

Honeycomb Has A Fighting Chance Against The iPad - playhard
http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/15/honeycomb-has-a-fighting-chance-against-the-ipad/

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Kylekramer
I don't know why this should come as a surprise. All the arguments that I've
seen that somehow the iPad will avoid the same fate as the (still highly
successful but not market leader in OS) iPhone have been weak, pushed mostly
by people who have a stake in its success. It is extremely hard to beat a
competent and _good_ platform so willing to allow any company to succeed and
do what they will with the platform. It comes down to the simple fact it is
essentially Apple vs. the rest of industry (minus a few outliers). Not even
Apple can do that. They came close with MP3 players, but tablets are much more
dangerous; they are a PC market disruptor, not a Walkman disruptor. So far it
seems all of those companies are willing to bet on Android. And considering
Android is lead by a software team willing to iterate furiously and have some
sort of quality, I have little doubt they will take the lead in the tablet
space.

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pkulak
Don't forget that carriers will always push anything non-Apple simply because
they make more money that way. I've heard several people now say that they
chose an Android device because they "don't have an Apple computer, so in that
case it's better to go Android." I think that's becoming the standard way
salesmen are going right now.

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toadkick
The litmus test for a tablet to me is, "Why would I buy one of these when I
could just buy an iPad?". As of yet, there is not a single competing tablet
with a good answer to this question, and Mr. Kincaid is unable to provide one
in this article, in spite of his desperate attempt. In fact, he pretty much
just reiterates the problems that all of the reviews for non-iPad tablets have
already presented: performance problems, "buggy as hell", not enough apps
optimized for the form factor. Why do these guys think that out of the blue,
Android tablets are going to just miraculously going to start being great?

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theBobMcCormick
> Why do these guys think that out of the blue, Android tablets are going to
> just miraculously going to start being great?

Possibly because that's exactly what happened with Android phones? Some of the
early Android phones (G1, Hero, etc) were pretty buggy, slow, and kind of
wonky. The original Droid was decent, then the N1 came out and was seriously
competitive. And there's been basically a string of steadily improving models
since then.

It seems reasonable to assume the Android tablet market will proceed
similarly.

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lurker19
Android, including the N1, never stopped being buggy as hell, though. Froyo
made wifi flaky, 2.3.4.2 made Gmail flaky, Cisco VPN support never got
implemented, etc.

Using Android requires a continuous effort to search for workarounds

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theBobMcCormick
That's a lode of horse shit.

My N1 and my wife's have both been rock solid.

And by Cisco VPN, do you mean IPSEC? Or Cisco's proprietary SSL VPN?

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fingerprinter
I strongly feel that just like the iPhone, the iPad will be the gold standard
for tablets. And just like the iPhone, it will have competition from an open
challenger.

However, in the case of tablet, I strongly feel that the challenger is NOT
android. Android works well on a phone, but a tablet is a different experience
and it needs certain design elements which, frankly, Google has not proven
capable of doing.

I have no doubt the challenger will be linux based, but it seems more likely
that the it will be someone with a design and usability bent rather than
technical-only acumen.

However, all of the challengers could be undone if they cannot play well with
quality apps. Getting developers to your platform is absolutely key.

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martythemaniak
You don't actually provide any examples of what you're talking about, so it's
hard to say what you're actually saying, making your post mostly useless
fluff.

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shimi
Not to be shackled to iTunes is more than enough reasons for me to get a
Honeycomb tablet.

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ditojim
i like the android tablets more than ipad for the same reason i like android
devices more than the iphone: customization. android gives the user credit for
being smart and recognizes we don't all want our phones to look and act
exactly the same. what a boring world it would be if we all had apple devices.
android is my little buddy that can be setup and function in the way that is
best for me...not steve jobs.

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yalogin
I am not an android user so do not know. What kind of customization is
possible with Android? I am assuming you are not talking about apps as the
apps available for Android are also available for the iPhone.

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ditojim
just think of all the stuff you wish you could do with your ipad, and that's
pretty much what android tablets can do.

widgets & hardware support via USB come to mind immediately, but there is much
more.

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yalogin
Could you please elaborate? I am curious. I do not even follow your widgets
and hardware support point.

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ditojim
that's exactly my point. you dont know what these things are because you use
an ipad. there is a whole other world out there. if you don't know what
widgets or usb hardware support is, google it.

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yalogin
You did not make any point. You also assumed I am an iPhone user. Anyway I was
not trying to grill you, I was genuinely curious. Nice to know you are
enjoying your android phone.

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joebadmo
I'm not sure why the gp is avoiding the issue.

Live widgets on home screens are great. They give you interactivity and live
updates without having to enter an app. So things like weather, news,
calendars, etc.

The home screen in general is a lot more accessible to developers. E.g. I can
add a shortcut to a contact on my homescreen that, when I tap it, opens up a
small modal dialogue with quick access to phone calls, texts, emails, etc. I
can alternatively add a shortcut that directly dials the contact with the
first tap.

Another thing that I really like about Android over iOS is that developers
have a lot more access to the settings of the phone than in iOS. This allows
apps like Locale, which lets you set different contexts depending on different
parameters such as location, time, battery level, orientation, etc. This
allows me to set my phone to vibrate and turn off wifi when I leave the house
for example. I no longer have to remember to set my phone to silent or any
other such nonsense.

I fully acknowledge that there are many things iOS does better than Android,
but these are the reasons that some people prefer Android, and they're for the
most part just as true about tablets as phones.

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yalogin
Thanks! I did not know the widgets on the home screen can be modified by
developers. That could be really useful. Very good to know.

------
bane
Once again, VHS beats Betamax?

