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Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

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Re: Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

#171

Post by trotsky »

keltex wrote: post #38
recoiledsnake wrote: post #17

Looks like even Google is afraid to directly take on the 800lb. gorilla that is the 10" iPad at the $500 price point. Xoom, Touchpad, Playbook(7") and countless others seem to have bit the dust trying. HTC and LG have even temporarily quit the tablet market to stem the bleeding. Wonder if ASUS is seeing volume on its Transformer line. Also, does anyone know how the Galaxy Tab is doing? Even Kindle Fire's sales are sl…

"Even Kindle Fire's sales are slowing" You have any evidence to back this up? Seems like just the opposite is happening: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/06/26/kindle-fire/

FWIW, this is from recent Morgan Stanley coverage entitled "Tablet Landscape Evolution Window(s) of Opportunity":

Amazon.com was not in our Blue Paper a year ago. After a rapid Kindle Fire ramp in 4Q11, its long-term share looks uncertain. The company gained 17 points of tablet market share in 4Q11 after launching the Kindle Fire in mid- November. Just as quickly, the product lost steam and fell to 4% share in 1Q12. While the company looks to be committed to the tablet market long-term, it is not a preferred way to play tablet proliferation given the current uncertainty in our view.

[...]

Amazon.com’s Kindle Fire is also seeing less interest— with only 4% of the current tablet installed base and with only 3% of prospective tablet owners planning to purchase an Amazon.com tablet. However, we believe Amazon.com may refresh the Kindle Fire in Q3, with an update to the current 7-inch product and potentially a new 10-inch Kindle Fire. Amazon.com has been elusive about any upcoming product releases and consumers have not seen any prototype, so potential demand for a refreshed 7-inch Fire and a new 10- inch Fire tablet are likely not fully captured in this survey.

It was mostly about other topics, but I think their sales research is accurate.

Re: Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

#172

Post by kennon »

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if this is selling below manufacturing cost? At least, I thought that was the case with the Kindle Fire, which has less impressive specs?

Either way, could be interesting times ahead if Amazon, Apple, and Google are all marking out their tablet+store territory...

Re: Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

#173

Post by wvenable »

jamesaguilar wrote: post #154
warfangle wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"don't even work on other companies devices that they have no control over " Fixed that for you. The Nexus (minus the G1) line of phones gets regular updates - my old Nexus One was always updated within a few weeks of a new version of android coming out. If you want updated OS software on your phone, be smart about which droid phone you get. Ain't goog's fault Samsung won't allow updates to Phone #4123.

I'm just a user of Google's Android OS. My three-year old Windows and Mac computers still get the latest OS versions, as do my iPhones. I don't care about the particular reasons why my phone with Google's Android OS doesn't get updated. I just know it doesn't. Those are Google's problems, not mine. My problem is that I own an Android phone that is not on the latest version. > be smart about which droid phone you get…

You didn't buy your OS from Google. You didn't buy your device from Google. Your phone doesn't have the latest OS because your device manufacturer isn't giving it to you.

Re: Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

#174

Post by objclxt »

awolf wrote: post #169

The 7" form factor: big enough to be a pain in the ass to carry and small enough to be useless for most tablet stuff anyway. In my opinion, a mobile device should have a keyboard big enough for me to type using ten fingers, or it should fit in my pocket. Using something in between baffles me.

It's a Kindle Fire competitor. Without doubt. Having played with one at one of the IO Extended events today, and given the massive emphasis on the play store and video/audio/written content being made available Google are definitely making a play for Kindle territory here.

Like you, I'm pretty ambivalent on the 7" format, but that isn't stopping people from buying Kindle Fires...

Re: Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

#175

Post by Moto7451 »

greedo wrote: post #106
will_work4tears wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I swap my batteries (and always have a spare which doubles my battery time - with my phone I have three), on my laptop, on my phone, and if I had one, on my tablet. I'll never buy Apple until they have replaceable batteries. I know several people like me, and there are probably a lot out there just like me. I don't know why Apple people think "why not get an IPad" if price is comparable. I'd pay a bit extra for the s…

So you always carry two extra batteries around? That must be fun. What model phone do you have that you need 3 batteries to get through the day? Wouldn't it be easier just to carry around a charger?

My buddy has a TMobile MyTouch phone (forget which one) and he goes through three batteries per day. My Samsung Admire lasts a day and a half on one battery with similar usage.

The difference is his MyTouch is "thin and sexy" and mine has a battery bulge and a tick smaller screen. Small battery + large power hungry screen = angry user base. He hates it but he's pretty loyal to TMobile. I suggested getting another Android phone but he's rather soured by the experience and plans on getting a WinPhone or iPhone (if they get them) when his contract is up.

Re: Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

#176

Post by MartinCron »

greedo wrote: post #105
MartinCron wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just did too. I hope that I don't regret this decision like I did the Kindle Fire. It seems that $200 is my price point for impulse-buying tablets. If Microsoft can manage to get their Surface out for $200, I guess I'll have to get one of those, too.

$200 for the Surface? Sure, in Bizarro World.

I agree entirely. I meant it as a joke :)

Re: Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

#177

Post by Samuel_Michon »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #92
Samuel_Michon wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1280x800 on 7" is a very high resolution, it will make everything look tiny. I think what parent was referring to is that the OS doesn't scale the text and UI elements, like the new iPad does. The new iPad has a 2048x1536 screen, but the UI looks like it's 1024x768, it's simply twice as sharp. I have very bad eyesight, looking at the tiny UI in the screenshots on Google's tablet page made me cringe. I wouldn't be abl…

Uh, thats false. Android scales the UI across foir sizes.

Judging from the screenshots on the page of Google's tablet, text and the UI is really small. I hope it can be adjusted.

Re: Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

#178

Post by MartinCron »

whiskers wrote: post #70
MartinCron wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Google tablet is half the price of an iPad. If that's not competing on price, I don't know what is.

It's also 3" smaller, shorter battery life, much lower resolution, and maxes out at 16GB of storage. I suspect Google has priced this very competitively (low margins) specifically to compete with iPad by offering something half the price. If they'd put out a device with comparable features in screen, battery, and storage it would have had to be priced so close to the iPad that the question "why not just have an iPad?…

Exactly, it's not competing on features, it's competing on price. That's sort of what it means to be "price-competitive" :)

Re: Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

#179

Post by bratsche »

warfangle wrote: post #127
jamesaguilar wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I love that people accuse Apple of planned obsolescence in the phone market when Google releases operating systems that don't even work on devices that came out in the current year.

"don't even work on other companies devices that they have no control over " Fixed that for you. The Nexus (minus the G1) line of phones gets regular updates - my old Nexus One was always updated within a few weeks of a new version of android coming out. If you want updated OS software on your phone, be smart about which droid phone you get. Ain't goog's fault Samsung won't allow updates to Phone #4123.

Uhh.. I have a Nexus One, and that was not my experience at all. It took a fucking long time to get updates. But maybe that's because I had one of the later models of Nexus One, which supported AT&T 3G, and all the updates only went out on time to the people who had the original model.

Re: Nexus 7, Made for Google Play

#180

Post by AncientPC »

programminggeek wrote: post #147

Android's UI as a "media consumption" device is terrible compared to what Kindle Fire and Nook have done. The average user (say your parents), aren't going to go to the Google Play Store (which is a terrible non-obvious) name to buy books, movies, apps, etc. unless you explain to them that you have to use the Play app to download content. Kindle Fire nailed the obviousness of this with the top bar being labeled with…

Let's be honest here. Kindle family of devices is aimed at average consumers. It's sold at retail stores, and everything is setup for you out of box. In fact, it's a bit of a pain to break out of Kindle Fire portal and revert back to native Android.

OTOH, Google Nexus family of devices is targeted towards a different crowd. Nexus devices are comparatively sparse, receive latest updates, and not marketed at all.

With a Nexus 7, there's nothing stopping me from downloading the Kindle app and buying / reading my Amazon content. Try using a Kindle Fire to read Google Market content. If you've never used a Kindle Fire, you have to "jailbreak" out of the Kindle portal where they keep closing the holes.

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