Opinions - iPad is becoming the generic tablet brand

[McPhee]

That doesn't really hold, either. Total Android sales now dwarf Apple sales in the smartphone market, and Android tablets are only starting to take off now. Being first doesn't automatically equate to being superior (unless we're counting smugness).

As a brand Apple dominate the smartphone market. The iPhone is the single highest selling handset and Apple sell more phones worldwide than everyone apart from Nokia. Looking at Android as a whole you have more sales, sure, but the brand loyalty is with the manufacturers. People are buying HTC and Samsung handsets, not "Android" handsets. I notice this a lot being a Windows Phone user; people don't seem to distinguish a difference between my HTC Trophy and the HTC Android handsets. To them both are HTCs. Likewise, little to no connection seems to be made across manufacturers. HTCs are HTCs, Samsungs are Samsungs. Android doesn't seem to register, or is only a vaguely understood term. These are problems for both Google and Microsoft. For Microsoft, people seem to have a grasp of what Windows Phone is, but they don't identify it in partnership with handsets. For Google, their OS has become absorbed by the HTC and Samsung brands, the Android brand itself isn't actually all that well recognised or understood. As such both companies are quite vulnerable within the market.

Microsoft already have a possible solution to their woes in Nokia. If they can make the Nokia and Windows Phone brands synonymous with each other then Windows Phone will become a lot more visible on store shelves. It will be far easier for consumers to identify the product as it won't be lost in a sea of HTC/Samsung/LG Android handsets.

Google's problem is the opposite. Android handsets are extremely visible, but the Android brand isn't. The brand loyalty (for the most part) is to the manufacturer, which could potentially cause headaches for Google should a viable, customisable alternative appear. The HTC brand and Sense UI can be carried to other platforms (Meego?). With Alien Dalvik even Android's apps can go elsewhere. If the consumers are following the manufacturers then Android's place in the market is by no means secure, especially if the manufacturers are given reason to go elsewhere (customisation, freedom, control). Using the Meego example, Sense could easily make it's way on to that platform. Over time it could potentially become superior to the Android version, yet provide a user-experience that's similar enough for consumers to not notice the transition between platforms. Android could be slowly phased down if it's within the manufacturer's interests to do so. Google need to make people aware of Android and the benefits it brings. If they make people want Android phones, make them request to see phones with Android on them in the shop, then they will be hard to oust. Android needs to be the desirable brand otherwise it could become lost in the market somewhere down the line.

[amdavies]

Semantics, surely. To all intents and purposes, and certainly for this piece, the modern tablet IS the tablet. Yes, we all know Microsoft was plugging away at it for years but theirs never caught on, Apple's has.

It's a well known fact that Playstation was the first games console. iPod was the first digital music player. iPhone was the first smartphone. iPad was the first tablet computer. Ford Model T was the first car. Et c.
Just because a specific implementation makes a technology popular it doesn't necessarily follow that it was the first example of that technology.

[miniyazz]

Semantics, surely. To all intents and purposes, and certainly for this piece, the modern tablet IS the tablet. Yes, we all know Microsoft was plugging away at it for years but theirs never caught on, Apple's has.

I have been using Windows-based tablets at work nearly every day for the past 2-3 years, so while I appreciate they do not have the modern user experience that consumers have come to take for granted, in my mind they are far from being an insignificant product, ready to be swept under the carpet and ignored at every opportunity to plug the iPad or other similar product.

Semantics, yes, but important nonetheless. But I can see why you feel they are irrelevant in this (consumer-focussed) article.

[crossy]

I have been using Windows-based tablets at work nearly every day for the past 2-3 years, so while I appreciate they do not have the modern user experience that consumers have come to take for granted, in my mind they are far from being an insignificant product, ready to be swept under the carpet and ignored at every opportunity to plug the iPad or other similar product.

Semantics, yes, but important nonetheless. But I can see why you feel they are irrelevant in this (consumer-focussed) article.

Damn, you beat me to it - I was going to say pretty much that. Props are well-deserved for Apple for having the idea of putting a smartphone OS on a tablet, rather than trying to shoehorn a desktop one in there instead, but to say "They invented the tablet" is - to be polite - "mistaken".

From what I've seen I'd agree that "iPad" is becoming a generic brand a la "Hoover". Conversely I've also seen some disconnection between product and manufacturer - that consumers "buy an iPad" rather than "choose Apple".

Interestingly, both Carphone Warehouse and Phones4U seem to be pushing the competing Android devices as a family (much as I'd like to think that the HP TouchPad or Blackberry Playbook are going to do good sales, it's not likely imho). So the little green dude is VERY prominent, and there's "column inches" in the supporting ads that you can chose any of these devices and have a "similar" experience.

Personally, given Apple's huge lead timewise, I'm really not that bothered by this piece of PR fluff. This time next year however, when we've had some decent competition out on the market (assuming the TouchPad ever launches for real) it could be a lot more interesting and relevant.

I am, of course, assuming that Google stop dicking around with Honeycomb etc and actually ship a "finished" product. Otherwise it's going to continue to be an Apple near-monopoly. (Which I'd argue is very bad news for us consumers).

Hoover became the "generic brand" of vacuum cleaner, such that many called them hoovers and I bet many people call it that without realising it's even a brand of vacuum cleaner... now who is thought of as the best brand... I would say Dyson.

I'd argue that the closest to Apple (excluding sales) in the vacuum cleaner market is probably Kirby - high quality devices with a price tag to match. Got a G2000 myself and it's built like the proverbial brick outhouse - makes the Dyson's look very cheap, (which compared to the G2000 they are!).

[Unique]

That doesn't really hold, either. Total Android sales now dwarf Apple sales in the smartphone market, and Android tablets are only starting to take off now. Being first doesn't automatically equate to being superior (unless we're counting smugness).

that's not true. total sales to date of iphone are more than total sales of all android devices including tablets/netbookets/etc

android is catching up on IOS, but it just takes the new iphone5 to come out and put them back in lead. after all android sales are slowing down, even if they might be currently selling more than iphone as there hasn't been a new model out in a year. i can imagine a saturated android market, with iphone still selling as the same people who have iphone1/2/3/4 now are likely to buy iphone5/6/78 when they come out, to get the latest model. whereas there is less chance of android owners doing that so quickly

[Unique]

I have been using Windows-based tablets at work nearly every day for the past 2-3 years, so while I appreciate they do not have the modern user experience that consumers have come to take for granted, in my mind they are far from being an insignificant product, ready to be swept under the carpet and ignored at every opportunity to plug the iPad or other similar product.

Semantics, yes, but important nonetheless. But I can see why you feel they are irrelevant in this (consumer-focussed) article.

how do you find them? what are the pros and cons of a windows table? what version of windows are you using or have used and what would you say was best?

i saw i think an asus laptop where the keyboard removes and it becomes a table and it runs win7, which would be a great solution, but i'm not sure what it would be like to use day to day as a tablet. the cost (don't know how much) would probably put me off though, but hopefully in future we get more devices like that, so all laptops can turn into tablets

i would agree ipods are a generic term, but not so much ipads, but it did say "becoming" and not "is"

[Scott B]

Good debate - I was being devil's advocate to some extent.

Of course there are lots of other tablets out there - I was amazed to see a TV ad for the Acer Icona Tab W500 (the one with an AMD Fusion chip in it) last night - an in the HEXUS community iPad will never become a generic term.

I still think there's a danger of iPad becoming so synonymous with tablets in the eyes of the average consumer that everyone else becomes marginalised, however. The iPod is still the overwhelmingly dominant portable music player brand a decade after its launch.

[crossy]

that's not true. total sales to date of iphone are more than total sales of all android devices including tablets/netbookets/etc

I've seen those figures too - but there's also the fact that the gap is narrowing very quickly - certainly more quickly than would be acceptable to the folks in Cupertino!

android is catching up on IOS, but it just takes the new iphone5 to come out and put them back in lead.

If, and only if, the iP5 is a tour de force. If it's just a tweaked version of the current model (as the iPad->iPad2 was) then I'm not so sure. Problem is that Apple is now up against companies that can design better looking devices, or technically more capable ones. I give examples of SE Arc and Motorola Atrix.

after all android sales are slowing down, even if they might be currently selling more than iphone as there hasn't been a new model out in a year.

Hmm, not sure whether this came from - all the reports I've seen have Android sales notching up pretty steady growth. But you're right that the (fashion led?) folks who swear by iPhone will "need" to see "this year's model".

i can imagine a saturated android market, with iphone still selling as the same people who have iphone1/2/3/4 now are likely to buy iphone5/6/78 when they come out, to get the latest model. whereas there is less chance of android owners doing that so quickly

Don't forget that carriers are doing "hard-sell" on 24 month contracts, so it's going to be more difficult to do the change-every-year two step. But you're right - the majority of Android owners probably won't be so keen to needlessly change their phone annually.

Although all this talk of phones is probably off-topic though.

Getting back on-topic, I've got to wonder whether Google (and other) haven't maybe missed the boat, and that the iPad is, and will remain, the market leader. Only way I can see it losing the lead it's got is if someone comes up with something either markedly technically superior, or a whole lot cheaper.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The iPad3 looks like it is may have a 2048X1536 3D display. Whether it really makes any real difference to usability or not I could see this attracting a lot of people due to its flashiness:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/iPad-3-...T.56063.0.html

http://blogs.computerworld.com/18497...with_ipad_3_hd

TBH,I get the impression most of the current Android tablets are a bit too conservative in design and need to have more of a "wow" factor.

[miniyazz]

The iPad3 looks like it is may have a 2048X1536 3D display.

If they can put that screen in a 10" <£400 device, I most definitely want it (or its 16:9/10 equivalent) in my 13" laptop (or for that matter, my 18" laptop, which would still be lagging behind at a measely 1080p). And since I don't care about the 3D stuff, it really shouldn't cost much more than the standard screens.

how do you find them? what are the pros and cons of a windows table? what version of windows are you using or have used and what would you say was best?

i saw i think an asus laptop where the keyboard removes and it becomes a table and it runs win7, which would be a great solution, but i'm not sure what it would be like to use day to day as a tablet. the cost (don't know how much) would probably put me off though, but hopefully in future we get more devices like that, so all laptops can turn into tablets

i would agree ipods are a generic term, but not so much ipads, but it did say "becoming" and not "is"

I'm not involved in the tech side of things so can't tell you much about the details, and I've not used a modern tablet for any length of time so can't properly compare. They're about 10-12" screens, at the top there's a handle built in, they're about 1" thick and probably weigh 1-1.5kg, they meet the beige box criteria and they use a type of touch screen I'm not familiar with (needing a fancy stilo to work it). We use it with a full screen program overlaying the desktop including the Start Menu etc, but the little I've seen of the desktop is an XP theme (whether or not it actually runs XP or some tablet edition I don't know), and the battery lasts several hours. It's pretty similar (if older hardware) than the one here.

They're pretty easy to use with the software, less easy to use (as expected) than the iPad et al mostly due to the requirement to use a stylus, but I've never tried doing general consumer stuff with it so can't really comment on how easily common tasks can be done.

But really the thing that would make them harder to use than tablets running Android or iOS is that they are fully-functional computers. You have much more flexibility in what you can do, and that flexibility is what makes it harder to use - there are more settings to worry about, the interface hasn't been simplified/dumbed down - but if you understand what it is, and use it as it's intended (i.e. a portable computer) then it'll be perfectly fine to use. There's just the slight paradigm of applications etc being intended for a mouse and keyboard, which is the main stumbling block and probably why they never really took off, and if they fix that with Windows 8 then I reckon there'll be a big (even a consumer) market for them.

[aidanjt]

that's not true. total sales to date of iphone are more than total sales of all android devices including tablets/netbookets/etc

If you're talking about total $, sure. Not in terms of units.

[Scott B]

This is an interesting summary of the challenges faced by iPad competitors: http://technologizer.com/2011/06/20/ipad-alternatives-2

[Unique]

If you're talking about total $, sure. Not in terms of units.

no, in terms of unit sales

it's easy for you to check this and post the resulting unit sales of each

[Unique]

I've seen those figures too - but there's also the fact that the gap is narrowing very quickly - certainly more quickly than would be acceptable to the folks in Cupertino!

If, and only if, the iP5 is a tour de force. If it's just a tweaked version of the current model (as the iPad->iPad2 was) then I'm not so sure. Problem is that Apple is now up against companies that can design better looking devices, or technically more capable ones. I give examples of SE Arc and Motorola Atrix.

Hmm, not sure whether this came from - all the reports I've seen have Android sales notching up pretty steady growth. But you're right that the (fashion led?) folks who swear by iPhone will "need" to see "this year's model".

Don't forget that carriers are doing "hard-sell" on 24 month contracts, so it's going to be more difficult to do the change-every-year two step. But you're right - the majority of Android owners probably won't be so keen to needlessly change their phone annually.

Although all this talk of phones is probably off-topic though.

Getting back on-topic, I've got to wonder whether Google (and other) haven't maybe missed the boat, and that the iPad is, and will remain, the market leader. Only way I can see it losing the lead it's got is if someone comes up with something either markedly technically superior, or a whole lot cheaper.

i pretty much agree. you need a decent and cheap alternative, and there just isn't one right now, or in the forseeable future

about iphone5, i disagree in that it needs a big improvement to generate high sales. it's made by apple after all. a simple iphone4s with slight improvement will generate a lot of sales. not just iphone4 users, but iphone1/2/3/3s users who didn't upgrade to iphone4, perhaps due to contract length, so they wait for the next upgrade after the current contract expires instead of getting whatever is currently on the market when their contract expires. wait a few months for the latest instead of getting last months phone, so to speak

of course just a matter of opinion, but based on research and data published over the past few years that suggests what i have surmised

android sales slowing down is feedback from the marketplace

with phones moreso, people tend to have more of a brand affinity than an affinity to the OS that a mobile runs on, so they buy a sony/motorola/nokia/samsung/htc phone and not an android phone. the OS being secondary. in fact it's the lesser known brands that have generated market share for being tied to android. the other brands have a specific history and userbase that is perhaps seen as more important to loyal customers than the OS. with apple the brand/model/IOS go hand in hand. it's perhaps why IOS has that edge on android. it's created specifically for the device you buy, whereas android isn't. i don't think the cheap crap stuff help androids case either. i think it has an adverse effect on the upper end of the market. who wants to buy an expensive table running the same OS as a cheap crap one?

[crossy]

with phones moreso, people tend to have more of a brand affinity than an affinity to the OS that a mobile runs on, so they buy a sony/motorola/nokia/samsung/htc phone and not an android phone. the OS being secondary. in fact it's the lesser known brands that have generated market share for being tied to android. the other brands have a specific history and userbase that is perhaps seen as more important to loyal customers than the OS.

True, but therein lies the problem. I would suggest that - without exception - the "established" players failed on their delivery of Android - Sony got roasted over their mistreatment of the X10, Motorola similarly over Droid failings. The "smaller" players - like HTC and less so Samsung - did far better. As for Nokia, well, it was horrifying to watch that slow-motion train crash! (and I'm a self-confessed Nokia fan)

with apple the brand/model/IOS go hand in hand. it's perhaps why IOS has that edge on android. it's created specifically for the device you buy, whereas android isn't.

iPad iOS is a tweaked/enhanced version of the iPhone one. Nothing wrong with that, eminently sensible and I tip my hat to Apple for getting it right. Google was unarguably wrong-footed - phones get Gingerbread; tablets get Honeycomb; then at some later time Ice Cream Sandwich comes along to unify the two lines. Even the most loyal Android drone would (grudgingly?) admit that this is a shambles.

i don't think the cheap crap stuff help androids case either. i think it has an adverse effect on the upper end of the market. who wants to buy an expensive table running the same OS as a cheap crap one?

Oh totally agree there - the no-name 7" stuff running FroYo with no GMP access for < £100 is just awful. Then you've got halfway house stuff like the Elonex gear that's GMP-enabled but only FroYo. Finally the proper (expensive) gear like Xoom and Galaxy Pad that gets you the full experience.
If that's not confusing to the consumer then I don't know what is! Maybe Google should have insisted on some form of "Experience Index" (a la Windows 7) - that at least would have made it a little easier to gauge the device you're looking at.

Personally speaking I'm impressed with Android (even though it's on an SE X10) and I'll probably stay loyal to it. That said, there's no way I'd pony up £400 for a Xoom etc, and as far as it goes - for me at least - there's just as compelling cases for a Blackberry PlayBook (especially with the Android app compatibility) or for an HP TouchPad (on price). However, if someone offered me an iPad2 for free then I probably wouldn't refuse!

[crossy]

This is an interesting summary of the challenges faced by iPad competitors: http://technologizer.com/2011/06/20/ipad-alternatives-2

You're right - that was a pretty reasonable article - no insult intended to Mr McCracken but I know you could do a better one.

One thing he got wrong was:

If a tablet maker set out to please a different target market–businesspeople, or a subset of businesspeople–it could focus on things other than Apple’s core competencies.

and then goes ahead to deride the PlayBook. He forgot that the HP TouchPad was exactly that - the presentations I've viewed have all emphasised how easy it is to integrate the TP with Exchange, and later discussion has talked of group-policy type security. If that's not "corporate" then I don't know what is.