Interesting Article: "Why Android Tablet Apps Suck and the iPad Wins"

[Topweasel]

All I can say to Google is "good luck". They're heading for a race to the bottom against Kindle and Nook. I honestly don't see how Google can compete on price vs. B&N and Amazon. Those two can both likely subsidize their hardware far more than Google can.

You do understand that B&N and Amazon, are Google's race to the bottom? Both are Android tablets.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

If the fact that 3rd party developers are lazy means Android sucks, then we can assume that OSX sucks as well? Because there are about about a million more Windows programs than OSX programs...

To expand on this point OS X must also suck because none of the major game developers support it and it never gets AAA releases at all.

 

[theeedude]

I am reading all your posts that are essentially saying that apps are nothing but website replacements and hence have very little to offer. And thereby concluding that despite the lack of good apps, an Android tablet can perform at the same level as an iPad.

I am sitting here scratching my head trying to figure out the 'experience' gap.

For starters ... I am a very utilitarian (geek? nerd?) kind of guy. I try to use reason (ROI?) for most things I do (and my wife hates me for that). I bought an iPad2 about a year ago and now migrated to the iPad3. I use this thing about 5 hours a day. And during that time I probably use the browser no more than 10% of the time. I use the tablet mainly as a productivity tool and occasionally a recreational tool.

To make the case for the existence of a 'tablet' ... I offer you the following APPS. You explain to me why my experience would be equally good on a browser.

1. Goodreader - I use this 'must-have' swiss-army knife to work with documents. Using my capacitive pen (or finger) I can easily scribble and put comments on PDF documents and send it off for review. I sometimes use this to sign on documents too. This app makes reading a graphical PDF so much easier ... you can pinch and zoom into charts and figures so much faster. It can log into Dropbox / BoxNet / iCloud / Skydrive etc. etc. and upload and download your documents. It can host a web server to allow you to wirelessly send even more documents to the tablet. It can do things that will make you want to jump up and scream with joy.

2. Educreations - I use it to record instructional videos. As you talk .. you scribble onto a multiple-page notebook and it records your voice and your scribbles onto a video which you can upload and share with anyone in the world. Once you find out how versatile this app is ... you try to find even more ways to use it. FREE.

3. Network World / Computer World App. Each cost about $3 for a lifetime subscription to this technical magazine. And I do mean 'magazine' ... its the exact replica digital copy of the paper publication. It stores the entire magazine locally. No more surveys to fill.

4. Note Taker HD - Exceptional program to take notes. Its very quick and very versatile. Once you get used to it ... you will never want to use a paper notepad.

5. The new Khan Academy - Unlike the youtube video site ... this app does SO MUCH MORE. Check it out ! FREE.

6. Google Earth - An APP that was meant for pinch and zoom. You will never use Google Earth on a PC once you see it on a Retina iPad. FREE.

7. AutoCAD WS - Wow Wow Wow ... if you work with AutoCAD files ... this is a must-have. Again, pinch and zoom ... nuff said. FREE.

8. Free digital magazines !! Very often I jump on deals on regular paper magazine subscriptions. For instance, I subscribed to Time Magazine for $2 (52 issues). Tanga.com often has magazine deals. The best part is that a number of these magazine publishers offer FREE! digital subscriptions on the iPad !! I have "Atlantic" and "Bloomberg Businessweek".

9. TalkaTone - Free use of the wifi-only iPad as a phone (via Google Voice) ! The iPad does astonishingly well as a speakerphone. FREE.

10. Discover Movies - Absolutely incredible app for movie lovers. You put in "Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels" ... and see what it suggests. You will be surprised. On top of that each movie has RottenTomatoes ratings. This touch-heavy app cannot be replaced by a PC app .. or a website. See it to believe it. Best of all its FREE !!!

11. Garageband - no comment

So ... you tell me which of these APPS can be replaced by a website?

If you added touch extensions to HTML, you could make most of these apps on a website. WebOS apps used touch screen API extended HTML and Javascript for their apps. HTML group should adopt that model for mobile websites. You will still have some native apps like games and stuff that need low level hardware access. But not for most things.

 

[Ns1]

To expand on this point OS X must also suck because none of the major game developers support it and it never gets AAA releases at all.

OSX sucks for gaming, everybody knows this and nobody trues to refute it.

But I still love my iMac because I can be in OSX to do 95% of the time and bootcamp into Windows to do the other 5% of the shit I need to do (like play world of tanks)

 

[Mopetar]

If you added touch extensions to HTML, you could make most of these apps on a website. WebOS apps used touch screen API extended HTML and Javascript for their apps. HTML group should adopt that model for mobile websites. You will still have some native apps like games and stuff that need low level hardware access. But not for most things.

Even if those options existed, for anything sufficiently heavy the performance would be poor. It's now possible to run a game like Quake in a web browser, but you certainly wouldn't be able to do so on the kind of hardware that the game originally ran on natively.

Really though, I don't think that HTML needs touch extensions. How many applications need anything beyond swipe to scroll, tap to select, and pinch to zoom which are baked in the browser already. Things like twitter and facebook don't and those are among the most popular apps on any platform. It's really just a matter of giving web apps a better layout, especially if it's a tablet.

 

[MrX8503]

To expand on this point OS X must also suck because none of the major game developers support it and it never gets AAA releases at all.

...but..OSX does suck for gaming...

 

[vulcanman]

If you added touch extensions to HTML, you could make most of these apps on a website. WebOS apps used touch screen API extended HTML and Javascript for their apps. HTML group should adopt that model for mobile websites. You will still have some native apps like games and stuff that need low level hardware access. But not for most things.

Seems like people are missing the point here. I showed you a list of apps that make the iPad an essential everyday gadget. You cannot discount that by saying that Android does not need those silly apps because you can do all that from a browser !

Huh? Most of the apps I listed are not web apps. Garageband via 'web touch extensions'? AutoCad via 'web touch extensions'?

And I forgot to mention one thing. Before I upgraded to the iPad3 ... I had the iPad2 for about a year. I used that thing every single day since day one ... and you know what ... I NEVER EVER had to reboot it (not counting IOS updates that automatically reboot the device). So much so that when I decided to put it up for sale ... I had to google for instructions on how to turn off the device. And while I had the iPad for those many months ... the touch response was instantaneous every single time!

As for gaming ... my teenage son use an overclocked i7 920 loaded PC to play Skyrim at full resolution on a large HDTV. He would laugh me out if I suggested using a tablet for a gaming console.

 

[vulcanman]

I know you were intending this list vs websites but I thought it was worth pointing out #1 would be substantially better on one of the several Android tablets with a active digitizer for pen input. Not only would you have a vastly more precise tool for writing but you also wouldn't have to work around iOS' limitation just to transfer files to the device.

I don't understand why the experience would be any better than what it is by using an active digitizer. Its very precise as it is.

And IOS limitation is a good thing it keeps the apps compartmentalized .. which is why my iPad2 ran for 12 months (before I sold it) ... without a single reboot and without any lag. For that kind of solid secure performance, I am willing to put up with a few obstacles.

BTW, I would never jailbreak the iPad ... I have too many important information in there. In fact, Google also put out a bulletin urging Google Wallet users to not use a rooted device. Makes a lot of sense.

 

[A5]

...but..OSX does suck for gaming...

Eh. It is way better than it used to be. I think the Steam games that are on both usually show slightly lower performance, but at least you can actually make the comparison now. 5 years ago, you couldn't even say that much.

 

[TheStu]

...but..OSX does suck for gaming...

His point was that OS X as a whole must suck solely because there are no AAA titles that get release on it (some get a simul-release, but no one does a Mac exclusive, certainly nothing AAA). Your point is that OS X suck for gaming. Which it does, the miles that it has come in the past few years notwithstanding.

 

[CVSiN]

You know the reason that Apple needs those apps and the Android doesnt? FLASH BROWSER SUPPORT..

On the 10.1 there is no reason at all to use an App for any of the sites listed.

as the full blown web page works flawlessly..

so therefore the entire article is flawed.
Apple needs those crappy apps to cover up a shortcoming..

Android doesnt..

 

[theeedude]

Seems like people are missing the point here. I showed you a list of apps that make the iPad an essential everyday gadget. You cannot discount that by saying that Android does not need those silly apps because you can do all that from a browser !

Huh? Most of the apps I listed are not web apps. Garageband via 'web touch extensions'? AutoCad via 'web touch extensions'?

And I forgot to mention one thing. Before I upgraded to the iPad3 ... I had the iPad2 for about a year. I used that thing every single day since day one ... and you know what ... I NEVER EVER had to reboot it (not counting IOS updates that automatically reboot the device). So much so that when I decided to put it up for sale ... I had to google for instructions on how to turn off the device. And while I had the iPad for those many months ... the touch response was instantaneous every single time!

As for gaming ... my teenage son use an overclocked i7 920 loaded PC to play Skyrim at full resolution on a large HDTV. He would laugh me out if I suggested using a tablet for a gaming console.

I am talking about sites like CNN, Twitter, NYT, Etc. They don't make a PC app, because they can deliver content in the browser just fine. That should be the case for tablets too. I frankly don't want to download an app for every site I go to. I don't trust them with my privacy (facebook app goes and uploads all the your contacts to the mother ship), nor do I want to keep all these apps around. I expect to have the in browser version to have a good experience.

 

[vulcanman]

You know the reason that Apple needs those apps and the Android doesnt? FLASH BROWSER SUPPORT..

On the 10.1 there is no reason at all to use an App for any of the sites listed.

as the full blown web page works flawlessly..

so therefore the entire article is flawed.
Apple needs those crappy apps to cover up a shortcoming..

Android doesnt..

Since you used the word 'blown' ... something came to mind. Look here ... "Death Of Flash"

Gotta go ... my PC screen has a flashing icon warning about yet another security update from Adobe!

 

[TheStu]

You know the reason that Apple needs those apps and the Android doesnt? FLASH BROWSER SUPPORT..

On the 10.1 there is no reason at all to use an App for any of the sites listed.

as the full blown web page works flawlessly..

so therefore the entire article is flawed.
Apple needs those crappy apps to cover up a shortcoming..

Android doesnt..

Except that mobile Flash has been EoLed and even the most recent version (IIRC) didn't include touch support.

Besides, if you are on a tablet that doesn't support flash, you instead get HTML5 video pushed to the device. Biggest advantage (to me, personally) that tablets with Flash have is that you guys get to watch The Daily Show. I can't, and it saddens me.

 

[BoberFett]

I had to google for instructions on how to turn off the device.

So much for the whole ease of use argument... :sneaky:

 

[vulcanman]

I am talking about sites like CNN, Twitter, NYT, Etc. They don't make a PC app, because they can deliver content in the browser just fine. That should be the case for tablets too. I frankly don't want to download an app for every site I go to. I don't trust them with my privacy (facebook app goes and uploads all the your contacts to the mother ship), nor do I want to keep all these apps around. I expect to have the in browser version to have a good experience.

You are still missing the point ... there are several iPad users like me who use their tablets mostly for tasks (as my app list indicates) that cannot be performed via a browser. Which Garageband-like app do you have on your Android tablet?

 

[BoberFett]

His point was that OS X as a whole must suck solely because there are no AAA titles that get release on it (some get a simul-release, but no one does a Mac exclusive, certainly nothing AAA). Your point is that OS X suck for gaming. Which it does, the miles that it has come in the past few years notwithstanding.

Then the argument should be "Android sucks for Garageband" not "Android sucks".

A huge portion of the "Android doesn't have apps!" argument centers around Garageband, which I'm sure all those millions of iPad owners use on a daily basis...

 

[Ns1]

nm worthless.

 

[CVSiN]

Apple and the web have been touting the "death of flash" since the Ipad 1..

and yet still hardly ANY sites are migrating..

still 90% of the web is flash..

and thats where the strength of the Andriod is.

I had a BRAND new Ipad 2 16 given to me by my company for xmas..
I took it home and my GF had gotten a brand new 10.1 sammy..

the sammy overwhlemled the family being it could go to any site and looked better doing it..

the Ipad 2 couldnt even go to half the sites the family put into it..because of lack of flash.. including the REAL full blown Youtube which the Android can..
I even tried downloading expensive so called "flash" browsers from the market..

no go.. they worked but looked and performed horrible..


Apples Youtube gets about 1/3 of the results that a real browser does.

long story short.. Ipad 2 went up on Craiglist the very next day..
got the 10.1 Galaxy and am 500% happier then I ever was with the Ipad 2..

 

[Ns1]

Apple and the web have been touting the "death of flash" since the Ipad 1..

and yet still hardly ANY sites are migrating..

still 90% of the web is flash..

Yeah, Apple users are met with a 90% failure rate when browsing the internet

I can seriously count on one hand how many times I've missed flash, across ALL my iOS devices.

 

[vulcanman]

still 90% of the web is flash..

Why did you not use 99% to make your point? the 99:1 would have sounded very credible.

 

[TheStu]

Then the argument should be "Android sucks for Garageband" not "Android sucks".

A huge portion of the "Android doesn't have apps!" argument centers around Garageband, which I'm sure all those millions of iPad owners use on a daily basis...

No, I am not arguing either point. I was simply pointing out what Puddle Jumper's point was, which was that saying Android tablets suck just because of lack of apps is like saying that OS X sucks just because of lack of games. Grading the entire thing just from one facet is unfair.

I would argue that apps (both quantity and quality) on a smart device are more important to the overall experience than whether or not a desktop OS gets AAA titles. But that the point remains that just because Android may not have as many quality apps as iOS does not, in and of itself, make it deficient.

I have very little experience with Android tablets and have only had an iPad for a month, so I am also not saying that either one is deficient.

 

[cheezy321]

Apple and the web have been touting the "death of flash" since the Ipad 1..

and yet still hardly ANY sites are migrating..

still 90% of the web is flash..

and thats where the strength of the Andriod is.

I had a BRAND new Ipad 2 16 given to me by my company for xmas..
I took it home and my GF had gotten a brand new 10.1 sammy..

the sammy overwhlemled the family being it could go to any site and looked better doing it..

the Ipad 2 couldnt even go to half the sites the family put into it..because of lack of flash.. including the REAL full blown Youtube which the Android can..
I even tried downloading expensive so called "flash" browsers from the market..

no go.. they worked but looked and performed horrible..


Apples Youtube gets about 1/3 of the results that a real browser does.

long story short.. Ipad 2 went up on Craiglist the very next day..
got the 10.1 Galaxy and am 500% happier then I ever was with the Ipad 2..

 

[CVSiN]

very serious...
try going to SWTOR.com for an example..
or half the sites they listed there in this very ariticle..

Mobile sites dont count either as they are universally terrible..
the full site is what you want on a tablet.

most movies wont play and applets dont work..

sure is great to browse text sites and the very few HTML5 sites that are out there..

Apple flat sucks period..

 

[Ns1]

very serious...
try going to SWTOR.com for an example..
or half the sites they listed there in this very ariticle..

Mobile sites dont count either as they are universally terrible..
the full site is what you want on a tablet.

most movies wont play and applets dont work..

sure is great to browse text sites and the very few HTML5 sites that are out there..

Apple flat sucks period..

You keep saying shit like this while millions of iPad users browse the web everyday just fine.

This thread has reached the tipping point; ggpo thread.