There isn't really much of a tablet market • Hacker News Board

Re: There isn't really much of a tablet market

#21

Post by Pewpewarrows » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 12:33 AM UTC

ugh wrote: post #12

joeguilmette wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say that while popular, Android on the whole is 'bad software' the same way Windows is. Doesn't mean it wont dominate the market.

I would argue that Android is currently not in a position to dominate the tablet market in the short term. It’s worse for tablets than Windows was for PCs and it has to (and undoubtedly will) improve in that respect this year. (It was not supposed to run on tablets so you can’t really hold that against Google.) All Android tablets I tried felt like upscaled phones, they use more or less the same phone UI on a bigger…

> It’s not just a huge iPod touch.

Yes, it is. The only difference you're seeing is that developers for iOS apps have accommodated for the additional screen real estate after its release. Developers of Android apps haven't yet because the OS isn't officially ready for tablets until Honeycomb. Once an official Android tablet is released post-Honeycomb can you actually start to make comparisons.

Re: There isn't really much of a tablet market

#22

Post by zephyrfalcon » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 12:37 AM UTC

Well, no, there isn't really much of a tablet market. It's an emerging market; a year ago it didn't even exist until the iPad single-handedly created it. Everybody else is still trying to catch up. Right now your choices are basically, an iPad, or something else that probably isn't nowhere near as good (unless you count Kindles and Nooks which are much more specialized devices).

However, in a few years or so, I can totally see casual users ditching their (in their eyes) complicated PCs and netbooks in favor of a tablet of some kind, as long as it does what they want (watch a video, send email, go on Facebook, listen to music, play a game, etc).

Re: There isn't really much of a tablet market

#23

Post by Xuzz » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 12:39 AM UTC

enjo wrote: post #16

joeguilmette wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would say that while popular, Android on the whole is 'bad software' the same way Windows is. Doesn't mean it wont dominate the market.

Really? You really believe that? I've been using an Android phone exclusively for the last year. I love it. I'm hardly alone. I find it a superior experience to the iPhone in a lot of ways.

One example: Android still doesn't use the GPU for the interface, so the scrolling on a brand-new Nexus S still isn't as smooth as on a three-plus year old iPhone 2G. Plus, the lists don't bounce at the end, so not only is it choppier but it's (slightly) disconcerting to hit the end of a list as well (maybe the Gingerbread green flashes will help here, but a bounce just is more natural).

(This is not to say I only like Apple things. I think that Windows Phone 7 has the best and most consistent UI/UX of them all, currently, and webOS is quite nice as well.)

Re: There isn't really much of a tablet market

#24

Post by guywithabike » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 12:39 AM UTC

axod wrote: post #19

joeguilmette wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

80-90% of computer users never leave the browser. The tablet will take over. Everything except power users will be using tablets in 5 years.

80-90% of websites use keyboard as an input mechanism. I'm not seeing why a tablet is so massively better than a netbook/laptop.

What's your source for that statistic? Or did you just make it up?

Re: There isn't really much of a tablet market

#25

Post by spa942 » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 12:41 AM UTC

axod wrote: post #19

joeguilmette wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

80-90% of computer users never leave the browser. The tablet will take over. Everything except power users will be using tablets in 5 years.

80-90% of websites use keyboard as an input mechanism. I'm not seeing why a tablet is so massively better than a netbook/laptop.

A lot of people were not seeing that, which is probably why Apple was able to launch a 10" $500 tablet without any competitors in the market.

Re: There isn't really much of a tablet market

#26

Post by ugh » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 12:43 AM UTC

Pewpewarrows wrote: post #21

ugh wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would argue that Android is currently not in a position to dominate the tablet market in the short term. It’s worse for tablets than Windows was for PCs and it has to (and undoubtedly will) improve in that respect this year. (It was not supposed to run on tablets so you can’t really hold that against Google.) All Android tablets I tried felt like upscaled phones, they use more or less the same phone UI on a bigger…

> It’s not just a huge iPod touch. Yes, it is. The only difference you're seeing is that developers for iOS apps have accommodated for the additional screen real estate after its release. Developers of Android apps haven't yet because the OS isn't officially ready for tablets until Honeycomb. Once an official Android tablet is released post-Honeycomb can you actually start to make comparisons.

I don’t understand why you are contradicting me. I think we agree. I was talking about the state of Android tablets – specifically their UI – right now, even saying that I expect Android to improve this year. I don’t expect Android to remain as bad a fit for tablets as it is right now in the future but iOS has undoubtedly had a head start. (You could argue that Google has already demonstrated that they can catch up with the iPhone so I’m not sure how predictive such a head start is.) That seems to me to be exactly the same you are saying.

I’m not sure how you then arrive at the conclusion that the iPad is just a huge iPod touch. Its apps have a different UI, making use of the larger screen (as you said), so it is different, at least in that respect (and I wasn’t claiming anything more).

Re: There isn't really much of a tablet market

#27

Post by ggruschow » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 12:46 AM UTC

estacado wrote: post #10

The tablet market is too young to be regarded as miniscule. Software-wise, we have only started to think about touch input seriously. There still so much that can be done.

There were tablets on the market before Macs.

Re: There isn't really much of a tablet market

#28

Post by Xuzz » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 12:48 AM UTC

axod wrote: post #19

joeguilmette wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

80-90% of computer users never leave the browser. The tablet will take over. Everything except power users will be using tablets in 5 years.

80-90% of websites use keyboard as an input mechanism. I'm not seeing why a tablet is so massively better than a netbook/laptop.

How much input do you actually do on these websites? Facebook, for a major example, is just a sentence or two for each status update, and a word or two for the chat messages.

Re: There isn't really much of a tablet market

#29

Post by Pewpewarrows » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 12:48 AM UTC

zephyrfalcon wrote: post #22

Well, no, there isn't really much of a tablet market. It's an emerging market; a year ago it didn't even exist until the iPad single-handedly created it. Everybody else is still trying to catch up. Right now your choices are basically, an iPad, or something else that probably isn't nowhere near as good (unless you count Kindles and Nooks which are much more specialized devices). However, in a few years or so, I can t…

The iPad popularized the Tablet market, it didn't create it. Tablets have existed since 2000.

Re: There isn't really much of a tablet market

#30

Post by jawee » Sat, Jan 01, 2011, 12:49 AM UTC

I know about five (non-techies) that got Nook Colors and a few people that got Tabs (3 to be exact). It´s probably partially because of the stronghold Verizon holds in my area so AT&T isn´t worth it... there is literally no AT&T service within a 10 mile radius of my house and school. I only know one person who got an iPad; well someone that posted on Facebook. I´m not sure I get the original argument.