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."

Comments

2012 will be the year of the...

[Luke727]

...first post

iPad vs. all Android tablets

[Theaetetus]

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%.

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[smi.james.th]

Isn't that a good thing though? With iPad you get very little choice as to what you want, everyone's iPad is the same excepting how much space it's got and whether it has 3G.

With Android tablets though, because they come in such varieties and with such a selection of features you can have a much more personalised experience. Not to mention the fact that individual manufacturers can customise the interface, like HTC Sense and Samsung TouchWiz, to give you more opportunity to pick one that you like. iPad only offers one choice as far as that goes.

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[Anonymous Coward]

That doesn't matter, fanboi. Just ask Apple's board what they think about going from 98% dominance to 40-50% in just 18 months. They're shitting themselves. Apple will still be the dominant device because they offer no options, just a bump in storage until the next incarnation. And zealots like you will buy += iDevice regardless of what else is available.

98% to half that in a matter of months, that's going to really hurt. Apple will have to offer a range to keep up. They'll need a smaller cheaper device to fend of the masses that are going for nooks and fires (tech will allow it, but Apple's SharperImage "quality self-delusion may prevent that. They'll also need to move over to the standard 16:9 screen ratio at some point. Does any modern company make consumer based screens with 4:3 except Apple?

As Apple's dominance in slabs falls at alarming rates, MS will also join as late comers, no doubt diluting the iPad share further. Especially in the business sector where IT dept buy in bulk from generic box shifters like Dell.

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[DrgnDancer]

That... depends a lot. Do they have 40-50% share of a much larger market? Are they am making more, less, or the same amount per unit? I don't think Apple's board, or anyone else, ever expects to dominate any one niche forever. They don't need to. Apple's profits are rising. They make more per phone (and tablet) than any Android manufacturer and sell more units than any Android manufacturer. Their goal is make money, not dominate markets. They *still* make more profits on their computer division than any other single computer manufacturer, despite only being around 6 or 7 percent of the market share. When compared to "Windows PCs", Macs are a small minority of computers. When compared to "Dell PCs", Macs beat all the other manufacturers in sales and make more per unit. Dominating markets is nice, but it's not likely to last. Being a huge player in a much larger market makes just as much money and can last a good long while.

Look at phones. For a while iPhone dominated the smartphone category. Then Android joined the fray. People started buying Android phones too. Eventually more people bought Android phones than iPhones, but here's the thing... More people were buying iPhones than ever before. Every ad for an iPhone is, in a way, and ad for an Android phone. Every ad for an Android phone is, in a way, an ad for an iPhone. Ads for both make people want smartphones, and that's good for everybody. Would you rather have the whole 12 inch diameter pie, or a quarter of a pie the size of a dining room table?

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[Rhaban]

2. Allow Android comparability. Android Apps are Java Based. Apple can put in a java interpreter and run Android apps. (So to the buyer... This things runs Android and iOS apps while this only runs Android... I guess I will pick the first one)

This way, every developper would make their apps for android as it would run on both platforms, and the validation process would mean that every single iphone app will be 2 weeks late compared to the android version.
Great idea.

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[Karlt1]

As a platform - the important thing - Apple's star is waning. You can't compete with the rest of the industry just because some fan boys prefer how the screen scrolls when you swipe it, or whatever.

As a platform....

1. iOS still accounts for 2/3rd's of Google's mobile searches

http://9to5mac.com/2011/09/21/google-23rds-of-our-mobile-search-comes-from-apples-ios/

2. The Apple app store generates 4x the revenue of the Android app market....

http://www.businessinsider.com/apple-app-store-2011-12

3. And Apple generates more profit on the iPhone than the rest of the industry combined.....

http://www.asymco.com/2011/07/29/apple-captured-two-thirds-of-available-mobile-phone-profits-in-q2/

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[Karlt1]

That doesn't matter, fanboi. Just ask Apple's board what they think about going from 98% dominance to 40-50% in just 18 months.

Last time I checked, the Apple board is probably concerned with revenues, profits, and ":increasing shareholder value".

I'm sure they are not to upset that the most successful non-Apple tablets are sold at a loss....

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[ozmanjusri]

You can call me a fanboy, I guess. I have a one of the $100 Android tablets mentioned in TFA (actually, the $120 Novo 7 Advanced with Gingerbread), and it's an excellent little machine. I originally grabbed it as an Arduino platform, but it's very responsive, has 8Gb storage, capacitative multitouch and a good range of ports, including host mode USB and HDMI. I'm using it a lot more than I expected.

There's no way in hell Microsoft, Apple, RIM or any of the proprietary giants would have allowed a machine like that to be built if they could stop it - not enough margin for them. Look at how much effort MS put into killing Netbooks.

Still, if Apple wants to compete on price and quality with it, I say bring it on!

Seeing the big boys start competing in the sub-$100 tablet market would definitely be a win for us buying them

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[markkezner]

nerdy technical innovation every few months that's incompatible with the previous version.

This is a myth. Android releases have always been backwards compatible. That is, Apps written for Android 1.0 will work just fine in Android 1.1 and any later release in the future. If you're writing an app that requires, say, Android 2.1, such as a Live Wallpaper, then any Android running version 2.1 and higher will work fine. Devices that don't meet the requirement simply won't see the app in the Market.

If appropriate, developers can mark that support as optional, so your app will include that feature if the device supports it, and if it doesn't the feature will be disabled and the rest of the app will work regardless.

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[pauljlucas]

With Android tablets though, because they come in such varieties and with such a selection of features you can have a much more personalised experience. Not to mention the fact that individual manufacturers can customise the interface, like HTC Sense and Samsung TouchWiz, to give you more opportunity to pick one that you like.

For many people, more choice is a bad thing.

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[SeanAD]

See, this is the kind of argument I have trouble with. Samsung does a great job copying Apple.

I don't haven an iPad or any Android device, but if you look at the situation objectively: Microsoft has touted tablets for what -- 15 years? Nothing of substance has come of it. Apple makes version 1.0 and it becomes an insane hit . Then other companies copy them and they're held up to the same standard as Apple?

No, the best you can say is Samsung can make a good quality copy product. If they were in the same league, they would have made the same device years ago.

Btw, I like Samsung's products (non-tablet related). You could replace Samsung with any other iPad copier in this discussion.

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[Xest]

"But look at any individual manufacturer, and that "All Android Phone" share is sliced into so many tiny pieces that Apple dwarfs them."

Really?

Many sets of stats, like these:

http://www.mobilesplease.co.uk/news/nokia-lumia-slow-start/

and these:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15489523

Suggests that's simply not true.

If you look at the first survey for the UK, the Galaxy S II has been outselling the iPhone 4 white, and black model combined, and it's only when you then factor in the 4S white, and black model, that the iPhone finally overtakes the Galaxy S II in sales.

What all stats coming out in the last couple of months appear to demonstrate is that you're quite wrong - the Galaxy S II as a single model, has been outselling either the iPhone 4, or the iPhone 4S as a single model. When Samsung combines all it's Smartphones, as the iPhone 3GS, 4, and 4S are lumped together as if they're equally a single offering, it's shifting over 7% more handsets than Apple.

It was a valid argument early on, but it just doesn't seem to really hold any weight anymore. This is the fundamental problem with people who feel the need to defend Apple, they originally said Android would never overtake the iPhone, then when it happened they said, no individual manufacturer will ever overtake Apple, now it's happened they're saying no individual handset is beating the iPhone, but even that seems it's almost certainly happening now. Even if it's not quite the case yet and the stats are wrong and the Galaxy S II isn't outselling a specific iPhone model, and almost even all iPhone models combined, then it's still a close enough call such that terms like "Apple dwarfs them" is laughably incorrect rhetoric.

Apple's marketshare for tablets has already declined this year, it's now down as far as 62%, having been up at around 90% last year:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/mobile/display/20111215172936_Apple_s_Tablet_Market_Share_Drops_to_61_5_in_Q3_2011_IDC.html

This is with countless false starts (HP's tablet, RIM's playbook etc.), lacklustre Android offerings, and even some Android tablets being banned from sale in some markets. As these issues start to fade and the Android tablets pick up strength, i.e. through inclusion of things like Android 4, then the market for the iPad isn't suddenly going to grow. It's opportunity to thrive has been possibly bigger than ever with all the setbacks competitors have faced, yet it's marketshare has still declined.

I'm not talking Apple down because I have some irrational will to see them fail, I'm not that much of a fanboy - I do disagree with many of their corporate decisions, but what I do like is to see a bit of truthfulness in these sorts of discussions, because fanboys lying to themselves and agreeing with each other is a largely meaningless sport - a fanboy can spout some crap about how their pet brand is going to win some arbitrary war all they want, but it wont change reality if it then doesn't. By all means I may be wrong, and Apple may see a resurgence that allows it to grab increasing levels of marketshare, and that's fair enough if someone wants to make that point, but throwing around clear bullshit like "no individual Android tablet is going to have more than 5%" with no suggestion as to why that might be the case when it's not been the case with phones is meaningless.

There's no doubt Apple is going to continue to be a massively profitable company thanks to the iPhone and iPad in the near to medium term, but I believe they've made some serious mis-steps that has allowed Android to take the lead, and that's led to an inevitable snowballing on it's behalf - the more marketshare it gets, the more developers begin to develop for it, the more open it is, t

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[msauve]

"Too many tablet models means application developers can't rely on as much being present and have to buy more tablets on which to test."

Just like PCs. I'd hate to be a PC developer these days, and have to buy thousands of them just to make sure my application was fully tested.

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[jordanjay29]

Seriously? You must not have seen ASUS' Eee Pad Transformer or the Transformer Prime (I hate how people keep forgetting about that one). How innovative is it for your tablet to dock with a keyboard (which includes goodies like a battery and USB ports) and become kin to a netbook? It's not that ICS will be the catalyst. It's that the convergence of ICS on both Tablet and Phone will make it much easier to sell someone an Android tablet versus an iPad. Got that killer app for your phone? Stick it on your tablet and be even more productive with a big screen.

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[jbolden]

Most of the Android phones were sold at carriers other than AT&T and at much lower price points. 2012 when Android comes up for renewal at Sprint and Verizon will be interesting. You'll have iPhones at all the same Android price points and available from the same carriers with the same data options. It really will be (excuse the pun) an apples to apples comparison. Many of the key aspects of Android like:

-- Poor / no updates for OSes
-- Incompatibility for apps.
-- Crippled features from carriers
-- Microsoft taking a licensing fee

are starting to bite.

I sincerely hope that Android continues to do well. While I'm an iPhone user I think the competition is in every consumer's interest. And certainly when I bought my iPhone I looked long and hard at some HTC models. While software helped, it was ultimately hardware, not software, that made me pick the iPhone.

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[jordanjay29]

Or you do what's called beta test and let other people test it for you on their tablet. Bring your thinking into the 21st century, all the big kids (read: video game companies and calling 'beta' a gold release) are doing it!

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[drsmithy]

On the iPad things are instant. Nothing stutters when you scroll, nothing "loads" other than massive apps, they just open instantly.

Wow, you must have a different iPad to me.

On my iPad, ever since IOS 5, everything has been noticably slower, with lag just about everywhere in the interface, from resizing to rotating to scrolling.

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[Culture20]

But is [Unity] truly bad for end users? As a default user interface for non-technical people, I think it's pretty good.

I think it's terrible for end users. Making the "start menu" into a search field where you have to know the name of the program you're looking for is stupid, especially for someone first using the computer. It's like they don't want anyone to learn to use any programs other than the web browser.

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[aristotle-dude]

This shouldn't come to a shock to anyone. Mac except FOR A VERY SHORT period. Has always controlled their hardware (in some cases to their demise).

You have a memory leak. The mac clones almost killed Apple. The problem was that the clones cannibalize sales of Apple macs rather than expanding the marketshare of Mac OS. They were also of worse quality leaving Apple with less sales but higher end user support costs as they had to troubleshoot mac os for those clone owners.

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[rbrander]

I agree "Innovative" was the wrong word for the Transformer. "Awesome" would, however, be more the right nuance.

I bought the first netbook (also ASUS, of course, the Eee PC) because the form factor worked for me as something you didn't hesitate to carry everywhere - and lightened the load on vacation while still being able to keep up with E-mail and handle all my photo review / tossing-out / rotating / cropping / blogging.

I love the "pad" style touch interface (I'm having to hold back from touching other screens now), but I'm just not terse enough to do E-mail with a screen keypad. Only useful for typing in passwords and short URLs. No E-mail, no-take-on-vacation. End of story.

An iPad with a keyboard accessory could cure that, but the Transformer is much more - doubling the battery life (and the way it does it is very clever: plug a depleted pad into the keyboard and it will actually charge it up until the keyboard is nearly depleted, so a mid-day session of catching up E-mail can have you ready to go back out to the field again; I never bring the charger to work), and providing an SD port and two USB ports. That's "killer app" compared to an iPad right there. (Oh, and Transformers have a micro-SD slot right on the Pad, so you can either increase your storage with it, or even use one in your camera and be able to review photos on a 10" screen...)

YMMV, but in my location, the price of the Transformer with keyboard and 32GB was the same as the iPad2 with 32GB and no keyboard. Case closed.

Re:iPad vs. all Android tablets

[atriusofbricia]

Do you really think business students represent mainstream users? There are iPad docks, but you're talking about one with a battery and USB ports, turning the tablet into a netbook. People don't want that. They don't want the old, clunky computer designs anymore, and they don't want to deal with a mess of cables. Mice and keyboards are wireless now. Hell, even iOS devices can sync wirelessly.

There's just this fundamental disconnect between what techies want and what the rest of the world wants. Techies want more ports, more specs, more everything. The rest of the world wants reduced complexity, not more of it.

Please, put down the crack pipe and step away from the kool-aid. When I'm out in town using my Transformer the first thing people assume is it is a netbook. Then I take it apart and after they pick up their jaws they're asking what is it and where can they get one.

Whereas not everyone wants it, there sure as hell are a lot of people who do and not just the implied "techno geeks" you're thinking of. Lots of iPad users see it and do wish they had such a dock.

You're just going to have to get used to the idea that while the iPad 2/3/whatever is nice, the ass kicking that is about to be handed to Apple outside their core fanboi base is going to be absolutely Epic.

Kindle Fire

[Pharmboy]

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.

Re:Kindle Fire

[Riceballsan]

I have to agree, especially in this economy, people who need a functional device for 200 or less is a growing barely tapped market. Much like why the netbook market suddenly plummeted when most stores stopped carrying the $200 models and shifted all of their focus onto the $400-500 models. Companies tried to claim this was due to the ipad, but at least from what I saw, the vast majority of people I saw buying netbooks, were people who could not afford a laptop, but wanted something cheap and simple that they could take notes, check e-mail and update facebook on. Now that could be regional, I live in the south where we have far more people who are hesitant on technology then we do people who have tons of money and always want the latest and greatest.

Why 2012 Will Be the Year of the Android Tablet

[Nrrqshrr]

Because the Mayan tablets said so? No wonder archaeologists got it wrong. It's the end of the handheld world as we knew it.

Re:Why 2012 Will Be the Year of the Android Tablet

[angel'o'sphere]

ROFL!

Regarding the articles "price to justify" ... I don't have to justify how I spend my budget.

And more profoundly: every tablet buyer who allready has a Mac or an iPhone (and thus iTunes on his PC) will very likely look forward to buy an iPad. Just as many Linux users will favour android tablets.

I would assume a big deal of customers judges by features and not by price. For me the price is relevant if I have two things in front of me that are very similar.

So as it looks now I will by me an iPad this year and an android tablet next year. Because: they are two different things!

Re:Why 2012 Will Be the Year of the Android Tablet

[ShieldW0lf]

This is why developers flock to Apple. Apple has done the hard work of gathering the suckers of the world together so they can be quickly separated from their money.

This is it!

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the year of Linux!

Re:This is it!

[cyfer2000]

Desktop Linux!

Re:This is it!

[jythie]

Oh, if I only had mod points ^_^

This was my thought exactly... these 'this is the year of *insert personal preference*' get rather repetitive. People seem obsessed with whatever they like being accepted by the majority as the 'right' solution.. I guess it is an extension of the 'I am smart, there is one ideal, so if other people do not agree with me either I am stupid or they are stupid, so it is important that my choices for my use case are universally correct, otherwise my ego hurts' meme.

Re:This is it!

[eugene2k]

To be precise, December 21, 2012 will be the day of Desktop Linux.

Re:This is it!

[ranton]

Desiring your prefered platform to "win" is not about wanting to feel superior. It is about wanting your platform to gain enough market share that vendors produce products for that platform.

Re:This is it!

[jbolden]

There was a period where Mac's market share fell to around 2%. But it was always a premium 2%. The 2% that were most interested in quality and willing to pay. That's why Mac when it was around 6-7% market share represented something like 50% of all the profits. Mac users, spend much more on hardware and software.

And that carries over. For example the iOS market place is 7x the size in dollar terms of the Android, Blackberry and Nokia marketplace combined.

The problem for the Linux market on the desktop is not just the lack of share but the lack of a market. Linux wants the low end. Microsoft however, unlike the server market, is willing to price themselves down far enough to compete for the low end. In the server market Microsoft (like Apple) choose margin over marketshare, on the desktop they choose the reverse.

"The Year Of"

[Kenshin]

Every time some tech columnist makes some glorious prediction that "[YEAR] Will Be The Year Of [TECH]", I roll my eyes.

Re:"The Year Of"

[rossdee]

2012 will be the year of failed predictions and prophecies.

Year of the Patent Lawyer

[RichMan]

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.

Nope

[lennier1]

It that's going to happen it will become the year of the Apple lawsuits.

More that the overall market will grow

[enjar]

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.

Isn't that what everyone said *last* year?

[jo_ham]

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.

Wishful thinking from Apple naysayers

[aussersterne]

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.

Having done android development, I can tell you...

[mark-t]

... it's a real bear compared to iOS development.

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.

Re:Divide and conquer

[interval1066]

You just described the death of Android.

I'm not seeing Android die anytime soon from where I'm sitting.

Re:Divide and conquer

[SerpentMage]

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...

Android is the upgrade path of least resistance

[Dr. Spork]

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.

Re:Divide and conquer

[BasilBrush]

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.

Re:Divide and conquer

[AmiMoJo]

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