“I just gave the new iPad an Editors’ Choice award for large tablets, but frankly it was a foregone conclusion. The iPad doesn’t get the award because of its hardware, lovely as the hardware is. It gets the award because its apps are generally better than the apps available for Android tablets.” The laptop gap may have been closed, but the tablet gap sure hasn’t.
That determination is subjective at best, in the real world things are very different, When looking at my Android pad, the iPad users I work with find that they would like to exchange the product, the iPad’s have all kinds of resets which of course you only know about when the Apple pops up on the screen. The home button decides on it’s own whether or not it wants to work on any given day, and come on, who can tolerate that playschool interface.
Sorry but when Galaxy Tab 10.1 costs 100USD/EUR more than iPad2 I just can’t rationalize the Galaxy Tab price under any circumstance.
That’s just one single tablet man. Quit generalizing. My Asus EeePad Transformer cost less than an iPad 2 and I enjoy it much more than I would an iPad 2 as well…I have to use one at work to stay ‘familiar’ with them since our users are bringing them in…but I like my transformer much more.
Funnily I’m in the exact reverse situation. I own an iPad but have to use a Transformer at work now that we decided to port some of our Apps to Android.
Personally it feels like I would be quite depressed having to use the T for my own usage instead of my iPad
So in the end, everyone hates that foreign PC that he/she has to use at work ?
I fail to see what is new here
It’s true, sadly.
I use a Galaxy Tab 7 Plus because Android is more fun for me as a tinkerer, but the apps do suck compared to their iOS counterparts. Sure, full-screen OpenGL games are fine… but email, news reading, twitter, etc are all terrible on Android tablets (tablet runs Honeycomb, so I’m not sure about Ice Cream Sandwich on the same hardware).
I’m not an application developer, so I don’t know if this is because of lack of creativity/skill on the part of 3rd-party Android devs, or because Android APIs are poor…
I’d say it’s probably more related to time and people spent on the app.
You have a lot more versatility and flexibility on the Android side when making an app, but if your company does both, I guarantee they won’t invest the same resources in both apps.
Usually the one that gives you the most “bang for the buck” will get the most resources, and since the iPad is more prevalent, that means the iPad one will be much more polished and have the latest features.
It’s the same ol’ catch 22 with every OS.
Close, but no cigar. Current prices here are as follows:
iPad 2, 16 GB, Wi-Fi only: 399,00 EUR
Galaxy Tab 10.1N, 16 GB, Wi-Fi only: 419,00 EUR
You may like the iPad better, and it’s slightly cheaper, but let’s check the Wi-Fi + 3G combination:
iPad 2, 16 GB, Wi-Fi + 3G: 519,00 EUR
Galaxy Tab 10.1N, 16 GB, Wi-Fi + 3G: 469,00 EUR
But, in all fairness, 16 GB is nearly not enough and, since you can’t get a bigger iPad 2 for that price, the comparison is a little unfair. Let’s try something more fair:
New iPad, 64 GB, Wi-Fi + 4G (where available): 799,00 EUR
Galaxy Tab 10.1N, 64 GB, Wi-Fi + 3G: 589,00 EUR
Also, there’s no technical reason for the 64 GB version to cost 100,00 EUR more than the 32 GB version which, in turn, is 100,00 more than the 16 GB variant — but that’s Apple for you, I suppose.
That said, there are plenty of reasons for the iPad being the more attractive option (software for instance), but for sure being cheaper than the competition is not one of them.
RT.
In short, iPad2 is still cheaper and is a better option.
I would compare iPad2 to Transformer Prime, not Galaxy Tab.
Better option? Probably, but of course that’s subjective.
Cheaper? Depends on the configuration: I offered three comparisons and the iPad is cheaper only if you go for the Wi-Fi only, 16 GB model — and I didn’t hunt for the cheapest Galaxy Tab either.
This, on the other hand, makes little sense. Weren’t we talking about the iPad vs. the Galaxy Tab? It was you that came up with prices made out of thin air, wasn’t it?
RT.
Edited 2012-03-29 07:50 UTC
My price was base on the price of an iPad2 and a Galaxy Tab 10.1 in store. Still 100USD difference in my local store(1369LTL vs 1649LTL).
PS: If Transformer Prime was on the store shelves, I would have got one. I just don’t buy stuff without seeing it fist hand turned on.
I have a Toshiba Thrive. I can swap batteries, but rarely need to since it charges in an hour, nor do I need the bag of adapters since it has full size SDXC, USB (exFAT! -1G hard drive, keyboard, game, mice, serial, ethernet), and HDMI. It has a real GPS. I have multiple players including one that downloads youtube as offline video or audio. I keep finding new and useful apps. I have several keyboards – Hackers is most pc like.
I have a 4th gen iPod touch, and keep finding sites or media that just won’t play. Nor can I play audiobooks and podcasts at varying faster speeds. Then there’s the horror of having to use iTunes – somewhat fixed. Passwords are a nightmare to enter. Perhaps the iPad3 is better, but it won’t charge when it is heavily used, and when idle takes hours, or at best 2 minutes ofnuse for 1 hour charge-while-idle. If you want a real GPS, it is $100 for a bluetooth one that has Steve’s magic dust. More for usb, hdmi, and sdhc. I don’t think it does sdxc, or move an mp3 song into iTunes. Maybe it has a gold-plated hammer apps, but the toolbox lacks anything with cutting edges. I have screws and bolts as well as nails and have android apps for all. Jailbreaking iOS makes it barely tolerable.
My mom, for starters. She’s not in playschool, but she knows absolutely zilch about computing and still struggles with her laptop (which is a Macbook, btw) after all these years. The iPad2 I got her is the first computing device she’s ever been comfortable with.
As for myself, well, I don’t know. My smartphone does a pretty good job when I’m on the go, and it’s got a big enough screen (Galaxy Nexus) for browsing and whatnot. The new iPad is tempting, but they’re still novelty products for someone like myself at this moment in time.
I would say that Android isn’t as good a platform as iOS for media creation, especially on the audio side. You won’t find many (any?) pro-level studio/mixing apps for Android. Google is aware of the audio latency issues, but I have no idea if/when they plan to fix it.
Edit:
Sorry tomz, this reply was meant for Lorin.
Edited 2012-03-28 01:57 UTC
To be honest, I wouldn’t put a “pro-level studio/mixing app” label on anything running on iOS either, unless someone I am unaware of suddenly decided to port something like the full Cubase or Logic Pro and to make the device somehow support the kind of hardware that it takes to run these softs comfortably.
But it may just be my natural bias against touchscreens showing up. I am sure that you can do top-notch 3-tracks editing on a tablet, with one audio plugin per track even (but only plugins bundled with the soft, since Apple forbids third-party code), before screen size and input issues start to become annoying.
Edited 2012-03-28 06:46 UTC
Here’s one name that comes to mind.
PropellerHead ReBirth: http://www.propellerheads.se/products/rebirth/
Seen a few of my DJ acquaintances use it.
And I am shocked to see that my “convenient access to up to 3 tracks with one effect on each” troll turned out to be a pretty realistic evaluation.
I guess that doing audio stuff on a current-gen tablet is akin to writing haikus : you voluntarily impose limitations upon yourself in order to stimulate your creativity. But while there’s nothing wrong with that, I would prefer it if people just dug up old analog 8-track tape recorders and effects for that purpose. Not only is it more environmentally friendly to reuse old stuff, but successfully making a good mix with scissors and tape is also much more awesome than hysterically fondling a shiny black slap, especially if you make a video of it and sell it to your fans (I know I would buy it).
Edited 2012-03-28 18:55 UTC
Never witnessed that on my side. On the contrary, most of my colleagues and friends who decided to opt for any of the Android tablets ended up, a few months later, selling them back and going for the iPad. From my surrounding, Android tablets doesn’t seems to catch on at all.
What is that? Never seen any case like that, and I’ve been using (and dev’d for) multiple since 2007. I think I’ve seen a totally of 3 fatal OS crash in this half decade. I seriously doubt that you are witnessing constant ones, unless on a very old device or even more likely a badly jailbroken one.
Oh come on now, are you making stuff up?
This is clearly a matter of taste. Many loves it, many don’t. Considering the huge success of the iOS family of device, I’d say a LOT of people loves its interface.
Edited 2012-03-28 01:01 UTC
Actually that determination is anything but subjective. The author presented actual evidence and descriptions of popular apps that were far inferior on Android tablets.
I used to have a Transformer (TF-101), but now I have an iPad, since I love playing with the soft synths/MIDI apps that are not represented well on Android. And when I heard they ported Lemur to iPad, that was all I needed to hear
Having said that, I really miss a lot of stuff about the TF – having a physical keyboard that extended the battery life, a standard HDMI/USB/SD card slot, being able to watch movies in the proper aspect ratio, emulators out the wazoo, full integration with the Google universe, and an OS that was light years ahead in customization abilities. Sure, there’s some ‘specialty’ apps missing like the music stuff, but I didn’t find myself lacking for any of the basics.
Fortunately though, it’s not all bad news… after I jailbroke the iPad, I found out there are apps in Cydia that brought back a lot of the functionality I was missing in Android. It’s still a far cry from Android though
Edited 2012-03-28 03:56 UTC
I moved in the reverse direction: I had an iPad 1, I was taken in by the Apple marketing, and the absence of comparable Android devices at the time (the closest thing was the original Samsung Galaxy Tab, with its 7 inch screen and Android 2.1). I sold my iPad to a friend and put the proceeds towards the TF-101 the minute it was released, and I have to say I’d never look back. I find, for my uses, the Android market has never failed me. The visual quality of the apps isn’t there, sometimes, but the functional quality outstrips the iTunes store by miles. Asus has, somehow, made a loyal customer out of me, with this, and a loyal customer is something I don’t like to be (because loyal customer is one step away from “fanboy”).
iPad (1) owner here. I really like iOS and very much dislike Android which totally pains me because I absolutely love the Transformer Prime as a piece of hardware. I’m not talking processor or storage or memory: I think if you start to think that way then you’re lost.
No, this is because I think it’s a beautifully designed piece of kit in a great form factor. Right now, it looks to me to be the nicest most flexible bit of mobile computing hardware out there.
In principle the PadPhone looks even better. Having one (flexible) device for mobile computing and mobile communication would be excellent.
This will sound like a ‘fanboi’ but since I am a fan of the Apple mobile (i)OS, if Apple were to copy the form factor I’d be seriously considering buying it.
I like the form and design so much I’m tempted to buy it even whilst I really dislike Android. That’s how good I think it is.
For me as a developer, i’m quite displeased with the fact that Google won’t work with companies from Central and Eastern Europe – that’s for paid applications, one can still upload free apps, but not generate any income in “Normal” ways like on Apple AppStore.
Since our apps are already ported to Android, the only way to start selling is to … register a new company elsewhere …
It’s a matter of maturity of a company. Apple is a solid, grown company. What is Google in that matter?
In India there are many companies selling AllWinner A10 based Android tablets for $100-$200 range. And they are selling well.
Apple is usually associated with high price, but it seems Android tablets cost more for similar specs.
I think there is a market but not at ipad2 price range.
That article was a load of bullsh*t. Apps for Android tablets are not hard to find, and I could care less about the number of games. There isn’t a single thing that can be done with an iPad that I am missing with my Android. In fact, it’s really just the opposite.
Browsing and typing is MUCH easier on an Android device thanks to the use of SwiftKey Tablet X, in which my soft keyboard is split on the screen making is very easy to type with just my thumbs.
If I wanna take notes in a meeting, no problem – I sync it with my Zagg bluetooth keyboard, open up Quickoffice HD and start typing away. I have the documents stored in my Google Docs account so I can access those notes from anywhere.
If I’m sitting at my desk and writing some mundane code, I plug in my earbuds, open up my Google Music app and listen to my entire music collection while I bang away at the keyboard.
If I get a call and need to check on something in the office, I open up LogMeIn Ignition and connect to my computer easily with that.
If I’m bored and want to watch a movie, I can rent one through Google Play, or watch one through Netflix, Epix, Crackle, etc…..
The fact that YOU don’t care about them doesn’t mean it’s an irrelevant thing. There’s millions of people who do in fact care, and your opinion simply isn’t more important than that of millions of other people.
As for being hard to find: that was never even the claim. It’s that that Android apps and games in general are of poor quality. Quantity simply does not trump quality.
One thing that CONSTANTLY causes issues for people is the fact that there’s thousands of applications on Android Market that do all kinds of malicious/nefarious things behind peoples’ backs, and there’s also thousands of applications that claim to do this or that, but you must pay for the application, and then the user finds out that the application was actually fake. If you frequented e.g. XDA-devs forums you’d see these issues crop up hourly.
The extremely shoddy quality of Android Market is one of the reasons why I personally advice general populace to avoid Android. It’s great for geeks and people who know what to look for and how to spot something that has one or more warning signs of a fake, but for Joe Blow it is essentially the same as paying someone to cause you trouble.
From the article:
“The First Problem: Finding Android Tablet Apps”
Not only was that obviously claimed, it was the very first claim in big bold letters.
For the first claim, Android identifies all access that an app has to the phone. If you download a game and it wants access to the contacts, then don’t install it. You are forewarned immediately of the entire access an app has. Granted, it’s been years since I owned an iPhone – but is that information identified when installing an app on an iPhone?
Secondly – I’m pretty certain that the Apple App Store has garbage apps in it as well that cost money. Fortunately, people with common sense read reviews on items before purchasing them. That goes with both Android and iOS users alike.
Sure, Android doesn’t have nearly the number of fart apps that Apple has, but can you identify apps that you believe are worse on Android than on Apple products? Specific examples that you have seen – not just biased hearsay.
One of the issues is that both the benign and the more serious ones are all grouped together, their meanings aren’t explained anywhere, they are presented poorly, and the system doesn’t even try to warn users if e.g. a wallpaper asks for permission to send SMS-messages and alter carrier-settings. Of course Joe Blow then just goes ahead and clicks on “Install” when there’s nothing to tell him not to.
I don’t know, I have never used an iPhone.
Atleast on Android Market the thing is way too easy to game, and it’s not possible to comment on something without first installing/buying it, meaning that I can’t for example warn people against buying a crap app that has very strong smell of malware in it unless I actually buy it myself, first.
That basically means that only gullible people leave comments on those and don’t notice the things the app does behind their backs and thus the app still gets positive comments.
I have seen plenty of comparisons, and I’ve seen plenty of quality applications and games that aren’t available at all on Android, but I can’t remember the names anymore. As I said, I haven’t ever used an iPhone so I haven’t bothered to memorize the names. I will come back and post some examples though if I can remember them, ok?
Cool, I am curious as to the difference in the quality of apps. The ones I used on my iPhone (when I had it) and the ones on my Android phone (Galaxy S II) are:
1. Netflix – quality seems to be the same.
2. Kindle – quality seems to be the same.
3. Yelp – quality seems to be the same.
4. Facebook – Facebook sucks on both.
5. Pandora – quality seems to be the same.
6. Google+ – a coworker has Google+ on his iPhone, and comparing the two, we didn’t notice any difference in quality.
7. Google Maps – better on Android due to the voice guided, turn by turn directions (although, may be unfair to compare since that part is really “Navigation” on the Android devices).
8. Urbanspoon – quality seems to be the same.
9. Amazon – quality seems to be the same.
10. eBay – quality seems to be the same.
11. Dropbox – quality seems to be the same if memory serves.
Those are really the only apps that I used on both. I’m not a gamer, so I can’t really comment on that. Did enjoy playing Great Little War Game on my Galaxy Tab 10.1, and it looks the same as my friend’s iPhone.
The problem that the article identifies is specifically with iPad apps vs. Android apps on tablets (whether designed for tablets or not). So keep in mind that comparisons on the iPhone vs. Android phones will be less relevant.
Yelp is a great example. Not much difference from the iPhone on either Android phones or tablets. But that’s problematic on a tablet. It means that, instead of clicking on a small list of restaurants and seeing the info right beside it, you’re switching screens. Then you’ll need to go back to that giant list in order to see more info. It’s just poor workmanship and disinterest in the platform, which is particularly sad for a business like Yelp that doesn’t benefit from normal app monetization.
In other categories it’s more glaring. While you only need one twitter app, iPad twitter apps are an embarrassment of riches (Tweetbot and Twitteriffic, for example). Then there are developers that repeatedly make great apps on the iOS platform, like Tapbots (who developed Tweetbot) and Omnigroup (OmniGraffle, OmniOutliner, Omnifocus, OmniPlan), Sophiestication (Articles and Magical Weather), and Marco Arment (Instapaper). Some of these apps are expensive, even for iOS users, but in any one of them you can tell that every detail is considered and designed with care.
Android needs more developers like the one that developed Papermill, who will hopefully extend that amount of care to the tablet version of their apps.
As for the Google-developed apps on Android, they seem great. Though I’m not a fan of G+ on the iPhone. Simple things like failing to save my login make me less likely to stay engaged. The Google Search app for the iPad is easily the best app for the device, the rest are absolutely terrible.
Edited 2012-03-28 21:33 UTC
Doesn’t ability to return an app up to 15 minutes after purchase and comment system solves these issues mostly?
As I replied to another person:
Atleast on Android Market the thing is way too easy to game, and it’s not possible to comment on something without first installing/buying it, meaning that I can’t for example warn people against buying a crap app that has very strong smell of malware in it unless I actually buy it myself, first.
That basically means that only gullible people leave comments on those and don’t notice the things the app does behind their backs and thus the app still gets positive comments.
—
This also means that it usually takes several hours to a few weeks for these people to notice there is something wrong and they often do not know what it is that causes this so they are unable to connect it to the latest “real life sexy girls on your wallpaper” – app.
is Android ecosystem has been actually created by carriers pushing devices rather than genuine demand for the OS itself. Now that it improved on phones it’s self sustainable now.
The same forces are just not there with tablets despite great manufacturers eagerness.
That’s the weak flank that MS will attack, and I don’t see why wouldn’t win, with Android at least.
I Google wants to fend it off they should deliver affordable ICS tablet (1/2 iPad price max) fast and pledge carriers to subsidize it. And produce quality apps themselves.
The sad fact is that most people that use an Ipad or such are not real techie types. They NEED to have simple things to use. Ipad wins in this case. It is simple and it works. Why fool with that strategy?
For musicians, Android just hasn’t arrived. While iOS enjoys amazing apps like ThumbJam, Garageband, and NanoStudio, latency issues prevent that level of quality on the Android side.
That’s a real shame, because I’m tired of Apple and still want small, flexible, highly portable looping and effects. I can’t say I believe in Java when LLVM is around either. Maybe the surging interest in GTK+ 3.x and Vala will make for a better Linux mobile platform?
Edited 2012-03-29 17:54 UTC
to the fact that Android tablets are pretty crap, even with Ice Cream Sandwich.
There is no reason, absolutely no reason, why a tablet running specs as beefy as the Transformer should lag anywhere, at anything, ever. There’s just no justification for scroll lag, keyboard input lag, and the frequent 5 second lag between tapping a notification and getting thrown into the app.
The tablet applications range from very good, to extremely terrible, and as the article CORRECTLY states (Don’t really give a fuck what a poster above says) Tablet applications are IMPOSSIBLE to find.
To find a tablet app you need to either:
– Search for “Tablet” or “HD” or even sometime “Honeycomb” to get a list of tablet applications
– Download a curated Tablet marketplace
– Try to judge from the screen shots if the app supports tablets or not
– Guess ?
The experience is extremely poor, and I can’t count how many times I’ve downloaded an app only to be thrown to the shitty phone UI.
My day with my tablet usually consists of “The application Browser is not responding, would you like to Wait or Force Close?” and dealing with a bunch of widgets that randomly decide to stop updating (Takes an unpin / repin to get them to work again..)
Then there’s the poor build quality. I’m sorry, but at least my tablet has way too much give, and feels like overall crap when I hold it in my hand. I should not be able to feel the screen push in and hear all sorts of snaps when I hold it.
Audio on this piece of shit is an absolute joke too, not only is it entirely too low, but the quality is terrible. It’s inexcusable, especially when you compare it next to an iPad.
Google has a lot of work to do. The problem is more than the apps. It’s an end to end systematic failure of epic proportions.
From the expensive (but cheap quality wise) hardware, to the lack of optimizations, to the premature and half baked software, lack of discoverability, and terrible apps. There’s just very little that delights me any more, and it got to the point where I consider shelling out the money for this tablet a mistake.
I bought this thing under the premise of having a super-connected Tablet where all my information was at my fingertips, possibly moreso than the iPad because of what I saw as superior notifiations and services on Android. Boy was I wrong.
Anyone who thinks this piece of garbage is anywhere near competitive is inebriated.