I agree entirely with shurcool - and the Samsung slates do look cool, all they need is a touch-improved Windows which comes with Windows 8.
My only gripe is that although the slates function as desktops and tablets, they don't look like they'd sit on a lap very well
I do find it odd that despite the prevalance of touch in phones (even low end) and desktops now, touchscreens on netbooks and laptops are still rare - maybe this will come with Windows 8?
(for a user like me; grandmas and non-tech ppl would still benefit with choosing iPad).
Even non-geeks aren't completely stupid. I mean yes, maybe your Grandma has never used a computer, but many non-geeks are still used to things like Windows. They like the familiarity of desktop browsers (which could be Firefox, doesn't have to be IE), and I've heard people say they dislike using a phone browser like Android's on a tablet, where they expect better. They may have needs for software that's more than simply f*rt apps - e.g., software for work, or being creative. Also as Alpha_ProgDes says, Windows 8 presumably is making touch-oriented improvements rather than just being Windows 7 on a tablet.
The iPad offers no pressure sensitivity, the input isn't accurate, and the applications are generally subpar to make up for hardware limitations. If you look at some other tablets available with Wacom digitizers, they will outclass the iPad by leaps and bounds. Honestly, I would really consider waiting for windows 8 updates to existing hardware, because you'll be able to get the benefits of a tablet with the power of a desktop replacement laptop and far more useful wacom/ntrig enabled screen.
I agree. I do find it amusing that for years, Apple users said they couldn't use Linux and Gimp instead of Macs, because Photoshop was so important. Yet now they pretend the IPAD is great for artists, because you can do a fingerpainting app...
Also depressing that some Windows Slate reviews I've seen mock them for working with a stylus - they're branded as "old fashioned", yet the reality is that styluses are only optional. Touchscreens that work with styluses work fine with touch - the problem is that devices like IPADs can't work with styluses, even when you want that.
I do try some Windows 7 tablet + laptop (Toshiba) and I just don't like it. It felt like half assed GUI slapped on top of Win7. There is a reason why tablet PC never come off until Apple released iPad - the user experience is very important.
Tablets have been around and mainstream for the last 10 years - in the sense of mobile computing - we just didn't call them "tablets". We call them smartphones, media players, PDAs etc. If you mean specifically a tablet _PC_, as in just like a desktop platform, an IPAD doesn't qualify there either.
I'm not sure even the IPad would be called a "tablet" if it was the only device released - the term really appeared because of the multitude of Android devices (which started appearing shortly before the IPAD, actually, so even if we just look at today's tablets, it's not true that Apple were first), as then we needed a generic term. Without Android, people would just say "IPad", like before it was "IPod Touch". How is an IPod Touch not a tablet, aside from marketing? Even now, I commonly see "IPad and Tablets" in shops.
As for Windows 7, it was never designed for touchscreens. Of course it won't be great. No, MS have yet to get a desktop OS onto touchscreens - but neither have Apple (does OS X run on it?)
I hear that Android sales are high, but I'm not entirely sure who they're selling to. I've been in multiple meetings lately where every single person has an iPhone, or an iPad, or both.
But should we trust individual anecdotes over actual market data? Don't get me wrong, it's easy to feel there's a discrepency - the stats show us that Symbian, not Apple, was number one until 2011, and now it's Android, not Apple, who are number one, but why is it that everyone seems to be waving an IPhone around? But, I think we should still trust the evidence, not the anecdotes, and think of the reasons for the discrepency.
Remember that IPhones are more easily noticeable - the obvious Apple logo they all have, and the way they mostly look the same. If you notice that and think Apple are therefore number one, you've been tricked by the marketing trick intended to do that. Not to mention in my experience, IPhone users seem far more likely to walk around with their phones in front of them all the time, or tell you they've got an IPhone for some reason. Similarly online, how everything done on an Apple phone is "posted from my IPhone".
Also remember it's a worldwide market; and don't confuse sales with installed userbase. In the US, where smartphones lagged behind other countries; where Nokia had little presence; and where RIM was perhaps more for business use, the IPhones gained a head start. But even in the US, Android has long since become number one. You may well be seeing higher numbers also partly due to installed userbase which will lag behind actual sales, but with the rate Android is going, IPhone will head towards a niche platform like OS X on desktop (albeit, a niche still probably given far more hype by the media).
Android is kind of a rough OS, kind of inefficient and slow, and the Market is not a very smooth experience.[/quote]Well now we're talking personal opinion Some people love Linux or OS X over Windows. Personally I think IOS is a rough OS; a platform that for years couldn't do copy/paste, multitasking etc simply isn't up to scratch for me. The first version couldn't even run apps, or support 3G.
I don't know that it's exactly valid to compare to Windows' dominance of PC, but I do want to make one prediction: iOS is going to shatter the Windows dam and you're going to see big Mac inroads over the coming years.[/quote]Smartphones have long shattered the Windows dam. Are people going to switch to using IOS devices instead of Windows devices? Maybe some will. I hope they don't shatter it - the sad thing is, a Windows monopoly is far preferable to one dominated by Apple's locked down platform.
Unfortunately Apple have a huge unfair advantage in all the media hype they get, and software support, despite being smaller than other platforms. I do worry that in 10 years' time, the only "computer" is a locked down Apple IPAD, and people can only publish software through them...
but in tablet space, the update and fragmentation is the worst offender - just look at samsung and their hardware screen size - 7,7.7, 8.x,10.1, and now 5.3(?). while in ios space, apple still release updates for ios 5 running on iphone 3gs released, like, 3 years before? I don't think there will be bug fixes updated for android 2.1 or 2.2. (this is one of the issue i have with my android phone - leading me to decided to buy ipad 3 instead).
Are we talking OS upgrades, or screen sizes (or both)? I don't think having choice of screen sizes is bad, on the contrary, choice is good. And there are several different kinds of IOS devices too.
Do most people care about upgrading an OS to a years old phone? Also, I think this is probably more an issue for Apple because a lot of their sales now are actually older IPhones selling more cheaply, but with the latest OS. With other platforms like Nokia and Android, this isn't an issue, because the companies produce low to mid range modern phones running the latest OS anyway.
It's too expensive for world-wide consumer market. And dropping the price would hurt the brand. Long term, iOS is Sony. Once a symbol of technical superiority, but mostly a pale shadow of itself. Still technologically superior in a few parts, but no longer premier choice of mainstream consumer.
Interesting point. History has shown us that people prefer lower cost solutions, and the higher end will never be the largest part of the market. Platforms that offer more choice, and run on the low end to the high end will, I hope, do better. (Also consider that there are already tablets - usually marketed as slates - that beat the IPAD hands down in specs, but at £1000 or more, far fewer people are interested.) At £500, a tablet competes with more powerful laptops and netbooks. At £100 or so, I might decide to have a tablet or two lying around just as an addition to my household.
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(Purely anecdotal of course, but I can't help noticing that most of the people arguing here for something other than IPADs are talking about Windows 8, not Android. I'd fall into the same category myself - whilst I'd prefer Android over IOS, I'm not terribly enthusiastic about Android either, and would be more interested in what Windows 8 will bring. Will Windows 8 replace Android has being the generic OS choice to put on tablets, or will we perhaps see a mix - maybe Android still only smaller tablets, Windows on larger ones?)
