. When I bought the phone it was essentially out of date because Sony said to get the new Android OS you need to buy the more expensive phone. HAD I known that I would not have bought the phone. However Sony did a 180 and said, "ok ok ok we will get you an update." When the original update was released it too Switzerland 7 months to get it. The exact same thing happened with my Acer Iconia. Acer kept hemming and hawing on their 3.1 update and being in Switzerland I was essentially at the tail end of the release. I had Acer Germany unlock the code for me to get my update. This just effen sucks! The Android vendors don't get updates! They just think it is an opportunity for you to buy the latest and greatest piece of hardware NOT!
2) The apps are lacking on Android. Two apps come to mind; Aligator water, and Wetter.com. Put the iPad and Android tablet edition side by side and what you see is that the iPad or iOS app is so much better. Why is that? When I run my Android apps they are slower, and jerkier (yes this has been discussed due to the software architecture choices made). Frankly I don't shive a git! I want a smooth flowing tablet and if Apple found the ideal way so be it, it is the right approach.
3) Hardware software compatibility. I have so many little tweaks and twiddles with the Android system that it just tires me out. Take for example setting up the wireless networking. On my iOS I can use DHCP and everything works. For some odd and strange reason with Android the network connections drop, come back, drop, come back, and drop and come back. They do this for about 5 minutes until they just stay connected. If I put in a network address all is good. Of course you could argue, "wait your network does something funny." Well my answer is that my laptops (windows, linux, and OSX) work just fine, as does my iPhone, and iPad. Thus while maybe it is network issue, I consider it an Android issue since the other devices are ok.
4) The hardware is sub-standard by most, not all vendors in comparison to Apple. Most of the Android hardware sucks. I have a Samsung tablet and it is not bad. Good quality. The Acer is ok, but things like battery life just suck. Overall for the amount of money I pay I am disappointed.
Overall I have to say I am completely disappointed with Android (had high hopes) as I feel Google is doing piss poor job of ensuring a certain amount of quality and usability. Android might sell more devices, but unless Android really changes its stripes it will always be a cheap-skates paradise...
Re: (Score:3)
Android is to mobile phones what the Windows PC is to computers. Except Microsoft is better at supplying updates.
It's the commodity - large amount of choice, from many vendors, and thus biggest market share. But most of it poor quality,and full of accident complexity.
As you say, the cheap-skates paradise.
Re:Divide and conquer (Score:5, Informative)
Funnily enough, no it doesn't. Only part of Android is open source, the rest is closed source and needs to be licensed from Google. And if the manufacturer doesn't license the closed source parts, they can't call it Android as Android is a trademark of Google.
Kindle Fire doesn't license those parts, and thus doesn't have the full Android functionality, can't call it's software Android, and doesn't have access to the Android Marketplace.
It's related to Android, but it isn't Android.
Re:Divide and conquer (Score:4, Insightful)
As somebody who has both a HoneyComb tablet/Samsung 7" tablet and an iPad (original and 2) I have to say I am really really disappointed with Android. Android has four flaws:
I have an ASUS Transformer and was lent an iPad 2 by a friend. Let's compare!
1) Hardware update support SUCKS!
Same thing here, my Galaxy S and Transformer both get fairly timely updates, but my friend's iPhones are blocked from getting new features like Siri even though the hardware is perfectly capable. Updates for Android make noticeable improvements where as most of the stuff in iOS updates just seems to be ways for Apple to wring more money out of you.
2) The apps are lacking on Android
There is a real lack of apps for iOS because so much is blocked from the App Store. Casual developers and open source projects won't pay the high fees and it also means apps tend to more more expensive and there are fewer free ones. Apple's ridiculous requirements mean you can't get lots of useful apps because they do things like allow you to execute scripts or load ROMs. There is also only one app store and you can't just buy apps via web sites, or back them up to SD card (or even use an SD card), or email them to another phone etc. I have a few apps that are non-market ones.
Also lots of iOS apps just seem to be flashy graphics that slide and zoom nicely but the actual functionally it lacking. In particular there are no good backup apps like Titanium Backup for Android, or BitTorrent, or Tor, or emulators etc.
3) Hardware software compatibility.
The dock connector really sucks. What is wrong with USB? I have to carry a special charging/sync cable, and I have to use the shitty iTunes software just to copy some files off the damn thing. My Android phone has basically replaced the USB flash drive I used to carry. Apple also loves to break the peripherals from the last generation, especially 3rd party ones. The guy who lent me the iPad has some speakers that work perfectly with his iPod Classic but inexplicably don't work at all with his iPhone, even though the connector is the same and there doesn't seem to be any technical reason for it.
Media support on the iPad is terrible too. Everything has to be converted by iTunes which takes ages and there is no Flash for video.
4) The hardware is sub-standard by most, not all vendors in comparison to Apple.
I'd say it's much better generally, at least on comparably priced devices.
Now, a few points of my own:
5) No user changeable battery. I push my phone quite hard and although battery life is better than what my friend's iPhone seems to get eventually that battery will wear out, and I want to be able to change it.
6) No SD card, and I need iTunes just to access the damn thing. The amount Apple charges for an extra 16GB is outrageous, more than I can get a 64GB SD card for.
7) No USB host support, I can plug any random USB gamepad into the Transformer and it just works.
8) Lack of multitasking. I often want to copy/paste from the browser to Colornote or an email but on iOS you have to close each app before going to the other one. There are no background apps either, for instance I use a GPS logger while I am taking photos on my DSLR so I can geotag them later and it does it quietly while I can look at maps etc. without closing it.
9) Poor screen. The iPad 2 screen is only 1024x768, too small for web browsing IMHO. I upgraded my old Thinkpad laptop because the screen was only 1024 pixels wide and would never want to go back to anything under 1280 now. My 12.5" Let's Note is 1400 pixels which seems to be about the right DPI.
10) Expensive accessories and peripherals. Apple charges silly money and seem to be keeping official 3rd party prices high too. You can get knock-off stuff but it tends to be crap, where as on Android I can use generic but good quality peripherals costin
Re: (Score:3)
1) Hardware update support sucks!
Nice try, but you'll have to work a lot harder to convince Slashdotters that the average upgrade experience on Android is at par or better than the average experience on Apple devices. Even with Samsung devices, you are still largely at the mercy of the cellular provider for Android updates.
2) The apps are lacking on Android
It's the walled garden filter on one side versus making no money (and thus no financial incentive to develop anything) on the other. A push at best.
3) Hardware software compatibility.
This comment has merit but is now dated with the release of iOS 5.0.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:3)
Overall I have to say I am completely disappointed with Android (had high hopes) as I feel Google is doing piss poor job of ensuring a certain amount of quality and usability. Android might sell more devices, but unless Android really changes its stripes it will always be a cheap-skates paradise...
google makes the OS, not the hardware, and if you think the likes of samsung, acer, et al. would accept google coming in and demanding that the hardware meets google's quality standard, i have a bridge to sell you. hardware manufacturers are already extremely jittery about google "owning" the OS[1]. it wouldn't take much to scare them off.
Re: (Score:3)
I'm not seeing Android die anytime soon from where I'm sitting.
The glossy white throne with perfectly rounded corners is right over here.
Re: (Score:3)
Objective-C was developed by Next before they were acquired by Apple. It is the basis of all modern OS X and iOS applications. It is also used by the OpenStep framework for other platforms but I wouldn't classify it as widely used. It is really just an object oriented extension to standard C, much as C++ is. In my opinion it has no equal for building dynamic UI APIs. It really is an advantage for iOS. Any competent C programmer can pick up Objective-C in a couple of days.
Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets (Score:5, Insightful)
Just like PCs. I'd hate to be a PC developer these days, and have to buy thousands of them just to make sure my application was fully tested.
Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:3)
I'm not really a power user, I want a smartphone to be able to do several things. One, I want it to sync easily with my Gmail and Google Calendar. Android? Check. iPhone? Can do it, I guess, but not nearly as easily.
What's not as easy? Add an account on an iPhone and you are offered the choice of iCloud, MS Exchange, GMail, Yahoo!, Aol, Hotmail and MobileMe. Choose GMail, put in your name, email address and password, and you're done. Gmail and Google Calendar.
I find the Android home screen to be a mess. I n
Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets (Score:5, Insightful)
This shouldn't come to a shock to anyone. Mac except FOR A VERY SHORT period. Has always controlled their hardware (in some cases to their demise).
You have a memory leak. The mac clones almost killed Apple. The problem was that the clones cannibalize sales of Apple macs rather than expanding the marketshare of Mac OS. They were also of worse quality leaving Apple with less sales but higher end user support costs as they had to troubleshoot mac os for those clone owners.
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That doesn't matter, fanboi. Just ask Apple's board what they think about going from 98% dominance to 40-50% in just 18 months. They're shitting themselves. Apple will still be the dominant device because they offer no options, just a bump in storage until the next incarnation. And zealots like you will buy += iDevice regardless of what else is available.
98% to half that in a matter of months, that's going to really hurt. Apple will have to offer a range to keep up. They'll need a smaller cheaper device to
Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets (Score:5, Insightful)
That... depends a lot. Do they have 40-50% share of a much larger market? Are they am making more, less, or the same amount per unit? I don't think Apple's board, or anyone else, ever expects to dominate any one niche forever. They don't need to. Apple's profits are rising. They make more per phone (and tablet) than any Android manufacturer and sell more units than any Android manufacturer. Their goal is make money, not dominate markets. They *still* make more profits on their computer division than any other single computer manufacturer, despite only being around 6 or 7 percent of the market share. When compared to "Windows PCs", Macs are a small minority of computers. When compared to "Dell PCs", Macs beat all the other manufacturers in sales and make more per unit. Dominating markets is nice, but it's not likely to last. Being a huge player in a much larger market makes just as much money and can last a good long while.
Look at phones. For a while iPhone dominated the smartphone category. Then Android joined the fray. People started buying Android phones too. Eventually more people bought Android phones than iPhones, but here's the thing... More people were buying iPhones than ever before. Every ad for an iPhone is, in a way, and ad for an Android phone. Every ad for an Android phone is, in a way, an ad for an iPhone. Ads for both make people want smartphones, and that's good for everybody. Would you rather have the whole 12 inch diameter pie, or a quarter of a pie the size of a dining room table?
Re: (Score:3)
That is the important question. For the most part, yes. They have lost the bragging rights of '98%', but they are still laughing all the way to the bank, and in the end that is what their shareholders care about.
Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets (Score:5, Insightful)
Last time I checked, the Apple board is probably concerned with revenues, profits, and ":increasing shareholder value".
I'm sure they are not to upset that the most successful non-Apple tablets are sold at a loss....
Re: (Score:3)
I have an iPad and an a Samsung Galaxy S II. The iPad user interface is polished, the Apple applications are equally polished and complete. The Galaxy is populated with buy-more-now applications, the user interface is barely usable and the applications obviously unfinished.
Email applications - of course, thie phone has two. One for Exchange email and a separate one for Gmail. No integration possible there for the user. The two email applications have entirely different user interfaces and different def
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
And Android device makers are going to make tens of dollars on each unit while Apple makes hundreds.
I really hope 2012 IS the "year of Android tablets" so that after that we can get on to something else.
Honestly I haven't yet seen a device that's compelling to most end users the way the Apple products are. YES you can do everything with an Android device, but it's the same way you can do everything with Ubuntu Linux on a desktop instead of MacOS or Windows. It's great for us techies, but can you really get
Re: (Score:3)
YES you can do everything with an Android device, but it's the same way you can do everything with Ubuntu Linux on a desktop instead of MacOS or Windows. It's great for us techies, but can you really get your parents to to use one every day?
Yes... that is, until Unity came out. So much for that...
Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets (Score:4, Insightful)
But is [Unity] truly bad for end users? As a default user interface for non-technical people, I think it's pretty good.
I think it's terrible for end users. Making the "start menu" into a search field where you have to know the name of the program you're looking for is stupid, especially for someone first using the computer. It's like they don't want anyone to learn to use any programs other than the web browser.
Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets (Score:4, Informative)
nerdy technical innovation every few months that's incompatible with the previous version.
This is a myth. Android releases have always been backwards compatible. That is, Apps written for Android 1.0 will work just fine in Android 1.1 and any later release in the future. If you're writing an app that requires, say, Android 2.1, such as a Live Wallpaper, then any Android running version 2.1 and higher will work fine. Devices that don't meet the requirement simply won't see the app in the Market.
If appropriate, developers can mark that support as optional, so your app will include that feature if the device supports it, and if it doesn't the feature will be disabled and the rest of the app will work regardless.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
This is simply false. Samsung is easily in the same class as Apple by themselves with respect to Android phones.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
See, this is the kind of argument I have trouble with. Samsung does a great job copying Apple.
I don't haven an iPad or any Android device, but if you look at the situation objectively: Microsoft has touted tablets for what -- 15 years? Nothing of substance has come of it. Apple makes version 1.0 and it becomes an insane hit . Then other companies copy them and they're held up to the same standard as Apple?
No, the best you can say is Samsung can make a good quality copy product. If they were in the same
Re: (Score:3)
Yes, it comes down on who you are. If you're a shareholder, a manufacturer, or a back-seat CEO, Apple has the biggest market. But if you're a consumer or an app developer, Android has the biggest market. It's playing itself out just like it did with Windows and Macs.
No one is saying that Apple is doing anything wrong here. In fact, they're having record profits. And the Android-based manufacturers will probably end up with razor-thin margins, just like the PC manufacturers did. I don't know why you're comp
Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets (Score:4, Informative)
"But look at any individual manufacturer, and that "All Android Phone" share is sliced into so many tiny pieces that Apple dwarfs them."
Really?
Many sets of stats, like these:
http://www.mobilesplease.co.uk/news/nokia-lumia-slow-start/ [mobilesplease.co.uk]
and these:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15489523 [bbc.co.uk]
Suggests that's simply not true.
If you look at the first survey for the UK, the Galaxy S II has been outselling the iPhone 4 white, and black model combined, and it's only when you then factor in the 4S white, and black model, that the iPhone finally overtakes the Galaxy S II in sales.
What all stats coming out in the last couple of months appear to demonstrate is that you're quite wrong - the Galaxy S II as a single model, has been outselling either the iPhone 4, or the iPhone 4S as a single model. When Samsung combines all it's Smartphones, as the iPhone 3GS, 4, and 4S are lumped together as if they're equally a single offering, it's shifting over 7% more handsets than Apple.
It was a valid argument early on, but it just doesn't seem to really hold any weight anymore. This is the fundamental problem with people who feel the need to defend Apple, they originally said Android would never overtake the iPhone, then when it happened they said, no individual manufacturer will ever overtake Apple, now it's happened they're saying no individual handset is beating the iPhone, but even that seems it's almost certainly happening now. Even if it's not quite the case yet and the stats are wrong and the Galaxy S II isn't outselling a specific iPhone model, and almost even all iPhone models combined, then it's still a close enough call such that terms like "Apple dwarfs them" is laughably incorrect rhetoric.
Apple's marketshare for tablets has already declined this year, it's now down as far as 62%, having been up at around 90% last year:
http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mobile/display/20111215172936_Apple_s_Tablet_Market_Share_Drops_to_61_5_in_Q3_2011_IDC.html [xbitlabs.com]
This is with countless false starts (HP's tablet, RIM's playbook etc.), lacklustre Android offerings, and even some Android tablets being banned from sale in some markets. As these issues start to fade and the Android tablets pick up strength, i.e. through inclusion of things like Android 4, then the market for the iPad isn't suddenly going to grow. It's opportunity to thrive has been possibly bigger than ever with all the setbacks competitors have faced, yet it's marketshare has still declined.
I'm not talking Apple down because I have some irrational will to see them fail, I'm not that much of a fanboy - I do disagree with many of their corporate decisions, but what I do like is to see a bit of truthfulness in these sorts of discussions, because fanboys lying to themselves and agreeing with each other is a largely meaningless sport - a fanboy can spout some crap about how their pet brand is going to win some arbitrary war all they want, but it wont change reality if it then doesn't. By all means I may be wrong, and Apple may see a resurgence that allows it to grab increasing levels of marketshare, and that's fair enough if someone wants to make that point, but throwing around clear bullshit like "no individual Android tablet is going to have more than 5%" with no suggestion as to why that might be the case when it's not been the case with phones is meaningless.
There's no doubt Apple is going to continue to be a massively profitable company thanks to the iPhone and iPad in the near to medium term, but I believe they've made some serious mis-steps that has allowed Android to take the lead, and that's led to an inevitable snowballing on it's behalf - the more marketshare it gets, the more developers begin to develop for it, the more open it is, t
Re: (Score:3)
No, that's not what I said at all.
I said the Samsung Galaxy SII has been outselling the iPhone 4. It hasn't been outselling all iPhone models combined, once you factor in iPhone 4S sales, and 3GS sales the iPhone outsells just the Galaxy S II it by 4%.
Model to model comparison though and the Galaxy S II outsells either model individually, factor in the entire Galaxy range, and the entire Galaxy range has been outselling the entire iPhone range.
Note that those stats are for the UK market, however judging by
Re: (Score:3)
You misspelled "winning".
I own an Android-based phone; I'm running a custom 2.3 ROM and will upgrade to ICS as soon as it is available (when someone ports a ROM) but Apple's ecosystem and OS are still quite a bit more advanced than Android's. I really like my phone and I enjoy Android but compared to Apple's ecosystem, it's not that great. I had to root and install a custom ROM to make the phone more than barely functional. That's not entirel
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
The battle between Android tablets a
Re: (Score:3)
Apple by the early 1990s was in the 10% range. The clone stuff was devastating to Apple in the same way it was devastating to IBM, though less so.
There were 3 battles fought in succession.
1) The victory of IBM over most other platforms including Apple.
2) The victory of clones over IBM.
3) The victory of Windows over OS/2.
Re: (Score:3)
Oh, I think iOS will go into decline all by itself now that Steve is gone... without his iron fist to define the experience, it will stray. I mean, hey, it was less than a month, maybe even a week after his death that they rolled out the update with the frustrating page-turning animation which has my wife ready to fling her iPad across the room. Expecting more useless "bling" like this in the experience :-D
Re: (Score:3)
Um, you might be forgetting that Apple already has a historical record of business without Jobs. Granted, they didn't appreciate him that much at that time...
Actually I think I liked that Apple quite a bit more than the Apple we had under Jobs. I'm not a big Jobs fan, but it's hard to deny that he had the clout and exercised a strong role at applying radical management to their product line. Without him, they'll probably lose focus and discipline and slink back into traditional management sluggishness li
Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets (Score:5, Insightful)
As a platform....
1. iOS still accounts for 2/3rd's of Google's mobile searches
http://9to5mac.com/2011/09/21/google-23rds-of-our-mobile-search-comes-from-apples-ios/ [9to5mac.com]
2. The Apple app store generates 4x the revenue of the Android app market....
http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-app-store-2011-12 [businessinsider.com]
3. And Apple generates more profit on the iPhone than the rest of the industry combined.....
http://www.asymco.com/2011/07/29/apple-captured-two-thirds-of-available-mobile-phone-profits-in-q2/ [asymco.com]
Android is the upgrade path of least resistance (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets (Score:5, Insightful)
2. Allow Android comparability. Android Apps are Java Based. Apple can put in a java interpreter and run Android apps. (So to the buyer... This things runs Android and iOS apps while this only runs Android... I guess I will pick the first one)
This way, every developper would make their apps for android as it would run on both platforms, and the validation process would mean that every single iphone app will be 2 weeks late compared to the android version.
Great idea.
Re: (Score:3)
2 weeks? Thats not a problem for iPhone. iPhone apps sell well for a few years with minor updates.
You got too many iPhone users, like me, who are old farts. I can't believe how much patient I am at 42 then I was at 18. At 18 I had to see the movie opening day. At 42... at heck it will be on TV in a few years.
Re: (Score:3)
You can't do that if you want your app to look nice. Plus it's much faster to develop using Objective-C if you know what you are doing. Developing in Java is too confining, something best left to web developers.
I wouldn't know, I only code in php.
Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets (Score:4, Informative)
There's no way in hell Microsoft, Apple, RIM or any of the proprietary giants would have allowed a machine like that to be built if they could stop it - not enough margin for them. Look at how much effort MS put into killing Netbooks.
Still, if Apple wants to compete on price and quality with it, I say bring it on!
Seeing the big boys start competing in the sub-$100 tablet market would definitely be a win for us buying them
Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets (Score:4, Informative)
Wow, you must have a different iPad to me.
On my iPad, ever since IOS 5, everything has been noticably slower, with lag just about everywhere in the interface, from resizing to rotating to scrolling.
Re: (Score:3)
I have a feeling that "very responsive" in your mind is different than others.
No, most people who've used it have been impressed, even the iDevice users. In fact, a plenty of them ordered them on the strength of it.
They'll only get better too - I had a beta ROM of ICS running on it for a while, and that was very slick. I'm looking forward to using the official version when it arrives.
Re: (Score:3)
Because Apple is quite happy capturing 2/3rds of the worldwide mobile phone profit.
Or did you think businesses care about market share and not profit?
Re: (Score:3)
Neither. The apps coming from the libraries right now for iPhone are tuned iPhone or tuned at least for phones similar to the iPhone. They aren't looking at a massive mismatch. Similarly with the iPad.
As an iPhone user those bloat of those frameworks is concerning. I'm getting a little agitated about 100m games.
Re: (Score:3)
Option 3 scares me... I'm envisioning the "Hi, my name is iPad! Hi, my name is Android" commercials now :)
Android will be a nasty crack whore covered in sores who will blow you for a hit.
The iPad is a shiny princess who won't let you touch her for fear you will get semen in her hair.
Choices, choices...
Re: (Score:3)
Like this:
http://androidandme.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/ev17d3.jpg [netdna-cdn.com]
Re: (Score:3)
AJ I'm not sure where you are getting this from.
http://static.arstechnica.net/2011/10/18/apple_4q11_results_006-4e9e18f-intro.png [arstechnica.net]
http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/4e25f4d049e2aee37d070000/chart-of-the-day-apple-revenue-by-product-july-2011.jpg [businessinsider.com]
To pick two example graphs from reputable sources of revenue graphs.
As for your estimates of profit. Apple gives 70% of the revenue from the app store to developer and somewhere between 65-75% of revenue from music sales to the labels. So right off the bat the
Re: (Score:3)
I just went straight to Apple. http://images.apple.com/pr/pdf/q411datasum.pdf [apple.com]
For App Store revenue I would expect that revenue would be their intake rather than including the portion that goes to developers. If this is an incorrect understanding of their data, then my analysis would be off, but such information does not appear to be easily available. The problem I've seen with looking for numbers outside of apple, is that in many cases people will group multiple lines of business related to hardware sales
Kindle Fire (Score:5, Interesting)
The Kindle Fire will pave the way, not because people will choose it over the iPad, but because it is opening the market on the low price range, and for people (like myself) that use computers to compute, and midsize tablets for light duty tasks. Of course, the Nook is also helping develop this market. They both prove that there is a sub $300 market for basic tablets that can surf, watch movies, be good book readers, and serve in areas where even a laptop is too large, and a netbook is not efficient.
Rest assured, the iPad will still dominate the large tablet market, it is just that the new products aren't trying to compete and are instead focusing on growing the market in places that the iPad never entered.
Re: (Score:2)
The Kindle Fire will pave the way, not because people will choose it over the iPad, but because it is opening the market on the low price range, and for people (like myself) that use computers to compute, and midsize tablets for light duty tasks. Of course, the Nook is also helping develop this market. They both prove that there is a sub $300 market for basic tablets that can surf, watch movies, be good book readers, and serve in areas where even a laptop is too large, and a netbook is not efficient.
Rest assured, the iPad will still dominate the large tablet market, it is just that the new products aren't trying to compete and are instead focusing on growing the market in places that the iPad never entered.
In the family, we're avid readers, and as a group we already own three Amazon kindles. But my daughter asked for a Kindle Fire, she wants to be able to see videoclips and such. as much as the Ipad is a more polished platform, the price/accessibility offer of the Fire, and the eventual competition that will turn up, is too compelling.
Re: (Score:2)
I was one of the pre-orderers on the Fire. It has its limitations, to be sure, but I love it. I have a prime account, and love watching movies or tv shows in bed with earbuds while the wife sleeps, or while she is hogging the TV. Or just reading a book, or checking FB or email, /., news, etc. I've never owned a smart phone for many reasons: too much money for bad internet access and too small a screen. But I love my small tablet. Maybe some day a large tablet will make sense, but for now, the Fire fit
Re: (Score:2)
I use my Fire almost every night to watch 40-60 minutes of video and have since it was first delivered. I've never had it stutter, and my wifi connection is not very good. I've had it complain that it can't connect (my wifi issue, not a Fire issue) but the video was still smooth I'm guessing the new update will help who have the problem, or the problem was their internet connection was saturated. A full reboot also helps, to make sure other programs are actually CLOSED, and not just pushed into the backg
Re:Kindle Fire (Score:4, Insightful)
Why 2012 Will Be the Year of the Android Tablet (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Why 2012 Will Be the Year of the Android Tablet (Score:5, Interesting)
ROFL!
Regarding the articles "price to justify" ... I don't have to justify how I spend my budget.
And more profoundly: every tablet buyer who allready has a Mac or an iPhone (and thus iTunes on his PC) will very likely look forward to buy an iPad. Just as many Linux users will favour android tablets.
I would assume a big deal of customers judges by features and not by price. For me the price is relevant if I have two things in front of me that are very similar.
So as it looks now I will by me an iPad this year and an android tablet next year. Because: they are two different things!
Re:Why 2012 Will Be the Year of the Android Tablet (Score:5, Insightful)
This is why developers flock to Apple. Apple has done the hard work of gathering the suckers of the world together so they can be quickly separated from their money.
Re: (Score:3)
So using / having an Apple product makes you a sucker? In what kind of psychosis do you live?
Or is it everyone who owns / spends / earns more money than you, who is a sucker?
Or is it just so that you always buy the cheapest: computer, tablet, phone, car, house ... food?
I spare myself to ask you about your sexual mates ...
Re: (Score:3)
"The Year Of" (Score:4, Insightful)
Every time some tech columnist makes some glorious prediction that "[YEAR] Will Be The Year Of [TECH]", I roll my eyes.
Re:"The Year Of" (Score:5, Funny)
2012 will be the year of failed predictions and prophecies.
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
What are you talking about? Everywhere I look I see Linux running on desktops.
-- Posted from my Windows PC
Stock on hand? (Score:3)
I'll believe it when I see it. (Score:3)
This is just like the "20XX is the year of the Linux Desktop".
I will wait for the end of 2012 before believing the claim.
Year of the Patent Lawyer (Score:5, Insightful)
And all sides will fire off patent lawsuits over trivial features like form filling and email forming. The lawyers will get rich the market will be blocked and confused.
All hail patents the great pusher of innovation, NOT.
Nope (Score:4, Insightful)
It that's going to happen it will become the year of the Apple lawsuits.
"at least 1/3 Android, maybe more" (Score:2)
Hmm... Is 1/3 market share much to cheer (or write) about? I guess "Year of the Android" tablet makes a better headline than "Android tablets will make unspectacular gains in 2012".
Then again maybe 1/3 market share IS a spectacular gain for Android in the tablet market.
Quality up? (Score:2)
Drive prices down? Yup!
Quality up? Uhm... what? Just like it's done with the current crop of Android phones where there is tons and tons of crap and a few really good ones (Galaxy S2, Nexus, etc)?
I clicked on this thinking the guy might have some insight on why Android tablets were about to make a big jump forward, but all this guy is missing is pom poms and a
More that the overall market will grow (Score:5, Insightful)
The article seems to presume that there is a static size for the amount of people who buy tablets. There isn't. As lower-cost entries enter the market, people who previously could not afford one will be able to buy one. So the market will grow, but it's also likely that Apple's overall sales will grow as the market grows. So, sure, Apple's "market share" may shrink, but it's not like Apple's going to make less money than they did before.
Also, there seems to be an assumption that people buy a tablet sorely based on cost. That is certainly part of how people buy something, but there are also metrics of quality, ease of use and also what you've got already. If you already have an iProduct, I'll bet people are a lot more attracted to the idea they can plug it into the iTunes that's already set up and have it work. Learning something new probably isn't a big driver, even if they save a hundred bucks. Apple could also drop prices on the iPad 2 when the 3 comes out, just as they have done with the iPhone when new generations have arrived, in order to compete with the lower end of the market.
Isn't that what everyone said *last* year? (Score:5, Insightful)
This has been predicted over and over again - pretty much since the launch of the original iPad.
It was always "Oh, the iPad was released for $500 less than everyone was guessing, but it's still way overprice! Just you wait for the cheaper, better, faster Android tablets.... any day now.... next month.... just a few more months! The Xoom is coming and it will destroy the iPad, I mean it will have Flash and an SD card slot, and there's no way it will cost more than an iPad and ship with both of those 'key' features broken... Oh, the iPad 2 is out now... well, what did you expect, honeycomb was never designed for tablets properly, even though we have been crowing about how it was going to be the answer to the 'inferior' iPad... just you wait for Ice Cream Sandwich...."
In short, I've heard it all before. The Eee Pad Transformer is good I guess, and at $400 is cheaper than the iPad but so far not much headway. I really hope there are a few really competitive Android tablets to rival the iPad as there have been handsets to rival the iPhone - the competition is good for everyone. So far though, not seeing it.
Wishful thinking from Apple naysayers (Score:5, Insightful)
that have been saying this kind of stuff for years. iPod is lame. iPhone is a useless device. Nobody in their right mind will buy iPad. iPod's price will drive people to competitors. iPhone's price will make in untenable as a phone. iPad is priced more than a laptop, only idiots will pay for it.
Blah, blah, blah. Once a week someone predicts that Apple has finally reached its apex and it's all downhill from here, as the products lack features, are too expensive, the garden is walled, and new competitors X, Y, and Z have finally figured it out and this will be their week|month|year.
So far, this has always been empirically demonstrated to be so much crap by the time the next week|month|year has arrived. Of course, at some point Apple WILL fail, just like all companies and indeed all things in the universe eventually disintegrate, and because at least once a week someone predicts that this will happen this week, at some point someone will be right.
But when that happens, it won't be because of any insight—just because the pundits have made sure to predict the failure of Apple during EVERY week|month|year cycle. And I seriously doubt this is the time, having just been at the local office supply chain store looking at Android tablets yesterday.
Re: (Score:3)
I think you're reading too much into it.
Apple makes damn good money selling Macs, even though they have a small percentage of the total market for personal computers. I don't think anyone is saying that Apple is "Doomed" if they don't hold the majority share of tablet/phone/personal computer sales. If they do, they're idiots.
I like to continually point out to all fanbois on both sides that the company that sells the most hamburgers in the world is McDonalds. Does this mean that McDonald's burgers are bet
People want iPads, not tablets (Score:2)
People want iPads, not tablets. People don't even know what "tablets" are. Apple have defined a new market, most people buying iPads aren't really sure why they want them yet. It will be impossible for the competition to win over mindshare until they have something *better* than the iPad has. Price will not convince many because as said, people don't want tablets, they want iPads.
This will probably change. But it will take a few years yet IMO. Think about how long it took for people to know why they wanted
Having done android development, I can tell you... (Score:5, Interesting)
I write video games for a living, and lately, we've been using Unity. Whenever we do an android build, it has to be tested on a wide array of devices just to be certain that there are no issues related to screen layout or any problematic performance problems. To top it all off, we also have to make multiple builds so that the data can be stored efficiently on each type of platform. This is problematic because it requires separate repositories of the same code-base, because trying to switch between different builds on a single repository within Unity can take several hours as all of the art assets of the work must be reprocessed. To top it all off, drivers for each indiivdual device must be installed, because there is no single general android driver that works for all android devices, which complicates setup tremendously.
On iOS, we can simply test on each generation of the iPhone we are intending to support, and also on the iPad1 and iPad2... and there is absolutely no reprocessing of assets required, as all iOS devices store their data in the exact same way. Finally, supporting the iOS device for development only requires having a mac. No additional drivers are required... one is good to go as soon as they have XCode installed on their system and have installed the necessary provision profiles for uploading to a physical device.
Re: (Score:3)
> One word "E-Waste". We have too much e-waste from disposable electronics that become useless within a few months and Android is one of the worst culprits for this.
There is actually some truth to this. There are inevitably going to be a lot of crap Android slates released, and I for one will not be buying a slate just because it has a green logo. I've already seen less technically sophisticated friends buying knock-offs and being disappointed in them, and you're right, it does lead to electronic waste