Acer, Asus and Dell 'To Exit Android Tablets' ?

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
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Ever since the sell below cost tablets starting hitting the markets, it was predicted that there would be fallout from other companies. That prediction seems to be fulfilling itself with the report of major manufacturers reining in their tablet production. A report from Digitimes says that suppliers from Acer, Asus and Dell have cut back on component orders, signaling a slowdown of tablet manufacture.

PC hardware vendors such as Acer, Asustek and Dell may withdraw from the tablet market next year because they cannot compete with Apple, Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
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That sucks, I thought that Asus' Transformer tablet looked like the best one on the market. The Kindle Fire sounds like it isn't very good anyway unless for some reason you really want to deal with the shortcuts required to make it a $200 tablet.
 
I don't see how they can't, just seems like they won't or don't care to.
 
So... what about the recently announced asus transformer prime? Is it already dead before it is released?
 
Well being as they turned out to be, that is oversized mobile phones with nothing but gimmicky rubbish on them, it's no surprise they're being shelved.

But yea, the aus transformer was the only useful one on the market.
 
Next comes Windows 8 tablets with a real operating system instead of a half baked "mobile" operating system.
 
I don't know about Dell or Acer but I think Asus will stick it out for windows 8. Transformer 3 with windows 8 would be pretty sick.
 
Was hoping for asus prime,hope this can be turn around and asus sticks it out.
 
MV75 said:
Well being as they turned out to be, that is oversized mobile phones with nothing but gimmicky rubbish on them, it's no surprise they're being shelved.

But yea, the aus transformer was the only useful one on the market.
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the transformer was virtually identical internally as the others like the Xoom and Acer Iconia A500, the keyboard dock isn't a lifesaver for it although the expanded battery life when docked is nice. having owned one I can tell you they are not rubbish, i would much rather do my couch surfing on a tablet. Necessity? certainly not, oversized mobile phones? pretty much yes, but considering at least 50% of my web browsing happens on my phone (with a laptop a few feet away), the tablet is a very good surrogate

niconx said:
Next comes Windows 8 tablets with a real operating system instead of a half baked "mobile" operating system.
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i got rid of my android tablet in order to wait for next years Windows 8 tablets, where i can get more functionality out of a tablet

niconx said:
^ using x86 and being way cheaper than ARM hardware.
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ARM is a big part of the Windows 8 tablet future, x86 is on it's way out
 
Well this sucks..I at least hope the Prime comes out before this happens. Though this gives me concern with how many times it has been delayed. Sort of a shame really, The Transformer line is about the only decent android offering right now that actually competes with an iPad. Frankly the rest are either overpriced or just plain crap.
 
Did Digitimes say they couldn't compete with Apple:eek:, they want out. Personally the tablet as it stands today is a fad. When people use a docking station for a keyboard, worried the screen will get scratched and buy a magnetic cover, etc etc. Were right back to a netbook without the touch screen.$499 vs $250, keyboard vs no keyboard,320gig vs 16 gig,1g ram vs 2g ram. Netbooks vs Tablets vs cost = No brainer.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
Well this sucks..I at least hope the Prime comes out before this happens. Though this gives me concern with how many times it has been delayed. Sort of a shame really, The Transformer line is about the only decent android offering right now that actually competes with an iPad. Frankly the rest are either overpriced or just plain crap.
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Toshiba's Thrive seems pretty good too. Sony's has promise, but last I heard Sony needs to do some serious software updates to fix problems. So while I agree with the Transformer being the best at least there should be other good alternatives.
 
Derangel said:
Just making sure I got what you meant. You really never know around here.
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Actually our work sys admin is in the process of replacing traditional x86 desktops with Wyse C90LE7 terminals. While it is not quite ARM level hardware, things are certainly moving that direction. He is upgrading the network to larger capacity fiber and switches and upgrading the servers to handle the processing while moving the data to the clients over the network. So now instead of having a crap ton of x86 machines to administer he has a much easier time. There is no dealing with crashed hard drives, etc....it's all going to more of a cloud type system with really low power terminal/clients.
 
nobody_here said:
Actually our work sys admin is in the process of replacing traditional x86 desktops with Wyse C90LE7 terminals. While it is not quite ARM level hardware, things are certainly moving that direction. He is upgrading the network to larger capacity fiber and switches and upgrading the servers to handle the processing while moving the data to the clients over the network. So now instead of having a crap ton of x86 machines to administer he has a much easier time. There is no dealing with crashed hard drives, etc....it's all going to more of a cloud type system with really low power terminal/clients.
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Nice. ARM is advancing very quickly. Though right now they have nowhere near the power to compete outside of the tablet and a few other specialized markets where having a really lower powered system-on-a-chip would be more beneficial than an Atom or full desktop system.
 
Uncle said:
Did Digitimes say they couldn't compete with Apple:eek:, they want out. Personally the tablet as it stands today is a fad. When people use a docking station for a keyboard, worried the screen will get scratched and buy a magnetic cover, etc etc. Were right back to a netbook without the touch screen.$499 vs $250, keyboard vs no keyboard,320gig vs 16 gig,1g ram vs 2g ram. Netbooks vs Tablets vs cost = No brainer.
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Forgot to mention, for some, a 3g in a netbook would be nice, don't laugh, lots of people I know use Skype for chatting.
 
The way I see it, Acer and Dell never had the chance. These two thrives on performance/value to attract customers, and the tablet is not off it's ''niche'' stage to allow that.
 
Just as I predicted, when you can't give your product away for free (vast majority of android phone sales), and you can't compete with the competition (apple), then you lose. Just reaffirms the fact that the only reason android phones are doing so well is because they get pushed because more money can be made on them and because they're free or cheap.
 
BDS23 said:
The way I see it, Acer and Dell never had the chance. These two thrives on performance/value to attract customers, and the tablet is not off it's ''niche'' stage to allow that.
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I looked at both the Acer and Dell 7" tablets. The Acer had horrible battery life. The Dell had poor battery life, and inferior resolution. No loss that they are out of the market if neither one of them could figure out that people wanted decent battery life in a tablet.

Asus has made some nice tablets, but I haven't seen a 7" one from them.
 
Ryan711 said:
Just as I predicted, when you can't give your product away for free (vast majority of android phone sales), and you can't compete with the competition (apple), then you lose. Just reaffirms the fact that the only reason android phones are doing so well is because they get pushed because more money can be made on them and because they're free or cheap.
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they certainly aren't free or cheap....they are rather expensive actually if you look at the un-subsidized price
 
nobody_here said:
they certainly aren't free or cheap....they are rather expensive actually if you look at the un-subsidized price
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I think he is talking about on contract prices, but even there he is wrong. The most popular Android phones gained their popularity when they were sold on-contract for $200. The Droid 1, the Samsung Galaxy, the Evo 4G. All of them were popular Android phones long before they were reduced in price.
 
Derangel said:
I think he is talking about on contract prices, but even there he is wrong. The most popular Android phones gained their popularity when they were sold on-contract for $200. The Droid 1, the Samsung Galaxy, the Evo 4G. All of them were popular Android phones long before they were reduced in price.
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even on contract prices, yeah....I don't know why one would consider $200-$300 cheap, my Fascinate was $200 and my Charge was $300
 
Windows 8 for Tablets is a joke. At least until they make x86-based Tablets. ;)

Android is a tablet/phone OS. If the Tablet makers are pulling back, it's simply because they think the market is too soft for non-Apple/Amazon tablets. But, I don't see it. I see more tablets than ever in the stores. Maybe this Christmas season will decide what we see through 2012.
 
Stone Cold said:
Windows 8 for Tablets is a joke. At least until they make x86-based Tablets. ;)

Android is a tablet/phone OS. If the Tablet makers are pulling back, it's simply because they think the market is too soft for non-Apple/Amazon tablets. But, I don't see it. I see more tablets than ever in the stores. Maybe this Christmas season will decide what we see through 2012.
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No. x86 is not good for tablets. Even Atom requires too much power to be useful.
 
Stone Cold said:
Windows 8 for Tablets is a joke. At least until they make x86-based Tablets. ;)

Android is a tablet/phone OS. If the Tablet makers are pulling back, it's simply because they think the market is too soft for non-Apple/Amazon tablets. But, I don't see it. I see more tablets than ever in the stores. Maybe this Christmas season will decide what we see through 2012.
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why do you say this? you do realize ARM is an architecture, not a specific platform....so perhaps a Windows 8 tablet running on mid 2011 ARM platform is a bad idea (even though it already runs today), but you should look at what Qualcomm has in store for ARM in 2012, and Microsoft has openly said it is working on specific ARM support so you know they are working directly with Qualcomm and others in optimization. Honestly there is no reason we shouldn't see some fast Windows 8 ARM tablets in 2012.
 
nobody_here said:
Actually our work sys admin is in the process of replacing traditional x86 desktops with Wyse C90LE7 terminals. While it is not quite ARM level hardware, things are certainly moving that direction. He is upgrading the network to larger capacity fiber and switches and upgrading the servers to handle the processing while moving the data to the clients over the network. So now instead of having a crap ton of x86 machines to administer he has a much easier time. There is no dealing with crashed hard drives, etc....it's all going to more of a cloud type system with really low power terminal/clients.
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Yea, it's called thin clients and servers/supercomputers. Been around for decades, nothing new. ;) The cloud was the server, still is. The last time the thin client fad ended, there were mountains of the things on the rubbish tips. His work won't be any easier though, sure it's consolidated, but now he'll have to micro manage it a lot more. An absolute crapload more. Instead of large scale common problems, he'll have a hundred different ones at once.
 
This has nothing Zero Ziltch to do with hardware. Its all the App Stores each of the platforms have.

Apple wins from selling you from Both ends.
Microsoft if they build their own hardware like Zune could try the same thing. But we all saw what happened there.

Kindle and Nook - While they don't get the Google cut from the App Store. They make money from the books. And Kindle/Amazon has the muscle to attempt their own app store.

Leaving Acer/Dell/Insert Hardware manufacturer here to ONLY make money on the hardware. So they can't take it up the ass and make it up in software sales.
 
There's an inherent problem with all these manufacturers, they're using a variation of Android.

Don't get me wrong, Android is an excellent OS for the phone, but unlike iOS for the iPad it literally feels "blown up to fit a bigger screen" on tablets. Either Google needs to put more work into it or move aside for something else.

This isn't an Apple vs Acer/Dell/ASUS issue, but more or less iOS vs Android.
 
Dark-Colonel said:
There's an inherent problem with all these manufacturers, they're using a variation of Android.

Don't get me wrong, Android is an excellent OS for the phone, but unlike iOS for the iPad it literally feels "blown up to fit a bigger screen" on tablets. Either Google needs to put more work into it or move aside for something else.

This isn't an Apple vs Acer/Dell/ASUS issue, but more or less iOS vs Android.
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That is where ICS comes in. ICS looks nearly the same on both but heavily developed on Honeycomb, which is fantastic for tablets.
 
Dark-Colonel said:
There's an inherent problem with all these manufacturers, they're using a variation of Android.

Don't get me wrong, Android is an excellent OS for the phone, but unlike iOS for the iPad it literally feels "blown up to fit a bigger screen" on tablets. Either Google needs to put more work into it or move aside for something else.

This isn't an Apple vs Acer/Dell/ASUS issue, but more or less iOS vs Android.
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What the hell is iOS on a tablet if it isn't just blown up to fit the bigger screen? With honeycomb and ICS you can stretch your widgets to whatever size you want. Half screen of email and half screen of calendar if you want. I won't use iOS on a tablet specifically because it is just a big grid of icons which, sure, on a small phone looks fine ... but on a bigger screen becomes ridiculous looking.
 
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