So how many Android tablet flops and disasters will it take?

[SAWYER]

How many flops will it take for them to realize they HAVE to deliver an awesome product at 499 or less(preferably)?

 

[Patranus]

Price is just part of Android's problem.

 

[Pliablemoose]

There are 80 or so tablets promised to be released this year...

I think Android will kick some serious ass in a few months. The XOOM is pretty decent, it's just the price and refinement that's holding it back... The refinement will come, the price will take a while.

 

[zerocool84]

Price is just part of Android's problem.

No, that's pretty much the only problem. Xoom is buggy but that's just one tablet of the many. There will be cheaper tablets coming this year with Honeycomb and we know they'll overtake iPad by next year.

 

[ew915]

No, that's pretty much the only problem. Xoom is buggy but that's just one tablet of the many. There will be cheaper tablets coming this year with Honeycomb and we know they'll overtake iPad by next year.

Are you talking about ipad 1 or 2? The Xoom at its current state is barely an option even for the ipad 1. I do hope the tablets for android picks up, just don't want the carriers to get in the middle as we have seen they have already messed the cellphone side enough with their crapware and lockdowns.

 

[zerocool84]

Are you talking about ipad 1 or 2? The Xoom at its current state is barely an option even for the ipad 1. I do hope the tablets for android picks up, just don't want the carriers to get in the middle as we have seen they have already messed the cellphone side enough with their crapware and lockdowns.

The only reason why the Xoom sucks right now is price and it's buggy. If it was priced right and not buggy it'd be great but of course we didn't get that so it sucks. We've already had announcements of TONS of Honeycomb tablets coming this year so they are coming but not for a while. The reason why Android will eventually surpass iPad is the exact same reason like it did in smartphone land, because they will be cheaper and more options for people. We're going to get flooded with Android tablets by the end of this year and next year.

 

[Phokus]

How many flops will it take for them to realize they HAVE to deliver an awesome product at 499 or less(preferably)?

You serious? They just started shipping. The real question is, how many iterations before Android takes over Apple in the tablet space like they did with smart phones.

 

[Ns1]

trooth

Global Equities analyst Trip Chowdry said Honeycomb is the weakest link, as it is buggy, "extremely complicated and confusing," which means the tablet will be relegated to the geek tech community and not gain mass adoption. Chowdry noted in a March 9 research note:

*

Google Honeycomb is suffering from frequent application freezes and crashes.

*

The battery life is very inconsistent, sometimes lasting for 2 hours and sometimes for 6 hours.

*

The battery standby life is mere a 10 to 12 hours versus 30 days on Apple iPad.

*

Auto-wrap, if text is magnified, is completely missing, which just shows Google is missing attention to simple details.

Moreover, users are frustrated with the Honeycomb UI, as Chowdry quoted many users saying it "just does not come naturally—you really have to work on it" and that "Honeycomb just does not cut it."

wow this guy just rips MOTO

EWeek reports that sales of the Xoom, which launched late last month, have been underwhelming. According to Jefferies and Co. analyst Peter Misek, Motorola may have to reduce production of the device if it hasn't already done so.

"We believe the device has been a bit buggy and did not meet the magic price point of $500," Misek told eWeek. "We believe management knows this and is hurrying development and production of lower cost tablets. Importantly we believe management will likely have to make the painful decision to accept little to no margin initially in order to match iPad 2's wholesale pricing."

The Android 3.0-powered Xoom was well received among reviewers, though many noted its bugginess and high price. But according to Global Equities analyst Trip Chowdry, these downsides, coupled with Honeycomb's overall poor usability and the tablet's inconsistent, poor battery life, are hampering Xoom sales.

Chowdry called Honeycomb, Google's tablet-optimized version of the Android mobile OS, "extremely complicated and confusing," implying that it would struggle to gain mass adoption. Chowdry says that Google's beta strategy worked fine on free products like Gmail and Google Maps, but simply does not cut it on a product that consumers have shelled out $800 for.

"Apple has set the perfection bar too high for Google to achieve and has also raised the expectations from the customers too on what to expect from the software," Chowdry said, adding that Google might have blown its opportunity to make a good impression with tablets.

http://www.dailytech.com/Report+Motorola+Xoom+Sales+Underwhelming/article21132.htm

 

[ew915]

The only reason why the Xoom sucks right now is price and it's buggy. If it was priced right and not buggy it'd be great but of course we didn't get that so it sucks. We've already had announcements of TONS of Honeycomb tablets coming this year so they are coming but not for a while. The reason why Android will eventually surpass iPad is the exact same reason like it did in smartphone land, because they will be cheaper and more options for people. We're going to get flooded with Android tablets by the end of this year and next year.

Yeah the "only" reason why xoom failed is... and you throw a laundry list. I just don't understand how a company has the nerve to sale a tablet for $800 and expect their owners to be beta testers. They just have too much faith in the android fanboys. But they don't realize that it is priced higher than ipad 2.
Even though the market is going to get flooded, the app development is going to take time and yeah the UI in the XOOM isn't fluid enough but oh well people are willing to trade off usability for "openness"

 

[Pliablemoose]

Being a first gen version of an OS, of course it's gonna be buggy, but the guys at Google will eventually iron out those problems.

Honestly, Moto jumped the gun by not working out some of the bugs first. The hardware is pretty good.

The million dollar question is if the iPad will be like the iPod and Apple will continue to dominate the space, or will other devices be able to dethrone it? I suspect as soon as other manufacturers can compete on price, that the iPad will eventually be dethroned. We shall see...

 

[JD50]

If someone marketed the Nook Color with CM7 or Froyo for $299 it would fly off the shelves. I have no idea why no one is doing that.

 

[Patranus]

The reason why Android will eventually surpass iPad is the exact same reason like it did in smartphone land, because they will be cheaper and more options for people. We're going to get flooded with Android tablets by the end of this year and next year.

We will see.

Apparently the CMDA iPhone 4 now represents 12% of the overall install base.
If that is true, that is a hell of a lot of CDMA iPhone 4s sold in the last 2 months.

 

[ponyo]

If someone marketed the Nook Color with CM7 or Froyo for $299 it would fly off the shelves. I have no idea why no one is doing that.

Umm, no. Nerds wouldn't pay extra for something they can do themselves for free. Conversely Joe six-pack isnt going to buy something so confusing to use.

I dont think Nook Color sales are all that hot. Companies dont use Ebay to move product at a discount unless they're sitting on excess inventory.

 

[theeedude]

How many flops will it take for them to realize they HAVE to deliver an awesome product at 499 or less(preferably)?

It only takes one to realize it and start a price war. With many dozens of players in the fray, it's a matter of weeks. The better question is which players are strong and efficient enough to be left standing at the end.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

How many phones will it take before we have a TRUE iPhone killer?

 

[HeXen]

the ipad itself is a very smooth, quick and seamless experience. Sometimes keeping users on a stricter software/hardware requirements has its advantages. Many of Apples ideologies have carried over to 3rd parties in aesthetics and software design. that's a huge advantage over open source.

 

[zerocool84]

How many phones will it take before we have a TRUE iPhone killer?

What do we need an iPhone killer for? They've already been surpassed long ago and the same thing will happen with tablets. Too much cheap competition. Like has already been said, we are barely getting the first competition for tablets so I don't know what people expect. It can't happen over night. Look at how long it took for Apple to not be number #1. The biggest difference this time is that competition is acting much faster than it did in smartphone land.

 

[Patranus]

What do we need an iPhone killer for? They've already been surpassed long ago and the same thing will happen with tablets. Too much cheap competition. Like has already been said, we are barely getting the first competition for tablets so I don't know what people expect. It can't happen over night. Look at how long it took for Apple to not be number #1. The biggest difference this time is that competition is acting much faster than it did in smartphone land.

Which phone has surpassed the iPhone in terms of sales?

 

[zerocool84]

Which phone has surpassed the iPhone in terms of sales?

None and that doesn't matter as that's not their strategy. If that was Google's strategy they would have made their own phones and locked down everything. They decided to go a different route that became larger than Apple's route. Apple had one strategy which they've been successful at and Google had another which they've been successful at.

 

[poofyhairguy]

My biggest complaint is the Honeycomb lockdown. Most of the time when a Google reference product is released within a week the source code for that OS is released. Yet so far there is no Honeycomb source to be found.

If anything it might show how smart Moto is. They knew that by then end of the year their Xoom would be barely worth $500 given the intense competition coming to the Android tablet market. Rather than waiting till it was "done," they released before any other Honeycomb tablet and cut a deal with Google to keep the OS locked down until more true competitors appeared in the market so previous tablets like the Galaxy couldn't be adapted to be low-cost Honeycomb competitors early in the product cycle.

Everyone is saying Xoom released when it did to beat the iPad 2, but I think they did it to have at least a full month of being the only Honeycomb tablet to milk those margins while they still exist. By the time a real Honeycomb competitors come Moto will have worked out the issues, and they can start a price war by riding the initial margins sold before that time.

It seems Moto figured out what companies like Samsung refuse to admit- in the long run there might not BE a high-margin, high-end Android tablet market. In two years they will be commodities and customers won't pay extra for premium brands. So any damage that Moto received to its Xoom brand be releasing a half-hearted tablet will be washed away by the problems of its future barely functional chinese competitors.

I wouldn't be surprised to see market analysis three years from now that shows that Android has more than 50% of the tablet market, but Apple has 99% marketshare in tablets over $600.

 

[JD50]

Umm, no. Nerds wouldn't pay extra for something they can do themselves for free. Conversely Joe six-pack isnt going to buy something so confusing to use.

I dont think Nook Color sales are all that hot. Companies dont use Ebay to move product at a discount unless they're sitting on excess inventory.

How would it be confusing to use a Nook Color with CM7 or Froyo pre-installed?

 

[JD50]

Which phone has surpassed the iPhone in terms of sales?

You guys just don't get it.

 

[JD50]

None and that doesn't matter as that's not their strategy. If that was Google's strategy they would have made their own phones and locked down everything. They decided to go a different route that became larger than Apple's route. Apple had one strategy which they've been successful at and Google had another which they've been successful at.

I've tried so many times, these guys don't understand different business models. If a company doesn't do EXACTLY what Apple does then they're obviously a failure.

 

[Patranus]

I've tried so many times, these guys don't understand different business models. If a company doesn't do EXACTLY what Apple does then they're obviously a failure.

I fully understand Google's business model regarding Android but it certainly isn't beating Apple in any conceivable way.

http://www.buzzingup.com/2011/02/monthly-value-of-android-user-vs-apples-ios-user/

 

[JD50]

I fully understand Google's business model regarding Android but it certainly isn't beating Apple in any conceivable way.

http://www.buzzingup.com/2011/02/monthly-value-of-android-user-vs-apples-ios-user/

If you understood Google's business model and the differences between an iPhone and the Android operating system then you wouldn't say things like

Which phone has surpassed the iPhone in terms of sales?