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Global tablet sales fall as consumer appetite for phablets increases.
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Read more.Quote:
Global tablet sales fall as consumer appetite for phablets increases.
I doubt it's just phablets.....the ultra low cost that some tablets have sold at means that many people have something they are content with.....and because of contracts (or lack thereof) there isn't any incentive to upgrade constantly.
Still know loads of people who refuse to upgrade their ipads because of lightning connectors ;)
Maybe people are finally realising that android/iOS tablets are only really useful for the basics like browsing the web and playing games/media which means it doesn't NEED to be updated on a regular basis because the tasks they're being used for don't stress the tablet they have now. Yes I know we have office apps but have you ever tried typing out a letter without an external keyboard... you might as well grab a laptop for less (lets be honest most consumers pick the iPad...).
I have a nexus 7... hardly ever use it, never bought an iPad even though it's a thing 'designers' should have (not in my opinion it's not).... there's very little on them that actually makes it more productive than a pc.
Having said that I'm still tempted by the surface pro 3, well 4 when it gets broadwell because it's actually useful for me, full os and apps, pen support, keyboard etc.
For only a few pounds you can grab a case for your tablet with an integrated keyboard. ....turning most tablets into a Surface-esque device.Quote:
Originally Posted by LSG501
which means you're paying to turn the slate into a 'laptop'....with less software options and costs more in most cases, the tablet versions of software are pretty much always limited compared with desktop versions to.Quote:
Originally Posted by shaithis
Like I said slates (thinking about it I can't call them a tablet...) have their place but at the same time I think people are realising that they're for simpler things, not for any real 'work' type scenarios.
Part of it is Phablets. Part of it is that tablets got 'good enough'. Same with TVs, Laptops and Desktops. Unless you have a specific need why change to a new one. To be honest Phablets have been a shot in the arm for the high end mobile market, without them I think it would have been in the same boat.
Don't really agree with that.Quote:
Originally Posted by LSG501
Most of the time, I'm content with on-screen kb for my tablet. Occasionally, whrn inputting more text, a physical kb is useful, but no way do I consider a tablet + kb a laptop-substitute.
They're two different tools, for two different purposes, for me at least. So I have both.
Exactly.Quote:
Originally Posted by shaithis
I use my tablet mainly for browsing, and I can't see any real benefit to upgrading. The benefit was the convenience of portability, and the existing one (Tab 2 10.1) met that when I got it, and still does.
Mind you, I only upgraded the TV to a TFT-type from the old CRT model a couple of years back. And even then, only 'cos it broke down and wasn't worth paying to fix. Tach-upgraditus isn't a problem I suffer from .... these days. In years gone past, another story. ;)
well yes as you said "designers" will love ipad, but we real designers who we make our living out of design we can't be satisfied with anything less than this babe.Quote:
Originally Posted by LSG501
And if the next surface can be stronger and integrate what adobe and ms teased us for here, there will be even less reasons to go with the ipad.
ipad try to look like the creatives way to get job done but in reality it is just a symbol for playing marketing tricks to your customers "oh he use apple imac/ipad/whatever he should be a good designer", while in truth good designers can get the job done with everything that does the job.
back on topic now, I'm shocked that the post PC era didn't made everyone trade his laptop/desktop for a tablet :P
RIP Tablets
I'm not saying you can't use the onscreen tablet, but I know for a fact I type slower on it, same with the smaller keyboards that you can add to some (got a hp touchpad + keyboard too). I've got both and like I said I hardly use the slate, it's more for consumption than 'doing things' which make me money :).Quote:
Originally Posted by Saracen
Not keen on the wacom, seems underpowered, lacking battery life and overpriced... hang on that's normal lol....Quote:
Originally Posted by nitro912gr
I'm secretly hoping the surface 4 has an 'iris' class gpu like the mac's have, it would actually make it a better 'designers' tablet.
As to using macs for design... I'd love to see them working on my programs without installing windows lol, they don't work on os-x :innocent:
I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of tablet have not been sold for people to make money on. They are a device for handy browsing, checking your eBay auctions, turning the TV over, watching videos of your children, recording videos of your children, reading an eBook, following a cooking recipe, following a tech tear-down guide, watching some cats on youtube etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by LSG501
You forgot: checking Twitter/Facebook; playing games (instead of a Nintendo/Sony portable game unit) and using as an ersatz TV.Quote:
Originally Posted by shaithis
I suspect that the commenter above who said that the shipments have declined because folks are happy with "last years" tablet is right on the money. After all there's last year's Hudl and similar budget ones. And I'm using a 2012 edition Note 10.1 and an even older Asus Transformer TF101 and am quite happy.
By the way, wrt the discussion on tablets v's netbooks - the old TF101 is both. And unlike your fancy iPad, since the keyboard is hard-docked there's no power-sapping bluetooth, actually the keyboard adds battery life. Plus the depth of the keyboard dock allows proper USB ports too - unlike the Surface's fancy flat keyboard or those BT ones.
it's quite simple, everyone has gotten bored of their diet coke tablets and would rather use a full fat computer again. I know of a few people who have tablets but get frustrated at 'freemium' games, the sheer amount of junk on app stores, the fact that simple tasks on a desktop/laptop with a mouse/touchpad can be annoying on a tablet and the fact that the screen is too small for fat fingers (7 inch and under is my problem).
Tablets in my opinion are only any good as replacement for paper or a quick browse of the internet. They are not a replacement for a proper computer and never will be.
]Quote:
Originally Posted by bae85
lol
That sounds just like the bloke that told me that computers in homes would never catch on, or that the early (and £3500) cellular phones "never will be" viable outside of business use.Quote:
Originally Posted by bae85
Absolutes like "never will be" have a way of turning round and biting you in the tush.
When I think of my first PC, barely capable of running AutoCAD in wire-frame, and then think about modern graphics workstations, voice recognition, touch screens on a portable device, never mind the power of even a modern budget cellphone compared to that £10,000 PC (and yes, it was £10k, almost to the penny), it makes me very sceptical about "never" in tech terms.
Tablets have come a hell of a long way in the last three, four or five years so what about the next three, four or five? Or 10? 20? Let alone "never".
I type faster, and for that matter, more accurately, on a 'proper' kb too, but that wasn't what I disagreed with. What I disagreed with was that adding a kb is "paying to turn the slate into a laptop". It certainly isn't for me. It's merely a sometimes-used add-on for a tablet, the whole point of which is a device with the portability of the tablet. And, 'instant on'.Quote:
Originally Posted by LSG501
My point was that, for me at least and I'd bet for a large proportion of tablet users, it's a tool to do a job, and so is a laptop. But the jobs, while having some overlap, are actually different.
I can crack a nut with nutcrackets, or a sledgehammer. But, if the job is cracking a nut, nutcrackers are the right tool. You could use a sledgehammer, but it's awkward, cumbersome, and like to pound the nut into paste. But if I want to knock down a wall .... ;)
THANK GOD! Hopefully websites will no longer be made bland, just to make them work in Tablets!
From my point of view the main problem is that tablets haven't advanced enough in the last year. The Nexus 7 2013 was a high point for Android, and the mid range has been somewhat lacking. I recently gave up an upgraded my Nexus 7 2012 to a Galaxy Tab S 8.4, and it's definitely a better device, but I was really hoping for a better well rounded mid-range device, rather than a mediocre gaming tablet at a high price.
I do see myself as continuing to use a tablet as my main gaming device, and the Galaxy Tab S's screen makes it a nice reading device too. I even noticed that I gravitate toward it for reading mails as opposed to doing it on my laptop. When I get the keyboard case I'll see if I also use it for general web browsing (although I bought a cheap keyboard, not an original Samsung one.)
No, that's to make them work on phones, so no, not going to happen.Quote:
Originally Posted by OilSheikh
I love less website bling. Some sites are so chewed up with javascript that they should come with a 'minimum spec'. FFS If I cant browse all sites on a 2gig core2duo laptop the issue is not me, it's el-shyto websites.
Internet circa 2003 please. Same stuff, just less crap.
Don't agree at all - first of tablets are pretty darned powerful these days, secondly I think you'll find that most decent websites offer separate "mobile" and "desktop" views, and thirdly I can't help but agree with the comment below.Quote:
Originally Posted by OilSheikh
I've come across two many fancy websites that seem to be that way because someone in "marketing" thought that they'd be overly clever and obviously did little usability testing. My "favourite" example is these websites where you have drop-down menus with submenus, but to keep the menu displayed you have to hold down the mouse button and move, then release on the option you want. What brainless cretin though that would be preferable to click-to-select-menu then click to select option (or submenu) that you want?Quote:
Originally Posted by abaxas
Or those websites that put up a mobile version of the website irrespective of whether you ask for it or not. So you either select "Desktop view" in your 10-12" tablet (which lets be honest is at least as large as a netbook used to be) or click that nice little link that says "Desktop Site" and end up getting the same "Mobile" site as you were just on. And that's particularly annoying when the site in question detects your browser wrongly and insists that you're "mobile".
At least the designers of Hexus avoided those traps. Thanks guys!
Sorry, rant over.