I'm sad to hear that the hardware is so lacking. HP has exactly one chance to get this launched, and going in with problems like this seems like death.
Which is too bad, because from the little I used it, webOS is a much better OS than iOS. And I say that as someone with an all-Mac house.
The "cards" idea is simply brilliant, and I found it way easier to move around the system than on the iPhone or iPad. And the federated address book is precisely what I've been trying to get my iPhone to do since day one.
I agree webOS is a lot more functional and beautiful in ways than iOS. I especially like their tablet interpretation. The iPad needs some of those functions IMHO, but I guess it doesn't matter if consumers are still buying iPads in droves and shunning competitors like HP/Palm/webOS
I agree webOS is a lot more functional and beautiful in ways than iOS. I especially like their tablet interpretation. The iPad needs some of those functions IMHO, but I guess it doesn't matter if consumers are still buying iPads in droves and shunning competitors like HP/Palm/webOS
webOS has a really stupid name. It makes it sound like my experience will be stuck in a browser the whole time. It makes me think of the horrible way that MS integrated IE with windows explorer.
I've never used the OS, and I'm not commenting on how it actually behaves, I'm just saying that it's remarkably bad branding - much like Windows Phone 7 is actually.
They say at the end that the only reason to buy it is if you hate apple, they say it with a euphemism, but they say it nevertheless. That's not really a good review.
just like those Android tablets, its hard to recommend over an iPad at the same price. But the competition does creep ever closer, and the TouchPad stands as a solid iPad competitor for those who, err, "think different."
Eh, they still also call it the best non-iPad tablet. Some may say that is faint praise given how bad most of them have been so far, but I've certainly seen worse reviews. Like I said, I'm still waiting for the next iPad iteration before I buy one for myself, so I wasn't gonna be rushing out to buy HPs offering myself regardless.
webOS has a really stupid name. It makes it sound like my experience will be stuck in a browser the whole time. It makes me think of the horrible way that MS integrated IE with windows explorer.
I've never used the OS, and I'm not commenting on how it actually behaves, I'm just saying that it's remarkably bad branding - much like Windows Phone 7 is actually.
They definitely didn't have a consumer marketer come up with the name for them
Even so the OS is good and it feels more OS X like to me than iOS does.
Ars Technica was bending over backwards to try to get some good comments in for the TouchPad, but they definitely hated the price. The same as the iPad, and they were likely to choose the iPad in that case. It was a competition for 2nd place, basically, because no one can come up with a tablet currently that matches the iPad.
They're a year late and they matched the original iPad's weight. But didn't have the apps of the original iPad and definitely not the battery life. Nor the cachet of owning an Apple product. Oh, and they seem to have copied the look of the iPhone 3GS, except that look is stretched to make it slippery and hard to hold. WebOS is intruging but not enough to save the day... you need more functionality than what this thing has got. Yeah, HP TouchPad is doomed to failure in its current incarnation.
Ars Technica was bending over backwards to try to get some good comments in for the TouchPad, but they definitely hated the price. The same as the iPad, and they were likely to choose the iPad in that case. It was a competition for 2nd place, basically, because no one can come up with a tablet currently that matches the iPad.
Spec-wise, the ASUS Transformer matches up with the iPad2 pretty well, at a price at least 25% less than the cheapest iPad2. Even throwing in ASUS optional keyboard/extended battery, it's still less than the most basic iPad2. The competition is slowly getting there.
HP is getting compared to the iPad and found wanting, in part because they publicly said that they were going to be better than #1. They were going to be #1+. Add that to the stupid things they have said about themselves in comparison to Apple over the last few months, and you get the harsh criticism of the TP. HP sowed the wind, and is now, reaping the whirlwind. No one learns.
If HP had come out with the Xoom, or Gtab firmly in their sights, they might have been reviewed more favorably. But no, they, along with everyone else, seems to have an fetish. When the reviews finally come out, WebOS fans say it is unfair to compare the TP to the iP2.
Lest we forget, the original iPad launched with 5,000 apps written specifically for the device. It is very fair to note the lack of apps, and thus, developer interest in the product at launch.
Finally, why is the iPad succeeding where everyone else is failing? One, there is no tablet market, and never has been. People are not buying tablets; they are buying iPads. Competitors cannot make iPads; they can only make brand X tablets. When SJ introduced the iPad, he spent a long time laying out the justification for the iPad's existence. He said that if it could not provide a superior experience in those areas, it has no reason to exist. Every tablet since has no justification to exist other than the fact that the iPad exists, and everyone else just wants a piece of it.
Somebody has to explain to me the fascination with a rear-facing camera on a tablet. Is anybody really going to carry around this dinner plate to snap photos?
no, but it comes in handy if it is the only camera you got to use when you need to. or you just want to take a quick snap of something to email without bothering with a real camera and then transferring files. i've done both several times now (my wife has the iPhone).
Finally, why is the iPad succeeding where everyone else is failing? One, there is no tablet market, and never has been. People are not buying tablets; they are buying iPads. Competitors cannot make iPads; they can only make brand X tablets. When SJ introduced the iPad, he spent a long time laying out the justification for the iPad's existence. He said that if it could not provide a superior experience in those areas, it has no reason to exist. Every tablet since has no justification to exist other than the fact that the iPad exists, and everyone else just wants a piece of it.
iPad has broken through and succeeded because it is not a stand alone product. it is part of the huge Apple ecosystem of integrated hardware, software, accessories, and soon cloud, both iOS and OS X. and it all Just Works.
whereas all the rest have little or no real ecosytem. they are just stand alone gadgets. even Android tabs, until Google at least merges its tablet and smartphone OS's as promised. but even then, Google's ecosystem is all about communication and information. but tablets are used instead more for doing stuff and consuming stuff.
what's a perfect example of the difference? AirPlay.
Heh - esperanto is great example of the failure of a product due to negative network effects - hardly anybody learns esperanto because hardly anybody speaks esperanto. I guess the same applies to this touchpad - so that was clearly a highly meta posting
Yeah that was one he'll of a post! Kudos to the op!
Somebody has to explain to me the fascination with a rear-facing camera on a tablet. Is anybody really going to carry around this dinner plate to snap photos?
I can't answer that but I have read around the webs that very few uploads to places like flickr have been of photos taken with the iPad 2, which everyone and their brothers insisted must have cameras.
I have an iPad 2 and except for a few experimental shots the first couple of days, I haven't used either camera at all. I can see where the front-facing camera would be great for Skype or Facetime but that seems to be about it.
I can't answer that but I have read around the webs that very few uploads to places like flickr have been of photos taken with the iPad 2, which everyone and their brothers insisted must have cameras.
I have an iPad 2 and except for a few experimental shots the first couple of days, I haven't used either camera at all. I can see where the front-facing camera would be great for Skype or Facetime but that seems to be about it.
The only time I can see it being needed is if some guy just mugged you and is running off with your iPhone, so you want to take his photo as he flees, and he didn't manage to get your iPad.
They definitely didn't have a consumer marketer come up with the name for them
Even so the OS is good and it feels more OS X like to me than iOS does.
Actually I was thinking something similar based on the image with the Mac-like menu bar at the top of the article: WebOS resembles OS X more than it resembles iOS. iOS is a good OS for the tablet paradigm, MacOS X not so much. I really don't want windows cluttering up my 10" real estate.
The only time I can see it being needed is if some guy just mugged you and is running off with your iPhone, so you want to take his photo as he flees, and he didn't manage to get your iPad.
+1 ! That lucky burglar, all he got was an iPhone. All I got was the back of his butt as he fled down the street.
Actually I was thinking something similar based on the image with the Mac-like menu bar at the top of the article: WebOS resembles OS X more than it resembles iOS. iOS is a good OS for the tablet paradigm, MacOS X not so much. I really don't want windows cluttering up my 10" real estate.
I haven't tried the TouchPad yet, but I think the OS X like feel might be better for a tablet interface than the iOS. iOS is really nice for a phone, but I like the more desktop-like feel of webOS for something of that size. The Palm Pre's interface was really nice too, but was a little too complex for a phone.
you don't know that. no one does. Samsung has refused to release actual sales figures. they must be too embarrasing.
all we know is they manufactured and shipped 2.1 million. and said sales were "smooth."
i bet you they actually sold less than 500,000 - a huge flop.
If you read my posting you'll see I'm going off Google's android app market figures and what we know of the total numbers of Android activations. We know that there are 3 million android devices with 'large' screens. We know that there are about 700k with x-large screens and coincidentally about the same number running honeycomb. T
These are all activated devices talking to the App market, nothing just sitting in channel here.
So exactly what models do you think sold the other 2.5 million 'large' devices if the G-tab only sold 500k?
Comments
I'm sad to hear that the hardware is so lacking. HP has exactly one chance to get this launched, and going in with problems like this seems like death.
Which is too bad, because from the little I used it, webOS is a much better OS than iOS. And I say that as someone with an all-Mac house.
The "cards" idea is simply brilliant, and I found it way easier to move around the system than on the iPhone or iPad. And the federated address book is precisely what I've been trying to get my iPhone to do since day one.
I agree webOS is a lot more functional and beautiful in ways than iOS. I especially like their tablet interpretation. The iPad needs some of those functions IMHO, but I guess it doesn't matter if consumers are still buying iPads in droves and shunning competitors like HP/Palm/webOS
I agree webOS is a lot more functional and beautiful in ways than iOS. I especially like their tablet interpretation. The iPad needs some of those functions IMHO, but I guess it doesn't matter if consumers are still buying iPads in droves and shunning competitors like HP/Palm/webOS
webOS has a really stupid name. It makes it sound like my experience will be stuck in a browser the whole time. It makes me think of the horrible way that MS integrated IE with windows explorer.
I've never used the OS, and I'm not commenting on how it actually behaves, I'm just saying that it's remarkably bad branding - much like Windows Phone 7 is actually.
They say at the end that the only reason to buy it is if you hate apple, they say it with a euphemism, but they say it nevertheless. That's not really a good review.
just like those Android tablets, its hard to recommend over an iPad at the same price. But the competition does creep ever closer, and the TouchPad stands as a solid iPad competitor for those who, err, "think different."
Eh, they still also call it the best non-iPad tablet. Some may say that is faint praise given how bad most of them have been so far, but I've certainly seen worse reviews. Like I said, I'm still waiting for the next iPad iteration before I buy one for myself, so I wasn't gonna be rushing out to buy HPs offering myself regardless.
webOS has a really stupid name. It makes it sound like my experience will be stuck in a browser the whole time. It makes me think of the horrible way that MS integrated IE with windows explorer.
I've never used the OS, and I'm not commenting on how it actually behaves, I'm just saying that it's remarkably bad branding - much like Windows Phone 7 is actually.
They definitely didn't have a consumer marketer come up with the name for them
Even so the OS is good and it feels more OS X like to me than iOS does.
just give them some time to polish the thing...
That's what they said about the Palm Pre
They're a year late and they matched the original iPad's weight. But didn't have the apps of the original iPad and definitely not the battery life. Nor the cachet of owning an Apple product. Oh, and they seem to have copied the look of the iPhone 3GS, except that look is stretched to make it slippery and hard to hold. WebOS is intruging but not enough to save the day... you need more functionality than what this thing has got. Yeah, HP TouchPad is doomed to failure in its current incarnation.
Ars Technica was bending over backwards to try to get some good comments in for the TouchPad, but they definitely hated the price. The same as the iPad, and they were likely to choose the iPad in that case. It was a competition for 2nd place, basically, because no one can come up with a tablet currently that matches the iPad.
Spec-wise, the ASUS Transformer matches up with the iPad2 pretty well, at a price at least 25% less than the cheapest iPad2. Even throwing in ASUS optional keyboard/extended battery, it's still less than the most basic iPad2. The competition is slowly getting there.
http://www.trustedreviews.com/Asus-E..._Laptop_review
A few thought:
HP is getting compared to the iPad and found wanting, in part because they publicly said that they were going to be better than #1. They were going to be #1+. Add that to the stupid things they have said about themselves in comparison to Apple over the last few months, and you get the harsh criticism of the TP. HP sowed the wind, and is now, reaping the whirlwind. No one learns.
If HP had come out with the Xoom, or Gtab firmly in their sights, they might have been reviewed more favorably. But no, they, along with everyone else, seems to have an fetish. When the reviews finally come out, WebOS fans say it is unfair to compare the TP to the iP2.
Lest we forget, the original iPad launched with 5,000 apps written specifically for the device. It is very fair to note the lack of apps, and thus, developer interest in the product at launch.
Finally, why is the iPad succeeding where everyone else is failing? One, there is no tablet market, and never has been. People are not buying tablets; they are buying iPads. Competitors cannot make iPads; they can only make brand X tablets. When SJ introduced the iPad, he spent a long time laying out the justification for the iPad's existence. He said that if it could not provide a superior experience in those areas, it has no reason to exist. Every tablet since has no justification to exist other than the fact that the iPad exists, and everyone else just wants a piece of it.
Excellent analysis. Kudos.
You had to go back three years to find one?
Maybe there's a second one from 2005....
Perhaps it's really because Apple's products are generally more praiseworthy than those of the competition?
The galaxy tab (the 7 inch) actually sold the best of the non-iPads.
you don't know that. no one does. Samsung has refused to release actual sales figures. they must be too embarrasing.
all we know is they manufactured and shipped 2.1 million. and said sales were "smooth."
i bet you they actually sold less than 500,000 - a huge flop.
Somebody has to explain to me the fascination with a rear-facing camera on a tablet. Is anybody really going to carry around this dinner plate to snap photos?
no, but it comes in handy if it is the only camera you got to use when you need to. or you just want to take a quick snap of something to email without bothering with a real camera and then transferring files. i've done both several times now (my wife has the iPhone).
you don't know that. no one does. Samsung has refused to release actual sales figures. they must be too embarrasing.
all we know is they manufactured and shipped 2.1 million. and said sales were "smooth."
i bet you they actually sold less than 500,000 - a huge flop.
I'll bet they sold less than 250,000. They dumped it very quickly.
Finally, why is the iPad succeeding where everyone else is failing? One, there is no tablet market, and never has been. People are not buying tablets; they are buying iPads. Competitors cannot make iPads; they can only make brand X tablets. When SJ introduced the iPad, he spent a long time laying out the justification for the iPad's existence. He said that if it could not provide a superior experience in those areas, it has no reason to exist. Every tablet since has no justification to exist other than the fact that the iPad exists, and everyone else just wants a piece of it.
iPad has broken through and succeeded because it is not a stand alone product. it is part of the huge Apple ecosystem of integrated hardware, software, accessories, and soon cloud, both iOS and OS X. and it all Just Works.
whereas all the rest have little or no real ecosytem. they are just stand alone gadgets. even Android tabs, until Google at least merges its tablet and smartphone OS's as promised. but even then, Google's ecosystem is all about communication and information. but tablets are used instead more for doing stuff and consuming stuff.
what's a perfect example of the difference? AirPlay.
Heh - esperanto is great example of the failure of a product due to negative network effects - hardly anybody learns esperanto because hardly anybody speaks esperanto. I guess the same applies to this touchpad - so that was clearly a highly meta posting
Yeah that was one he'll of a post! Kudos to the op!
Somebody has to explain to me the fascination with a rear-facing camera on a tablet. Is anybody really going to carry around this dinner plate to snap photos?
I can't answer that but I have read around the webs that very few uploads to places like flickr have been of photos taken with the iPad 2, which everyone and their brothers insisted must have cameras.
I have an iPad 2 and except for a few experimental shots the first couple of days, I haven't used either camera at all. I can see where the front-facing camera would be great for Skype or Facetime but that seems to be about it.
I can't answer that but I have read around the webs that very few uploads to places like flickr have been of photos taken with the iPad 2, which everyone and their brothers insisted must have cameras.
I have an iPad 2 and except for a few experimental shots the first couple of days, I haven't used either camera at all. I can see where the front-facing camera would be great for Skype or Facetime but that seems to be about it.
The only time I can see it being needed is if some guy just mugged you and is running off with your iPhone, so you want to take his photo as he flees, and he didn't manage to get your iPad.
They definitely didn't have a consumer marketer come up with the name for them
Even so the OS is good and it feels more OS X like to me than iOS does.
Actually I was thinking something similar based on the image with the Mac-like menu bar at the top of the article: WebOS resembles OS X more than it resembles iOS. iOS is a good OS for the tablet paradigm, MacOS X not so much. I really don't want windows cluttering up my 10" real estate.
The only time I can see it being needed is if some guy just mugged you and is running off with your iPhone, so you want to take his photo as he flees, and he didn't manage to get your iPad.
+1 ! That lucky burglar, all he got was an iPhone. All I got was the back of his butt as he fled down the street.
Actually I was thinking something similar based on the image with the Mac-like menu bar at the top of the article: WebOS resembles OS X more than it resembles iOS. iOS is a good OS for the tablet paradigm, MacOS X not so much. I really don't want windows cluttering up my 10" real estate.
I haven't tried the TouchPad yet, but I think the OS X like feel might be better for a tablet interface than the iOS. iOS is really nice for a phone, but I like the more desktop-like feel of webOS for something of that size. The Palm Pre's interface was really nice too, but was a little too complex for a phone.
you don't know that. no one does. Samsung has refused to release actual sales figures. they must be too embarrasing.
all we know is they manufactured and shipped 2.1 million. and said sales were "smooth."
i bet you they actually sold less than 500,000 - a huge flop.
If you read my posting you'll see I'm going off Google's android app market figures and what we know of the total numbers of Android activations. We know that there are 3 million android devices with 'large' screens. We know that there are about 700k with x-large screens and coincidentally about the same number running honeycomb. T
These are all activated devices talking to the App market, nothing just sitting in channel here.
So exactly what models do you think sold the other 2.5 million 'large' devices if the G-tab only sold 500k?