Opinions - iPad is becoming the generic tablet brand

[Unique]

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)

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.

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!

interesting point you make about the big players getting it wrong. potentially they could still have a comeback and get it right, and android could then take the lead from IOS. but they've already had 3 years to do that, so how much longer do they need?

and on the same note, microsoft haven't done too well either, considering they are the overwhelming major player in the personal computing operating system world, and they are equal to sony (who was there long before MS in the console world) in the gaming world, so why can't they get it together in the phone/tablet world? i'd love to have an MS phone that tied in with the windows i use at home and work

it is interesting that the mobile phone world has basically copied that in the desktop world, but with the figures turned on it's head, so IOS/OSX, android/linux, windows/winmobile. maybe windows 8 will change everything? they have a fair bit of catching up to do though. mind apple were on their own with the GUI for a while before windows came out in the first place, and that quickly took over from apple, so will the same happen again, 30 years later?

[mikerr]

I view moden "Instant on - Mobile OS" tablets are more an evolution of PDAs like Psion and HP Ipaqs of a few years ago than laptops or netbooks.

The ipad was really just first to be designed around capacitive touch - non-stylus based tablet - and thus more accessable to casual users.

Psion had the series 7 in 1999 - the first to use the term netbook, and better than those using the term today

[aidanjt]

no, in terms of unit sales

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

I already had.

[Unique]

I already had.

obviously you didn't even bother reading the link you posted. it says android sales for a specific period where more than IOS, which most interested parties were aware of, but IOS sales to date are greater than android sales. iphone sales alone are greater than all android sales, including tablets

[aidanjt]

obviously you didn't even bother reading the link you posted. it says android sales for a specific period where more than IOS, which most interested parties were aware of, but IOS sales to date are greater than android sales. iphone sales alone are greater than all android sales, including tablets

What? We're not talking about the total number of sales since the stoneage. That's not how sales analysis works. Reread my statement.

[Unique]

What? We're not talking about the total number of sales since the stoneage. That's not how sales analysis works. Reread my statement.

no, we are talking about total units sold to date. the iphone alone has sold more more units than all android devices (including both phones, tablets, whatever) combined by all manufacturers. we've already mentioned android sales currently exceeding current iphone sales, but to date with all competitors combined they've not yet reached the same number of sales than apple alone with 3 years of combined sales, and android sales are now slowing down as the market reaches saturation

over 100 million iphones sold in 4 years, even though a new phone hasn't came out for a year. that's on average 25 million units per year, plus ipad sales on top. thus if a new iphone came out it would expect to shift another 25 million units thanks to what you would think of as lemming like customers

and iphone came out only a year before android, but took a few months to launch worldwide, so android has had 3 years and many manufacturers to catch up, not to mention the lack of a new iphone on the horizon when one has been released each summer so far, so there will be consumers holding off until a new model is launched, thus a further boost in sales

[mrochester]

I don't think iPad has yet become synonymous with tablet. I think instances where iPad is mentioned is specifically in relation to the iPad itself. That we hear about it a lot is simply because it is the most popular tablet.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

i've seen some poor analogy's, but that takes the biscuit

we all know you hate apple, you hate apple products, you hate people who own apple products, and you hate anyone who might even think about owning an apple product

your bias on the subject matter is very clear. you have articulated that very well, like a racist with a swastika tatood on the forehead

but when basic facts don't go in your favour, you don't know how to answer. and that's why no-one takes your views seriously. just say you hate apple, that's fine, but trying to argue black is white is pointless. you might be able to mislead some people by posting made up facts, but there will usually be someone who will point that out, and when that happens no-one will take anything else you say seriously

like it or not, and we all know it's "not" as far as you are concerned, the company you despise so much has sold more items with their own propitiatory system as every other company in the entire world put together. and we aren't talking about decades, we are talking about a 4 year period. the competitors had 3 years to gain marketshare, and in 3 years every company in the entire world with combined sales of every product using android could not outsell what one single company has sold with it's own limited model base of mobile phones alone

you've said before that iphone buyers are like lemmings, so are 100 million people in the world lemmings? that's a lot of people you are insulting. in fact it's 100 million people you are insulting that don't know who you are, and don't care who you are, and don't care what your views are

if you were so happy with your life and the products you own, i don't think you would spend so much spreading negativity and trying to put other people that you don't know down because they made a choice different to yours. and if you knew so much about the subject matter that you love to type about but don't own, thus have little to know experience about, you wouldn't post half the crap you post

when i don't like a subject, i avoid it. people don't care about me moaning about not liking something. i think most people prefer that choice. i think most people would prefer if you took a leaf out of that book. if you had something interesting and positive to contribute to the subject, people would be interested, but it's just the same old negativity from you and that's boring. surely you can bring something of value to a conversation? your put downs don't stop a single person buying a product, so what are you trying to achieve? and calling people stupid is a bit hypocritical and not very pleasant

TBH,Symbian has probably outsold every other smartphone OS when you consider total sales(well over 300 million phones sold). Whether it is any good is another question. The same goes with Blackberry too which has sold over 100 million of its phones as of early last year.

On top of this you really seem bitter that Android has done relatively well within a very short time period. To compare someone who is not a fan of the iPhone to a racist is a bit pathetic. Race is something you are born worth and not some choice. Whether you love or hate an electronic item from some nameless company,be it Google or Apple, who only exist to make money is nothing near racism.

[badass]

I wonder if there are any Apple neutrals that like technology.
Every time something gets mentioned about Apple, it seems to polarise everyone so much.
Anyone want to put their hand up and say "apple make stuff that does what it is supposed to do well. Not perfectly but well"

Didn't think so.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I wonder if there are any Apple neutrals that like technology.
Every time something gets mentioned about Apple, it seems to polarise everyone so much.
Anyone want to put their hand up and say "apple make stuff that does what it is supposed to do well. Not perfectly but well"

Didn't think so.

You could argue the same about many companies products.

Look at the constant criticism Microsoft gets despite having 85% to 90% of the desktop and laptop market and the fact that Windows 7 has sold over 300 million copies. It seems if you even criticise an Apple product you can be branded a racist FFS (look at post 40).

For instance you could make the following statements on a more Apple orientated forum.

I wonder if there are any Microsoft neutrals that like technology.
Every time something gets mentioned about Microsoft, it seems to polarise everyone so much.
Anyone want to put their hand up and say "Microsoft make stuff that does what it is supposed to do well. Not perfectly but well"

Didn't think so.


OR

I wonder if there are any Android neutrals that like technology.
Every time something gets mentioned about Android, it seems to polarise everyone so much.
Anyone want to put their hand up and say "Android does what it is supposed to do well at an affordable price. Not perfectly but well"

Didn't think so.

You will get a torrent of abuse.

[mrochester]

I wonder if there are any Apple neutrals that like technology.
Every time something gets mentioned about Apple, it seems to polarise everyone so much.
Anyone want to put their hand up and say "apple make stuff that does what it is supposed to do well. Not perfectly but well"

Didn't think so.

Me!!!

There are plenty of things Apple do really really well, and plenty of things they don't do so well. The MobileMe control panel for Windows is absolutely dire (and the main reason I didn't renew my MobileMe subscription). Front Row is absolutely rubbish in comparison to Windows Media Centre. The iPhone 3G and original
iPad had too little RAM and saw frequent Safari tab reloads which was incredible frustrating. However, they make a mobile OS that's incredibly intuitive, fluid and well optimised. They make beautiful hardware that is both pleasant to look at and use. They spend time nailing the fine details that make you think 'that was a nice touch' and their customer service and support is second to none. Granted it would be nicer if their hardware never failed to begin with, but being able to pop into an Apple shop and walk out 15 minutes later with your issue resolved is so much less hassle than the typically slow and convoluted warranty process you have to go through with other manufacturers.

It's all a matter of compromise at the end of the day. There is no one company or product that is perfect and you have to weigh up the pros and the cons to find the right one for you.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

i'm comparing someones hatred as being similar to that of a racist's hatred

No it isn't actually. Dislike of Apple products or any electronic products from any company will NEVER be the same as racism. Racism has caused suffering and death to tens of millions of people in the last hundred years.

and i wouldn't say android did well in a short period if you consider a similar short period in which IOS has done even better, but all by one company compared to many. you have to give credit where credit is due. android clearly copied IOS but still hasn't sold more than it 3 years on with the strength of several companies behind it, whilst IOS only has one. i wouldn't say android has done well at all when you consider that

It actually has done well considering that it actually has a quite a big market share(second only to Symbian) and most of this was gained in the last 18 months from a very slow start. Apple has been a well known company for the last 30 years and Google has only been known for its search engine. For a company not known for making operating systems to beat Apple,Microsoft,RIM and most likely Nokia in mobile OS market share is impressive.

As I mentioned earlier Nokia has sold loads of Symbian devices as has RIM with Blackberry devices. OTH,this does not necessarily have a bearing on the present market.

We are looking at current market share not past glorys and it seems you cannot give Google credit where credit is due. Except people like you were predicting it would fail only 18 months ago.

You might as well say Windows is a failure too since its sales are spread over hundreds if not thousands of different devices.

[aidanjt]

He's also confusing indifference with hatred. Just because I'm not getting all excited and giddy every time Steve Jobs steps out on stage with the Sun beaming pure rays of light with a new product clutched in his hand, it doesn't automatically mean I loath it.

[badass]

It's all a matter of compromise at the end of the day. There is no one company or product that is perfect and you have to weigh up the pros and the cons to find the right one for you.

Someone who gets it!

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Anyway since you are equating dislike of Apple products to racism go on with your little tussle with aidanjt.

I am going to avoid any of these sorts of threads now. It is almost verging at some of the crap mentioned in GD threads.

[badass]

You could argue the same about many companies products.

Look at the constant criticism Microsoft gets despite having 85% to 90% of the desktop and laptop market and the fact that Windows 7 has sold over 300 million copies. It seems if you even criticise an Apple product you can be branded a racist FFS (look at post 40).

For instance you could make the following statements on a more Apple orientated forum.

I wonder if there are any Microsoft neutrals that like technology.
Every time something gets mentioned about Microsoft, it seems to polarise everyone so much.
Anyone want to put their hand up and say "Microsoft make stuff that does what it is supposed to do well. Not perfectly but well"

Didn't think so.


OR

I wonder if there are any Android neutrals that like technology.
Every time something gets mentioned about Android, it seems to polarise everyone so much.
Anyone want to put their hand up and say "Android does what it is supposed to do well at an affordable price. Not perfectly but well"

Didn't think so.

You will get a torrent of abuse.

This isn't a Microsoft, Android or Apple forum. It's one for all. I just think it's a bit silly getting so emotional over a piece of Metal and plastic, and particularly tearing strips out of people representing the "other team"