Tablet Makers Start Bailing On Android

[Guest]

Only Apple's mindslave's seem capable of wasting $600 on a tablet with a phone OS. Android needs to aim for $300-400 pricing.

 

[amdwilliam1985]

[citation][nom]dgingeri[/nom]I'll let you in on the thought process:1. I'd like to read internet news, political and techie, in some way other than on my computer screen, preferably without the keyboard getting in the way. I hate newspapers and magazines because they produce so much trash. My phone's screen is far too small for that. So, this leaves a tablet. Also, it could be presented in a format similar to a magazine where my phone or computer could not.2. I like the handheld games like Gem Miner and Angry Birds, but my phone screen isn't very good for that. My fingers are just too thick, and I often misclick things. A tablet would be good for this. 3. laptops, while nice for their uses, are too bulky for sitting on the couch and doing things like this. a tablet would be nice for this.4. I'm hoping future apps for tablets will include things like remote controlling my HTPC so I can adjust volume, rewind, pause, and select things to watch from my tablet, along with tools for troubleshooting and administering PCs and servers (I'm in server support) without having to hook up a monitor and keyboard, and perhaps even hacking tools for resetting a server password. (I frequently have to deal with this on test servers, where a previous tested reset a password and doesn't remember what it was.) I would also like a tablet where I could hook up a USB to serial connector so I could administer FC and network switches and headless servers, but that would be a pretty narrow market. (The app could show the command line interface and have components of macros off to one side to avoid having to type everything out all the time.)5. It would also be nice to hook up and watch Hulu shows while waiting at a mechanic or government office. Those places get so boring.I could go on with lower priority uses, but these are my main ones. They really do have some good uses.[/citation]

You said it better than I would have. I will be getting an ipad2 soon.
Having tried some Andriod tablet, I decided iPad2 would be my best option. Sadly...

 

[vertigo_2000]

I've got an Acer Iconia A500 as well. The wife and I both use frequently. She likes Angry Birds and I like to surf while on the sofa, watching TV. We have an iPod Touch, but it's just to small of a screen for surfing.

And I don't understand the article, my A500 has the latest Honeycomb 3.1, it has working USB, mini-USB, HDMI, and MicroSD card slots.

Just wish I could print from it and stream my media from my PC... can't seem to find a decent app that I like.

 

[jfby]

I don't see why this is really big news?

If you read the article you see that many joined the fray before the right OS was out, so naturally their sales were weak. 'Somehow' one of the tablets is going to make it, and soon get the 'right OS'.

This is like any new product that comes out, then competitors come out of the woodwork to get in on the action. With every product I can think of, the original market is jam packed with products competiting for market share, but eventually a few mature companies are left (auto industry, aircraft manufacturing, TV companies, etc.).

 

[techguy911]

[citation][nom]epyx[/nom]I don't believe this article...without sources this article doesn't ring accurate. Acer Iconia tablet sales are very strong and I don't believe manufacturers are going to leave the market to Apple and RIM uncontested.[/citation]

I agree msi widows 7 tablets sells so fast there is no stock, also many of us are holding out for the tegra quad core tablets so you can play any game out there on it why waste money on old tech.

Also sandybridge tablets will show up soon why get android when so many things are designed to run on windows.

you can play starcraft 2 on the win7 tablet from msi you can't on ipad or android.

 

[Guest]

actually the reason is pretty straight forward, Apple sales are driven by marketing and hype, Android is driven by logical reasoning, and there is no logical reason why anyone would want to spend that much money on a device that doesn't do very much

 

[awood28211]

There is no tablet market. Get that in your heads manufacturers. The market is for APPLE TABLETS. Period.

Apple is a manufacturer that has a rabid fan-base. If they produced turd flavored lollipops and stuck a glowing apple symbol on it, Apple fans would deem the product an ABSOLUTE MUST HAVE and they'd sell billions in a week. Two weeks later Apple would elongate the stick and make the packaging shinier and another set of billions would be sold just say people could say "look at me, I got the LATEST turd flavored lollipop, I'm better than you."

It's like fashion made in the Italian China Town in Italy. You paid 250 dollars for an Italian shirt.. Yeah, sure it says "Made in Italy" and you feel all superior but in reality it was made using materials imported from China; sewed by a Chinese laborer being paid next to nothing for 18 hours a day and sleeping in the factory during off hours. The manufacturer deals in cash and pays zero taxes. But yeah, you bought Italian and you feel awesome.

 

[Division]

I have an Asus EEE Pad Transformer. It has got to be the best tablet on the market. I've test drove a few and this one is just awesome, almost never leaves my side. When I compare it to the iPad 2 that my friend has...forget it. I'll stick to my Android tab. Right now iPad has a lot more apps but that comes with a lot of "hand holding" and restrictions. Once the apps start rolling on the Android market and become more centralised I couldn't see why I would get an iPad.

Right now, as I see it. iPads are for the "simpletons" and I don't mean that in a bad way. It's just simple, smooth, and you got big brother Apple looking over your shoulder making sure you don't do anything naughty.

Android tabs via HC 3.1 (updated earlier this month) can do so much more with almost no restrictions, no hand holding, no BS marketing, and the market is exploding rapidly.

If Apple continues to be closed minded and closed source just like they were in the old Mac days when the PC took them over.....well....they'll eventually lose to Android. Android based phones are outselling iPhones already and have been for a while. Tablets won't be any different.

And when Nvidia releases the Tegra 3 processor......wow. Might as well toss the Laptops cause the tablet will have more than enough power to match or surpass even Alienware equiviland brands.

 

[Guest]

Did the writer just say, Androids biggest drawback was it didnt have ITunes? That in itself is a plus for Android. ITunes is horrible and trys to be your evil step dad....

 

[Guest]

thats funny, Apples biggest annoyance and drawback is ITunes...

 

[molo9000]

[citation][nom]dgingeri[/nom]I'm hoping future apps for tablets will include things like remote controlling my HTPC so I can adjust volume, rewind, pause, and select things to watch from my tablet[/citation]
What media center software are you using?
There are apps that do exactly that for XBMC, PLEX and BOXEE.

 

[ollieg]

I agree this article has an odd twist to it, but I can't put my finger on an explicit bias. (Perhaps it's just the thought that iTunes is a described as a benefit. I've been using an Android tablet without that and been very pleased to not have to use an iTunes-like application, thank you very much.)

I will not be to sorry to see manufacturers leave the market: The expensive one. Why did they ever think we wanted a tablet MORE EXPENSIVE than an iPad? Maybe if they made a paper thin tablet or something truly unique, but to pay more for a heavier tablet? I think they got spoiled charging high prices for phones that have been absorbed by the wireless carriers. They hadn't really been selling directly to consumers and building a tablet for a lower cost than a phone must have been a pretty rough exercise.

As others have said the Acer Android tablet is really sweet and at a better price. I hope they don't leave the tablet market. ASUS as well, though I've not been able to put my hands on the Transformer. Of course there's the Archos tablets for which many of us are awaiting the Honeycomb versions.

 

[techguy911]

Asus Eee Slate EP121 has an i5 cpu and can play crysis 2 and is windows 7 also has a digitizer pen tried to buy one there is no stock anywhere it is sold out.
This thing can easily replace a laptop , quad cores will be out soon and people know it that is why many of us are holding out till they are released.
Android tablets have limited use i have one that serves as an e-reader it was marketed as an e-reader but i only paid $150 for it and it runs android apps.

 

[notanakin]

Not having a "central hub" to purchase software doesn't appear to have stopped the PC industry from developing.

 

[Guest]

Bought an iPad2. Later bought an Eee Pad Transformer. Now I only have an Eee Pad Transformer, it does everything better.

 

[Guest]

I myself already own 1 Android 2.2 tablet (Galaxy Tab WiFi), 1 Android 3.1 tablet (Asus Transformer), 1 Win7 tablet (Acer Iconia). I do not own an Ipad, but I have a Ipod Touch so I know what kind of apps Apple can offer as well. I have experienced fair number of "force close" on Android device and hence I have the feeling that Android platform does seem a bit immature compared to Apple Ipad.

I do not plan to buy Ipad because of (1) Apple attitude to dictate which applications are allowed in their store, I jailbreak my Ipod Touch and I love the apps I found in the alternative stores, but Ipad2 cannot be jailbroken yet (2) Apple does not and most likely will not ever support an expansion slot (3) lack of native media format support on Ipad.

Android does have a lot less apps compared to Ipad. To me though, what count most is what I want to do on the devices, like reading ebook, watching video, double up as music playback device when my mp3 player battery runs out, do some emails and web browsing, and run occassional apps that I am interested in, like emulators, or note taking, or office document browsing etc. Android have apps for all these, so it does not matter to me whether I have an Ipad tablet or not. I am disappointed that despite the open nature of Android, the current Honeycomb and Tegra2 has failed to playback 720p video content smoothly without re-encoding, and video playback is important to me as far as tablet usage goes. I guess we will have to wait till the next generation of Android devices with 4-cores to get smooth video playback.

As for Win7 tablet, well, it does all kind of video playback, including 1080p (it is a AMD fusion), smoothly, and has no filesize limit due to FAT32. Besides that though, using it to do anything else is a pain. While Windows has the largest and powerful software library, most of them are not meant for touch interface usage. So you end up clicking on the wrong thing all the time. That is the main reason that I am skeptical about how Windows 8 can change all that. It probably ends up like Android and iOS which rely on "NEW" software to take advantage of it, and that means it lost its biggest advantage: the existing large software library. Unless Win8 can find a way to automatically remap existing Windows UI into new layout which is touch friendly.

 

[tonitelaoag]

i think when win8 for tablet finally arrives, it will really change the game on tablet arena, never been a fan of android, its usefulness is for people without any smart devices or even laptop at hand, personally, why would i buy a gadget if i already have a smartphone or even a descent laptop, i thought we are in recession and people buy only what is necessary, time to wake-up, we have lots of gadgets too many old celphone in our storage, consumerism is at its peak level.

 

[Guest]

Not really that interested in tablets, the EEE Pad Transformer might do, but I'm waiting until they get a win8 -version.

 

[dominik78]

It's funny reading through the comments because anyone who actually owns and Acer or Asus tablet says they are great. I got a transfomer as well and love it. Other than slightly smoother animation the iPad2 doesn't really have anything on it, other then being more expensive.

I don't know who the unknown sources in this article are, but after actually using one of the better android tablets I honestly believe that in 2-3 years android tablets will be nearly as common as android phones are now.

 

[guanyu210379]

What? Giving up?
I did not even see any good tablets on the market until the newer Galaxy Tabs, HTC Flyer, and ASUS Transformer just a few weeks ago.
All the previous tablets were simply craps, who wants to buy 'em.
The new ones are good but a bit too expensive, this has to be corrected, pronto!

I am now considering myself to get one of those new tablets, perhaps wait a bit until the price goes down a bit.
My options are the Tab 8.9, Transformer, or Flyer.
I think it is a bit too early to give up.