Saturday 22 June 2013

THE STATE OF THE ANDROID SLATE





SYNAPSE CIRCUIT: 
THE STATE OF THE ANDROID SLATE...

Good evening, Synapse Circuit Readers! Are you an Android fan? I am! Even though I have a total of a record 10 Android handsets (it reads as nuts, but I just don’t trade my handsets in when the contract has expired) but yet to own a single slate (tablet). How many of you have an Android tablet? I don’t know about you but I am left wondering...

...WHY CAN’T US ANDROID FANS HAVE A DECENT ALL ROUND TABLET?
No, not the shape – although I have understood that the next Nexus 7 will have a more rounded edge – I am wondering why we can’t have the tablet that we want:

A high quality HD 7”, 8”, 10” and 13” screen
Quad core, 1.6 GHz
At least a 5MP main camera
2MP front-facing camera
2GB RAM
32GB storage
Expandable external storage
3G / 4G / Wi-Fi / Bluetooth (in one device)

I can’t help but feel that Android (and iOS iPad users) folk are being... ...hmmm... ...ripped off! Yes, I feel that strongly about it. It really bugs me that Google CEO Larry Page can give a speech that snorts at the technology industry being money oriented instead of taking technology forward only to have a Wi-Fi and 3G tablet in their respective devices. I think that is crap = conniving, redundant, aggravating and pointless! These slates are just destined for the computer exchange shops, etc. How is this good for the environment when these tablets are discarded as soon as they are bought? I laugh when I see iPad’s 1, 2, 3 and 4 in such places... I have been tempted to buy a second hand tablet but I can’t bring myself to: if other people don’t want them then why should I? It’s different for phones because a lot of people don’t need many handsets. If I didn’t have many other interests I would only have one or two handsets. Anyhoo, one can easily purchase a pretty decent second hand phone at a reasonable price. Whereas with the tablet it is already DOA! Lol!

Oh, one thing that I forgot to mention in my list above is a decent price! What, no more than £190 for a 7” screen!

GOOGLE MOTOROLA CHICKEN?
Motorola’s Dennis Woodside has been reported to have said that they are practically abandoning tablets. I guess Motorola got burned with the Xoom range of tablets and since then it has been... ...wait for it... Xoom and gloom! Lol! But that’s no reason to chicken out on the demands for a decent Android tablet! Ok, it’s one thing to shelve crap products before they are launched into a nonexistent marketplace but it is another thing entirely to give us what we want! I am sure Google can afford to pump a few billion in a Nexus Xoom, right?

I just do not get why a company like Motorola can be so bloody useless in producing a great tablet. If Apple can do it then why not any other manufacturer? Ok, Apple did piss people off with the Thunderbolt connector but even I could see that as a minor hiccup in the bigger picture. The only thing with Apple is that the price of the iPads is way over the top to be upgrading each time one comes out... What? Twice a year? Who knows?

I don’t think an Android tablet would need upgrading each year if it is built right! The Galaxy S2 handset was built perfectly and I am still using it today! I reckon it is possible to build an Android tablet that will have a bit of longevity in it.

ASUS, SAMSUNG & SONY
I could have mentioned other manufacturers but these are the main players that are making a dent on the Android tablet market. Again, the prices are a tad high! Who wants to pay over £350 for a 10” tablet just for a few games and the Internet? NOT ME!!!! The only way I would pay £350-odd for a tablet is to replace an IBM compatible PC. And, no, I don’t Windows 8 anywhere near it! No way! Right not we can access apps that can take the place of Microsoft Office on the Android market; goodbye Microsoft.

I wonder if Google is able to create a major tablet manufacturer company out of their considerable consortium of manufacturers:

LG could deliver the screen, for example.
HTC could do the design.
Samsung could deliver on the CPU.

You get the picture! Perhaps I am very naive but I don’t see why this idea can’t happen because these companies individually can’t seem to make a huge dent on the market. Now that’s what I call fragmentation!

So, as a result we get these 7” compromises with varying levels of quality!

Google is going to have to do something to elevate the sales and usage of Android tablets to the level of the iPad.

The situation is really nuts because Samsung and Asus have especially proved that they can make a great tablet! Look at the ATIV Q! Look at the Asus Transformer range! It can be done! And how can I forget what Tronity is doing with their Root 101 tablet? I hope Tronity is able to get the funding that they need so very much.

LET ME ASK ONE MORE QUESTION: IS THE 7” TABLET JUST A BIG PHONE?

What do most people do with these 7” Android slates? Gauging from my many friends on Facebook, many adults buy these 7” Android tablets to:

a) Entertain their children; it’s a good option for games, Internet and media.
b) Alleviate paying such a huge amount for the iPad.

Wouldn’t you be better off in taking out a contract on a phablet like the Galaxy Note 2?

What do you reckon?

Thank you for reading!

Take good care!


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