Android Tablets are just "vapor" devices

[The Smokester]

I agree that it will be interesting to see how it plays out. I find my tablet to be a great consuming device: Web surfing, email, text, music, photos, videos and movies. Very portable; Fast to boot. But trying to produce anything on it more than a few words or photos and it is nowhere near as efficient as a netbook. Netbooks, as has been pointed out, are cheaper and better developed (for the time being).

I also have a laptop which is more powerful still. I use it for photoshop-type stuff, for modeling room acoustics, data acquisition and 3D presentation, among other things...I think it will be quite a while before an android tablet is able to substitute for a Windows box in such applications.

Then there is the desktop. Multi-core, multi-application, multi-display.

Because I am in business (and the nature of it), the laptop and desktop are "must haves". The tablet has become my "nasty habit" for consuming digital content on and off line. Despite its lower price, it is the netbook that is no more.

 

[vulcan]

If my S7 is just a big smart phone then an ipad is just an ipod touch (no not even a giant iphone as it can't make calls).

AFAIK there is nothing tablet specific to the iOS on ipad, and it usually lags behind iphone releases.

Seems to me apple have scored an own goal.

I use my S7 at work, and a colleague uses an ipad. Tell me which is the tablet orientated OS... the one where you can handwrite into any application using graffiti (or whatever input method you desire); or the device where you are forced to use the onscreen keyboard (how 20th century is that!). Trying to take notes in a meeting using that primitive onscreen keyboard looks ridiculous, yes I know you can get writing notepad apps for the ipad but you cannot use that input method in any app like graffiti on android.

I think 2011 is going to be a hard year for apple. They need to seriously innovate instead of being first to market. Scaling up an ipod touch was not innovation. Might've brought them good sales, but that was because they had the market to themselves... until now.

 

[strider_mt2k]

"And so basically, you wind up with kind of a scaled-up Smartphone, which is a bizarre product in our view."

An interesting point, however I think there is a little more here, somehow.
Maybe it's my nascent interest in the Android OS and my tablet was the introduction, I don't know.

 

[tipstir]

Although not Android base these are 100% touch tablet not HB type.

 

[markiej]

First off - what is with all the nonsense going around about Android not being a proper Tablet OS? Aren't we all "tableting" our asses off *right now*? I mean, my Nook Color has Android 2.1, which came out I don't know how long ago, and functionally it's amazing, with all the light tapping, and quick rotation and pinch zooming etc etc etc. The "Android is not a tablet OS" argument is just silly. Yes, it is primarly an OS for very expensive, and hi-spec phones. And for the most part it translates brilliantly to a larger screen device (if the specs are there).

Apple's i-stuff is terrific, no doubt. And I love how they raise the bar on usability and user experience. HOwever, I personally have never owned Apple, not because it's not good stuff, but for two reasons - I can get more functionality less money, and because their marketing makes me ill.

 

[bilallucky]

Apple might actually have to do some work, with these nice new tablets coming out.

 

[pvella]

Sent from my Ideos S7

 

[pvella]

I take my hat off for apple for their innovative products. But not matter how good they are I would never buy one. The whole Apple control thing would just frustrate the hell out of me. Until they make an open system, with an open store, an open development environment and support natively open standards like mp3, then it wont matter how flashy their screens are. Even diehard Apple people hate using iTunes.

Sent from my Ideos S7

 

[bilallucky]

Greatest thing of all is it forces competitors to... well.. compete more. Which then drives down prices for the consumers, which is always a great thing.

 

[hasankamal]

over the last few years Apple hasn't had any real big competitor in the tablet market