5 ms·
I don't know why anyone's shocked. The first few years of tablets sales were by people buying their first tablets because it was the hot new technology. Now tha
by AdmiralAsshat 11y ago
I don't know why anyone's shocked. The first few years of tablets sales were by people buying their first tablets because it was the hot new technology. Now that we all have one, there's no need to buy a new one every year or every two years (in the case of cell-phones, which are mostly fueled by carrier subsidies). My HP Touchpad from 2011 still works fine--particularly since I made it an Android tablet by installing Cyanogenmod on it, thus keeping it on a far more recent Android version than any other tablet from this era would carry on their OEM firmware. It's not terribly speedy, but I can still run stuff on it, so for a bedside comic book reader and Netflix machine, it works just fine.* I have no real reason to upgrade anytime soon, particularly since I've got a 2013 Nexus 7 that still runs great.
The industry needs to stop thinking of tablet sales like cellphones and start thinking of tablets like laptops and computers. We're not going to buy new ones every two years because we spent anywhere from $300-$500 on the damn things: we expect them to work for awhile. The same reason that when the computer I spent over a grand building ten years ago stops being able to run modern games on even the lowest settings, I'm going to load CentOS on it and turn it into a media server: because I want to get my money's worth.
* It also fits very well into an iCade cabinet. Touchpad running MAME4Droid inside the iCade is a popular attraction at monthly gamenight.
- TD-Linux 11y ago>2013 Nexus 7 that still runs great. The eMMC on mine is toast, I shopped around and couldn't find anything that I liked better and so ordered a new motherboard. Are there any other options around that size that make sense as the Nexus 7 is discontinued?
- officemonkey 11y agoIf you find one, let me know. The Nexus 7 was the best Android tablet I've seen. I've used the iPad mini and it's very very good. It's also twice the price of what I bought my Nexus 7 for.
- TD-Linux 11y agoWell, my motherboard transplant went successfully, so I'm no longer in the market for a while.
- AdmiralAsshat 11y agoYou could look into one of Asus' newer MeMo Pads: https://www.asus.com/Tablets/MeMO-Pad-Products/ https://www.asus.com/Tablets/MeMO-Pad-Products/ I forget which model it was exactly (you might need to do some research), but with at least one of them, it appears that Asus basically took the specs/design of the Nexus 7, debranded it, and then tweaked them to be a little more current. So it's almost a Nexus 7 successor, just without Google's branding.[0] 0: http://tabtec.com/tablet-reviews/asus-memo-pad-7-me572-review-nexus-7-successor/ http://tabtec.com/tablet-reviews/asus-memo-pad-7-me572-revie...
- prawn 11y agoI think the emergence of larger phones is a bigger factor. I have an iPad 2 that I used a lot for some time after getting it. Reading, browsing on the couch and bed, watching movies, travel research when on the road, etc. I have barely used it since getting an iPhone 6 Plus. My phone screen is now big enough that browsing and reading work well, movies are fine, researching things is straightforward, etc. I don't even know where my iPad is right now. I can see them being useful for kids still, but can't think of use cases for myself.
- enraged_camel 11y agoI have an iPhone 6 (not plus) and I still use my iPad Mini on a regular basis, especially for prolonged web surfing and ebook reading. iPhone 6 Plus is way too big for a phone for me. Even non-plus is uncomfortable. I could use my 4S comfortably with one hand. Now my thumb movements cover only ~60% of the screen which means I need to use two hands. I dislike it a lot.