

Why Google's Nexus 7 Tablet Is Hotter Than Apple's iPad - mtgx
http://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthof/2012/07/21/why-googles-nexus-7-tablet-is-hotter-than-apples-ipad/

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reiichiroh
I bought one and it's finally a worthy Android device to my iOS devices.
However, there is one tragic flaw with it--the tablet apps are of a terribly
varying quality. Only a tiny tiny handful are tightly programmed with the
device's screen size and other considerations in mind. No apps are as tightly
polished as the good ones deliberately targeted for iPad. Most tablet apps on
Android were automatically resized with no thought and it shows--they're ugly
as hell.

~~~
ConstantineXVI
There's yet to be a real standard-bearer for Android tablets (the Transformer
was close, but Asus alone didn't have the name recognition to push it) before
the N7; so I'd expect the quality of tablet apps to start shaping up finally.
ICS being on a respectable number of devices should help as well (since 3.0
was a "breaking" release).

IMHO, with the exception of games[0] and such, Android handles phone-tablet
scaling much better than iOS does: the UI properly fills the screen, text
isn't pixelated, and you aren't forced into a phone-size keyboard that doesn't
even reach the screen edge.

[0] games are typically very specific wrt resolution, this isn't a tablet
problem as much as an Android problem thanks to the wide variance in screen
aspects.

~~~
Samuel_Michon
_“Android handles phone-tablet scaling much better than iOS does: the UI
properly fills the screen, text isn't pixelated, and you aren't forced into a
phone-size keyboard that doesn't even reach the screen edge.”_

iOS has none of the problems you mentioned, so what exactly makes Android
better than iOS in that regard?

~~~
ConstantineXVI
Only on tablet-built apps. Foursquare (for example) only has a phone app.

on a N7:
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/vhy3ucrsmvtui76/Screenshot_2012-07...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/vhy3ucrsmvtui76/Screenshot_2012-07-21-16-45-09.png)

and on an iPad 3:
[https://www.dropbox.com/s/gao416zu3ltikra/Photo%20Jul%2021%2...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/gao416zu3ltikra/Photo%20Jul%2021%2C%204%2045%2015%20PM.png)

~~~
Samuel_Michon
Except the difference is: there are tens of thousands of iPad apps. How many
Android apps are optimized for tablets?

(Silly example btw, who would use Foursquare on a 10" tablet?)

~~~
cageface
The point is that there's less of a need for a separate tablet version of many
Android apps than there is for iPhone/iPad since Android's scaling is much
more sophisticated.

~~~
Zr40
iPad versions of apps aren't simply about scaling the UI. Take Twitter on
Android tablets[0] for example, it's clear that merely enlarging the UI
elements doesn't automatically result in an awesome UI on tablets.

Similarly, an UI design that works great on a phone (like with gestures from
the side) might feel awkward on tablets.

[0]: [http://www4.pcmag.com/media/images/285099-twitter-for-
androi...](http://www4.pcmag.com/media/images/285099-twitter-for-android-
tablets.jpg)

~~~
cageface
I write ipad apps for a living. I understand how scaling works.

The point is that a scaled up android app will usually look a lot better than
a scaled up iphone app.

------
amartya916
While I love the Nexus 7 tablet's pricing, ultimately I think it's going to
hurt the Android tablet ecosystem. With wafer-thin (non-existent?) profit
margins on the hardware, only companies like Amazon and Google, which have
content to sell at a profit, will be able to compete in the market.

I don't think any company that is not subsidized by Google (i.e. Asus in this
case), is going to get out of the tablet business.

So yes, the Nexus is a fantastic device at a fantastic price, but my hopes of
a vibrant ecosystem for Android tablet -though previously low- seems further
diminished.

~~~
notatoad
Can you really hurt a market when it is in as bad of shape as the android
tablet market is? Prior to the nexus seven, nobody was buying android tablets
because android tablets were pretty shitty. Maybe all the people making those
shitty tablets deserved to be squeezed out of the market.

~~~
wlesieutre
Google doesn't stand to lose much of anything. The other tablet manufacturers
have released very few solid tablet products, and mostly at prices that put
them at a disadvantage to the iPad. If Google can put out their own tablet
with good build quality, decent specs, and reliable software updates for more
than a month (I'm looking at you, every other Android device), then they're
improving the image of the OS itself as well as giving consumers a better
tablet to buy.

What do the other manufacturers have to offer to the ecosystem? A few things,
like the Transformer Prime, have been genuinely innovative devices, but it
seems like they mostly just dump their own UIs on top of old versions of
Android and act like that differentiates their products.

~~~
pm90
This is what bothers me the most: why don't hardware manufacturers focus on
what they are good at- making beautiful hardware? They put one leg in hardware
and another leg in software and then wonder why they're stumbling

------
dpcan
"And who besides us Google watchers know that “Google Play” is an app store
anyway?"

I have a feeling that if you are buying the Nexus online, you know this.

If you are buying it in a store, the sales person's pitch includes showing you
that Google Play is where you get movies, music and apps. (Similar to how you
can on an Apple device with the App Store)

~~~
coob
What store are people buying it in?

~~~
dpcan
I'm referring to his remarks about Google Play on Android. It's Google Play on
all new devices now, so if you are getting the Nexus, you are probably buying
it from the Google Play store already and therefore know about it and what it
is. If you are not getting the Nexus, and buying in a store, that's where you
are typically told about Google Play as it's an important feature.

------
bstar77
Apple may as well let Samsung sell the Galaxy Tab. They can thank Google for
effectively killing the Android tablet market with this subsidized device that
will always be a step ahead on software releases. I can't think of a single
reason why I would buy any other android tablet.

There are only two android based companies that can afford to do this: Google
and Amazon. How are the other hardware players supposed to compete now? This
seems far worse than what Microsoft is doing with the surface (unless they
sell that for $99).

~~~
orangecat
Even if the 8GB version is sold exactly at cost, that still gives the 16GB
version (the one that's actually sold out) a decent margin.

 _How are the other hardware players supposed to compete now?_

For starters, provide capabilities that the N7 lacks like an SD slot and rear
camera. Of course, they'd also have to stop screwing up the OS with their
skins and commit to a reasonable upgrade policy.

------
BasDirks
Nexus 7 is exciting to me because it means that Apple-which already sets
itself very high standards, for which I am thankful-will not be allowed to
slack off. Hooray for competition.

------
sidcool
I own one and it's a beautiful piece of engineering and art, at a great price.
I have fallen in love with it.

------
ajross
The online inventory seems to be fine, or was last week. I ordered mine on the
evening of the 15th and had it on my doorstep on the 19th. I'm always
suspicious of retail "sell out" news. Even the linked article points out that
it's subject to PR abuse.

~~~
vegardx
And most retailers are careful about having a large stock of anything that is
not made by Apple, as they have a tendency to be stuck with them. I worked in
retail and we rarely dared to order more than two of any new tablet that hit
the market, if it was from someone but Apple.

So when a good product finally comes by, there is a natural shortage, even
though the item is not really that popular.

------
jrabone
It's a shame that there are some serious quality issues with the Nexus 7
though. I pre-ordered two from the play store in the UK. Both arrived a few
days ago, both had the loose screen and one doesn't have a working touch
screen. Still waiting on an RMA email 3 days after calling support.

The one that does work ended up being a present to my partner, and it does
look very nice. I have a Galaxy S2, which is still running Gingerbread, by way
of comparison.

------
taylodl
tl;dr - it's no iPad but it's pretty good.

I would say that's a fair assessment. And for a lot of couple balking at the
$499 entry fee for the iPad, it may just well be what they've been looking
for.

~~~
Samuel_Michon
The entry level iPad costs $399, not $499. That makes it twice as expensive as
the N7, but it also has twice the screen area.

[http://store.apple.com/us/buy/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad/ipa...](http://store.apple.com/us/buy/home/shop_ipad/family/ipad/ipad2)

~~~
gjm11
> _twice the screen area_

I have never understood this way of thinking. (Nor, likewise, the idea that
the right way to compare laptop screens or monitors is by how big they are
across the diagonal.)

The Nexus 7 has a smaller screen area than the iPad 2, but it has _more
pixels_. If for some purpose the physical size is the limiting factor for you,
you can hold it closer to your head.

Of course this stops being true at the point where you can't easily focus on
it any closer (which gets further and further out as your eyes age), or where
having it closer makes touch interactions uncomfortable somehow. But is either
of these really the limiting factor for a lot of tablet users?

(I'm in my 40s -- some way above the median of the market for these things,
according to the stats I've seen -- and for me a 7" screen at the closest
point where I can easily focus occupies about the same amount of my visual
field as my (home) desktop monitor at normal operating distance.)

~~~
Samuel_Michon
Devices with capacitive touchscreens are made to be operated with your
fingers. Once a target is smaller than 44x44 points, it becomes very hard to
hit accurately. That's why screen size is important for tablets. A 10" tablet
can simply accommodate more UI elements than a 3,5" or 7" screen, and thus you
can use more complicated programs on them.

~~~
gjm11
That's a fair point. But in practice the target sizes on typical iPad apps
aren't close to the lower limit of practicality, and the UIs of such apps are
constrained more by not being ugly and confusing than by how many touch
targets can fit on the screen.

Hence, e.g., all the speculation that Apple will produce an 8" tablet that's
basically an iPad 2 scaled down somewhat, to have the same pixel size as the
(old) iPhone -- whose target sizes don't seem to be too small.

~~~
Samuel_Michon
I agree and Gruber wrote a good post about that [1]. However, if Apple
releases a smaller 7.85" iPad, it will still have a 40% larger screen area
than 7" tablets do [2].

[1] <http://daringfireball.net/2012/07/this_ipad_mini_thing>

[2] <http://a.yfrog.com/img615/4234/6j2n.png>

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NiekvdMaas
_The screen is no Retina like the latest iPad, but it still looks sharp and
bright._

This makes no sense: the Nexus 7 has 216 PPI. True, this is lower than the
(lates generation) iPad's 264 PPI, but similar to the MBP Retina at 220 PPI.

------
nextstep
How is this "hotter than Apple's iPad?". Every spec listed is described as
worse than an iPad (except for price).

~~~
jeffool
If you're asking by what definition of "hotter", the answer is "by sales
demand". But that's the entirety of the article. If you're asking "how", I
think you answered it in the last three words of your post ("except for
price"). "Under the hood" doesn't matter as much with these items for now.

------
mung
The author "almost forgot" the real main reason why it's "so hot"...

------
shinratdr
Let me guess, because Forbes needed some click-bait?

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shpoonj
Writer must be new; Apple seldom sells out, and when they do, it's for a day
or two at the most.

~~~
Samuel_Michon
You're kidding, right? All major new Apple products sell out when they're
launched, and it takes weeks or months for them to catch up to demand.

Example: retina MacBook Pro was launched on June 11. If you order one at the
Apple Store online now, it still takes 1-2 weeks.

[http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macboo...](http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/shop_mac/family/macbook_pro/select)

~~~
rprasad
A Dell takes 1-2 weeks to ship too, possibly more...

It's not a matter of demand. It's a matter of acquiring the components,
building the product to spec, testing it, and preparing it for shipment.

~~~
Samuel_Michon
Apple products are shipped the same day, unless they are Build-To-Order or in
high demand.

Apple is a completely different business than DELL. Apple sells in its own
retail stores, through big box retailers, through Apple Service Providers, and
via its own web site.

<http://store.apple.com/us>

------
Zenst
A warm tablet is nice in the winter. Also in the UK there was an official
judgement about the iPad being cool. So I'll not argue with a Judge - XXXX
tablet compared to a iPad is always hotter :), its the law; Least in the UK!

[EDIT ADD]`Judge Birss ruled that Samsung's designs did not have the same
understated and extreme simplicity which is possessed by the Apple design:
"They are not as cool."`

So in the UK iPad's are cool. Also electrical devices have 2 years warranty in
the UK, so I'm not too worried about it getting warm as long as the battery
life is not adversly shortened. I'm not put off getting one, when I can afford
to do so.

