With the year of the Android tablet firmly planted on terra firma I hoped that companies such as Google who have been trying to gain some sneeze of a mention that they might be set to complete against the iPad would be ahead of the game.
My assessment is they have fallen short and their ability to be agile and react to market conditions has been surronded with the chains of corporate marketing allicances and relationships that fall to earth with a dual thud.
Case in point, the Xooom by Motorola was supposed to be the iPad competitor but its pricey entry point and ties to a single wireless company has limited the available pool of people with the case to make the plunge.
I for one purchased a Viewsonic gTablet. I did it because after extensive research it was winner of the good piece of hardware, flexible position towards software mods and a great price point for the average consumer who's still uncertain whether Google has the smart's to overcome Apple's marketing machine.
I've been quite satisfied with it with the exception of the lack of the Google market place and the general acceptance by Google that the tablet is worth pusing ahead at full light speed to make sure the market is available to them.
If Google and other players want to dent the onslaught of Apple iPads they will have to understand what agile means and answer the market with more flexibility and speed and adust in motion rather than slugging along with the assumption that everyone will come and drink from their water hole once released because they position themselves as having the best testing water.
When people are thirsty, what the water taste likes has little to do with the name of the water or how good someone says it is, they simple run to to the water that is readily available and keep on drinking.
Reply 1 : Tablets - Missed Opportunity for Google
The droid pads are not really out yet. It's like seeing the first model and then basing all you know on that model.
Even the Viewsonic isn't the real droid pad.
Point? Comment? The real droid pads are not here yet.
Bob
Reply 2 : Tablets - Missed Opportunity for Google
I agree 100% with Bob.
To expand a little more (you pay for what you get) The Xoom is simply a better tablet then the Ipad or Ipad2 in so many ways.
- Honeycomb (Android 3.0) is just better then the tweaked iSO 4.3. Honeycomb handles notifications, multi-tasking and app switching better. The widgets still out pace anything on iOS. And Honeycomb has more features and is far more customizable.
- Xoom's browser (with its tabs, multi-system sync ability ect.) makes (Apples) Safari look like an old man.
- Xoom (and other coming android tablets) will be able to run Flash, iSO (or the Ipad 2) will never have that option.
- Apple bans plenty of apps, Android does not Xoom +1 again
- Xoom with its Tegra 2 chip has 3D rendering in Google Maps, and vector graphics. Ipad 2 nope.
I'm not sure where you get that the Xoom is limited by being tied to one wireless company, at lest its not AT&T
So Motorolas Xoom, is simply far better then anything apple has on the market, and it a first release.
You said;
"If Google and other players want to dent the onslaught of Apple iPads they will have to understand what agile means and answer the market with more flexibility and speed"
Android has already put a rather large dent in Apple in general, I have no doubt (as it is already being seen) that android based tablets will quickly start to worsen that dent.
As for agility and flexibility (Android = open source, iSO = not)
Reply 3 : Tablets - Missed Opportunity for Google
As an owner of the Motorola Droid X and the new Xoom tablet, I'm sorry to say that what will probably ultimately kill android in the enterprise, is their lack of response to the issue of network proxy's. They seem far more interested in rolling out Flash 10, which is something the enterprise user doesn't really require. They are going after the average consumer, but pricing their units for the enterprise.
Fortunately, I've been able to hack my way around these shortfalls on Motorola android devices... shouldn't have to for enterprise accessibility on an $800 unit.
Reply 4 : Tablets - Missed Opportunity for Google
Let's see their tablet sales figures.
Bob
