Non-iPad tablet makers expected to slash prices to move inventory overstock - Page 2

Actually the early Android phones weren't bad and a damn sight better than most feature phones. The primary problem is not with Android as with the retail model. Android phones were fed primarily and marketed by the cell carriers - a logical and proven choice. Those same carriers are not stepping up to deploy tablet devices as willingly because they don't get as much return from them vis a vis data plans and certainly not voice plans.

So that leaves the big box and business retailers. At this point you now have the Android tabbies all sitting side by side competing with each other, and the Apple iPad off on its own in its own display (depending on the retailer of course). But Apple has a dedicated retail stream of its own devising, globally. So you don't have anywhere near the leverage to sell thru that you had with the Android phones. People don't view tabbies in the same light as smartphones - so to expect that the same process that advanced the Android smartphone unit share to dominance is not the same process that drives the tabbies.

The rest of the problem is that "Android" is not marketed to the masses. "Android" is not a consumer-friendly moniker and if you ask the average consumer what Android is, the best you can expect outside of our little coterie here of tech geeks, is "it's an operating system for phones isn't it?"

The average consumer doesn't immediately associate Android with ease of use - they think of the goofy robotic commercials targeted for that small subset of tech geeks who love turning into a robot. Or they associate it with a funny looking trash-can zippy cartoon of a robot. Google and the hardware companies have been hugely challenged in marketing the Android tablet and they simply don't have the same level of perceived value with the average consumer as the iPad does. Unless they redress their marketing issues with the tablets they are not going to be able to catch-up and the individual platforms will be shipping in the hundreds of thousands, with perhaps millions being sold eventually. Contrasted to the tens of millions of iPads being sold by Apple to the majority of consumers. The only limit or challenge Apple has right now with the iPad is simply making enough.

Now this is not to say that the Android tabbies suck - they don't. I've played with several and they are nice, if just a tad glitchy. But as you say *eventually* Android will clean-up and look and perform nicely and consistently on all hardware. The key here is to get Google and the hardware guys to stop focussing on features and start focussing on ease of use and the consumer experience - beyond saying it's just like an iPad.

first, i want to give props to Digi Times for making a definite short term prediction - that we will see sharp price cuts in the current generation of Honeycomb Android tablets by the end of the year as the OEM's and retailers dump unsold inventory. we'll be able to see very soon if Digi Times got this right or not. i think they do.

but will the upcoming third generation of Ice Cream Sandwich (horrible name) Android tablets do much better next year?

one reason they might is that developers could finally start writing more apps for them. one reason developers are holding back now on Honeycomb tablet apps is that ICS may change the UI/OS so much that current apps will need major reworking.

another reason is that ICS might be a notable improvement in the UI, filling in the missing pieces and fixing most of the issues (like iOS 5 will do for the iPad next month).

but a reason they might not is that the ICS UI may be too phone-like and just not feel right on a tablet.

and that some big issues, like battery life, just can't ever be fixed for Android at all.

or that Android's less versatile widescreen aspect was a fundamental mistake that consumers are rejecting outright.

and once prices are chopped significantly in the next few months to dump old stuff, they can never go all the way back up for future models to the point of profitability, pushing some OEM's out of the market.

while all the others, except Motorola of course, also begin to back away from Android and start to look seriously for other OS options, rather than depend totally on Google anymore.

especially after inevitable lawsuit settlements force them to start paying real license fees for using Android too.

not to mention that they will be up against iPad 3 then with, probably, a hi-res screen and, possibly, a much lighter weight carbon fiber shell, along with fully implemented iCloud and MobileMe services that Google hasn't totally copied yet.

so no, i don't expect a big Android tablet surge next year like happened with smartphones last year.

I think the developer thing is key. Even if price cuts move some Android hardware this fall, buyers are going to quickly discover that they actually don't do a lot, once you get past the "fun" home screen and lock screen animations. And it's not like there aren't plenty of iPads around so that anyone can get an idea of what they're missing.

As has been pointed out several times, tablets aren't phones. Nobody wants a "feature tablet", which is what I suspect a great many Android phones are being used as. If you just need email, browser, social networking and texting on the go, you already have a phone. A tablet needs to be able to take you past that towards a full computing experience.

Anything like Garageband or Pages or Omingraffle or iMovie on Android tablets? Any expectation that there ever will be? Tablets are where the sort of ragamuffin Android app situation becomes an actual problem. Twitter clients aren't going to cut it. Which of the Android app developers has the deep pockets and focus to provide Apple or Apple centric developer level apps? Google will make hooks to their adware online services, period. They have no reason or interest in making sophisticated video editing or technical drawing or sound manipulation apps, and the economics aren't there for any of their developers to do anything more than down and dirty quickies.

Ironic, in that the early dig on the iPad was that it was "just a big iPod touch" that couldn't ever be a "real computer", and here we have Android tablets appearing to settle for the idea that tablets really can't be computers and are only good for games and ever proliferating online social stuff. Meanwhile, Apple is going to keep working to make the iPad a complete personal computer replacement, migrating their desktop apps and driving seamless integration between Macs and their mobile offerings.

I like this sentence because it applies to me too. They are not worth even $25 to me.

Right on

And in usefulness. And still apple is much better with their IOS devices. Then any Android device.

Well, that didn't take long....

BestBuy giving away Galaxy Tabs with Samsung big screen TVs.

And I thought the Galaxy Tab was supposed to be the best of the competition? PlayBook all but dead, TouchPad actually dead, Xooms a forgotten footnote, Tabs being given away just to clear inventory.... it's a blood bath.