3 ms·

Perhaps the intersection of people who think "it's just a big phone and I really want a laptop" and people who develop for android is quite high. Still - given

Perhaps the intersection of people who think "it's just a big phone and I really want a laptop" and people who develop for android is quite high. Still - given Honeycomb is being touted as the "ipad killer", and ignoring the silliness of that concept, it is surprising that developers aren't seeing the xoom as a good way of getting ready for the flood of honeycomb devices that is apparently coming. It's hard to work out from the various trolling headlines about how iOs or Android has "won" something or other - but doesn't Android have quite a healthy developer base? are they making money?

raganwald 16y ago
Perhaps the intersection of people who think "it's just a big phone and I really want a laptop" and people who develop for android is quite high. I don't know if that's true, but it's still a really intriguing question, thank you! The follow-up also seems relevant: What is the intersection between people who think "it's just a big phone and I really want a laptop" and people who buy android? If the market for android tablets is also the market for netbooks, that could be a problem. Apple is going out of their way to distance the iPad from netbooks and sell to people who don't want a laptop--or already have one and are buying this as a third device after their phone and laptop.
abdulla 16y ago
IMO I think it's because people don't believe there's a good Honeycomb device available, and that the platform might not be quite ready for primetime. Apple tend to come out swinging, they deliver tools to developers months before, have a solid platform on day one, and excellent hardware. I think dealing with a heterogeneous hardware platform makes it that much harder to deliver such quality out of the gates, especially when you don't control the hardware. Having said that, there appears to be a minimum spec for hardware, and so far vendors have not deviated substantially. Still, the Xoom's subpar reviews have not helped the cause.

raganwald 16y ago

Perhaps the intersection of people who think "it's just a big phone and I really want a laptop" and people who develop for android is quite high. I don't know if that's true, but it's still a really intriguing question, thank you! The follow-up also seems relevant: What is the intersection between people who think "it's just a big phone and I really want a laptop" and people who buy android? If the market for android tablets is also the market for netbooks, that could be a problem. Apple is going out of their way to distance the iPad from netbooks and sell to people who don't want a laptop--or already have one and are buying this as a third device after their phone and laptop.

abdulla 16y ago

IMO I think it's because people don't believe there's a good Honeycomb device available, and that the platform might not be quite ready for primetime. Apple tend to come out swinging, they deliver tools to developers months before, have a solid platform on day one, and excellent hardware. I think dealing with a heterogeneous hardware platform makes it that much harder to deliver such quality out of the gates, especially when you don't control the hardware. Having said that, there appears to be a minimum spec for hardware, and so far vendors have not deviated substantially. Still, the Xoom's subpar reviews have not helped the cause.