Tablets- Android Vs. Ipad

[MontuckyFried]

Ok, Char. It's really as simple as this, just take a look at the features you can and can't live without, play with a few at the store, and just get whichever one you like the most. iPad...Android...they're both good. I freaking love my Android tablet, but I'm not going to dog the iPad, because I've used them extensively, and they're honestly great, too. Just stay away from any of the slow, cheap Android tablets running Android 2.0. Those things are utterly worthless.

Also, it's a good thing you're doing your research, because one of Android tablet manufacturer's BIGGEST flaws is their worthless store displays. This is a big reason Apple wins so many people over. The Apple stores and their displays at Best Buy and such have product reps to talk to (who ensure they have working display models BTW), their displays are neat and organized, and they just present really, really well. When I was shopping for an Asus last year before giving up (couldn't find the dock), I couldn't get an employee who knew jack crap about the Android tablets, half the displays weren't working due to dead batteries or missing power plugs, some of the models weren't even DISPLAYED, yet were sitting in boxes under the shelves. Apple would have a store's ass if they ever displayed their products like that. Best Buy manager's heads would roll, I'm sure. Asus, Samsung, Motorola, and some of the other Android tablet makers truly do have some fantastic products that I think compete really well with the iPad, but their marketing is utter crap. Don't be swayed by that, though. Give all of them a real shot before making up your mind.

[bean]

Rumors for a new Nexus tablet are out, 7" screen at 1280x800. I was all jazzed to get one of them until I heard the size. I've never used a tablet of that size but after playing with an ipad for a while this weekend I really liked the size.

[MontuckyFried]

Rumors for a new Nexus tablet are out, 7" screen at 1280x800. I was all jazzed to get one of them until I heard the size. I've never used a tablet of that size but after playing with an ipad for a while this weekend I really liked the size.

Yeah, the 7" screen is nice for some I guess, but I'm a huge fan of the 10.1" screen on my Xoom, and on most of the larger tablets. I have my phone if I want to play on a smaller screen, and don't feel the need for something in between, but apparently there's a large enough market out there for people who do.

[Hugh Conway]

but apparently there's a large enough market out there for people who do.

Or it could just be the copycatters throwing spaghetti against the wall hoping they find something that sticks.

[Shu Shu]

To the OP this may or may not be a monkey wrench to you, but the "new ipad" 64gb and last years 64gb 11" macbook air are the same price at Best Buy right now. Pretty much = in terms of portability, screen is better on the iPad, otherwise the Air has a lot more going for it IMO.

[DJSapp]

but apparently there's a large enough market out there for people who do.

Mrs. DJSapp has a 7" Galaxy tab and frickin loves it. It's the right size to fit in a purse and take everywhere without being cumbersome. This is also the form size of the Kindle fire, and the ICS android 7" tabs that are out there fricking smoke the kindle. I think they have that market nailed. Small, cheap, and slightly underpowered relative to the latest ipad, but enough for most people.

[donkeykong]

Austin knows what he's talking about. The comment about Apple = just works vs. Android = customizable but less stable, is spot on.

I'd never buy a tablet with a data plan; either tether with your rooted phone or rely on wifi. Tablets are for couches anyway. Hint: nobody actually needs a tablet like they do a phone or a computer; it's purely a premium consumption device for those who can afford it. OK, this is changing as the line is blurred between tablet and laptop, but still.

The Transformer Prime has some GPS issues with a less-than-optimal fix, just FYI if you go that route.

The forthcoming refreshes of the Transformer and even the Kindle, could be worth waiting for.

The new $200 Nexus tablet is a contender. Finally, a functional tablet with a price point reasonable with what you get. I never understood why somebody would pay $6-700 for an iPad with no ports or expandable storage, or TF+dock, when they could get a fully functional laptop for the same price.

And those who say the Android community has no support is full of crap. If you call waiting for the Apple overlords to shower you with new firmware "support", then keep on drinking the koolaid. Waiting for others to update your device is an exercise in futility. Ever been to XDA? Just head over there and put whatever software you like on it. Manufacturers don't like to admit this, but you pay for the hardware. Then put whatever damn software you want on it. Of course this requires a higher level of independent thinking, which of course most of the population is incapable of, and voila there's Apple's market share explained.

[crackboy]

i had a fire for a little while before i lost it. the 7" is a really nice size. big enough to get teh extra space but not unwieldy


the new nexus 7 is a game changer in that size.

[systemoverblow'd]

I'd never buy a tablet with a data plan; either tether with your rooted phone or rely on wifi. Tablets are for couches anyway.

Yeah, because when I think of a convenient small portable device I think about connecting to another device just to access the internet. It's the dumbest argument out there. Yeah, lets kill the battery on my phone just so I can access the internet on my tablet device that has a way bigger battery making both useless in a matter of hours. Brainiac choice!

[MontuckyFried]

Yeah, because when I think of a convenient small portable device I think about connecting to another device just to access the internet. It's the dumbest argument out there. Yeah, lets kill the battery on my phone just so I can access the internet on my tablet device that has a way bigger battery making both useless in a matter of hours. Brainiac choice!

For me, it's a matter of money versus actual use. The real use my Xoom gets is in wifi range about 95% of the time (the other 5% being when I travel). I can't justify an individual data plan for a tablet when my time away from wifi is so little. I'm willing to use my phone's 4g wifi hotspot (free with my TMO plan BTW-10gb full speed cap) for the 5% of the time I'm not in regular wifi range. More and more airports are getting decent free wifi too (like DIA). Plus, it seems like the 4g capable tablets cost so much more than their wifi only counterparts, PLUS the data plan AND a contract if you get it subsidized. Forget that. That's a ton of money for the few times I want (not need) it.

However, if I lived in a place like NYC and rode mass transit regularly on my commute, THEN I think a 4g tablet would be completely worth it.

[systemoverblow'd]

For me, it's a matter of money versus actual use. The real use my Xoom gets is in wifi range about 95% of the time (the other 5% being when I travel). I can't justify an individual data plan for a tablet when my time away from wifi is so little. I'm willing to use my phone's 4g wifi hotspot (free with my TMO plan BTW-10gb full speed cap) for the 5% of the time I'm not in regular wifi range. More and more airports are getting decent free wifi too (like DIA). Plus, it seems like the 4g capable tablets cost so much more than their wifi only counterparts, PLUS the data plan AND a contract if you get it subsidized. Forget that. That's a ton of money for the few times I want (not need) it.

However, if I lived in a place like NYC and rode mass transit regularly on my commute, THEN I think a 4g tablet would be completely worth it.

Maybe you should be more upset at your provider. With AT&T you don't have to get a data plan. You can pay a la carte. Don't have a plan, but then you go on vacation, realize you need the 3/4g, pay for the month for the service and then after the month you don't have data any more. I don't see what the problem is.

[MontuckyFried]

Maybe you should be more upset at your provider. With AT&T you don't have to get a data plan. You can pay a la carte. Don't have a plan, but then you go on vacation, realize you need the 3/4g, pay for the month for the service and then after the month you don't have data any more. I don't see what the problem is.

Well for starters, AT&T's tablet selection completely blows...
http://www.att.com/shop/wireless/devices/tablets.html
I'd only go AT&T if I was getting the iPad (although it has a $129 premium over the wifi-only model). Their Android selection is pretty outdated. The year is 2012. It's time to get with the program, AT&T!

[systemoverblow'd]

Very interesting article.

The most remarkable thing about Google's Nexus 7 tablet can't be found on its spec sheet. It won't show up in any benchmark, and it has nothing to do with that zippy new operating system. If you want to know the true significance of the Nexus 7, all you need to look at is the price tag.

How, you wonder, can Google make any money selling this for $200? The answer's simple: it doesn't. Like the Kindle Fire before it, the Nexus 7 proves that the only way take on the iPad is not just to undercut Apple; you have to undercut yourself. It's an incredibly aggressive strategy. And one that's going to have massive repercussions.

Too Cheap to Be True

You might have suspected there was something fishy about that $200 price point; the Nexus 7's guts may be more Toyota than Lexus, but Tegra 3 chipsets and 1280x800 displays still don't come cheap. More specifically, The Nexus 7 outclasses the previous budget champ—Amazon's Kindle Fire—in every conceivable way, for the same price. That goes beyond economies of scale and supply chain optimization. That's a kamikazi run.

Surprise! You were right. Google's Android guru Andy Rubin confirmed to AllThingsD yesterday that even when the Nexus 7 gets sold through the company's own Google Play distribution channel, it "basically gets (sold) through," meaning it doesn't make or lose money. Which means at best, Google's tablet is break-even when you buy it directly from them. When you find it in a big box retailer? Google's basically throwing dollar bills out of the window of a moving car. Basically.

Oh, and keep in mind that Rubin explicitly wasn't including the marketing costs in that estimate, of which there will be many; how many of your friends know what Google Play is? How many of your parents?

So Google's taking a hit with every Nexus 7 it sells, presumably even more than the $2.70 Amazon loses on each of the millions of Kindle Fires it ships. Sounds crazy, right? It is—but not for the reasons you think.

How They Do It

Don't worry; Google's still a company, and companies still like making money. Ditto Amazon. But more importantly, Google and Amazon are ecosystems. The more people that are using their products, the more money they make off of search and content, respectively. Think of their hardware efforts like movie theaters running matinee prices: Get people in make your money at the concession stand.

That's worked for Amazon to a point; the Kindle Fire was a go-to holiday gift last year, although recent reports have indicated that its sales have taken a tumble. But more importantly, the Fire became the exemplar of how to successfully take on Apple. You don't.

There has not yet been a 10-inch tablet that's come anywhere close to rivaling the iPad. There just hasn't. The iPad is Jaws; if you want to survive, get the hell out of the ocean and hop in the kiddie pool. And that's the model Google's working from. Make something so much smaller and cheaper that it's almost an entirely different category of device.

Will it work for the Nexus Tablet? Probably. But it could take away Android's greatest strength in the process.

Playing Favorites

You know who's not an ecosystem? HP. Asus. Acer. Dell. Toshiba. Not even Samsung, no matter how badly it wants to be. Which means that if you're any hardware company that doesn't have the benefit of a Nexus name tag and the massive subsidy that goes with it, there is absolutely no reason to make an Android tablet.

Why would you? You can only sell at a loss if you can make the money back on app sales or a Prime membership or movie downloads or all of the other 30% cuts Google and Amazon take off the top of every sale. If you don't have that, you're just selling at a loss.

The Nexus 7's price advantage takes away any incentive to make a 7-inch Android tablet. Apple dominates the 10-inchers like a 1960s Muhammed Ali. So what do you, hardware maker? You give up. Or back another horse.

LG quit tablets. Ditto Dell took a time-out. Lenovo and others are embracing Windows 8 in a major way. And so on.

Android's always been about choice; anyone can build a tablet that runs it, so you've always had your pick of form and functionality. But Google and Amazon making desperation plays also means that there's very little room left for anyone else to join the party. It's setting up an Android future of two cheap, small, forgettable machines.

But Will It Even Work?

It's understandable that Google and Amazon don't want to go slate-a-slate with the iPad yet. But while being a loss leader in the welterweight division may just be the best plan, that doesn't mean it's going to be a successful one. The competition's still just too tough.

Want an ecosystem? iTunes has the most—and best—app and content offerings by far. That's not debatable. Price advantage? A 16GB Wi-Fi iPad costs Apple $316 to manufacture. It sells for $500. Which means that by the same metric in which Amazon and Google lose money, Apple makes nearly $200 of profit. Times millions. And millions. Of iPads.

That doesn't just mean that Apple's getting filthy rich (although it is, it very is). It means that the second it feels even a hint of pressure from Android or Microsoft, it can cut the price of every iPad by a hundred bucks without breaking a sweat. Hell, it could sell iPads at a loss and still make more money off of iTunes than Google ever will off of Play sales.

There's hope, though. Microsoft, at least, isn't backing down; its Surface tablets may still just be prototypes, but they're a clear shot across Apple's bow, with features the iPad's never even dreamed of—assuming they work. Amazon, too, might be ready to throw down a 10-inch, spec-filled Fire of its own in just a few short weeks. Let's hope so. Real competition now is even better than the promise of it this fall.

So sure, yes, get a foothold if you're Google and Amazon. Build your user base. But remember that if you really want to compete, to put the brakes on Apple's runaway success, don't just make something cheaper. Make something better. Because if you won't, there are plenty of people who will. In fact, they may already have.

http://gizmodo.com/5922043/you-cant-...y-losing-money

[Chowda]

And those who say the Android community has no support is full of crap. If you call waiting for the Apple overlords to shower you with new firmware "support", then keep on drinking the koolaid. Waiting for others to update your device is an exercise in futility. Ever been to XDA? .

If you want a hobby, android is a better platform. I know of XDA but have never bothered to visit it. I have zero interest in devoting any time to making my phone work better. I guess I'm one of the ignorant people who expects software to come installed on their new piece of hardware, but I'm okay with that. And to be fair my android phones have worked great right out of the box. The problem was that they were completely abandoned by the mfg within six months, and I'd guess the best of the android community isn't far behind that with the pace new devices are dropping.

If google would offer the nexus phone on verizon and commit to a two year+ life cycle, maximizing the hardware, I would go back to android. I don't LOVE the iPhone. Google missed their chance to get me back with the nexus 7, if it would have been the nexus11, maybe.

[RShea]

Well as of tomorrow at least Verizon is going with a new set-up on the wireless 3G and 4G data usage. If you move into their new offering (and you HAVE to give up any of your older grandfathered unlimited data plan.) It is called their "Share Everything Plan". Unlimited Talk, Unlimited Text and a single pool of shareable data to power up to 10 devices, so any tablet, phone, aircard in a laptop or notebook, etc. can be used for a monthly add on.

If you want to be old school and use wifi mostly, but still from time to time need to connect via cellular data- they have always allowed 1 day or monthly no contract options. The 1 day was pricey $10 or so, and you could pay less for the monthly plan with as few as 3 or 4 times of needing it daily.

For business use (instead of just surfing the web and getting email) the applications are driving the market. If there is an app only on the Apple Iphone/Ipad that will make you more productive, that is what you are going to get for use. If it is only available on Android then you will consider one of the tablets from the offerings of Samsung, Toshiba, Lenovo, and a bunch of other smaller companies in the Android tablet market. If it is just for surfing and email, then either iOS or Android will handle that just fine IMO.

[donkeykong]

I don't have a problem with mobile data, it's paying for it on each separate device I have a problem with. I'm not going to fork over $50 for home broadband, plus $30 phone data, plus $30 tablet data, and so forth. Then they try and charge you extra just to tether your data on another screen. And then have data caps, ha! Make it reasonable and I will buy in. The shared data plan on Verizon could work, given an appropriate data cap. The ATT pay as you go makes some sense too.

That article was interesting. But I think it's about time tablet prices dropped to reasonable levels. If the hardware is affordable, and the software is free, I'm certainly not going to complain. Especially if it drags the iPad or other high end tablet prices down. There's a whole new market share at the bottom of the barrel. And I'm sure I'm not alone in this, but I avoid buying into any ecosystem completely, whether its iTunes, Play, MS, or Prime. It's no different than a casino offering you free drinks so you will stay and gamble more. Kinda predatory in my opinion, but they'll do it if it makes them money. Just not from me.

The fragmentation on Android is one of its biggest weaknesses I think. Stuff breaks too much. But the silver lining is that even if a manufacturer abandons a device, with a little bit of work you can take things into your own hands and breathe new life into your device for years to come. This is why Android has a harder time gaining mass adoption, because it takes some work to get things right.

I am still rocking the original DInc, I bought it for $1 from Best Buy at the very end of its product cycle. Yes, I was sold (well, basically given) old hardware, but I immediately loaded the newest OS and got Gingerbread on it, probably close to a year before the actual OTA update. Now it's running ICS without problems, and I don't need to worry about buying the OneX or GSIII to stay current. Hardware improvements such as a 4G radio or NFC are nice features I am starting to consider, but my device continues to get faster with improved functionality even though a long time ago Verizon said F U, you need to upgrade.

It's not for everyone but I couldn't have it any other way.

[donkeykong]

Yeah, because when I think of a convenient small portable device I think about connecting to another device just to access the internet. It's the dumbest argument out there. Yeah, lets kill the battery on my phone just so I can access the internet on my tablet device that has a way bigger battery making both useless in a matter of hours. Brainiac choice!

I'd rather drain a battery than pay more dollars. But whatever floats your boat.

[jon gaper]

6 months later bump......this stuff ages quicker than dog years.

I never liked Apple, so what other 7in tablet do you like now? Asus ,or other? or wait till after Xmas?

[Tuckerman]

Im looking at a Google Nexus 7 - tablet or maybe Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. Anyone own one of these, you like it?

[up an down]

Im looking at a Google Nexus 7 - tablet or maybe Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1. Anyone own one of these, you like it?

i bought a nexus 7 when they came out. works great, very good screen, timely system update, and the 7 inch is excellent for fitting in jacket pockets. i never take my laptop anywhere now.

[Kevo]

I work for an Android/iOS software company, so I have both a Nexus 7 and a new generation full size iPad. I also have both an iPhone 4s and a new Droid Razr Max HD.

The iPad is the best for gaming. I really like Gmail integration on the Droid Razr Maxx HD and Nexus 7, especially because I have both personal gmail and work gmail.

Reading is a bit better on a larger screen, but you can always make the text size larger. Watching movies might be more comfortable for your eyes on an iPad.

I find I use my Droid Razr Maxx HD more than anything else. I much prefer Android over iOS for a cell phone.

The Nexus 7 is pretty sweet for $200 if you want a tablet. I like its portability as well.

[crackboy]

i would say get teh nexus 10 over the galaxy tab.

Oh reminds me. So apparently the ipad puts out enough of a magnetic field that it can screw up adjustable flow shunts. those are the kind that need a hghpower magnet to set the flow.

the only other thing that can do that are MRIs

so think twice about sticking an ipad in your lap