Why Android Tablets Aren't Selling

pankkake said:
Android Tablets don't sell, because Tablets don't sell.

Sure, hipsters buy iPads, but they don't even use them. They didn't want a tablet, they wanted an Apple iPad.
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this is the correct answer

I use a real tablet for 3d sculpting, but it's an entirely different machine, mac fools will buy it just because it's a new mac, whether they have a use for it or not
 
butterfliesrpretty said:
mac fools will buy it just because it's a new mac, whether they have a use for it or not
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Funny, if you watched some google i/o keynotes, most presenters were using macbook pros. Must mean google engineers are secretly apple lovers and that the only reason android exists is to troll it's users with a shitty, laggy ui and a fragmented development base.

I'll be bookmarking this thread on the off chance that android gets a decent UI not designed by engineers and/or cell carriers start giving them away like the phones so we can all call the people who own them hipsters.

First it was "The ipad will flop, it has no purpose" Now it's "Only hipsters buy them"

20+ million with no signs of slowing must mean there are a shitload of hipsters out there, or maybe people claiming that are full of shit? Hmm...which seems more plausible?
 
I don't want one ,but if the price were right then I wouldn't mind playing with one.At their pricing I would upgrade my computer or get a laptop first.I would need a definite use for it that would justify the cost for the convenience factor.
 
I want an android tablet, but I'm not willing to pay the prices they are asking. I think ill wait a year longer and pick up something used on ebay. I use my android phone a ton though, kindle for reading, web browsing, and even gaming.

For those curious about android gaming, I bought an icontrolpad from www.icontrolpad.com, use bluez ime to map key input to the hardware controller. I can play doom, quake 2, quake 3, and tons of emulated games for older consoles on my phone, plus use dosbox for retro pc games. I just want a tablet to have all this on a bigger screen but still semiportable for home use. That's the catch 22, I love a small phones portability, but want a second device with a 7 to 10 inch screen at home. Weird I guess.
 
My short review of the lg slate on T-Mobile:

Wonderful couch potato browsing/email/widget thing.

Cannot play video worth shit. 24fps film content, that plays fine on every other mobile device I have (Nexus 1, MT3G, HD7, iPad) has serious glitches every second. This is what we get from NVIDIAs mighty Tegra 2? Video performance worse than a busted old myTouch3G? Really? And the HMDI port? Fucking useless with crushed black levels, Honeycomb is too stupid to know that a TV is not the same an other display devices.

So I returned it. So much promise, so much fail. I wanted it for one thing: video. And it was a train-wreck.
 
My first exposure to slate computers was in 1993 when I was working on an inventory control system using penabled Windows 3.1 and I always knew at some point that they would be a big deal. They are far from a passing fad. Today’s mobile OS slates are geared towards entertainment but in time I think they will become more like laptops and desktops, just another form factor that will come in various sizes, prices and capabilities.

I hadn't personally owned a slate since 2004 until I got the HP Slate 500 back in December and for what I wanted it for, note taking it's worked pretty well but I love my EP121, the most capable tablet computer on the market right now overall at the $1k mark and under, just an incredible device despite its short battery life and heft for a slate. Running OneNote on these devices has awesome, it's like have a personal database that can record any information, text, audio, images, video and ink. I know that a lot of people poo poo pens but they add an element of usefulness that while it may not fit for everyone makes ALL the difference to some.

The next major chapter in tablets to be written is titled "Windows 8" or whatever it will be called. Microsoft has a lot of toys in its gadget chest and Windows 8 ARM along with Microsoft's incredible ink technology could make a device like Courier a reality and that could be a MAJOR force in educational tablets. If Microsoft gets the touch aspects of Windows 8 solid, and count on that being the case, most of it's already there with Windows 7, just not the apps, digital pens could be a big differentiator between Windows and iOS and Android, neither of which have ink in the OS currently.

As a Windows developer I really can't wait to see how this is going to play out as there's a TON of questions, the first being how Windows 8 ARM compares to Windows 8 x86 and the developer platform. I'm 99% positive that Silverlight 5 binaries will run on both platforms and be touch capable even in Windows 7. The next question is how much on the ink technology makes it to ARM. Windows ink is a VERY CPU intensive feature and i don't think just porting it from x86 to ARM is viable, Courier could come into play here as well as that platform was targeted for ARM.

At any rate it is Microsoft's turn to in the tablet space late or otherwise. I think that seeing how Android has done against the iPad has validated their decision to not just slap Windows Phone on slates. Windows 8 will either be a game changer and the biggest hit in the history of Microsoft or it will be Vista 2. Hard to say at this point since Microsoft has been VERY tight lipped about it but the cat will have to come out of the bag soon if they want to get Windows 8 out in time for Holiday 2012.
 
What is says is true. The Android market is so diverse and so many tablets getting outdated by new Android release and the average consumer being too stupid to know what updating firmware actually is that the average consumer has no idea what an Android tablet is.

There is no coherent marketing or retail presence.

Android phones do okay because phone companies spend millions marketing their phones of course which does the work for them. Nobody is going to spend millions marketing Android tablets.

With the iPad, the consumer knows what it is, where to get it, and that's that. It's simple. There's only one choice.
 
Spare-Flair said:
Android phones do okay because phone companies spend millions marketing their phones of course which does the work for them. Nobody is going to spend millions marketing Android tablets.
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Android phones do well because there's simply different expectations for phones. A, phones are kind of throw away and secondly phones is phones. Most people just want certain features, there's really no right way for it to look.

But then you plop down $500 on something that's essentially a computer and it's completely unfamiliar, you go with the market leader like the iPad or get a decent Windows laptop because those things are familiar.
 
Ryan711 said:
Funny, if you watched some google i/o keynotes, most presenters were using macbook pros. Must mean google engineers are secretly apple lovers and that the only reason android exists is to troll it's users with a shitty, laggy ui and a fragmented development base.

I'll be bookmarking this thread on the off chance that android gets a decent UI not designed by engineers and/or cell carriers start giving them away like the phones so we can all call the people who own them hipsters.

First it was "The ipad will flop, it has no purpose" Now it's "Only hipsters buy them"

20+ million with no signs of slowing must mean there are a shitload of hipsters out there, or maybe people claiming that are full of shit? Hmm...which seems more plausible?
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Hipsters and people that aren't that intelligent, or know nothing about computers. The only valid use for one is drawing.

A laptop has this beautiful ability to be put into a position that can not make your head hurt and has a more useful control scheme. If it's too big then you buy a netbook. 20 million or not it's a fad, I'm sure 20 million+ disco records were sold as well, and that doesn't make the music any good.
 
butterfliesrpretty said:
Hipsters and people that aren't that intelligent, or know nothing about computers. The only valid use for one is drawing.

A laptop has this beautiful ability to be put into a position that can not make your head hurt and has a more useful control scheme. If it's too big then you buy a netbook. 20 million or not it's a fad, I'm sure 20 million+ disco records were sold as well, and that doesn't make the music any good.
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I guess we better tell all of the mac users they can't browse or use email or type up homework anymore. It's just good for drawing.

Phide, you hear that? You can only draw with your Macbook. Be sure you're not doing anything else.
 
JiveMofo said:
does NOT support. just check apples website. with xbmc it'll paly fine. apple's got it locked down.
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http://www.apple.com/ipad/specs/

from Apple specifications said:
Video formats supported: H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format
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You were saying?
 
Azhar said:
I guess we better tell all of the mac users they can't browse or use email or type up homework anymore. It's just good for drawing.

Phide, you hear that? You can only draw with your Macbook. Be sure you're not doing anything else.
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talking about ipads, and the choice of that over laptops, not sure why you're going on about macbooks
 
Ryan711 said:
Funny, if you watched some google i/o keynotes, most presenters were using macbook pros. Must mean google engineers are secretly apple lovers and that the only reason android exists is to troll it's users with a shitty, laggy ui and a fragmented development base.
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Google said themselves that 80% of their employee's don't use Windows. Majority use Linux. What does that mean? None of them are using iPad. :p
I'll be bookmarking this thread on the off chance that android gets a decent UI not designed by engineers and/or cell carriers start giving them away like the phones so we can all call the people who own them hipsters.
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Even Lifehacker likes 10 things about Android that iPhone doesn't have. For a website that favors Apple, no less. One of which is custom home launchers. I personally can't stand the iPhone UI, but that's just my opinion. With Android, at least it's customizable, and you do have your choice of phones. Don't like the UI, then don't buy the phone. That simple.
First it was "The ipad will flop, it has no purpose" Now it's "Only hipsters buy them"
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I believe the iPad has already flopped, but people are just in denial. If Android tablets aren't selling, then it's just an Apple fad.
20+ million with no signs of slowing must mean there are a shitload of hipsters out there, or maybe people claiming that are full of shit? Hmm...which seems more plausible?
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There's a shitload of hipsters. Probably a shitload more, given that some can't afford to buy an iPad. It's like the Honda Civic. A lot of people thought it was the greatest car ever built, and now nobody cares. Now it's all about hybrids, and mainly the Prius. Not long ago it was about retro cars, and still is somewhat.
 
butterfliesrpretty said:
talking about ipads, and the choice of that over laptops, not sure why you're going on about macbooks
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If you think that laptops and tablets belong in the same category you have another think coming. The problem with some of you guys is you can't get away from thinking about laptops. I love them, I do. I have an HP Elitebook 2350p that you'll have to pry from my cold dead fingers, but I'm smart enough to know that tablets - iPad included - belongs in a whole different category. There's no set standard for them. Microsoft thinks they have a standard, but they were wrong. Apple thinks they have a standard - and I guess Android came pretty damn close to copying them in both iPhone and iPad. Before you spit vitriol about Apple and my train of thought, I only say copy in a sense of people are only expected to touch an icon and things work right off the bat. I don't mean copy as in exactly copy each other.

I figured you were talking about the iPad but you mentioned laptops, so I'm going by that.

Macs can do EVERYTHING a PC can. It's not Apple's fault PC developers won't code for them, but it doesn't mean they can't do it. You can say EXACTLY the same for Android tablets. Fine, they're great and have potentials, but so what? Potentials don't mean there's apps right now. Potentials mean there might be apps. Users don't want a maybe. They want them now.
 
The bottom line is, is that people do not want to drop $400 to $800 on a tablet that isn't rich in content, apps, or features only to have them not work like they should or experience some issues that they can't solve.
 
phide said:
They know. They just don't care.
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If they don't use it then how do they know? That would be like me telling you about Macs. Without first hand experience you can't know much when it comes to technology no matter how smart you are. Experience is the best teacher.
 
Sycraft said:
They try to fill a market in between smart phones and notebooks which just doesn't exist. Most people have no need at all for such a thing. As such, most people who buy tablets do it because they want a cool, trendy, hipster, gadget. The iPad is the only one that meets that requirement. They aren't buying for any need, just because they want a shiny Apple toy, hence only an Apple toy will do.
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this used to be my perspective but then i realized i was the guy who always says laptops are more powerful than they need to be and recommends people buy the cheapest laptop that will do basic tasks well and leave the heavy computing to desktops. that's what a tablet does very well but they aimed at the cell phone market thinking, "people text more than they call so they'll appreciate a bigger screen instead of phone capability" but that didn't work out so well because the OS's were designed for small phone screens so they already work just fine. they need to aim at the laptop market and say, "hey. wanna do the same basic stuff you're doing now (you have a desktop to play games on, right?) at a lower cost plus all these other benefits? better battery life, less heat, more convenience, yadda yadda"

i, for one, hear "my laptops battery sucks" far more often than i hear "my laptop just sucks balls at rendering 3d scenes"
 
Ryan711 said:
First it was "The ipad will flop, it has no purpose" Now it's "Only hipsters buy them"
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If anyone predicted the ipad would fail, they would have predicted that because there is no tablet market. The ipad didn't fail because there is an Apple-anything market.

Have you been living in a cave? Long before the ipad, people have pointed out that Apple is a hipster brand. It's always been the brand that people with more cents than sense buys. Because it's their logo on the laptops used in movies. Because the Mac guy in Apple commercials is so much cooler than the PC guy in Apple commercials. Because everyone and his neighbor has Windows but you are special and have OS X. Because Apple designs their products around style, not functionality. Because Apple prices their product just high enough that you feel like you're rising above the hoi polloi when you buy one.

Anyone with sense would run from a tablet. Sure, they can do some things, but they can't do nearly as much as a laptop and sensible people aren't going to carry both. All they offer over a smartphone is a bigger screen, just big enough that they won't fit in the pocket. And, sensible people aren't going to carry both a phone and a bigger-screen phoneless phone, understand? This is why there is no market for tablets.
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Stone Cold said:
Anyone with sense would run from a tablet. Sure, they can do some things, but they can't do nearly as much as a laptop and sensible people aren't going to carry both. All they offer over a smartphone is a bigger screen, just big enough that they won't fit in the pocket. And, sensible people aren't going to carry both a phone and a bigger-screen phoneless phone, understand? This is why there is no market for tablets.
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My tablets do things laptops and smartphones can't and I use tablets side by side with desktops and laptops.
 
heatlesssun said:
So 80% of Google's employees don't know what 90% of the world that uses computer is using. Fascinating.
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You say this as if those 80% don't have, say, personal computers. Is your work provided desktop or laptop your only computer? Of course not. Think the work provided desktop and laptop of 80% of Google's employees is their only computer? Of course not. Think those 80% have never used a Windows computer? Of course not.

Besides, Google doesn't really make desktop software, so why do you find it fascinating? The web is the web, regardless of if you browse it from Windows, OSX, or Linux - it's all the same. And Android doesn't even compile on Windows.
 
kllrnohj said:
You say this as if those 80% don't have, say, personal computers. Is your work provided desktop or laptop your only computer? Of course not. Think the work provided desktop and laptop of 80% of Google's employees is their only computer? Of course not. Think those 80% have never used a Windows computer? Of course not.

Besides, Google doesn't really make desktop software, so why do you find it fascinating? The web is the web, regardless of if you browse it from Windows, OSX, or Linux - it's all the same. And Android doesn't even compile on Windows.
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I assumed that number was only referencing work systems but that wasn't qualified in the post quoting this number. Besides I wouldn't think Google would tout that 80% of its employees don't use Windows at work but that that 90% of them do use it personally. At least publicly I would think that Google would say that 80% of their employees don't use Windows PERIOD true or not. Just a hunch.
 
Stone Cold said:
The ipad didn't fail because there is an Apple-anything market.
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Then why were the first-generation AppleTV sales so lackluster? If there is an "Apple-anything market", then everything Apple makes would be as successful as the iPad. That isn't the case.
 
heatlesssun said:
My tablets do things laptops and smartphones can't and I use tablets side by side with desktops and laptops.
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You're comparing a productivity tablet to a luxury one. This thread is about the latter.
 
I have to say that the ipad experience is better. I spent weeks trying to tweak my android tablet and I can't say the experience is positive. I can simply jailbreak my ipad and use it at its full potential. I guess I am just being lazy.
 
JeanLuc said:
I have to say that the ipad experience is better.
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You mean, that your experience is better on the ipad. I don't own an iPod touch, I don't own any Apple computers, and I don't own an iPhone.

I do own an Android phone (which got stolen) and have another Android phone on the way. Needless to say, my experience on an Android tablet is going to be better than on an iPad. It's what I'm use to, so that's kind of an obvious.
 
I was very happy with my rooted Nook Color, and now I've got CM7 on it, it's more like a real android device.

I use it mainly for web stuff on the go (tethered to Virgin android phone). I hit mainly the NPR news app, play some music on it (bigger = better for playing music at home IMO...much better than my wife's little ipod touch docked). Websurfing, adminstering my DD-WRT router and other network devices, email, etc. Watch youtube videos and gamefaqs when I can't find something in an RPG, for example. Quick and easy.

BUT - it wasn't worth a lot to me. My wife got it for me for christmas because I was excited about it. I don't want to carry around a 10" square hunk of tablet with me. 7" is just right - it's about the same size as a kindle, so I can put it in my coat pocket, cargo pants pocket, glovebox.

I can't see spending $500 or more on a tablet. To me this kind of thing is worth $200-$300. My wife's ipad 1 was $350 as a refurb and she loves it, but I'm just not a fan of the lack of any ports or SD slots, rows of nothing but icons, etc.

I'd love a 7" tablet with hdmi, full usb, SD, working BT (Nook homebrew BT is flaky right now). But I don't have any interest in $700 or $800 gadgets. A tablet is not worth that much to me, period.
 
Radical said:
Can someone explain to me the appeal of a tablet? I really haven't been able to think of a reason for wanting one. I mean I never find myself using a laptop and thinking "Man, I wish this thing were less powerful and didn't have a keyboard."
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They are basically toys for people with disposable income, while they do make some tasks a tad more convenient, like email... and playing simple games, they are way over-priced for what they do, much like every other apple product under the sun. I do have the iPod touch 4 g and I love it but it's a unique product so I shelled out the cash for it, Unlike their computers which are neither unique or special yet are still priced stupidly high because there's a seemingly endless lines of fools waiting to be parted from their money.
 
I have a rooted Nook color and it comes with me, regardless of where I am.

I use it as my secondary browsing machine.

I dont need a laptop anymore. I cant see how I could ever go without it..
 
GreenMonkey said:
I was very happy with my rooted Nook Color, and now I've got CM7 on it, it's more like a real android device.

I use it mainly for web stuff on the go (tethered to Virgin android phone). I hit mainly the NPR news app, play some music on it (bigger = better for playing music at home IMO...much better than my wife's little ipod touch docked). Websurfing, adminstering my DD-WRT router and other network devices, email, etc. Watch youtube videos and gamefaqs when I can't find something in an RPG, for example. Quick and easy.

BUT - it wasn't worth a lot to me. My wife got it for me for christmas because I was excited about it. I don't want to carry around a 10" square hunk of tablet with me. 7" is just right - it's about the same size as a kindle, so I can put it in my coat pocket, cargo pants pocket, glovebox.

I can't see spending $500 or more on a tablet. To me this kind of thing is worth $200-$300. My wife's ipad 1 was $350 as a refurb and she loves it, but I'm just not a fan of the lack of any ports or SD slots, rows of nothing but icons, etc.

I'd love a 7" tablet with hdmi, full usb, SD, working BT (Nook homebrew BT is flaky right now). But I don't have any interest in $700 or $800 gadgets. A tablet is not worth that much to me, period.
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I am unaware of the Nook color having USB ports? Or are you saying you can plug the Nook into a USB port on your machine to easily transfer data?
 
jordan12 said:
I am unaware of the Nook color having USB ports? Or are you saying you can plug the Nook into a USB port on your machine to easily transfer data?
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yeah, the nc has a micro usb port. you can trickle charge from your computer too.
 
JiveMofo said:
thanks for proving my point. you obviously have no clue what high profile hd is.
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High Profile HD is used by Blu-Ray. Why the hell are you going to play Blu-Ray disk on a fucking iPad? You're nitpicking. If you're going to rip Blu-Ray to a video file to play on an iPad, just convert it to main profile MPEG-4.

People will whine about anything these days.
 
Azhar said:
High Profile HD is used by Blu-Ray. Why the hell are you going to play Blu-Ray disk on a fucking iPad? You're nitpicking. If you're going to rip Blu-Ray to a video file to play on an iPad, just convert it to main profile MPEG-4.

People will whine about anything these days.
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High profile isn't exclusive to blue ray... actually, i don't think i've ever come across a baseline video (aside from the ones encoded for the iPad), i have a rather large library of fansubs and most of them are high profiles.

I used to spend every day re-encoding videos just to get them on my iPod. That got old really fast. To the point that i just gave up on it, put in some music videos, and haven't actually uploaded anything on it for months until i got my Archos.

From comments from other iPad/Archos users, they ended up using the Archos a lot more often and for weeks at a time because it was less hassle getting their media on the Archos. The occasional crashes were easy to put up with compared to dealing with itunes and the need to transcode everything. Bottomline was, their android tablets can do everything their iPad can with the added benefit that it also supports everything in their library.

These tablets are marketed as "Media Consumption Devices", it's a given that the manufacturers be able to support as much "Media" as possible.
 
Sly said:
High profile isn't exclusive to blue ray... actually, i don't think i've ever come across a baseline video (aside from the ones encoded for the iPad), i have a rather large library of fansubs and most of them are high profiles.

I used to spend every day re-encoding videos just to get them on my iPod. That got old really fast. To the point that i just gave up on it, put in some music videos, and haven't actually uploaded anything on it for months until i got my Archos.

From comments from other iPad/Archos users, they ended up using the Archos a lot more often and for weeks at a time because it was less hassle getting their media on the Archos. The occasional crashes were easy to put up with compared to dealing with itunes and the need to transcode everything. Bottomline was, their android tablets can do everything their iPad can with the added benefit that it also supports everything in their library.

These tablets are marketed as "Media Consumption Devices", it's a given that the manufacturers be able to support as much "Media" as possible.
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have you tried using this? http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-ios.html
 
Usually I think Huang is an idiot, but he has some very valid points. Mainly that it is a retail problem. Look if you go into an average store in an average town, say a best buy or any other retail shop you are going to see a very limited selection of slates tablets. Of those tablets you will see 2 in almost every place the xoom and ipad, and you will see multiple ipads. Now this is how most people buy who do not know much about technology. And those people are the best and most common customers.

The major problem with the open hardware software model is that there is no unity or vertical integration. Google is the company that needs to step in here. Then need to push retailers to have an area that is dedicated to the devices and stock it with a variety of different price point products. And they really need to focus on features. Like here is a 5, 7, 9, 11 inch tablet. Right now the vast majority of customers are only aware of 2 tablets xoom and ipad and without fixing the retail presense issue you are going to have to rely on winning with more conservative tactics.

There are alot of really really cool tablets out there like the entire acer iconia line including the double screen windows 7 device but you never see this item in stores. Same with the asus transformer and so it is no wonder that most people only know about the ipad and that in turn means more customers which means more development.

Also alot of people argue about the usefulness of tablets. Too people like us they are not but to alot of people who do nothing other than facebook and reading news tablets provide everything they need. And as time goes on you will see that many people will skip a laptop or buy a laptop for the husband and tablet for the wife. After all a tablet is a limited use device sort of like a laptop is limited as compared to a desktop. It does not mean that any one of the device styles will die but just that for lots of people who never had anything but intels crappy integrated graphics in slow laptops anyway a tablet is no worse for what they did.
 
still have yet to get an answer to this, why the hell wouldn't you use a netbook instead of one of these(any brand/type)? I can see if you're an artist but otherwise it doesn't make any sense at all.
 
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