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The problem is that people just don't buy a lot of tablets compared to smartphones. This is true of iPhones and iPads also. If you take a look at the most recen

The problem is that people just don't buy a lot of tablets compared to smartphones. This is true of iPhones and iPads also. If you take a look at the most recent annual SEC report for Apple [0], you can see that Apple sold 5 iPhones for every iPad in 2017, and the number of iPads sold has dropped for the two years prior to that. It doesn't matter if Google/Nvidia/Samsung could or couldn't make a good Android tablet when people just don't buy many of them, unfortunately. That said, I still have the Nexus 9 I got at Google I/O 2015, which didn't really live up to expectations despite costing as much as an iPad a the time. The rubberized plastic has begun to wear off, the display has started to show a small air bubble (!) in the top corner, and the flash speed is so slow that you can actually watch Chrome animate a new tab open. Not to mention Android 7.1 is the latest update for that device. I don't think Google tried to make a tablet that people would really want, so a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy there. I say this as a full-time Android developer, so maybe my expectations are a bit high, but who knows... [0] https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/320193/000032019317000070/a10-k20179302017.htm https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/320193/0000320193170...

orbitingpluto 8y ago
I've had two Nexus 9 tablets. One of them had a bright horizontal light filtering out from the border of the screen and was incredibly unreliable. The other Nexus 9 never skipped a beat, but it was the 16GB version. It was good enough that I skipped over getting the somewhat pricey Pixel C because it was good enough. I regret that.
ksec 8y ago
But iPad has a much longer replacement cycle. There are roughly 350M iPad still in use , and as a device usage number it is still growing. So I don't think tablet is dead, it is being used in places and usage we never thought before.
GordonS 8y ago
I think this is a good point. For some reason, being seen with a new phone seems to have more 'street cred' associated with it than with tablets. Maybe it's just because most people tend to use their phone in public more often than their tablet.

orbitingpluto 8y ago

I've had two Nexus 9 tablets. One of them had a bright horizontal light filtering out from the border of the screen and was incredibly unreliable. The other Nexus 9 never skipped a beat, but it was the 16GB version. It was good enough that I skipped over getting the somewhat pricey Pixel C because it was good enough. I regret that.

ksec 8y ago

But iPad has a much longer replacement cycle. There are roughly 350M iPad still in use , and as a device usage number it is still growing. So I don't think tablet is dead, it is being used in places and usage we never thought before.

GordonS 8y ago

I think this is a good point. For some reason, being seen with a new phone seems to have more 'street cred' associated with it than with tablets. Maybe it's just because most people tend to use their phone in public more often than their tablet.