

How Asus triumphed over Apple - anigbrowl
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-innovations/how-asus-triumphed-over-apple/2011/07/12/gIQAEXAKBI_story.html

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georgemcbay
Very linkbait-y/troll-ish headline, but I own an ASUS Transformer and for my
money it is the greatest single gadget I have ever owned or used, even
adjusting for technology inflation. The keyboard dock is the killer feature
for me, I use the thing in "netbook" mode at least 80% of the time because I
find it to be a superior form factor for anything but very casual "couch
surfing". And when I do want to do that sort of casual browsing, I just pull
the tablet part out of the dock.

Granted, you can do something vaguely similar by adding a bluetooth or USB
keyboard (on tablets that support USB host mode) on other tablets, but you
lose a lot of convenience by not having it be a proper fold-up netbook
configuration, IMO (you're basically forced to use a bag to tote it, unlike
the Transformer).

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asknemo
Concurred. Let's not forget that ASUS has mastered the netbook form-factor for
quite some time. For many of us tablet is only an occasional need, say, read a
long article, watch a show etc., so what I would call an "occasional tablet",
i.e. the Transformer package, seems particularly natural.

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mahrain
I see this link here as flame bait. This guy is happy with his Asus tablet
because it has a keyboard and Flash in the browser. Good for him.

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anigbrowl
the title is terribly linkbaity, but I do think it's interesting how Asus
seems to have hit the bullseye with this product - almost evry review glows
with praise, and many criticisms in the early reviews addressed flaws of
Android 3.0 which have since been rectified. I was startled to see that Asus
is apparently selling 400,000/month of these things - far short of the 3
million iPads a month that Apple is shipping, but impressive for a product
that only became available in April. It is the leading Android tablet at
present, at least until the next generation of devices featuring the Tegra 3
appear around August.

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shinratdr
> Asus’s stock browser blows Safari away because it supports Flash.

Why do I feel like the guy didn't even use the thing? Oh right, because I've
tested Flash in browser on every Android tablet I could get my hands on and it
was extremely unimpressive, every time.

I have nothing against Asus, I loved my EEE PC and the only reason I don't
have it anymore is because it was the perfect computer for my younger cousin.
I also think the Transformer is one of the more interesting entrants into the
Android tablet market. However, this article reads like an ad. Laments about
bullet point features, totally skips real world use (the flash example being
the best one).

If he had used it extensively, he never would have said "the stock browser is
better because it supports Flash" he would have said "the stock browser is
better because I can do x, thanks to the Flash-supporting browser".

> the Android widgets personalize the home screen, which is great if you want
> constant access to your audio controls. Once you wrap your head around the
> possibilities, the iPad interface will seem plain.

Why do I have to "wrap my head around the possibilities"? Why don't you just
tell me some of the amazing and awesome things you did with widgets while you
were reviewing the thing? It could be because widgets aren't actually that
amazing in practice, and are really just little applets that run all the time.
Is it really a deal breaker to have to tap on the Tweetbot icon to view tweets
instead of swiping to the side to look at my Twitter widget? I don't think so.

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chippy
What happens is this: Apple makes great products, people want them, other
people make cheaper copies, people can afford them and so they buy them.

Android phones are a good example - they certainly do triumph, but because of
Apple. Apple still wins, but we all benefit from what they do - and what they
do is increase the demand for better appliances.

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FrojoS
Awesome. I always wanted to build something like this. Next thing, it would be
grate if one could adjusted the screen in height, so you can work in a natural
position on a desk.

What has always worried me, is how to balance the center of mass. Do they put
weights in their keyboard? All the batterie and computing power is in the
tablet. So I would have assumed, that it is a lot heavier and would fall to
the back.

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tresta
I have a transformer 32GB (but not the keyboard part) and I must say I really
like it.

The keyboard contains a battery as well so I imagine the center of mass would
be shifted down a bit.

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raghava
Am I the only one to notice a fancy designation ("senior Vice President and
Chief Digital Officer")! Chief Digital Officer? :)

