Is there any future for high end Android Tablets?

[janner43]

What do you guys/ gals think about these comments I made in a thread elsewhere about the Nexus 7...? Is there any future in high end Android tablets? I was thinking about those tablets priced on a par, or higher, than the ipad.

I think Google have finally outed themselves with the combination of the Nexus 7 & Jelly Bean & the "Play" developments. It would seem that the Google view of the world revolves around us all using the cloud, all of the time & for us to get all our content from "father Google" (rather than "mother Apple").

We can now see that their concept of "open source" was nothing of the kind - they just were biding their time before revealing that they too want to " do an Apple ". Frankly, if that is the case, then I cannot see any future in android on tablets unless they are at the budget end of the market - with the MS devices imminent & the iPad so dominant the only future I can see for android is on phones & completely stripped down content devices like the Nexus 7.

Excruciatingly disappointing, TBH. This paradigm shift from Google, together with the fragmentation of the Android OS, coupled with its often buggy implementation by third parties - eg the ICS update on the Asus tf101 was an excruciating journey - has made me seriously consider whether I will continue to purchase expensive android products.

Just to be clear , I don't mean "no more android tablets", I mean "what's the point of high end android tablets?"

If you want a "free & customizable" device, presumably anything that will run Win8 should run Linux.
If you want a quality echosystem (and way superior to Android by any meaningful & honest comparison), buy Apple.
If you want a budget device, buy a Nexus / Kindle Fire (still only available in America)

So, what do you think...?

 

[ttweed]

...made me seriously consider whether I will continue to purchase expensive android products.
Just to be clear , I don't mean "no more android tablets", I mean "what's the point of high end android tablets?"

Personally, I will not consider buying any of the high-end tablets, Apple or Android. For me, the $300 price point is about my limit for such a fragile toy, with such limited utility. Yes, the portability and compactness of a tablet is nice, but at the $5-700 level (say an Asus Infinity w/ dock), one can buy a very powerful, expandable and flexible ultrabook-type computer which can run a full range of productivity software as well as provide the kind of quick and easy, "on-the-go" entertainment and connectivity of a tablet nearly as conveniently. I am fairly new to Android, and have already gone through 4 tablets trying to see what the appeal is and how it can fit into my lifestyle and digital needs. I have decided that nothing more than a Nexus 7 16GB is necessary or justifiable in my particular situation, since there is no way I can do without a machine that can run Adobe Creative Suite. Until there is a very powerful tablet that can dual-boot Win8 and Android, I would not consider giving up my laptop, so owning a tablet is relegated to "accessory toy" status in my book, not worth spending much money to satisfy. Undoubtedly, other people's situation will be different.

Just my $0.02, YMMV,
TT

 

[vampirefo.]

Depends on the person I wont give $200 for any 7" tablet be it apple or android, Just a waste of money to me, I need 8" or bigger, I have a 7", my son uses and I develop on it, I see no problem with Google competing with apple, but hell compete get rid of the 7' and put an 8 or 9 inch for $200.

 

[J515OP]

There is definitely a future for high end Android tablets and the current manufacturers are selling quite a few of them. Obviously the low price point is winning out as people transition from pcs and laptops to tablets but that wont last forever. People are just unsure what tablets are for or how they will use them and spending less to figure it out makes sense.

Of course Google would like to have a successful app store for Android but let's not forget advertising is their bread and butter. They wan't a screen in front of as many people as possible so they can serve as many ads as possible. That was the reason Android was created. The Play Store while an important stream of future revenue is still far secondary to advertising. Eventually Google would like to have people buy into its entire ecosystem, email, OS, docs, storage, social network and app store. In that sense the app store is just one of Google's many new cogs.

So what does the future of tablets hold? Well in my opinion you just need to look back to desktop pcs, laptops and even tvs to see the same thing. At first people buy what they can afford in the new space and then as the technology and category mature people will be drawn to different parts of the performance/price spectrum. There is no shortage of people buying the top of the line devices. You will see the same in tablets. There will be those looking for a Transformer Prime with keyboard dock, Microsoft Surface or iPad to really kick some butt and there will be those that just want to read a book, magazine watch some youtube and check their email on the low end tablets.