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Why 2012 Will Be the Year of the Android Tablet
lseltzer writes "The iPad has dominated the high-end tablet market so far, but that is about to change. At CES in Las Vegas in a couple weeks you will see tablets running Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) everywhere and at prices that will make an iPad a lot harder to justify. The competition from the OEM model in the Android markets will massively shift market share away from Apple, just as it has done in the smart phone market."
...first post
If you find this post offensive, don't read it! THINK ABOUT YOUR BREATHING! I am what I am because of how apes behave.
Sure, and just as with smartphones, "All Android Phones" will be bigger in the market than the mere iPhone. But look at any individual manufacturer, and that "All Android Phone" share is sliced into so many tiny pieces that Apple dwarfs them. Same with the iPad - Android tablets together may take over 50% of the market... but no individual Android tablet is going to have more than 5%.
The Kindle Fire will pave the way, not because people will choose it over the iPad, but because it is opening the market on the low price range, and for people (like myself) that use computers to compute, and midsize tablets for light duty tasks. Of course, the Nook is also helping develop this market. They both prove that there is a sub $300 market for basic tablets that can surf, watch movies, be good book readers, and serve in areas where even a laptop is too large, and a netbook is not efficient.
Rest assured, the iPad will still dominate the large tablet market, it is just that the new products aren't trying to compete and are instead focusing on growing the market in places that the iPad never entered.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
Because the Mayan tablets said so? No wonder archaeologists got it wrong. It's the end of the handheld world as we knew it.
This is the year of Linux!
Every time some tech columnist makes some glorious prediction that "[YEAR] Will Be The Year Of [TECH]", I roll my eyes.
Does it make you happy you're so strange?
Maybe just because the interface is more coherent with itself, the iPad will prevail.
As an example, the youTube app for the iPad zooms from and to full screen by pinching the video with your fingers. In Android this just does not work, even though it does with other apps like picture viewers. A tablet is a very weird device and details like this are the ones that make people hop in or pull back.
Does this mean that the supply for iPads will be able to satisfy the demand?
If I used a sig over again, would anyone notice?
This is just like the "20XX is the year of the Linux Desktop".
I will wait for the end of 2012 before believing the claim.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
And all sides will fire off patent lawsuits over trivial features like form filling and email forming. The lawyers will get rich the market will be blocked and confused.
All hail patents the great pusher of innovation, NOT.
It that's going to happen it will become the year of the Apple lawsuits.
Hmm... Is 1/3 market share much to cheer (or write) about? I guess "Year of the Android" tablet makes a better headline than "Android tablets will make unspectacular gains in 2012".
Then again maybe 1/3 market share IS a spectacular gain for Android in the tablet market.
From TFA: "There are many companies making Android devices and the magic of competition will force them to drive prices down and quality up."
Drive prices down? Yup!
Quality up? Uhm... what? Just like it's done with the current crop of Android phones where there is tons and tons of crap and a few really good ones (Galaxy S2, Nexus, etc)?
I clicked on this thinking the guy might have some insight on why Android tablets were about to make a big jump forward, but all this guy is missing is pom poms and a miniskirt..
Can we please stop with the predictions?
For those who seek perfection there can be no rest on this side of the grave.
The article seems to presume that there is a static size for the amount of people who buy tablets. There isn't. As lower-cost entries enter the market, people who previously could not afford one will be able to buy one. So the market will grow, but it's also likely that Apple's overall sales will grow as the market grows. So, sure, Apple's "market share" may shrink, but it's not like Apple's going to make less money than they did before.
Also, there seems to be an assumption that people buy a tablet sorely based on cost. That is certainly part of how people buy something, but there are also metrics of quality, ease of use and also what you've got already. If you already have an iProduct, I'll bet people are a lot more attracted to the idea they can plug it into the iTunes that's already set up and have it work. Learning something new probably isn't a big driver, even if they save a hundred bucks. Apple could also drop prices on the iPad 2 when the 3 comes out, just as they have done with the iPhone when new generations have arrived, in order to compete with the lower end of the market.
TFA reads...
"The biggest advantage for Android over iOS is that there is only one company making iOS phones and tablets, and they don't make a lot of models. There are many companies making Android devices and the magic of competition will force them to drive prices down and quality up."
I think it should more properly read:
"The biggest advantage for iOS over Android is that there is only one company making iOS phones and tablets, and they don't make a lot of models. There are many companies making Android devices and the magic of competition will force them to drive prices down at the expense of quality."
I thought 2012 was the year of the Linux Desktop!
For sure.
Really!
Anytime now.
Please?
This has been predicted over and over again - pretty much since the launch of the original iPad.
It was always "Oh, the iPad was released for $500 less than everyone was guessing, but it's still way overprice! Just you wait for the cheaper, better, faster Android tablets.... any day now.... next month.... just a few more months! The Xoom is coming and it will destroy the iPad, I mean it will have Flash and an SD card slot, and there's no way it will cost more than an iPad and ship with both of those 'key' features broken... Oh, the iPad 2 is out now... well, what did you expect, honeycomb was never designed for tablets properly, even though we have been crowing about how it was going to be the answer to the 'inferior' iPad... just you wait for Ice Cream Sandwich...."
In short, I've heard it all before. The Eee Pad Transformer is good I guess, and at $400 is cheaper than the iPad but so far not much headway. I really hope there are a few really competitive Android tablets to rival the iPad as there have been handsets to rival the iPhone - the competition is good for everyone. So far though, not seeing it.
that have been saying this kind of stuff for years. iPod is lame. iPhone is a useless device. Nobody in their right mind will buy iPad. iPod's price will drive people to competitors. iPhone's price will make in untenable as a phone. iPad is priced more than a laptop, only idiots will pay for it.
Blah, blah, blah. Once a week someone predicts that Apple has finally reached its apex and it's all downhill from here, as the products lack features, are too expensive, the garden is walled, and new competitors X, Y, and Z have finally figured it out and this will be their week|month|year.
So far, this has always been empirically demonstrated to be so much crap by the time the next week|month|year has arrived. Of course, at some point Apple WILL fail, just like all companies and indeed all things in the universe eventually disintegrate, and because at least once a week someone predicts that this will happen this week, at some point someone will be right.
But when that happens, it won't be because of any insight—just because the pundits have made sure to predict the failure of Apple during EVERY week|month|year cycle. And I seriously doubt this is the time, having just been at the local office supply chain store looking at Android tablets yesterday.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
Maybe it will, but I have both an Android phone and an iPhone (one is for my work-related calls, the other is for my personal calls) and I use them both pretty much. The apps on my iPhone just works -better-. They're more responsive, they have a more unified "feel" as to how I work in them etc.
As a programmer I appreciate how easy it is to develop apps for the Android phone and I really do not like the walled garden approach, but I have to grudgingly admit that _IT WORKS_.
And why wouldn't it work? If you know the specs of the hardware you're coding for you can do a much better app than if you just code for a random android phone (where some of them are really slow and annoying and some are rocket-spaceships).
My prediction is that android will steal some of the market, because the iPad is just so damned expensive. But the iPad will still be the "best". Because in the end, we use the tablets to run our apps. The tablet which runs the most apps the best will win. Based on what I've seen on the phone side, my money is on Apple. :/
People want iPads, not tablets. People don't even know what "tablets" are. Apple have defined a new market, most people buying iPads aren't really sure why they want them yet. It will be impossible for the competition to win over mindshare until they have something *better* than the iPad has. Price will not convince many because as said, people don't want tablets, they want iPads.
This will probably change. But it will take a few years yet IMO. Think about how long it took for people to know why they wanted a PC. This is different (people understand why they want a computer nowadays), but it will still take time.
I write video games for a living, and lately, we've been using Unity. Whenever we do an android build, it has to be tested on a wide array of devices just to be certain that there are no issues related to screen layout or any problematic performance problems. To top it all off, we also have to make multiple builds so that the data can be stored efficiently on each type of platform. This is problematic because it requires separate repositories of the same code-base, because trying to switch between different builds on a single repository within Unity can take several hours as all of the art assets of the work must be reprocessed. To top it all off, drivers for each indiivdual device must be installed, because there is no single general android driver that works for all android devices, which complicates setup tremendously.
On iOS, we can simply test on each generation of the iPhone we are intending to support, and also on the iPad1 and iPad2... and there is absolutely no reprocessing of assets required, as all iOS devices store their data in the exact same way. Finally, supporting the iOS device for development only requires having a mac. No additional drivers are required... one is good to go as soon as they have XCode installed on their system and have installed the necessary provision profiles for uploading to a physical device.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
No doubt, this prediction will soon be added to The iPad Death Watch
Your premise is the iPad has dominated the high-end tablet market and that is about to change. You justify this by comparing the tablet market to the smartphone market.
Here is the problem: Android marketshare is due to the number of low-end Android smartphones on the market, not the high-end ones. In 2011 the top 3 selling smartphones in the US will be the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and iPhone 4S. There are very few 'luxury' Android phones and those don't sell extremely well.
Android will do the same for tablets what it did for smart phones. There will be tablets in all shapes, sizes, form factors, specifications and budgets.
I think that it is more likely that 2012 will be the year the tablet format falls back into its niche. The iPad revitalized the form factor by putting a shiny apple logo on it but I suspect people are already realizing that it's more an inconveniently over-sized phone or handicapped netbook than a revolution.
My spouse wanted an iPad.
For myself, the extra $100-200 premium over an Android tablet is nothing compared to the amount of aggravation I would face
attempting to convince spouse that the Android is equivalent, or even better than the iPad.
Since spouse chose the iPad, she can't blame me for shoddy apps, or confusing interfaces, or crashes.
Sure, it's a case of marketing over facts, but all the other tablets in her office are iPads, so I go with the flow.
If Google/Android really wants to grab market, they should offer a reasonably priced 3G/4G data-only infrastructure,
as I would spend close to the cost of the device on a data plan from the incumbent wireless carriers.
Mission: To provide products that consume time and energy as entertainingly as permitted by the laws of thermodynamics.
You just described the death of Android.
I'm not seeing Android die anytime soon from where I'm sitting.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
I started predicting last year that 2011 would be the year that Android tablets would finally become popular. I wasn't expecting Amazon.com to make that happen with the Kindle Fire, though... I was expecting a PC manufacturer like Dell or Lenovo to pull it off.
Next year will be the year where the Android tablets start taking market share away from Apple... the days where the iPad had 90% market share and developers didn't bother optimizing their apps for Android tablets will soon be over.
Also described : the death of the PC. Oh, wait...
Yeah, and look how that worked out for AOL...
you mean like the year of the linux desktop that i've been waiting for since 1996?
I run: Windows, OS X, Linux, FreeBSD. Just because you have a hammer, doesn't mean everything is a nail.
I'm still waiting for the Year of the Linux Desktop that has been forecast for ten of the last 15 years.
As somebody who has both a HoneyComb tablet/Samsung 7" tablet and an iPad (original and 2) I have to say I am really really disappointed with Android. Android has four flaws:
1) Hardware update support SUCKS! I have both a Sony Ericsson Xperia phone, and Acer Iconia Tablet. When I bought the phone it was essentially out of date because Sony said to get the new Android OS you need to buy the more expensive phone. HAD I known that I would not have bought the phone. However Sony did a 180 and said, "ok ok ok we will get you an update." When the original update was released it too Switzerland 7 months to get it. The exact same thing happened with my Acer Iconia. Acer kept hemming and hawing on their 3.1 update and being in Switzerland I was essentially at the tail end of the release. I had Acer Germany unlock the code for me to get my update. This just effen sucks! The Android vendors don't get updates! They just think it is an opportunity for you to buy the latest and greatest piece of hardware NOT!
2) The apps are lacking on Android. Two apps come to mind; Aligator water, and Wetter.com. Put the iPad and Android tablet edition side by side and what you see is that the iPad or iOS app is so much better. Why is that? When I run my Android apps they are slower, and jerkier (yes this has been discussed due to the software architecture choices made). Frankly I don't shive a git! I want a smooth flowing tablet and if Apple found the ideal way so be it, it is the right approach.
3) Hardware software compatibility. I have so many little tweaks and twiddles with the Android system that it just tires me out. Take for example setting up the wireless networking. On my iOS I can use DHCP and everything works. For some odd and strange reason with Android the network connections drop, come back, drop, come back, and drop and come back. They do this for about 5 minutes until they just stay connected. If I put in a network address all is good. Of course you could argue, "wait your network does something funny." Well my answer is that my laptops (windows, linux, and OSX) work just fine, as does my iPhone, and iPad. Thus while maybe it is network issue, I consider it an Android issue since the other devices are ok.
4) The hardware is sub-standard by most, not all vendors in comparison to Apple. Most of the Android hardware sucks. I have a Samsung tablet and it is not bad. Good quality. The Acer is ok, but things like battery life just suck. Overall for the amount of money I pay I am disappointed.
Overall I have to say I am completely disappointed with Android (had high hopes) as I feel Google is doing piss poor job of ensuring a certain amount of quality and usability. Android might sell more devices, but unless Android really changes its stripes it will always be a cheap-skates paradise...
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
... yes, I'd say that a "year of the Android tablet" would be a fantastic thing for all concerned. Apple needs competition to stay sharp, and many customers need a more inexpensive and more open choice than iPad. I probably won't be buying an Ice Cream Sandwich based device, but I'll be cheering them on.
Be prepared. But you can't do anything about it so... have lots of fun, I guess. Hey actually, that doesn't sound like a bad idea even if the world won't end.
The Ipad 3 with Siri is likely to be the best offer for some time to come, for most "normal" people. Tablets cheaper/bigger/smaller than the Ipad and Ipad 2 have been available for quite a while now, without much success. But the author considers a market of "1/3 Android" enough to proclaim such a title ...
The cheap Novo7 in TFA has a widescreen format that makes people feel uneasy. Is it that hard to get aesthetics right?
"I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
Take for example setting up the wireless networking. On my iOS I can use DHCP and everything works. For some odd and strange reason with Android the network connections drop, come back, drop, come back, and drop and come back. They do this for about 5 minutes until they just stay connected. If I put in a network address all is good. Of course you could argue, "wait your network does something funny." Well my answer is that my laptops (windows, linux, and OSX) work just fine, as does my iPhone, and iPad. Thus while maybe it is network issue, I consider it an Android issue since the other devices are ok.
All my three Android devices never have problems connecting to any wifi, so yes, it seems to be a problem with your network or your individual Android device.
BTW, more than once I made the experience that networks that work just fine most of the time start to make problems once a Mac connects. Something in the way the network stack is implemented in Macs seems to trow some APs into a fit.
You bought an Acer and you're complaining? lol
Does anyone except IOS developers use Objective-C? I've never seen it even mentioned elsewhere, though wikipedia said it has long existed. I gather it's a very obscure language that Apple chose and threw into the spotlight.
Android is to mobile phones what the Windows PC is to computers. Except Microsoft is better at supplying updates.
It's the commodity - large amount of choice, from many vendors, and thus biggest market share. But most of it poor quality,and full of accident complexity.
As you say, the cheap-skates paradise.
No... with iOS we only have to support certain generations that satisfy a certain critical threshold of users. This is quite easy to do and the number of devices that we typically have to test for is on the order of 4 or 5. Only two devices when we are targetting the iPad.
The android environment, however, is so finely divided that the number of distinctly different devices that must be supported to reach that same threshold of users is several times larger. Plus, as I said... device drivers have to separately be installed for each one, which complicates setup tremendously. I've even seen issues where different drivers ended up conflicting with eachother and could not both be installed on the same machine at the same time.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
so you're basically advocating a single vendor consumer market. Indeed, how grand life would be if there where no choices and we all just needed to deal with one platform. not.
Not trying to defend any platform here but the platforms are just now maturing and have gone through a rapid growth spurt. iOS not so much because of how Apple doesn't tend to make large changes in new versions and would never pull the stunt Google did with Gingerbread, Honeycomb, ICS. But ICS should be a much more solid platform going forward but because of the various screen sizes supported, screen layout will always have to be tested along with performance(driver) issues.
life would be easy for a developer with only one platform to follow until that vendor decided they want to own all the cool software on the platform. Choice is what helps prevent that from happening and it keeps products changing and hopefully improving. With Apple strictly controlling the development platform helping to lock devs into a single SDK life will not be easy doing cross platform apps.
So suck it up and enjoy the fact there is competition and the public loves it and is buying product. And hope the platform for ISV's doesn't disappear like the PalmOS platform did just 10 years ago.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
No... there's not a problem with multiple vendors. The problem is multiple standards. Multiple vendors are a problem only in the sense that they don't agree or play nice with eachother.
A single standard driver that worked for all android devices would be a *HUGE* deal, and between that using uniform native image file formats, instead of 4 different standard ones, I would be totally all over Android as superior to iOS, regardless of how many different types of tablets there were.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I think it's like this: 2012 is the year of phone ensmartening - which is to say, a big proportion of the world's people will upgrade from a dumbphone to a smaprtphone. Many of them will do it with the attitude "I don't need a damn smartphone anyway, but if it's easier to text with that on-screen keyboard thingie, and my carrier will basically cover the costs, I might as well. So what's my carrier offering me for real cheap?" And you know very well that it will be some crappy Android handset. So yes, I see Android making much bigger gains in 2012 just because it's the default upgrade for billions. The iPhone simply isn't. You have to want one, you don't "get upgraded" to one.
Apple is not all about "winning" or largest market share. Their philosophy seems to be to push innovative products into the market place at a healthy profit, and let the chips fall where they may.
"prices that will make an iPad a lot harder to justify." Yes, Apple isn't exactly known for cheap electronics. The Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime is about the same price but it's QUAD-CORE for crying out loud. The iPad is sleek and has a ton of apps plus a decent processor, but it's just too pricey.
I agree with you that I might have done something stupid. Or maybe Macs are a problem. However, and this is my issue, what if it is a Mac or network, it is only Android that suffers. Thus IMO it becomes an Android issue since it is ruining my experience.
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
Nice come back... Yeah I bought an Acer Iconia tablet as I read my reviews, and compared it to the Asus Transformer. It seemed ok as a decision. BTW these upgrade problems and such are not the exclusivity of Acer. It is the same with Asus, Motorola, etc. It is a fundamental problem in the Android market.
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
But here is what I think we will disagree with. The current market is not about that. It is about being able to sell an experience. I just read an article that said specs are dead. The Kindle Fire is doing well regardless of the specs. The Kindle Fire is about being able to cater to a set of people to deliver a specific experience at a cheap price. NONE, I repeat NONE of the Android makers are doing that.
"You can't make a race horse of a pig"
"No," said Samuel, "but you can make very fast pig"
It's still a pain in the arse... and as I'm not self-employed, I'm required to use the tools that my employer provides... no matter how much I might happen to prefer other ones.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I'm not seeing Android die anytime soon from where I'm sitting.
The glossy white throne with perfectly rounded corners is right over here.
One word "E-Waste". We have too much e-waste from disposable electronics that become useless within a few months and Android is one of the worst culprits for this. You can buy an Android phone right now which is "brand new" but cannot be upgraded to the latest android release without rooting the device. That is simply unacceptable from an environmental perspective. The iPhone 3GS was released in 2009 and it can be upgraded by anyone for "free" to the latest and greatest version of iOS (5.01) through iTunes. You cannot say the same thing about Android phones even released earlier this year as they will not be officially supported by ice cream.
My opposition to the expansion of Android goes beyond being a user of Apple products at home. I am tired of seeing electronics that are seen as disposable. I hate the pricing model of inkjet printers where you get a cheap printer and then pay through the nose of ink cartridges. I would rather pay a couple hundred bucks for a printer that is guaranteed to work for a few years and pay more reasonable amount for ink cartridges and even see official support for ink cartridges recycling/refilling.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
That sounds like a bug in Unity to me.
I'll back this up as we had the same problems with mobile Apps to the point of if customers want Android apps, the cost are usually 5x that of iOS simply because we have to test against 4 versions of the OS and we only certify compatibility with the Nexus and Nexus-S. If they want additional handsets tested and certified, there's an extra fee per handset. And again, it's the fact we have to maintain so many different build environments.
With iOS it's generally one repository and we just change the build settings depending on if we're compiling for iPhone, iPad, or for most of our apps the "either/or" option. Then it's pretty easy to test between the simulator and the 3G, 3GS, and 4.
"The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
Funnily enough, no it doesn't. Only part of Android is open source, the rest is closed source and needs to be licensed from Google. And if the manufacturer doesn't license the closed source parts, they can't call it Android as Android is a trademark of Google.
Kindle Fire doesn't license those parts, and thus doesn't have the full Android functionality, can't call it's software Android, and doesn't have access to the Android Marketplace.
It's related to Android, but it isn't Android.
Objective-C was developed by Next before they were acquired by Apple. It is the basis of all modern OS X and iOS applications. It is also used by the OpenStep framework for other platforms but I wouldn't classify it as widely used. It is really just an object oriented extension to standard C, much as C++ is. In my opinion it has no equal for building dynamic UI APIs. It really is an advantage for iOS. Any competent C programmer can pick up Objective-C in a couple of days.
As somebody who has both a HoneyComb tablet/Samsung 7" tablet and an iPad (original and 2) I have to say I am really really disappointed with Android. Android has four flaws:
I have an ASUS Transformer and was lent an iPad 2 by a friend. Let's compare!
1) Hardware update support SUCKS!
Same thing here, my Galaxy S and Transformer both get fairly timely updates, but my friend's iPhones are blocked from getting new features like Siri even though the hardware is perfectly capable. Updates for Android make noticeable improvements where as most of the stuff in iOS updates just seems to be ways for Apple to wring more money out of you.
2) The apps are lacking on Android
There is a real lack of apps for iOS because so much is blocked from the App Store. Casual developers and open source projects won't pay the high fees and it also means apps tend to more more expensive and there are fewer free ones. Apple's ridiculous requirements mean you can't get lots of useful apps because they do things like allow you to execute scripts or load ROMs. There is also only one app store and you can't just buy apps via web sites, or back them up to SD card (or even use an SD card), or email them to another phone etc. I have a few apps that are non-market ones.
Also lots of iOS apps just seem to be flashy graphics that slide and zoom nicely but the actual functionally it lacking. In particular there are no good backup apps like Titanium Backup for Android, or BitTorrent, or Tor, or emulators etc.
3) Hardware software compatibility.
The dock connector really sucks. What is wrong with USB? I have to carry a special charging/sync cable, and I have to use the shitty iTunes software just to copy some files off the damn thing. My Android phone has basically replaced the USB flash drive I used to carry. Apple also loves to break the peripherals from the last generation, especially 3rd party ones. The guy who lent me the iPad has some speakers that work perfectly with his iPod Classic but inexplicably don't work at all with his iPhone, even though the connector is the same and there doesn't seem to be any technical reason for it.
Media support on the iPad is terrible too. Everything has to be converted by iTunes which takes ages and there is no Flash for video.
4) The hardware is sub-standard by most, not all vendors in comparison to Apple.
I'd say it's much better generally, at least on comparably priced devices.
Now, a few points of my own:
5) No user changeable battery. I push my phone quite hard and although battery life is better than what my friend's iPhone seems to get eventually that battery will wear out, and I want to be able to change it.
6) No SD card, and I need iTunes just to access the damn thing. The amount Apple charges for an extra 16GB is outrageous, more than I can get a 64GB SD card for.
7) No USB host support, I can plug any random USB gamepad into the Transformer and it just works.
8) Lack of multitasking. I often want to copy/paste from the browser to Colornote or an email but on iOS you have to close each app before going to the other one. There are no background apps either, for instance I use a GPS logger while I am taking photos on my DSLR so I can geotag them later and it does it quietly while I can look at maps etc. without closing it.
9) Poor screen. The iPad 2 screen is only 1024x768, too small for web browsing IMHO. I upgraded my old Thinkpad laptop because the screen was only 1024 pixels wide and would never want to go back to anything under 1280 now. My 12.5" Let's Note is 1400 pixels which seems to be about the right DPI.
10) Expensive accessories and peripherals. Apple charges silly money and seem to be keeping official 3rd party prices high too. You can get knock-off stuff but it tends to be crap, where as on Android I can use generic but good quality peripherals costin
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Don't get me wrong, I like Android, carry a Droid X, and am in the market for an Android slate to replace my Winders laptop. But come on! Firstly, "the year of the" anything articles are so full of carp they could breathe underwater. (That's cute, isn't it? I give xkcd permission to use it.) Secondly, "the year of some version of Linux" has been predicted for decades and, you know, it's kinda like predicting the coming of Christ. Maybe it'll happen some day, but don't keep your bags packed.
But thirdly and most importantly, there is room in the marketplace for more than one OS. [1] Android and, iOS for instance, can coexist in the same marketplace just fine, thanks. Decisions will be made on capabilities, apps, features, and which logo is etched into the trendy metal backplate. Users have a choice, and choice is good.
[1] With the possible exception of Windows Phone 7.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I believe the Samsung Galaxy S II is a "high-end" Android phone? It has sold many millions globally.
I believe the iPhone will remain a top selling high-end phone, but there's room for more. I agree that the article is written by an unrealistic "fanboy" of some sort. Wishful thinking.
I like all my various WP7, Androids and iPhones. I just switch handsets when I feel like there's something new to test.
That's wishful thinking in my opinion. Jobs didn't have a hand in everything, and even if he did, we know he was away from Apple several times and for many months prior to his death.
Apple didn't stop working during that time, and I don't believe it will change under the so-called "new" management either. The managers and teams are well versed in their corporate culture.
We didn't stop making yoghurt because the "original" bacteria strain died out.
So wrong.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
Overall I have to say I am completely disappointed with Android (had high hopes) as I feel Google is doing piss poor job of ensuring a certain amount of quality and usability. Android might sell more devices, but unless Android really changes its stripes it will always be a cheap-skates paradise...
google makes the OS, not the hardware, and if you think the likes of samsung, acer, et al. would accept google coming in and demanding that the hardware meets google's quality standard, i have a bridge to sell you. hardware manufacturers are already extremely jittery about google "owning" the OS[1]. it wouldn't take much to scare them off.
Yeah, that decade was hard on Apple, but the more experienced Steve Jobs brought some great improvements with him to Apple when he re-joined. That culture is what you expected to die off now. I see two different companies where you see one.
The board was well aware of the need to secure a future for the company, and five years ago or so they made plans for who would eventually take the reins after Jobs. It was in all the news media. That plan was put into action when Steve left to have his operation and recovery period.
When he died the plan was already in action, the key players were trained, ready and in place.
I think what Steve Jobs brought to the company was a culture of "perfection" (or whatever you want to call it). I think they will be able to maintain that in the future, using different people obviously, expressing it their way. I think they managed to instill it in a new generation. It won't be the same, but it will be similar.
Would you prefer that we had a dozen standards for hard drives connections / sizes / etc? The problem isin't dealing with different companies it's the fact that a single OS is implemented in such a way that you lose the benefit of having a single OS. Where as Apple makes it easier to develop across different hardware though admittedly there isn't a ton of variation but they've done well to make it so developing for the 3GS didn't mean you could only sell on that version without jumping through tons of hoops. Android could have it too but no one wants to do that.
Microsoft have an obligation to supply updates.
Windows XP got a bad reputation because Windows 98 was insecure. Even Vista and 7 have the stigma of insecurity from the days of XP and DOS-based Windows.
Microsoft is actively encouraging users to keep their software up-to-date. XP should have been EOL years ago, but Microsoft is still pushing out updates to keep users secure.
Google don't feel obliged to supply updates. They provide the source code to OEMs.
OEM's don't feel obliged to supply updates. They provide hardware to Resellers (Carriers) which happens to have a copy of Android on it.
Resellers aren't inclined to supply updates. Consumers have contracted to pay them money regardless of whether their device still works or not. If a software version interferes with their network, they may push out an update, but only enough of an update to mitigate the effects on the network.
Consumers with Android Hardware are not able to perform updates. While Cyanogen-mod may empower some technology-geeks to update their software, they also run the risk of bricking, rendering their devices even more useless than before the update.
Apple fought obscure accounting laws in the US for the ability to provide updates to their customers for the life of the device. They may have dropped the ball once or twice, (iPhone 3G, 8GB iPod Touch 3rd Generation), but still strive to provide as many new features to as many devices as they can.
Others have pointed out compatibility issues due to differing hardware, different versions of the OS, different UI modules added by manufacturers, poor quality hardware from some manufacturers, inconsistent/poor availability of updates, etc. All of those are valid complaints. But having used an Android phone, here is what I see as the biggest flaw; the UI design is fundamentally inconsistent. It fails to follow many of the user interaction guidelines from the person who is certainly one of the top UI experts, Bruce Tognazzini, aka Tog.
Is it a touch screen system, or a keyboard system? Both, and neither. Almost everything is done using the touch screen, except "back", "menu/settings", and changing apps (plus power and volume controls). You can't complete common tasks using just one or the other, you must use both. Using a separate button to change apps doesn't interfere with normal work flow, as changing apps itself is an interruption in work flow, so it makes some sense. However, having to switch from the touchscreen to the dedicated keys to go back (a critical part of most apps), or to access a menu (e.g. add, delete, edit, change settings, etc.) is an unnecessary, and non-intuitive UI design. It's consistent in that the whole OS and almost all apps use it, but switching between touchscreen and dedicated keys for essential parts of in-app functionality is an interruption in workflow. Everything done in an app should be possible using a single UI model on the touchscreen.
Another annoyance (at least on my phone, don't know about others) is that auto-correct (and automatically adding apostrophes in contractions) only works when using swype. If you want those when typing in text, you must go back after the fact and tap the word to get a list of alternatives. Why would auto-correct only work with one input method? There is no auto-punctuation and it doesn't even offer auto-complete except in the browser.
Syncing my contacts list between the Mac OS X address book, Google contacts and the phone was a challenge. Not all of the blame for that falls on Android, but it took 2 hours to initially sync and eliminate duplicates (there were only 10 contacts in the phone to start with) because contacts and numbers were getting duplicated, and deleting them from one didn't always delete them from another, so next sync they would dup again. Once it's set up, it mostly works, but again, deleting or changing info on one may cause duplication problems next time, so it's an ongoing annoyance. An average user would probably have given up on syncing the contacts, but with 500 contacts, I wasn't going to give up easily.
Individually, these are "little" annoyances and inconsistencies, but they're pervasive and significant enough to harm an otherwise pleasant user experience. Because of these annoyances (and several others) I would much rather have an iPhone.
make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false
1) Hardware update support sucks!
Nice try, but you'll have to work a lot harder to convince Slashdotters that the average upgrade experience on Android is at par or better than the average experience on Apple devices. Even with Samsung devices, you are still largely at the mercy of the cellular provider for Android updates.
2) The apps are lacking on Android
It's the walled garden filter on one side versus making no money (and thus no financial incentive to develop anything) on the other. A push at best.
3) Hardware software compatibility.
This comment has merit but is now dated with the release of iOS 5.0. And the last part of your comment complaining about peripherals is laughable... at least Apple devices have 3rd party peripherals to be compatible (or not) with in the first place.
4) The hardware is sub-standard by most, not all vendors in comparison to Apple.
Now you're just trolling mindlessly. Top tier Android devices are on par with Apple in hardware quality, the rest significantly inferior.
5) No user changeable battery. I push my phone quite hard and although battery life is better than what my friend's iPhone seems to get eventually that battery will wear out, and I want to be able to change it.
A sorta valid criticism, except that the battery in the iPhone has high quality and most evidence shows that it is plenty good over the typical length of ownership of a smartphone. I'll grant you the win regardless.
6) No SD card, and I need iTunes just to access the damn thing. The amount Apple charges for an extra 16GB is outrageous, more than I can get a 64GB SD card for.
Missing an SD card slot is a blessing in disguise, in my opinion. It WOULD be nice to have other means other than iTunes, though, to access your data from a PC or Mac. Although, on the other hand, your disgust for iTunes goes well into irrationality, as it is not half as unusable as most Slashdotters seem to suggest.
7) No USB host support, I can plug any random USB gamepad into the Transformer and it just works.
This is a significant letdown for you and the other 5 people yearning for this functionality, agreed.
8) Lack of multitasking. I often want to copy/paste from the browser to Colornote or an email but on iOS you have to close each app before going to the other one. There are no background apps either, for instance I use a GPS logger while I am taking photos on my DSLR so I can geotag them later and it does it quietly while I can look at maps etc. without closing it.
This is factually wrong, as these things are all easily done in iOS devices.
9) Poor screen. The iPad 2 screen is only 1024x768, too small for web browsing IMHO. I upgraded my old Thinkpad laptop because the screen was only 1024 pixels wide and would never want to go back to anything under 1280 now. My 12.5" Let's Note is 1400 pixels which seems to be about the right DPI.
I thought we were comparing iOS to Android here. Nice strawman.
10) Expensive accessories and peripherals. Apple charges silly money and seem to be keeping official 3rd party prices high too. You can get knock-off stuff but it tends to be crap, where as on Android I can use generic but good quality peripherals costing 1/10th as much as the iPad ones.
You can buy peripherals for Android devices now? The wonders never cease.
11) Page display in the browser. Android has reformatted pages since day one to make them readable on a phone screen, but iOS doesn't seem to do it. OK, not strictly tablet related.
This is a good thing for about 10% of the web pages the people typically view.
Yeah, the parent post overstated the sour points of Android, but your reply was an even worse exaggeration going the other way. The +5 insightful is definitely not warranted.
It still competes directly with Android devices.
While real Android Devices are of much better quality than the Kindle Fire, and have higher levels of software support and better quality hardware, they are still tarnished by the Kindle Fires existence.
Consumers look at an Android Tablet at $500 and think "It can run Angry Birds, eMail, Facebook, play movies and display eBooks". They look at a Kindle Fire at $200 and think "It can run Angry Birds, eMail, Facebook, play movies and display eBooks". Many consumers will grab the Kindle Fire without a further thought and have their opinion on the usefulness of Android Tablets forever tarnished by the lacklustre experience.
While iPhones are of much better quality than Android Phones, and have higher levels of software support and better quality hardware, they are still tarnished by the Android existence.
Consumers look at an iPhone at $200 on a contract and think "It can run Angry Birds, eMail, Facebook, play movies and display eBooks". They look at an Android Phone at $40 and think "It can run Angry Birds, eMail, Facebook, play movies and display eBooks". Many consumers will grab the Android Phone without a further thought and have their opinion on the usefulness of Smartphones tarnished by the lacklustre experience, until they see someone using an iPhone and think "I should have gotten one of those instead"
Meanwhile in business world, Amazon will continue making money hand-over-fist buy selling stuff, Apple will continue making money hand-over-fist buy selling stuff and Google and Facebook will still be making hand-over-fist by selling your data.
Not really, but the Mac ecosphere has remained large enough to retain a sufficient pool of talented Obj-C coders to keep the language viable. It's obscure only because it's the standard language in Apple-land, where it's dominant, but it's also extremely accessible because it's basically C with OOP macros built in. If you're a C programmer, you're 80% of the way to competent Obj-C coding.
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
Because I get paid to... duh.
I like my job... I just can't say I appreciate every little thing I'm expected to do.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
No user changeable battery. I push my phone quite hard and although battery life is better than what my friend's iPhone seems to get eventually that battery will wear out, and I want to be able to change it.
Are you talking about phones or tablets? Because the Asus Transformer (your pick) does not have a user replaceable battery. If you have AppleCare, you get free battery replacement for two years from Apple for the iPad, and after that it costs $99.
No SD card, and I need iTunes just to access the damn thing. The amount Apple charges for an extra 16GB is outrageous, more than I can get a 64GB SD card for.
Agreed. This is annoying, and apparently a trend for many products. You can't browse a Canon DSLR with Finder either. However, it appears linux has a solution. Not sure how long it will take for this to make its way to Windows, but it should eventually.
Lack of multitasking. I often want to copy/paste from the browser to Colornote or an email but on iOS you have to close each app before going to the other one. There are no background apps either, for instance I use a GPS logger while I am taking photos on my DSLR so I can geotag them later and it does it quietly while I can look at maps etc. without closing it.
Complete bullshit. I multitask all the time on the iPad. Skype runs in the background, happily draining the crap out the battery, and receives calls/chats while I'm doing something else. So does Vtok, which I use for gmail.
Poor screen. The iPad 2 screen is only 1024x768, too small for web browsing IMHO. I upgraded my old Thinkpad laptop because the screen was only 1024 pixels wide and would never want to go back to anything under 1280 now. My 12.5" Let's Note is 1400 pixels which seems to be about the right DPI.
The screen isn't poor. Far from it, actually, because it is an IPS display. It's better than a typical laptop screen. But yes, the resolution is low. I have mixed feelings about it. It does make things a bit crowded for web browsing and such, but I think a higher resolution would make the text much harder to read on a small screen. Your 12.5" screen comparison is almost 3" larger than the iPad. 1024 pixels is perfectly sufficient for movies and looking at pictures, though.
Expensive accessories and peripherals. Apple charges silly money and seem to be keeping official 3rd party prices high too.
So don't buy them. Seriously, why do you need them? I don't use any peripherals for the iPad. It works fine. The only thing I have considered is a keyboard, but any bluetooth keyboard should suffice. You don't need to buy that from Apple.
Page display in the browser. Android has reformatted pages since day one to make them readable on a phone screen, but iOS doesn't seem to do it.
No idea what you are talking about. Websites need to have a mobile stylesheet. If they do, Safari works just as well whatever Android has (Chrome?). If you mean that Android intentionally reformats pages that don't have a mobile layout, that is indeed a novel feature.
I compare what I have working experience with... I don't get to choose the tools and devices I use at work. And my point is that we have to support a "critical market share", which because of the diversity of android devices, makes it very difficult to do multiplatform development.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
All my three Android devices never have problems connecting to any wifi, so yes, it seems to be a problem with your network or your individual Android device.
I have a Galaxy Tab, and I had that problem in first weeks after getting it. The WiFi connection went up and then down within 30 seconds. I tried everything and it wasn't working. Now it seems to work. I did try to use static IP addresses, but I don't remember if they had an effect or not. It's DHCP now.
Perhaps I was "holding it wrong?"
but my friend's iPhones are blocked from getting new features like Siri even though the hardware is perfectly capable.
Siri is still Beta. Unlike Google, Apple restricts access to Beta software. They may open Siri up to earlier devices like the iPhone 4 and iPad 2 once it is out of beta, if the experience is acceptable.
2) The apps are lacking on Android
There is a real lack of apps for iOS because so much is blocked from the App Store. Casual developers and open source projects won't pay the high fees and it also means apps tend to more more expensive and there are fewer free ones.
The quality of the Apps in the iOS App Store is much higher than in Android. I wouldn't call $1000 for a Mac Mini and $100 for a Developer Account to be particularly high fees.
Free Apps in the Android Store are supported by advertising. I think paying $0.99 to not be bombarded with Ads or have your usage data sold to the Highest bidder *and* the lowest bidder (and everyone in-between) is a fair price.
3) Hardware software compatibility.
The dock connector really sucks. What is wrong with USB? I have to carry a special charging/sync cable, and I have to use the shitty iTunes software just to copy some files off the damn thing.
The dock connector was a great replacement for FireWire of the earlier iPods. FireWire could only carry Data and 12V Power. The Dock Connector could also carry 5V Power and analog audio. It was upgraded to also carry analog video. It was upgraded to also carry Digital Audio, then Digital Video, but they had to strip out 12V power. I don't think we'll see Thunderbolt iPads soon.
Yeah, iTunes for Windows is pretty crappy, even though it still the most popular music playing Program on any platform. It's quite embarrassing. The only thing more embarrassing would be Zune, HTC Sync or to not have any Syncing Software at all. Windows Phone 7 Connector for Mac is not too bad though...
I've also had more luck buying Dock-connector USB cables than micro-USB cables anyway. I needed one for my AppleTV the other day and tried three different electronic shops before I found one. I should have just bought one of those $40 Android Phones instead, thrown it away and kept the cable.
4) The hardware is sub-standard by most, not all vendors in comparison to Apple.
I'd say it's much better generally, at least on comparably priced devices.
Unfortunately for Android, those comparably priced devices are few and far between. Most Android devices on the market are cheap, nasty devices being sold at inflated prices. Same reason why Windows has such a bad reputation.
Now, a few points of my own:
5) No user changeable battery. I push my phone quite hard and although battery life is better than what my friend's iPhone seems to get eventually that battery will wear out, and I want to be able to change it.
Apple have a repair policy for the battery. You will still be able to get a replacement battery for an iPhone in two years time when the battery finally does degrade to the point of being unusable from any of the Hundreds of Apple Stores around the world, or from any of the Millions of iPhone repair booths dotted throughout Shopping Centres and Malls around the world. If you need to power up on the go, Morphie Juicepacks and cheaper knock-off Dock-connector battery packs are sold at most Corner Shops.
You may have some difficulty finding the exact battery for a 2-year-old Obscure Android Phone.
6) No SD card, and I need iTunes just to access the damn thing. The amount Apple charges for an extra 16GB is outrageous, more than I can get a 64GB SD card for.
Are you able to put Apps or other Protected content on SD Card in Android yet, or are you still restricted to Internal Memory? Legitima
Nobody asked for your opinion either... but look! There it is.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
When you're reclined on the couch or barcalounger or sitting in an airplane seat, the Transformer dock provides a handsfree stand to keep the video you're watching at just the right angle. An iPad you have to hold, an iPad stand typically only has one or two angles to configure. And the Transformer's widescreen format makes for a nicer movie experience.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
It's the walled garden filter on one side versus making no money (and thus no financial incentive to develop anything) on the other. A push at best.
And yet there are plenty of good paid apps, I even bought some of them. Apps that can never exist for iOS. You literally don't know what you are missing.
This comment has merit but is now dated with the release of iOS 5.0. And the last part of your comment complaining about peripherals is laughable... at least Apple devices have 3rd party peripherals to be compatible (or not) with in the first place.
Wait, you think there are no peripherals for Android devices?! Okay... Well, take a look at the web sites of some manufacturers like Samsung, ASUS and HTC. They have plenty of accessories available. Honestly, at least bother to check before going off half cocked.
A sorta valid criticism, except that the battery in the iPhone has high quality and most evidence shows that it is plenty good over the typical length of ownership of a smartphone. I'll grant you the win regardless.
I'm afraid that the magic Apple sauce can't change the laws of physics. Lithium batteries degrade over time, end of story. Apple don't even make the batteries themselves, they just buy them from the same places other manufacturers do, except for Samsung and Sony who do actually make their own.
Missing an SD card slot is a blessing in disguise, in my opinion.
LOL. Apple actually convinced you of that... Please explain, I could do with a good laugh.
It WOULD be nice to have other means other than iTunes, though, to access your data from a PC or Mac. Although, on the other hand, your disgust for iTunes goes well into irrationality, as it is not half as unusable as most Slashdotters seem to suggest.
It's a giant turd on a scale that crapware like Real Player and Windows Media Player can only dream of. They included the entire font rendering system from MacOS just to make it look pixel for pixel the same on both platforms. It has it's own network stack complete with a DNS resolver, presumably as part of the DRM to prevent it being interfered with. It converts all your media to lower quality formats it supports even if you don't want to sync it with an iOS limited device, even though the fact that it does so clearly demonstrates that it can open and play such files. It installs all manner of other crapware too and tries to push other rubbish like Safari on you. It takes over your file type associations and then creates a pointless iTunes directory in your personal music folder instead of just using it directly. It basically does everything it is possible for an evil Windows app to do without being labelled malware.
This is a significant letdown for you and the other 5 people yearning for this functionality, agreed.
Have you seen those "iPad Arcade" things that seem to be popular at the moment? It looks like there is a market, the difference being I can use any gamepad I want where as you have to pony up 40 quid of a cheap plastic frame and sub standard joystick.
This is factually wrong, as these things are all easily done in iOS devices.
Oh really? Show me a link to this magical app that does all that stuff.
I thought we were comparing iOS to Android here. Nice strawman.
We are, and my point is with iOS you have no choice, it's a 1024 pixel screen or nothing.
You can buy peripherals for Android devices now?
Been possible for years. Learn to Google.
This is a good thing for about 10% of the web pages the people typically view.
I find it very useful on Slashdot and BBC News. It works well on most sites. Saves all that pointless zooming and scrolling you have to do on iOS. That stuff looks cool on TV but when you realise that you actually want to read more than one or two paragraphs on a page you suddenly realise how slow and laborious it gets.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I find it interesting that you lead off telling us that you are going to compare your Transformer (Lame name - I'm glad Hasbro isn't going to let Asus use it anymore) to a borrowed iPad and then only mention either a couple of times. I do not own any devices running iOS and don't anticipate ever owning one, but you do not know what you talking about.
1) It is nice to know that you have gotten updates on two devices that are less than a year old. Both should run Ice Cream Sandwich, but I'll bet neither has it yet, so much for timely. Let us know how you fare next year. The vast majority of Android users (phone users or tablet users) did not receive updates after one year, if ever, that is the issue that bothers me the most with my next smartphone almost certainly being Android. iPhones? I thought you were going to address iPads, but the older iPhones did get the current OS update, they simply did not receive a new feature.
2) There is a shitload of apps for both OSes and the vast majority of them are crap, I found all the applications I am interested in to be available on both platforms, but there are more developers and applications for iOS than Android. As for backup, I believe that is what iCloud is for, but there ARE numerous third party applications out there.
3) iPod Classic and iPhone are how many generations apart? If converting media for the iPad takes ages, you are doing it wrong. It should add a few seconds to the transfer time. Your point on use as a flash drive is good, but the connector - well let's just say that if you use a USB port to connect your android device to most cars you must use your touchscreen to change songs, while the iPod/iPad will generally be better integrated. So there is a tradeoff that almost makes the weird connector okay.
4) Most are substantially crap. Go to Fry's, you apparently have not seen the kind of stuff that comes out of China. Until recently I had not seen any Android devices priced to compete with the iPad that were of decent quality and running a current version of Android, and even your Transformer doesn't meet those criteria.
5) Phone? I thought you were talking pads, and your Transformer's battery isn't replaceable, is it? At 16 hours why should it be? I have a replacement battery for my smartphone and I use it once in a blue moon, but that is why the standard USB connector/charger in 3) becomes meaningful as I can steal a charge at various times during the day.
6) What would you do with a 64GB SD card? None of the devices you cited can use more than 32GB, and you better plan on spending most of that $100 difference in price if you want it to be anywhere near as fast as Apple's memory. Lack of removable memory is, for me, a substantial issue, but the iPad is available with up to 64GB and your device, like most Android devices with removable memory is only 48GB. I think I could live with non removable memory in that case.
7) There is limited USB host support on the iPad, not much, but you overstated the case.
8) The iPad has had multitasking since version 4.2.
9) What happened to the pad comparison? I was not aware that the Let's Note was an Android device. Your Transformer has 1280x800 vs 1024x768 on the iPad, yes that is better. You may be craving the "retina display" of the iPad 3 come February.
10) What peripherals? It's a fucking pad, if you want to have a bunch of peripherals then you will need a desk to put them on and you might as well have a laptop computer or something. Bluetooth and Wifi are the way to attach in any event.
11) No, not pad related at all.
The show stopper for me personally with the iPad/iPhone is that you can't store a PDF file to them without a bunch of workarounds. I have loads of reference s that I carry on my smartphone in pdf format. The thing about trying to compare two items is that one person's show stopper is someone else's "who cares?"
The US government have made it clear that we have no inalienable rights; any we do not defend vigorously will be taken.
Hmm... from what I've read so far, it fits into exactly the same niche as does C++. Which explains the obscurity: Why learn Objective-C when the more-popular C++ does just the same thing, and offers greater access to skilled programmers and reuseable code?
Of course not... the problem is not the different models by the same manufacturer, the problem is really the sheer number of manufacturers.
This, itself, would not be a problem if there was a unified standard that all would use, the problems are that each manufacturer has its own peculiarities, and that they don't all use the same type of connector (although most are pretty good, standardizing on micro USB), and also that one has to install nearly a dozen different device drivers to support them all (which I can't actually do on one machine, because in my experience, some drivers don't play nicely with some other ones, and if you try to have both drivers installed on one machine that conflict, then neither device type will be recognized when it is plugged in).
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
You may have jinxed yourself. "The Samsung Galaxy S smartphone and 7-inch Galaxy Tab will not receive the latest version of Android, because Samsung has said its custom TouchWiz user interface, not Google's operating system, is too taxing on the hardware."
The US government have made it clear that we have no inalienable rights; any we do not defend vigorously will be taken.
Well, exactly, unless you're planning on coding/selling into the Mac ecosphere, in which case it's basically mandatory. If you're not writing apps for OSX or iOS, you would never bother with Obj-C, which is an also-ran in the OOP wars that found a very durable niche--and that niche is now paying off handsomely for some coders who endured the lean years.
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
FTFA: "The Novo7, an Android 4.0 tablet based on the MIPS JZ4770 processor. It retails for under $100."
Stop saying it's available for under $100 because it doesn't really exist
There's no reviews, it's not for sale, it's vaporware. How can you claim it's the year of Android based on a vaporware product?
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
To top it all off, we also have to make multiple builds so that the data can be stored efficiently on each type of platform.
Can you point me to some info on this? I haven't developed for Android yet and I hear this a lot but I don't understand the issue. Does this have to do with storing data on the internal flash -vs- the SD card? Or is there no standard file system layout?
Nothing about what I said was phrased as an opinion.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
It's related to Android, but it isn't Android.
Doesn't matter. As SerpentMage said:
The Kindle Fire is about being able to cater to a set of people to deliver a specific experience at a cheap price. NONE, I repeat NONE of the Android makers are doing that.
If you want to split hairs, just replace "Android" with "non-iOS tablet", and everything's still true. Apple delivers a certain experience, and the KF also delivers a certain experience. They're both selling well.
I'm not yet convinced it's selling well. Amazon announced a million Kindle sales per week, just before Christmas, but they didn't break it down into types of Kindle. It may be the eInk Kindles that are selling well.
And yet there are plenty of good paid apps, I even bought some of them. Apps that can never exist for iOS. You literally don't know what you are missing.
I doubt many companies are throwing a lot of development dollars at creating Android-only apps. Currently Android Marketplace doesn't even make as much $ as corresponding RIM and Microsoft mobile app stores. Indeed, I fully expect Amazon's App Store to supercede and eventually dominate the Android app sales, simply because Amazon knows a thing or two about retail.
Okay... Well, take a look at the web sites of some manufacturers like Samsung, ASUS and HTC. They have plenty of accessories available.
The fact that I have to go to the manufacturer's web site kinda proves my point about THIRD party peripherals.
I'm afraid that the magic Apple sauce can't change the laws of physics.
And that's why I granted you the win. Learn2read.
LOL. Apple actually convinced you of that... Please explain, I could do with a good laugh.
Apple didn't convince me of this. Nintendo, Sony, and Panasonic did.
It's a giant turd on a scale that crapware like Real Player and Windows Media Player can only dream of.
Your long diatribe proves my point... you're irrational here. Don't want all those Apple tentacles growing on your system? Simply click "no" when prompted. You just want iTunes for minimal file I/O and nothing more? Simply click "no" when prompted. It isn't that hard, really.
Have you seen those "iPad Arcade" things that seem to be popular at the moment?
If those "iPad Arcade" things were actually popular, I would have noticed by now. Let's face it, this functionality is not in demand right now, for mobile devices. That may change, and, if so, I expect Apple would more directly address it in a software patch. I kind of hope that Bluetooth 4.0 is the dominant means to do this kind of thing anyways.
Oh really? Show me a link to this magical app that does all that stuff.
copy-and-paste to clipboard works brainlessly simple. Various music/GPS apps on iOS have background utility, and can easily be accessed in the multitasking bar. "Learn to Google" was your phrase, I believe.
We are, and my point is with iOS you have no choice, it's a 1024 pixel screen or nothing.
I initially misread your post, thought you were comparing an iPad to a Thinkpad. Anyways, it's fair to say most Android devices (or even a majority of Android tablets) are not exceeding 1024 pixels, even if some at the top end are.
Saves all that pointless zooming and scrolling you have to do on iOS.
For a web page with a little text but a lot of other content, you don't want the brower to be reformatting anything. And for a web page that is mostly text, Apple's Safari Reader mode is superior to reformatting approach anyways. (Also, in the case of Slashdot, it already has a mobile-native site that obviates the need for any of this regardless.) I am "pinching and zooming" a lot less on my iPhone than you seem to think I am.
I'm at least acknowledging your stronger points. You, in return, are trolling hard here. At least be fair.
Yeah I bought an Acer Iconia tablet as I read my reviews, and compared it to the Asus Transformer. It seemed ok as a decision.
Wait. You're saying that you have specifically compared Acer to a Transformer, researching things online, and still bought Acer?
I'm sorry, but this really is a severe case of PEBKAC.
BTW these upgrade problems and such are not the exclusivity of Acer. It is the same with Asus, Motorola, etc.
FYI, Transformer got all 3.x updates within a month or so of Xoom (the "Google experience device" for Honeycomb) getting it; so, no, Asus doesn't have that problem.
Of course, there's also a very easy workaround, if you are aware of this problem (as you seem to be): buy devices that say "Google" on them. Those will always be the first to update, and will be updated for as long as their hardware is up to it.
no but we're talking about software and not hardware. I think well be seeing a stabilizing on the Android platform to some extent after the short period of major changes, improvements and revisions internally and graphically. I agree that Apple did a nice job on the initial design and didn't require major changes going forward but there are very few companies capable of doing that. Even Apple without Jobs is being questioned regarding this ability going forward. They were/are unique.
I think Google wants more consistency on the platform but they are fighting those selling hardware who want uniqueness at the software level too. Hopefully it clears up some soon.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
it's going to take a little while for the phone vendors to back off on doing everything unique on their hardware. It's not helped that Android has been going to huge changes over the past couple of years. There's some hope that with ICS and going forward the base system will be changing less and it'll help reduce the other choices vendors are going with and making things tough for developers. They have to know that apps enable the platform and it costs much less when others do the apps.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
The issue mostly involves image file formats. Some use pvrtc, while others use s3tc. Switching between them can take a very long time as the original assets need to be reprocessed.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Seriously, the odds of that happening (asskicking on epic scale) are similar to the odds of Linux becoming the dominant desktop OS.
Actually both the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab are in line for ICS. It would have been more convincing if you are not got the story from an Apple fanboi website.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
Microsoft's problems are not due to their licensing model. They are due to their own inept management. They have too many layers of middle management, and they just don't get things done effectively anymore.
Apple under Jobs had the clarity of vision that comes from one man unambiguously in charge. Since Jobs was right more often than he was wrong, that worked well for them.
But what you're suggesting would almost certainly have led to Jobs never returning to Apple. Apple bought NeXT because they were desperate. The Apple Renaissance happened precisely because Apple "nearly [went] bankrupt in the 90's as Windows surged."
So if Apple had gone the Microsoft route in 1989, taken over the lion's share of the OS market, and been in Microsoft's position throughout the 1990s, which do you think is more likely—that they would still have fired Gil Amelio, bought NeXT, and given Steve Jobs total control of the company? Or that they would have ended up in a pattern very similar to Microsoft, with businessmen rather than visionaries running the company, and making sure to avoid putting out any highly risky new products?
I mean, obviously your scenario's not impossible. We're talking pure hypotheticals here to begin with. But looking at the reasons things happened the way they did in our timeline, we can make some good guesses as to what would happen in the alternate timeline created by Apple opening the Mac in 1989—and I just don't think it's likely that some of the key events would happen the same.
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
With the market being so piss poor for android why do you even bother compiling a version and testing it? I know personally I quit supporting it, the expense of it cannot be justified.
Got Code?
It still competes directly with Android devices.
While real Android Devices are of much better quality than the Kindle Fire, and have higher levels of software support and better quality hardware, they are still tarnished by the Kindle Fires existence.
>
Meanwhile in business world, Amazon will continue making money hand-over-fist buy selling stuff, Apple will continue making money hand-over-fist buy selling stuff and Google and Facebook will still be making hand-over-fist by selling your data.
Three disturbing points in the last 48 hours.
Samsung will leave 10,000,000 Samsung Android owners abandoned by refusing to provide them with ICS. This has the potential of making up to ten million people very unhappy with android. If they tell merely five others how they feel being screwed than that means fifty million people will be exposed to negative android publicity by a trusted friend.
http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/23/2657132/samsung-no-ics-upgrade-for-galaxy-s-and-galaxy-tab
Dell is after killing of their Dell Streak android tablets in the US a week or two ago is switching to a fork of Android from the Chinese for their new Dell Streak smartphone which will rival any flagship Android sold in the US for high end quality. This new fragmentation may chill Google on Android when they see their hold on the smartphone and tablet market slipping away by the treacherous actions.
.
http://androidcommunity.com/dell-partners-with-chinese-search-engine-baidu-for-streak-pro-20111223/
The last is the move by both B&N and Amazon to lockout access to root with a new update to their 'Android' firmware. This is a real kick in the teeth from former friends to Android and open source.
Now run that by me again how 2012 is going to become the year of Google Android.
Actually both the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab are in line for ICS. It would have been more convincing if you are not got the story from an Apple fanboi website.
You better be glad I am not moderator today.
Don't you even keep up with the Verge?
http://www.theverge.com/2011/12/23/2657132/samsung-no-ics-upgrade-for-galaxy-s-and-galaxy-tab
Last I heard that is the furthest thing from an Apple fan site, right?
There are almost as many real android users weighing in about this development as you would find on /.
They feel betrayed and they are angry! Ten million Android users just got screwed after buying high end Android Galaxy devices from Samsung.
See their comments on VERGE.
Add that to the disgruntled Android users from HTC and you begin to see a disturbing pattern that bodes danger for Android's future in the US market unless this new stuff is so cheap most people would not care, but get over $300 for any Android and there may be problems compared to the marketing challenges coming from Apple in February.
Too many things are beginning to go wrong with Android at an astonishing pace and that needs to be fixed ASAP.
CES better recharge the nation's desire for Android or 2012 will be a runaway year of the Apple.
What I said was that Apple's decision to charge crazy high premium prices for Macs in the late 80's made money for them hand over fist, but set them up to nearly go bankrupt in the 90's as Windows surged. Had Apple adopted the Microsoft licensing model, I think the Windows surge wouldn't have happened; it could have been a Mac OS surge instead.
Wrong. When Jobs came back and saved Apple, he didn't take your approach. In fact, he killed the Mac clone. And he cut Apple's endless confusing product line down to four. But Jobs did not cut margins - they are as high as ever. Since then, Apple stock has increased like 100-fold and it's now the biggest, baddest company on earth.
OBTW, Apple is poised to become the #1 PC maker next year.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
So far it's been pretty factual on my side, even if it hasn't been appreciated.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Samsung, Acer, etc licence the OS from Google. Any poor business practices they make in Android's name negatively affect Google.
Even the Kindle Fire is going to have a negative affect on the public's perception of Android, and it didn't licence the OS from Google and only use the Open Source Components.
Public: "Why should I buy a $600 Transformer when I can get a $200 Fire which run's Android Apps?"
Public: "This Kindle Fire is crap. Ergo, Android Apps are crap, Therefore, I'm going to write off the $200 I spent on the Kindle and write off all Android Tablets as well. Where's the nearest Apple Store?"
\
Public: "Why should I buy a $600 Transformer when I can get a $200 Fire which run's Android Apps?"
Public: "This Kindle Fire is crap. Ergo, Android Apps are crap, Therefore, I'm going to write off the $200 I spent on the Kindle and write off all Android Tablets as well. Where's the nearest Apple Store?"
you should give people more credit. the public has been figuring this out with PCs since their inception, but it will all go over their heads with tablets? the average person that pays $399 for a windows laptop knows they are getting something different than when they pay $1,299. do you know anyone that thinks all PCs are the same and one is as good as another? even my 60+ yr old mom talks processor speeds, memory, and OS versions. she doesn't know much, but she understands why she'd pay more for something that is faster, etc.
I have an Android tablet and I can't understand this story at all. The tablet I have is pretty horrid from a users point of view. I have three browsers "Browser (Are they ashamed to call it Chrome?), Opera and Firefox. On each there are huge display problems, sometimes I just give up and look for my lap top. My son who is reading Computer Science at Southampton University has an iPad and just about every thing on it is better than my pad. Web pages are rendered correctly, documents are more readable, even Evernote on the iPad is better than my Android device. The Android is not intuitive, I can't see anyway to print from it, I am sure it is supported but I will will have to Google it. To be fair I have loaded it with a lot of stuff that does work, but the applications are not as polished as the iPad apps, what do I mean, well they look like work in progress, I don't know how else to quantify it.
Thanks.
Actually, there is only one android driver. However, each device has it's own unique identifier, and on Windows for some reason instead of a generic driver with a "register this device" utility, you have separate, identical drivers that only connect to one device.
I do Android dev from Linux, and I just add the device's USB ID to a list that connects it to the appropriate driver. Still a bit of a hassle.