News - Tablet sales slump in Q1

[HEXUS]

Android gains share but Apple still expected to dominate for some time.

Read more.

[crossy]

That last bit is consistent with general observations that people are largely buying Wi-Fi tablets, preferring not to shell-out the extra £100 for an overpriced 3G chip, let alone commit to yet another lengthy mobile phone contract.

Yep, that £100 can make the difference between "just affordable" and "too expensive". Plus, you can always tether your tablet to your phone (well at least I can)

Android smartphone users are more likely to buy an iPad than an Android tablet, and predicted Apple dominance of the tablet market for at least another couple of years.

Both true I think - in fact unless HP or Google deliver some stupendous update for their existing tablets I really can't see Apple losing the #1 slot anytime soon, even though they may have a technically inferior product. They just have too much mindshare (and advertising space).

Oh, and here's one Android owner who stayed "loyal" to the platform (got a new EEE Transformer at the weekend - being the best device for what I wanted to do). So far it's been not bad (couple of unexplained browser crashes being the only really nuisance) but I'd really Google do something to allow Market Place to recognise that people may actually have more than one device registered to the same Google account.

[Kovoet]

I recently was given a Blackberry playbook. Unless you use a blackberry its almost no use getting it unless you use wifi.

The apps for it are almost non existant. I want a decent ebook reader all it has it kobo, you can't use live messenger.

As I said if you use wifi the browsing is brilliant on that full stop. If you get a tablet only go for the android or apple market

[crossy]

I recently was given a Blackberry playbook. Unless you use a blackberry its almost no use getting it unless you use wifi.
The apps for it are almost non existant. I want a decent ebook reader all it has it kobo, you can't use live messenger.
As I said if you use wifi the browsing is brilliant on that full stop. If you get a tablet only go for the android or apple market

According to http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix....238&highlight= there was suppose to be a Kindle app coming "real soon" - I wonder what happened to it?

Also don't forget that some of the cheap Android tablets don't have any app store access (used the generic term because I'm not just talking about Google Market Place), so putting stuff on them could be problematic, certainly won't be simple.

I had a look at the Playbook, but I've already got a 7" tablet (the HP Zeen that came as part of my Photosmart eStation all-in-one) and I managed to crash it within about 2 minutes - not a good recommendation.

At the risk of "batting for the home team" it would appear that HP are putting a real push on getting developers to WebOS, so maybe that'll be a real contender in future. Even though I suspect that there'll never be the quantity of apps available to match Android, never mind iOS.