

Google Developing Tablet to Take on iPad - mun411
http://mashable.com/2010/04/12/google-tablet-htc/

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hyperbovine
It's interesting to see tablets being knighted as the Future of Computing by
MSM and the tech industry when it's not at all clear that people actually want
them. After controlling for the fanboy & factor, reviews for the iPad seem to
be mixed. I don't think it's exaggerating to say that the form factor just
might not be a good match for a lot of people.

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axod
It's a very funny bubble to watch. I just can't see it going mainstream.

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ZeroGravitas
Apple's move seems to be based partly on the success of the iPhone but partly
on the fact that they can't make a cheap, intel netbook without destroying
their brand values, and can't make an ARM netbook without breaking
compatability. (The latter applies to Microsoft too).

The fact that you can buy an external keyboard (a very un-Apple move) suggests
they'd have shipped a conventional laptop form factor if they could get away
with it.

I'm hoping the Apple ARM tablet leads to Android tablets which will then open
the door for those ARM netbooks we've been promised for the last couple of
years.

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Perceval
>...they'd have shipped a conventional laptop form factor if they could get
away with it.

One can imagine some combination of Apple's old 12" Titanium PowerBook and the
new MacBook Air into a _MacBook Air Nano_. Still, it's not clear how
attractive that kind of form factor would be as a netbook offering.

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jhancock
I've been playing with Palm's WebOS. I think they've made some good trade offs
in their development stack. I see no reason Palm or someone that acquires them
couldn't upsize the Pre into a tablet.

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naner
WebOS actually is pretty cool, it's too bad that Palm wasn't able to really
compete with Apple and Google.

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richcollins
Google is starting to feel like Microsoft. They're trying to compete
everywhere instead of focusing on their core competencies.

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dustingetz
their core product is advertising; and all these other services exist to
augment such. google's leadership is quite clearly on their A game.

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cabalamat
You're right.

If the future of computing is Apple's locked down iPad and iPhone platforms,
Google will lose big time. Google therefore needs to prevent that future from
happening.

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axod
>> "If the future of computing is Apple's locked down iPad and iPhone
platforms"

This is why I love not being in Silicon Valley. Anyone who thinks the
iPad/iPhone is the future of computing is either mad, or in silicon valley.

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dannyr
Definitely agree.

I moved to the Bay Area over a year ago. Most people think that the IPhone
rules the mobile phone market. Some people even say that Android will be dead
soon because everybody would just buy an IPhone.

The truth is go outside the Bay Area and IPhone is not as prevalent. My non-
Bay Area friends have an Android or Blackberry aside from the IPhone.

IPhone is also not the best-selling smartphone line in the US. It is the
Blackberry.

~~~
brianobush
It depends on market segment: among teenage girls, I don't think the
blackberry is _the_ device to own. Of course, it is for corporate users.
Overall, I don't know what the breakdown is, but a chart would be
enlightening.

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awad
Actually, you'd be surprised. This is purely anecdotal, of course, but around
New York City, I see more girls with a Blackberry than iPhone. BBM is really
hot. I would say it's the new AIM.

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alexro
Google developing <X> to take on <Y>:

example:

X = 'buzz', Y = 'twitter'

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cwilson
Am I the only one starting to see a pattern here? Why is Google suddenly
following in Apple's footsteps after every new product?

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enjo
I can confirm that Google has been working on this for quite awhile. At least
2 years in one way or another. They anticipated the move into tablets and a
lot of the work of maturing the Android platform has gone towards that.

In this case, they're not following by any stretch.

Oh, and while we're at it: It's not like Apple is the first touch enabled
Tablet to ever come to market. I would argue that the iPhone is an incremental
improvement on the Palm products (the first non-stylus gesture based app I
used was SnapperMail way back on the second gen Palm devices).

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cwilson
Could you really name a touch enabled Tablet to me without searching? I know I
couldn't name one. There is also that nifty little stat about Apple being the
worlds largest Tablet seller after their first day, so when it really comes
down to it, they are the first.

Even if you don't count the above it's still the first Tablet worth a damn.

As for Google not following Apple... perception is everything. Consumers and
really anyone following this epic battle will gloss over when someone tells
them "well Google has been working on this for 2 years!" and simply remember
that Apple did it first, Google was second, just like the iPhone and Android
(I believe the same argument can be made there too but no one really remembers
or cares about that).

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benologist
I bought an HP TX1000 like 3 years ago, and it wasn't the first by far.

[http://reviews.digitaltrends.com/images/full_reviews/hp/tx10...](http://reviews.digitaltrends.com/images/full_reviews/hp/tx1000/tablet_big.jpg)

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vaporstun
cwilson said "touch enabled Tablet"

Touch enabled the TX1000 is not, it uses a stylus.

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sp332
It will still work with a finger, it's just that apps not optimized for
fingers require the precision of a stylus to do useful work.

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timf
I'm more interested in this Adam tablet (also based on Android). It can do
BOTH e-ink (best feature of the Kindle) and full color LCD:

<http://www.notionink.in/adamfeature.php>

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proee
FYI, it's not sporting e-ink but rather a transflective display. Not even
close to what the kindle is using...

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timf
Thanks for pointing that out, I embellished too much by saying it _is_ e-ink

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mbreese
I'd be disappointed if they weren't. Unfortunately, it seems like this will be
based on Android as opposed to ChromeOS. After playing with ChromeOS on a Dell
Mini for a while, I can say that it is just screaming for a tablet to put it
on. Choosing Android is probably the smart thing in order to get apps on it,
but I'd love a Chrome tablet.

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gaius
A tablet interface is very different from a desktop interface with an on-
screen keyboard.

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swombat
The whole Android vs Chrome OS thing smacks of a badly planned platform
strategy.

Seems like both OSes are suitable for tablets, and both are being developed
(by different departments, no doubt) for that purpose.

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natrius
Android is for touch screens. Chrome OS is for netbooks. A Chrome OS tablet
would be a bad idea. An Android netbook would also be a bad idea. They're
built around different input methods.

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terryjsmith
Is there a business reason behind playing catch up in big companies? I
understand there's a market opporunity, but so many of these "copy cat"
products fail to live up to their potential simply because they are side
projects (especially something like this to Google). It seems this is quite a
trend for Palm, MS, Google and other megacorps and it rarely turns out well.

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blhack
> _Is there a business reason behind playing catch up in big companies?_

Yes, it's called "letting other companies subsidize your market research". I
don't know that the copy cats are really failing to live up to anything. I'd
say that android is a glowing success.

Not only that, but if google builds and android-based tablet, it might force
apple to de-suckify the iPad. Competition is good for everybody _including_
the companies that are competing; it incubates innovation.

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warfangle
With Google's repository of digitized books, they seem better-poised for the
ebook market than even Amazon.

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joubert
Will one be able to get paid-for apps that aren't ad-supported, mewonders.

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nuclear_eclipse
Why wouldn't you? Paid-for apps have been available for over a year now on the
Android Market, assuming you live in a region where Google can take payments
from...

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joubert
I don't know anybody with an Android phone, so I will ask: so you can have a
phone experience without ads all over the place? I just assumed that you might
have ads here and there, since that is Google's business model.

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zaphar
I don't remember the last time I saw ads on my nexus phone. I think I had an
app once months ago that had in app ads but that's the only one that comes to
mind. IME they are far from the norm on the phone.

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scorxn
What are the odds Google could offer free 3G with the device? Kindle pulls it
off, but builds the cost into content. Maybe a new ad network?

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bond
Good competition is never a bad thing...

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Anon84
Another Nexus?

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theBobMcCormick
I certainly hope so. The Nexus one is an absolutely awesome phone. Not to
mention it completely re-set the expectation bar for the various Android
handset manufacturer. (witness how most of the Android handset's announced
post-nexus one have snapdragon processors and specs _very_ similar to the
nexus).

