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The litmus test for a tablet to me is, "Why would I buy one of these when I could just buy an iPad?". As of yet, there is not a single competing tablet with a g

The litmus test for a tablet to me is, "Why would I buy one of these when I could just buy an iPad?". As of yet, there is not a single competing tablet with a good answer to this question, and Mr. Kincaid is unable to provide one in this article, in spite of his desperate attempt. In fact, he pretty much just reiterates the problems that all of the reviews for non-iPad tablets have already presented: performance problems, "buggy as hell", not enough apps optimized for the form factor. Why do these guys think that out of the blue, Android tablets are going to just miraculously going to start being great?

gbhn 15y ago
I got an iPad 2. It isn't "buggy as hell," but I think I'd accept 10 other bad bugs instead of the wifi connection bug the iPad has (and has apparently had for a year, reading the forums).
- lurker19 15y ago
  If you switch to Android, you will instantly feel at home, since Android has similar wifi connection issues. (It has a habit of losing the ability to get an IP address from wifi, until the phone is not just rebooted but the battery is completely drained as well.)
theBobMcCormick 15y ago
> Why do these guys think that out of the blue, Android tablets are going to just miraculously going to start being great? Possibly because that's exactly what happened with Android phones? Some of the early Android phones (G1, Hero, etc) were pretty buggy, slow, and kind of wonky. The original Droid was decent, then the N1 came out and was seriously competitive. And there's been basically a string of steadily improving models since then. It seems reasonable to assume the Android tablet market will proceed similarly.
- toadkick 15y ago
  The smartphone market and the tablet market are two different beasts though. Sure, they both have iOS and Android, but that's where the similarity stops. Android has 3 significant advantages with smartphones that it doesn't have with tablets: more manufacturers making tons of Android phones, more carriers, and the fact that carriers offer Android phones for cheap (or even free) with their contracts. I just don't see the parallel. And (I'm no expert here, so forgive me if I'm wrong) I don't think any of the Android handset makers are pulling in anywhere near the profits that Apple is with the iPhone. At any rate, when it comes time to drop $500+ on a tablet, why would anyone choose the one with lots of bugs, performance issues, and few apps?
  - martythemaniak 15y ago
    If you're a PC or phone manufacturer and want to get in on the tablet market, it's Android or nothing. You can already see the beginnings of this market with the Xoom, Galaxy Tab and Asus Transformer, but the combined effect will be that potential customers will soon have unparalleled choice at every price point, something the iPad will never be able to offer. Your question "When it comes time to drop 500+ on a tablet" is itself rather meaningless. A year from now you'll have Ice Cream Sandwich (or Jello or whatever) on $200 netbooks with detachable keyboards, 7" slates, 8.5" tablets with pop-under keyboards, and even iPad 3-like 10" tablets. And maybe a few other products we can't yet see.
- lurker19 15y ago
  Android, including the N1, never stopped being buggy as hell, though. Froyo made wifi flaky, 2.3.4.2 made Gmail flaky, Cisco VPN support never got implemented, etc. Using Android requires a continuous effort to search for workarounds
  - theBobMcCormick 15y ago
    That's a lode of horse shit. My N1 and my wife's have both been rock solid. And by Cisco VPN, do you mean IPSEC? Or Cisco's proprietary SSL VPN?
- lurker19 15y ago
  This comment is additional to my previous one, because Android's browser's textarea input breaks once it contains as much text as my previous comment.
zmmmmm 15y ago
> "Why would I buy one of these when I could just buy an iPad?" . As of yet, there is not a single competing tablet with a good answer to this question Perhaps what you're missing (and what the whole Apple philosophy misses) is that there may never be a "single" iPad competitor that is better than the iPad in every respect and yet Android may "win" all the same, because each different model offers something different to someone who values that. Perhaps you like having an SD card slot. Perhaps you like to plug in a (real) keyboard with a trackpad. Perhaps ultra light weight is your thing. Perhaps you just have to have a real HDMI port. Perhaps you're a 3D junky. Perhaps 9.7inches is just too big - or too small, for you. Perhaps a stylus does it for you. Whatever it is, if there is a segment of consumers who lust after it, there will an Android tablet featuring that. If everyone's killer feature is different then Apple's single-model, uniform approach will never be able to win. In this sense I strongly suspect that Apple is quite happy not winning and knows that they're far better off maximizing profit on 25% of the market that really does all want the same thing rather than trying to cater to the long tail of consumer desires. Let's face it, when it's a choice between profit and market share, Apple always picks profit.

gbhn 15y ago

I got an iPad 2. It isn't "buggy as hell," but I think I'd accept 10 other bad bugs instead of the wifi connection bug the iPad has (and has apparently had for a year, reading the forums).

lurker19 15y ago
If you switch to Android, you will instantly feel at home, since Android has similar wifi connection issues. (It has a habit of losing the ability to get an IP address from wifi, until the phone is not just rebooted but the battery is completely drained as well.)

theBobMcCormick 15y ago

> Why do these guys think that out of the blue, Android tablets are going to just miraculously going to start being great? Possibly because that's exactly what happened with Android phones? Some of the early Android phones (G1, Hero, etc) were pretty buggy, slow, and kind of wonky. The original Droid was decent, then the N1 came out and was seriously competitive. And there's been basically a string of steadily improving models since then. It seems reasonable to assume the Android tablet market will proceed similarly.

toadkick 15y ago
The smartphone market and the tablet market are two different beasts though. Sure, they both have iOS and Android, but that's where the similarity stops. Android has 3 significant advantages with smartphones that it doesn't have with tablets: more manufacturers making tons of Android phones, more carriers, and the fact that carriers offer Android phones for cheap (or even free) with their contracts. I just don't see the parallel. And (I'm no expert here, so forgive me if I'm wrong) I don't think any of the Android handset makers are pulling in anywhere near the profits that Apple is with the iPhone. At any rate, when it comes time to drop $500+ on a tablet, why would anyone choose the one with lots of bugs, performance issues, and few apps?
- martythemaniak 15y ago
  If you're a PC or phone manufacturer and want to get in on the tablet market, it's Android or nothing. You can already see the beginnings of this market with the Xoom, Galaxy Tab and Asus Transformer, but the combined effect will be that potential customers will soon have unparalleled choice at every price point, something the iPad will never be able to offer. Your question "When it comes time to drop 500+ on a tablet" is itself rather meaningless. A year from now you'll have Ice Cream Sandwich (or Jello or whatever) on $200 netbooks with detachable keyboards, 7" slates, 8.5" tablets with pop-under keyboards, and even iPad 3-like 10" tablets. And maybe a few other products we can't yet see.
lurker19 15y ago
Android, including the N1, never stopped being buggy as hell, though. Froyo made wifi flaky, 2.3.4.2 made Gmail flaky, Cisco VPN support never got implemented, etc. Using Android requires a continuous effort to search for workarounds
- theBobMcCormick 15y ago
  That's a lode of horse shit. My N1 and my wife's have both been rock solid. And by Cisco VPN, do you mean IPSEC? Or Cisco's proprietary SSL VPN?
lurker19 15y ago
This comment is additional to my previous one, because Android's browser's textarea input breaks once it contains as much text as my previous comment.

zmmmmm 15y ago

> "Why would I buy one of these when I could just buy an iPad?" . As of yet, there is not a single competing tablet with a good answer to this question Perhaps what you're missing (and what the whole Apple philosophy misses) is that there may never be a "single" iPad competitor that is better than the iPad in every respect and yet Android may "win" all the same, because each different model offers something different to someone who values that. Perhaps you like having an SD card slot. Perhaps you like to plug in a (real) keyboard with a trackpad. Perhaps ultra light weight is your thing. Perhaps you just have to have a real HDMI port. Perhaps you're a 3D junky. Perhaps 9.7inches is just too big - or too small, for you. Perhaps a stylus does it for you. Whatever it is, if there is a segment of consumers who lust after it, there will an Android tablet featuring that. If everyone's killer feature is different then Apple's single-model, uniform approach will never be able to win. In this sense I strongly suspect that Apple is quite happy not winning and knows that they're far better off maximizing profit on 25% of the market that really does all want the same thing rather than trying to cater to the long tail of consumer desires. Let's face it, when it's a choice between profit and market share, Apple always picks profit.