You're just sore because you know I'm right. Besides, why are you hanging out in this thread anyway. It's going to be a long time before you find that tablet that completely replaces your laptop.

But for giggles, let's take a short trip down memory lane. Remember almost a year ago when AustinChief said this:

He's still waiting for that iPad killer.

Typical fanboy smug behavior.

You realize that there's ALWAYS going to be something better just around the corner, right? I assume that since you post on this board, you are at least awake. As a result, you have to have noticed that technology is improving at an exponential rate. It's not going to slow down. There's always going to be a better tablet, a better smartphone, a better iPod, six months away. If you keep waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting for the 'next one that'll be awesomer to the max times a millions!' you're gadgetless. People who want these devices are gonna have to accept that they're buying something that'll be antiquated in a few years if not months. But deal with it. Or go without. Just stop bitching.

:D My comment was more about me picking on pat, than the fanboy comment.

I agree with your post here.

And I stand by my previous posts... As someone who has actually used almost every type of tablet on the market... I have found the iPad to be the best form with the least function. Mostly due to its lack of FLASH support... and the various apps that are meant to supplant FLASH functionality ... simply don't.

Let me give you a PERFECT example that happened ALL THE TIME with my girlfriend and I. She had an iPhone and later an iPad that I bought her. I had a Win7 tablet and an EVO 4G. While driving I would think of some obscure song I wanted her to hear so I would search for it on Google. OVER HALF the time there would NOT be a version that would play on Youtube's mobile app. SO if I sent her a link she couldn't play it on her i-devices yet I could play the video just fine on mine because I could choose to play via FLASH and not use the mobile app.

Do you have any idea how supremely annoying it is when half of your searched results won't play?

It isn't about an iPad killer, Apple's ridiculous policies have made the iPad a half-functional novelty and nothing more. but you can certainly do LESS for LONGER with its amazing battery life!

Over the course of last year a bunch of BETTER tablets came out... they ALL SUCKED but they were still better because they actually worked. Over the course of this year a ton more will come out that are ALL better and may also not suck. The Wifi Xoom with Flash and SD CARD support should be out in a week and at $600 it is easily the best tablet on the market... I'm not a huge fan because I still think it will be overpriced but I challenge anyone to tell me why an iPad is better at that point?

It will have better hardware specs, same price, better OS and lastly FLASH!

Feel free to drink Apple's koolaid and CHANGE the way you use the web to suit their device.. personally I would rather have a device that actually tries to fit what I want and not the other way around.

Actually, you're dead wrong here. I thought that way as well until i started to look into a few roadmaps from guys like Dell, Microsoft and Intel. To TRULY replace a laptop you need one of two conditions... #1 cloud computing needs to become the overwhelming standard .. we all know that THIS is coming but a long way off.. #2 a true tablet that can run traditional windows programs...

#2 is not far off you will have EXPENSIVE Intel based Win7/8 tablets coming out in the next 6-12 months and cheaper ARM based Win8 tablets in 12-16 months (if you are a LINUX guy, you can get Ubuntu tablets in the next 6-9 months)

yes, this is always the case with technology. BUT you can draw a BASELINE, below which, you won't buy a device. For BCD it needs to have the functionality of a laptop and be cheaper. For me it needs to have more power, memory, slightly cheaper and at the least be able to support Flash. With iPad users... I am shocked that their baseline of functionality is so low... especially for the cost. even my girlfriend admitted that my phone was a more functional device but she "just wanted an iPad." She had completely bought into the marketing. Hey, if the iPad works for you, great. Just don't expect me to join you in Jonestown, I'm not a big fan of powdered drinks.

OK, AustinChief, you keep banging that drum.

But why have you been talking about the wonders coming a year or two from now instead of proclaiming victory with all the better-than-ipad tablets on the market today?

Again, because none of them are meeting MY baseline... a baseline that I can't imagine anyone wanting to dip below... but owell.

The Xoom is better than the iPad... but neither is worth buying IMO.

Now do you get my point? That is why I keep talking about what is on the horizon.

I currently have a Win7 tablet that is head and shoulders more functional BUT it is bulky and has crappy battery life. SO, I don't consider it a true tablet.... but I simply couldn't take 10 steps backward in functionality for the sake of a thinner device with a better battery.

OK, to the extent you're limiting your "better tablet" opinion to what works for you, I have no problem with it. But I think there's plenty of room for iPad users to claim that their tablet is currently better than other current alternatives including Xoom. It all just depends on what's important to the individual user.

they still need to bring the price point down though. I can buy a halfway decent extremely functional laptop for what these tablets are going for right now.

Totally agree and understand your first point....but how could you possibly think that you could understand what others are "wanting to dip below"?

Right now, my three kids are sitting on the couch working through math problems and just finished an app that has them learning states/capitals. Earlier, I was watching the tourney on the MMOD app. Last night I played a pretty damn cool game, Dead Space. My wife really enjoys Facebook/email on the device. 2 night ago, I watched a movie on the Netflix app. Not having flash has been a nuisance exactly once for me since I got the device. These are all things that are apparently below your line, but I find them somewhere between invaluable and quite cool. Worth my $500? Well, yeah, it is.

I really appreciate your insight on the coming tech landscape, but the line of thinking that only idiots would actually buy an iPad because of its inferiority is getting old.

I have never said that only idiots would buy an iPad... I do believe only idiots would buy it and FULLY BELIEVE the Apple hype.

The fact that your entire family is enjoying the device makes it worth the $500 for you. I would never begrudge you that fact.

There are other specialized uses for an iPad that make sense as well.

The ONLY claims an iPad user can make about being better are aesthetics, battery life(although just barely better than Xoom) and number of apps. I guess you could claim to like iOS better than Android... but I have yet to meet anyone who has ACTUALLY used both on a tablet and not thought Honeycomb was superior.

The apps will catch up, so will battery life.. in the end it will be aesthetics and marketing that keep the iPad afloat. The other factors are not matters of opinion.. they are quantifiable entities.

You can claim to like a 3MP more than a 5MP.. but it's kinda silly. Same with a 1024x768 screen vs a 1280x754... 256 Megs of Ram vs 1024...

Huh? Dropbox would be perfect for that, and your file would be waiting on you when you got home.

Does the ipad see the router at all or does it see it and refuse to connect it? Any difficulty with any other wireless device in the house?

You say that like Apple wouldn't improve their own device by the time other developers have a product that works as well as the iPad does at the current moment.

I'll agree with you that some of the things, like screen resolution, not including Retina display, and the piss-poor excuses for cameras on the iPad 2 shouldn't be issues; Apple should have dealt with them better.

But seriously, 256MB of ram? That used to power fairly advanced computers back in the day... How much memory can a tablet application possibly use? At a certain point it's overkill, isn't it? At least, right now?

Memory only isn't an issue with the iPad because they strip down the functionality. It's the same with battery life.

And no, Apple will NOT be able to keep up with the pace of development. Not on the OS front and not on the hardware front. Their monolithic model is fundamentally flawed in this regard.

Hell, the Xoom proved this point... with a full year head start.. the iPad2 is only better in regards to battery and number of apps (and aesthetics, but let's leave that purely subjective aspect off the table) Apps is a non-issue since we all know that you hit a certain critical mass where it doesn't matter if you have 5 or 5000 apps that fulfill a certain need.

Maybe Apple will prove me wrong with a major leap forward with the iPad3... but I find it unlikely.

This is my argument as well.

Wow. Have you read any if the xoom user experiences? They're miserable. Crashes repeatedly. Lags like crazy. Slow even running only google apps after a short period of uptime. To parse that to only two "minor" problems in comparison to the iPad is laughable. Bro, wake up. Evidently making a tablet run right isn't easy and Apple is way way ahead of the competitors in fielding a workable model

They might be ahead now, but they won't be able to keep up with the competition, even if it doesn't truly exist yet. LMAO

Huh? I posted a benchmark earlier in this thread that showed the hardware on the iPad 2 blowing away the Xoom in some tests, and only lagging behind in one. I'd say that it's better than in more than those aspects you mentioned.

I didn't bother replying to that benchmark because it's fundamentally flawed. Even Anandtech admitted that. It's a very old benchmark that doesn't accurately represent anything. I will admit that the A5 does MATCH the Tegra2 in a lot of categories... but you'd have to either be an idiot or dishonest to actually think the hardware of the iPad2 is better then the Xoom.

Even if processor power is a wash... the Xoom kills it in EVERY OTHER aspect... memory, storage, screen, cameras.. Jesus, what was Apple thinking by putting two CRAP cameras on the thing when it would have been easy to actually put decent ones on.

No, the fact is .. Motorola rushed the Xoom out the door before it was ready. That said, I have read far far far more user experiences that are without issue... combine that with the few hours I have spent on a Xoom and didn't see a single issue... and I tend to think the problems are overblown. Have you spent any time on a Xoom yet? Maybe I was just lucky, but I also can point to a ton of reviews that had the same problem free user experience I have had.

We bought two Zooms through Verizon last week. So far the Teams love them.

No crashes.

The screen is amazing.

PS sucks.

The other Team chose the iPad II.

I think the Zoom is better. We'll see.

Agree.

Huh? WHICH Benchmark? The one that shows page loading times to be faster on the iPad 2 than the Xoom? At the very least, the CPUs are of equal quality in the iPad 2 and the Xoom (aren't they both dual core ARM Cortex A9s running at 1 GHz?), but the GPU in the iPad 2 is better.

I'm not sure how you couldn't recognize that the SGX543 in the iPad 2 KILLS the Tegra 2 in the Xoom. It's just a better GPU, and it's not even close. Tegra 3 should be better than the SGX543, though. So goes tech, right?

Because cameras on a tablet are stupid, anyway. The front-facing camera doesn't need to be high-res . . . it's just for video conferencing. The rear camera should probably be better, but again, taking video with a tablet, even small as they are, is awkward due to their size.

Storage might be a point, if one actually needed it. I have a 64 gb iPad. Know how many times I've used that storage space? Zero. Why? Because everything streams to it from home. There's simply no need to store anything on the device. If people actually need more than 64gb of storage on their tablet, then perhaps a tablet isn't really for them.

It does have a slightly better GPU... and the processors are very close in performance. Which is why I called this a wash.

I agree that tablet cameras are pretty silly overall but it was still dumb to use crap cameras.

I agree on the storage size issue BUT having an SD card slot is a good idea.. although a USB port would be better. The Xoom has both.

Leaving the memory at 256MB was also a mistake. It's fine for current apps but leaves no room for growth.

The Xoom has a better screen but in reality I don't think it's that much better.

There is no excuse for Apple having a full year head start and not releasing something that was better.

In exactly one week, the Xoom will be equal or better in every aspect except # of apps. (I guess you could go with the iPad2 is thinner... but at a certain point it gets kinda silly.. both are thin enough)

I think the GPU is more than slightly better. By all accounts, it's significantly better.

Agree that a USB port would be nice, as would SD, but for me, and a lot of users, it's not a dealbreaker.

The iPad 2 has 512 mb of RAM. It probably should have 1 gb, though.

Honestly, 512MB RAM will be plenty sufficient for everything the iPad2 runs. Double what the original iPad had. I've seen several graphics games on the iPad2, and it looks really good. For any game suitable for running on a current tablet, it will do fine.

I don't have a tablet, so I can't speak too much to the daily use, but I've started to see a ton of them around. And I've never seen anyone do anything too intensive with it. A lot of checking email, reading books, messing around on facebook. Maybe watching some video. I don't see the iPad's specs being much of a problem for its users.

If the IPad 2 had a USB port I'd own one, for now I'll stick to my ipone.

No concept of the iPad, lol.

http://lileks.com/bleat/?p=9037

Essentially. It does what it's designed to do very well. AustinChief thinks it should be something that it isn't.

Oh, and there's a bunch of college textbook support in the works for September, designed to specifically for the iPad. That's gonna be huge.

Samsung's new tablets look pretty nice. And finally priced aggressively.


Although they are skinning Touchwiz on top of it, just like I predicted. So we'll have to see how that turns out. It seems to be pretty minor, but I'm more more worried about software updates. I suspect Samsung will continue to blow in that regards.

I'm surprised that Samsung is pulling this bonehead move.. but as I said before, it won't matter since 3.0 has a usable interface unlike the 2.x versions. So anyone can update themselves and not worry about the manufacturer keeping pace. (although from what I have read, it's much easier for the manufacturers to keep pace now, given the way 3.0 was designed)

As to the pricing, I agree that it's more aggressive... but it's not there yet. Let's pretend that we are already at the point where apps have caught up enough ... it will still take much better hardware AND much lower prices. The tabs coming out right now (next 3 months) have Apple beat on hardware and OS but will need to be much cheaper then what I am seeing. Apple's marketing machine is just too strong to overcome at a similar price point. (sadly)

Everything I have seen points to that price point AND hardware/OS advantage finally being reached closer to the end of 2011.

Not saying that these tablets aren't fine, I'm just not sure anything will be an iPad "killer" until prices drop into the $300 range.

No, I think that to be USEFUL FOR ME it needs to be more than a barely functioning web browser and stripped down app platform. If Apple can convince people that $500 is worth spending for that limited functionality... when my phone does both better... then more power to them.

What exactly do tablets do, at any price, if not run apps and surf the web? They play movies, music, games. There are some excellent apps for note-taking, productivity, word-processing, etc. As an eBook reader, the iPad is extraordinary.

That's what they're designed for at this point. If you want an actual computer, buy one. If you want a tablet to replace a computer, wait six years or so. The iPad killer isn't going to do what the iPad doesn't for less money; if possible, it will do exactly what the iPad does for less money.

Actually, it won't be nearly this long. In terms of processing power, we'll be there within a year (Kal-El drops this Fall and is equivalent to a T7200 Core2Duo proc). In terms of OS (and putting the hardware all together and out there), I would GUESS 12 -18 months.

Regardless, my main beef is that Apple DICTATES the user experience instead of trying to adjust to actual demand. They rely on smoke and mirrors marketing to convince people that they are better off without FLASH or whatever...

I'll give you a perfect example, my girlfriend loved her iPhone except that it sucked as a phone (which admittedly is prolly ATT's fault).. she loved it right up until she was around my phone 24/7 and realized the massive amount of functionality she gave up to have an iPhone.

Right now, as of TODAY, an iPad2 or Xoom are the most functional devices... Xoom has FLASH but iPad2 has more apps. In the next couple months, Android apps will start to catch up quickly and prices will drop... there isn't any excuse at that point to buy an iPad2 except for aesthetics and maybe battery life. BUT unless you absolutely can't wait... you'd be much better off waiting... yes, yes there's always something better coming... but there are some massive leaps in power (Kal-El) combined with price drops that make waiting well worth it.

We're still a long ways away from android, user updatable devices. If anything, manufacturers are going the opposite way. I'm sure Google is the only reason Motorola released the Xoom with an unlocked bootloader. They lock and encrypt all their other devices. I fully expect their next tablet will be locked and motoblured.

Even HTC has started to lock their bootloaders down harder now. That really leaves Samsung as the only major manufacturer left that's relatively friendly to outside development.

Again, we'll have to wait and see... but all signs point to Google releasing on a 6 month schedule from here on out... that combined with some core design changes and manufacturers should be able to keep up... at least much better than the mess that we saw before.

Yeah, we'll have to see. I'm cautiously optimistic that some of these companies are starting to figure out that 1) no one gives a **** about their skins and 2) they have to provide consistent android updates to compete with Apple.

But there are plenty of cautionary tales to keep from getting too excited. Motorola worked with Google on Android 2.0 and the original Droid and then proceeded to motoblur and lockdown the **** out of future phones.

No fricking joke... Samsung supposed did a great job on theirs and I'd still rather not deal with it.

My only problem with this statement is that we've been hearing it for years now and it still hasn't happened. The Android Market still hasn't caught up in terms of quantity, quality, or priority among developers.

Dude, ... HUH?

The Android market caught up long ago in terms of "useful" non-tablet apps... and since Android has only had a Tablet OS out for about a month... I think you may want to give them a little more time...

Oh and your completely wrong on developers... http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/39452

The last big hurdle for developers will fall next week...
http://emoney.allthingsd.com/2011032...mod=ATD_skybox

QUANTITY:

The iOS app store still has over 100,000 more apps than the Android Marketplace.

http://www.androidpolice.com/2011/03...rent-so-lucky/

QUALITY:

Of the three, I'll concede that this is the one that could be somewhat geared toward personal preference. I'll also concede that because of Android's open nature, Android apps sometimes offer more functionality depending on the situation. My point though is that if you ask a number of users, other than Google's own apps, most will say that the quality of iOS apps surpass that of Android apps. Case in point: the iOS Facebook app vs. the Android Facebook app.

DEVELOPER PREFERENCE:

I can name a number of mainstream apps that either don't currently exist for Android, or were available for Android AFTER they were available for iOS: Netflix, Kindle, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Just for fun, I opened up my app drawer to see what apps I regularly use (almost every day),

"Alarms + Clocks", Amazon Appstore, Calendar, Facebook, Gmail, Market, Pandora, Twitter, and Web.

I left off games. I also left off stuff that Android considers apps, but I consider part of the OS: call logs, camera, etc.

There are a few others that I don't use a lot, but "need them". BoA mobile, Opentable, Navigation...

The rest are mainly random shit I've downloaded and haven't bothered to delete yet. I don't see the need to have 500 apps on my phone. If I want to look at ESPN, I'll open espn.com. I don't need "an app for that." Although I"ll grant that the situation is -a bit- different with a tablet.


As for quality and developer preference, I think you're right, or at least you were. The facebook app was complete shit when I first got my phone, but I think it's reached parity with iOS now. I can't speak to other examples.

Android support has come a long ways. The biggest remaining gaps are with multimedia for some reason. Netflix obviously. Hulu too. A couple others. I bet those will be out within months though. I'd say within six months, you'll have parity for what most users want. Right now, I already have everything I want.

But the xoom doesn't have flash. It has the promise of flash. The reason to buy an iPad is essentially the same reason you'd buy a Honda over a Buick. Personal preference combined with build quality.

I'll have to dispute the claim that you give up functionality with an iPhone. I understand in certain cases this would be true, but as an iPod addict who pretty much needs some aural stimulation or at least the option of it 24-7, I find it incredibly functional to have my iPod and phone be the same device. The convenience of everything syncing with iTunes can't be underscored. Yes, android phones play music but when I could either drag and drop 2 or 3 podcasts a day to an sd card or just plug my phone into the computer, I'll take the second option every time.

And maybe you're right, Apple might be hoodwinking everyone into accepting less functionality. Of course, the other argument could be that, since nobody else seems to be able to do something radically different or better, that the technology simply isn't at the point you want it to be. And in the meantime, what exactly is apple supposed to do? Sit on its hands, forego the hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars in revenue generated by the iPad until they can produce a full-fledged MacBook pro on a tablet, or should they develop their product as they release new models? Imagine for a moment if henry ford had said 'no no, we won't be releasing the model T because at some point we're gonna develop the ford gt and that thing is gonna kick ass. Hitler already pre-ordered one last week'. That be ridiculous, but it's essentially what you're asking apple to do.

Also, to say we're a mere twelve-eighteen months away from computer-equivalent tablets when nobody seems to be able to develop an efficient Flash-capable tablet after a year (moreso on Apple's side) of R & D seems a bit optimistic. I get that we're moving forward in quantum leaps when it comes to technology, but I'll believe that a tablet can replace my computer when I hold one that's capable of it, not when someone releases a spec sheet or tells me how great the new operating system is.

The Android's open nature is exactly the reason I'm hesitant. The lack of standards/quality control means that while you might get more apps, who the hell knows if they're any good. I mean, it's not art, it's an app. I can stand to see a bit of regulation going on, though I'm aware that in America, regulation causes Ebola.

I'd like to point out that android came out well after the iPhone, so logically every android app was released after it was available on iOS. Im not sure what your point is with that.

This is not something the Apple app store excels at either.

They don't excel at it, but some protection is better than nothing... Like a non-latex condom.

The Netflix iOS app has only been out for about a year now, yet there still is no Android version available. The official Twitter app was released for iOS weeks before it was released for Android. The Kindle Android app has only been out for for about 9 months now, but has been available for iOS for 2 years now (Android was around 2 years ago).

My point is that for over a year now, we've been hearing how Android apps are going to catch up to, and ever surpass, iOS apps. We've been hearing over and over how it's just a matter of months before it happens.

The truth is, it hasn't happened, and there's nothing to indicate that's it going to happen anytime soon. Maybe eventually, but certainly not in a matter of months.

For the most part, currently any organization who doesn't have a bias toward Android and is worth their salt is going to focus on their iOS app first. The Android app will either come at the same time, or after. Not before though. The fact of the matter is that iOS is currently at the top of the food chain and that's not going to change "in a matter of months".

Quantity? Who the **** cares if there are 10,000 fart generator apps? When it comes to USEFUL apps... Android and iOS have reached parity in regards to phones. I don't think it's a stretch to imagine they will reach parity for tablet apps within the next 6 months.

And again I lead with... HUH?? The Xoom has had Flash for over a week now.

Ok, from this it's obvious that you have never used an Android phone. There are a ton of apps that you can load on your computer that will sync files just like iTunes. Also, Google Music went live in-house TODAY (the ability to cloud-sync is already built in to Honeycomb). Which means it is likely that Google will beat Apple to having a production cloud-based music service within the year. Given the choice of plugging into iTunes or never having to plug in at all.. I'll choose the latter... BUT if you want to talk about what is ACTUALLY out there... well, there are plenty of iTunes-like syncing apps for android. The fact is.. you are just like my girlfriend was... she had NO CLUE what she was missing until she was around me and my EVO. Did you even know that there are TONS of Youtube videos that you iPhone can't play but my EVO can?


#1 the Xoom has Flash, so do the new Samsung tabs, etc etc etc
#2 I currently use a Win7 tablet that works just as well as my desktop except that it's battery life sucks
#3 in terms of pure computing power... we are 6 months away... I don't think 12-18 months to put that power to use is much of a stretch at all.

You are just simply flat out wrong here man. You are currently living 6-12 months behind. Android development has ALREADY PASSED iOS. That doesn't mean the apps are out there yet... but more developers are working on Android projects then on iOS. END OF STORY. Android has passed iOS in market share and the developers know this. So, yes, it will be a matter of months until Android tablet apps catch up to Apple. Maybe not in raw numbers... but that is a useless and silly argument... all that matters are USEFUL apps.

How could you possibly quantify this? Any sources?

Yes, I'd have to find them... but I have read multiple articles that have polled developers and at least one article that showed that there are more Android job listings then iOS listings now. I know where that article is.. it's just one source but it is indicative of where things are http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2381453,00.asp

Here is one of the surveys I mentioned... it's a bad example though because it doesn't give a timeframe or any real figures.
http://www.bcs.org/content/conWebDoc/39452

LMAO.... that makes perfect sense....

Thanks for the sources.

I guess it remains to be seen. You could very well be correct. Hasn't happened yet though, and Apple certainly shows no signs of conceding or slowing down as sales continue to soar.

Again though, I still maintain that we've been hearing for a couple of years now that it's just a "matter of month...for realz this time". At some point, after those predictions continue to be wrong time and time again, one has to consider that maybe those predictions are simply based on false logic and there's something else at play.

Oh that's right.. I forgot that apps go from an idea to a production version INSTANTLY.

Don't be a dumbass... current development has passed iOS ... but it takes TIME for the apps to be released.

So, yes, it does make perfect sense to anyone who takes the time to THINK.

I really don't think the number of job listings is a very good indicator of market lead. Especially when Android development is relatively new compared to iOS development. Of course there are more job openings, as iOS developers have already had jobs for some time. You're comparing a saturated iOS developer market to a relatively new Android developer market.

There are more PS2 games out there than PS3 games.

I'm not talking about market lead.. I'm talking about number of developers working on Android projects... which is an indicator that Android has reached parity in regards to app development which means they will reach parity in terms of production apps soon. (for both tablets and phones) Again, we are talking about parity in regards to useful apps not 10,000 versions of iFart.

Let's face facts... the age old argument that iOS is better because of the apps.. is about to be dead. Given that this shift is fairly recent... it will still take one full development cycle to show up in terms of actual apps in the wild. (which is why I keep saying it will be around 3-6 months)

Because android doesn't have its own plethora of beyond-reeruned apps. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

And again, you missed the point... of course both have a ton of useless apps.. which is why saying "my app store has 11 bazillion apps and yours only has 200 million!!!!! I am teh WINZ!" is Corky-esque. What matters is if the amount of USEFUL apps has hit a certain critical mass... with smartphones Android has already passed that critical mass, with tablets they are catching up quickly... but given that they have only had a tablet OS for a month now, I'd say they are still a few months away from catching up.

The point is... the "we haz all the appz!!!" argument is long past moot for phones and soon will be for tablets. So pick something else to crow about.

I've never crowed about the quantity of apps; I will say that a bunch of Apple apps seem quite useful and functional. Any of the programs I use on my Macbook for schoolwork or personal stuff, such as iWork, GarageBand, iMovie, and CeltX, I can run on an iPad 2. Penultimate is an awesome note-taking app; it's 99 cents. Comixology is free, and I can get new comics every week without going across town to the one comic book store in Lethbridge. I can watch as many movies as I want with Netflix.

And I can't stress this enough: the fact that Apple has agreements now with Inkling to make fully interactive textbooks available for download is HUGE. Inkling has access to over 95% of textbook content that universities use, and while I'm sure it's going to be a massive undertaking, the fact that Apple signed this deal first is going to continue to mean the iPad is the tablet of choice for the majority of students.


Now, I will qualify my comments by saying that for any hardcore editing, I use Adobe Premiere. But functional editing software on a tablet is kinda a big deal. And while most of my writing would be done on a normal computer, having all my stuff synced to a tablet that goes everywhere with me is particularly useful when inspiration hits at a moment's notice. I will also say that as of right now, students aren't the biggest consumers of iPads. But the idea of them is catching on; I expected to see a ton of kids with iPads this September, but it wasn't until after Christmas that they really started making appearances.

Now I'm not sure how expensive these textbooks are going to be, but the standard PDF e-textbooks are considerably cheaper (60 bucks cheaper in the case of my animal behavior text) than paper copies, and with that math in mind, an iPad pays for itself after four or five years of university. Less if you're in management, accounting, any sciences. If the cost of one semester's worth of accounting textbooks were cut in half, my roommate would have enough money to buy a 16 GB iPad. When more textbooks become available, more iPads are going to move.

To come back to the original point about apps, they're like fans at a football game. A good number of them will be intelligent, knowledgeable and useful, but they're still going to be vastly outnumbered by doofuses who couldn't tell you if the team was first or thirtieth, and didn't understand why Larry Johnson was released.

You again have missed my point. Your Apple-centric tunnel vision is, frankly, amazing. Yes, their are ipad apps that are very useful... and there are also ANDROID apps that are very useful too! Of course, Android apps on average are cheaper, but let's leave that point for another day.

Let me make this ABSOLUTELY clear... yes the ipad has great apps... Android tablets will have the same apps or apps with the same functionality. You just don't seem to get this point. EVERYTHING you can do on an ipad, you will be able to do on an Android tablet. Let's take a look at this HUGE inkling deal that you are so excited about...

Since they currently only have 14 textbooks... by the time they actually have CONTENT.. they will have the same app available on Android tablets.

So by the time they have enough content to make it worthwhile (Fall of 2012 if they are lucky) let's say a student wants a tablet that uses the app... do you think he will buy the $500 ipad or the $250 Android tablet?

So back to my point... if an Android tablet has better hardware and has the same app functionality and the ability to view the ENTIRE web (Flash) and better prices and a better OS and a built in cloud music service (bye bye having to plug into crappy itunes) and similar battery life(probably slightly worse because the added functionality comes at a price)... why would you buy an iPad? Most of what I described is current reality... some of it is coming in the next 6 months.

Apple's best play is to release an iPad3 in the Fall... there is a lot of speculation and with all this pressure they may do that. If they do, then erase the advantage of a better OS and cloud music (Apple will prolly have their version) and I would imagine they will have hardware on par as well. Flash and price is what will keep Android ahead in my book.

There is another thread about this.. but it helps to prove my point regarding apps... Amazon just launched their cloud music service and it's ONLY available on Android right now. I'm sure they will have an iPhone app shortly... but it just proves that parity has been reached in regards to developer priorities.

Unlike the past, anything cool that comes out now will likely launch both an iPhone and an Android app at the same time.

Exciting times!

Maybe. This is a slightly different animal though then something like a game from an independent developer. Amazon is going all in on Android, which became evident when they released their app store. That's just like pointing to Samsung or HTC releasing an Android app first and saying "See!".

For all we know, Apple could be holding off on approving the app from Amazon.

My guess is that they are... my point is not that Android apps are better or coming out first... my point is just that they have ARRIVED... they have reached parity in terms of new development.

Does Apple allow the Amazon MP3 app now? I don't think Apple allows any apps that replicate "native functionality".

Doubtful.

Since I've commented in here a bit I'll share this...

I was told we were getting iPhone's last week at work, turns out we got HTC Inspire 4G's (cause ATT gave them to us for free) instead. I freaking love it, and while I don't think it's as good as an iPhone, if I were buying with my own money I'd buy the HTC.

That doesn't change my mind on iPad's though, I'm still buying one of those...but color me intrigued about rooting a Nook Color. :)

Looks like IDC has predicted the iPhone will settle into that 15% share I predicted... there is NO reason to believe that the iPad won't follow suit.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20048236-17.html

The following graph is for smartphones only...
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2011/03/29/idc.JPG

Yes there is a difference between phones and tablets... but if your replace the term "carriers" with "manufacturers"... the same market forces should cause the same results.

I recommend Jenga HD for iPad. Sounds like a silly concept on a tablet, but it's actually lots of fun. They did a really good job with it.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jenga...393106605?mt=8

<iframe title="YouTube video player" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/9ljGItPBIPA" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="390" width="640"></iframe>

that does look fun!

The iPhone is one device. Everyone else has dozens of devices. If there's another individual device that outsells the iPhone, I'd love to see it.

What an odd statement. It's the exact mirror image of "The Macintosh is one device. Everyone else (IBM clones) has dozens of devices. If there's another individual device that outsells the Mac, I'd love to see it."

I'd assume the Galaxy S has smoked the iPhone on sales, but I don't care enough to google it.

I don't think you are getting the point here... you have some pretty serious Apple fanboi tunnel-vision going on.

The point is... a bunch of you said the iPhone will always dominate the market ... etc etc and a bunch of us predicted it would follow the path that MACs did and end up at 15%... well, we were right. Now the exact same thing is going to happen with iPads.

The only market that Apple will hold a share higher than 20% in is the MP3 player market.. a market that is quickly going away entirely.

In Apple's defense, they are perfectly happy to sit at 15% and make scads of money.