Tablet Computers (and mobile platforms in general).
A month ago I was really psyched about the notion of picking up an iPad. I held off for a few reasons; we had just bought a much needed washer and dryer, Christmas had just recently passed, my desktop may be on the way out and I discovered some notifications of the upcoming iPad 2nd Gen.
Since, then I have been spending a lot of time looking into tablet technologies. I love the notion, I love where technology is at the moment, and I love what is becoming possible. But what I hate is my timing. I'm frustrated. There are a dozen manufacturers and twice as many devices now, but none of them are available and they are all so closely spec'd I can't even decide where to start. A year ago I would have been fine buying an iPad, but knowing it would be obsolete in a few weeks (Motorol Xoom supposedly out on the 24th) I would be a fool to buy now. Asus talks about a secrete iPad killer, Honeycomb has already been loosely ported to some other older Android devices (colour version of the Nook at least), LG has a slate coming, iPad 2 specs are not yet truly known.
All I really know at the moment is this. When I buy it, it will probably be an iPad or an Android device. Microsoft tablets run Windows 7, and as much as I love it, it isn't a Tablet OS or even a mobile OS and there is no Marketplace for tablet Apps, and if they did, at the moment I would likely have the same beef with it as I have with Apple and WinPho7 development.
iPad has a chance because I've heard some great reviews from friends and seen some videos showcasing how well Apple has devised the software on what is now inferior hardware. Seriously! Go watch a YouTube video of someone using a iPad and compare it to some of the Xoom demos. The iPad is faster and "prettier" (obviously not an objective statement). And all of that on slower hardware that is at least a generation older than what the Xoom is sporting. The Xoom while it is probably faster than previous generation Android devices, I can see visual lag simply switching between desktops, and every application had some brief spike where it crawled. In all of the iPad reviews and hands-on demos I've never seen so much as a flicker.
And lastly, we hit the an I had with my Windows Phone that Apple products never encounter. Lack of peripherals. If I buy an iPad there will thousands upon thousands of things I can buy to enhance the experience, from covers and cases form fitted and designer specifically for the device to docking stations, speaker sets, exteneral keyboards and just about anything you can think. With an Android device, by comparison, I'll be hard pressed to find a generic case or any other accessories which the exception of one or two the manufacturer released or worked closely with a partner with.
So, why do I say that Android devices are even a competitor? Price, Application Selection and Development. The Xoom, much to what believe will be its demise is pretty much guaranteed to be more expensive than the cheapest iPad. Out the door I believe the Xoom will look like a success with all of the people they tantalized throwing themselves at, but once the dust settles there will hardly be a trickle of new sales.
Yes the Xoom blows the current iPad out of the water on paper, but remember 2 things, we don't actually have official specs for the iPad2, and, even on the inferior hardware as I said before, I find the current iPad better in terms of performance than what I've seen from the Xoom. But that simply means that the performance to price ratio of the Xoom is simply wrong. Xoom is just the beginning and Android devices have a tendency to pop up in every price point (let alone size, shape and colour), there are already 2.2 based android devices for under $200 CA if you don't mind resistive touch screens and if not, there is a good selection with capacitive touch screens under $400. Almost $200 cheaper than the iPad. And this trend will likely continue. An open source OS is simply easier for everyone and their grandmothers to grab some hardware and throw devices together, and if you go look at somewhere like Tigerdirect you'll get the impression that is exactly what is happening. Prices on other devices... not worth it. Microsoft devices in addition to my above complaint, cost more, for 2 reasons; they need more power for Windows 7 and then there is a license fee for the OS built into the cost. Blackberry Playbook would be competitively priced if it were Android based, but their OS and App store are lacking for the price range.
Next was application selection. The store for Android is not as large as Apple's but it is near enough as matters. By which I mean simply that after a certain point those 2 app stores were simply fighting for a larger number and nothing else. Every Apple App worth owning likely has an Android equivalent. The same either is not true, or simply doesn't feel true of Windows Phone or BlackBerry. My last phone was a curve and my current phone is a Windows Phone 7 device and my girlfriend owns an iPod Touch. First thing and a little off topic, she NEVER used/uses her blackberry for the sorts of things she does with her iPod even where the option exists. It is a terrible platform for anything other than texting, phone and email. But also, the selection simply isn't there. The same for Windows Phone. The marketplace is spectacularly garbage, so I may be wrong, numerous blogs rave about the selection and how it is catching up to Apple and Android, but frankly, with a competing Apple product in my household I simply don't see it.
And lastly is development. I'm a programmer. I love coding. Even if I were to write nothing, it would aggravate me to no end knowing I can't put my own apps on my own device. This is exactly the boat I'm in with my Windows Phone and the same boat I would be in with iPad (though I could jailbreak the iPad). With an Android device I would be able to load applications on my own device without paying someone an annual fee just to register my device as a developer device. I understand how controlling Apps has helped Apple's business model and how Microsoft sees this and wants to emulate their success. But how many of those devices on both sides are jail broken now? I don't want to upload apps to other people, I simply want to load my apps onto my device. Android doesn't make me feel like a criminal for doing so. Blackberry is like Windows 7, it is a phone OS, not a tablet OS, so I have no urge to develop apps for it.
Also, and I have to fault Microsoft for trying to adopt Apple's strategy. If someone had a successful App store before Apple, even Apple would have failed with that model. Emulators are cool, but developers are typically only really excited when they can get the full experience and making them pay and jump through hoops to get there is a deterrent. In fact, anyone surprised at HOW Android was able to be as large as it is today, look no further than the fact that it supplies a platform that is competitive with the industry leader and which makes free and legitimate to begin developing and putting your creations on your own devices. BlackBerry has 1 one of those pegged and Microsoft none... guess where each stands in terms of sales and customer loyalty?
Anyway. Enough of that for now.
Since, then I have been spending a lot of time looking into tablet technologies. I love the notion, I love where technology is at the moment, and I love what is becoming possible. But what I hate is my timing. I'm frustrated. There are a dozen manufacturers and twice as many devices now, but none of them are available and they are all so closely spec'd I can't even decide where to start. A year ago I would have been fine buying an iPad, but knowing it would be obsolete in a few weeks (Motorol Xoom supposedly out on the 24th) I would be a fool to buy now. Asus talks about a secrete iPad killer, Honeycomb has already been loosely ported to some other older Android devices (colour version of the Nook at least), LG has a slate coming, iPad 2 specs are not yet truly known.
All I really know at the moment is this. When I buy it, it will probably be an iPad or an Android device. Microsoft tablets run Windows 7, and as much as I love it, it isn't a Tablet OS or even a mobile OS and there is no Marketplace for tablet Apps, and if they did, at the moment I would likely have the same beef with it as I have with Apple and WinPho7 development.
iPad has a chance because I've heard some great reviews from friends and seen some videos showcasing how well Apple has devised the software on what is now inferior hardware. Seriously! Go watch a YouTube video of someone using a iPad and compare it to some of the Xoom demos. The iPad is faster and "prettier" (obviously not an objective statement). And all of that on slower hardware that is at least a generation older than what the Xoom is sporting. The Xoom while it is probably faster than previous generation Android devices, I can see visual lag simply switching between desktops, and every application had some brief spike where it crawled. In all of the iPad reviews and hands-on demos I've never seen so much as a flicker.
And lastly, we hit the an I had with my Windows Phone that Apple products never encounter. Lack of peripherals. If I buy an iPad there will thousands upon thousands of things I can buy to enhance the experience, from covers and cases form fitted and designer specifically for the device to docking stations, speaker sets, exteneral keyboards and just about anything you can think. With an Android device, by comparison, I'll be hard pressed to find a generic case or any other accessories which the exception of one or two the manufacturer released or worked closely with a partner with.
So, why do I say that Android devices are even a competitor? Price, Application Selection and Development. The Xoom, much to what believe will be its demise is pretty much guaranteed to be more expensive than the cheapest iPad. Out the door I believe the Xoom will look like a success with all of the people they tantalized throwing themselves at, but once the dust settles there will hardly be a trickle of new sales.
Yes the Xoom blows the current iPad out of the water on paper, but remember 2 things, we don't actually have official specs for the iPad2, and, even on the inferior hardware as I said before, I find the current iPad better in terms of performance than what I've seen from the Xoom. But that simply means that the performance to price ratio of the Xoom is simply wrong. Xoom is just the beginning and Android devices have a tendency to pop up in every price point (let alone size, shape and colour), there are already 2.2 based android devices for under $200 CA if you don't mind resistive touch screens and if not, there is a good selection with capacitive touch screens under $400. Almost $200 cheaper than the iPad. And this trend will likely continue. An open source OS is simply easier for everyone and their grandmothers to grab some hardware and throw devices together, and if you go look at somewhere like Tigerdirect you'll get the impression that is exactly what is happening. Prices on other devices... not worth it. Microsoft devices in addition to my above complaint, cost more, for 2 reasons; they need more power for Windows 7 and then there is a license fee for the OS built into the cost. Blackberry Playbook would be competitively priced if it were Android based, but their OS and App store are lacking for the price range.
Next was application selection. The store for Android is not as large as Apple's but it is near enough as matters. By which I mean simply that after a certain point those 2 app stores were simply fighting for a larger number and nothing else. Every Apple App worth owning likely has an Android equivalent. The same either is not true, or simply doesn't feel true of Windows Phone or BlackBerry. My last phone was a curve and my current phone is a Windows Phone 7 device and my girlfriend owns an iPod Touch. First thing and a little off topic, she NEVER used/uses her blackberry for the sorts of things she does with her iPod even where the option exists. It is a terrible platform for anything other than texting, phone and email. But also, the selection simply isn't there. The same for Windows Phone. The marketplace is spectacularly garbage, so I may be wrong, numerous blogs rave about the selection and how it is catching up to Apple and Android, but frankly, with a competing Apple product in my household I simply don't see it.
And lastly is development. I'm a programmer. I love coding. Even if I were to write nothing, it would aggravate me to no end knowing I can't put my own apps on my own device. This is exactly the boat I'm in with my Windows Phone and the same boat I would be in with iPad (though I could jailbreak the iPad). With an Android device I would be able to load applications on my own device without paying someone an annual fee just to register my device as a developer device. I understand how controlling Apps has helped Apple's business model and how Microsoft sees this and wants to emulate their success. But how many of those devices on both sides are jail broken now? I don't want to upload apps to other people, I simply want to load my apps onto my device. Android doesn't make me feel like a criminal for doing so. Blackberry is like Windows 7, it is a phone OS, not a tablet OS, so I have no urge to develop apps for it.
Also, and I have to fault Microsoft for trying to adopt Apple's strategy. If someone had a successful App store before Apple, even Apple would have failed with that model. Emulators are cool, but developers are typically only really excited when they can get the full experience and making them pay and jump through hoops to get there is a deterrent. In fact, anyone surprised at HOW Android was able to be as large as it is today, look no further than the fact that it supplies a platform that is competitive with the industry leader and which makes free and legitimate to begin developing and putting your creations on your own devices. BlackBerry has 1 one of those pegged and Microsoft none... guess where each stands in terms of sales and customer loyalty?
Anyway. Enough of that for now.
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