Dell kills its 5" Android tablet as ABI searches for success among tablet failures

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  • Reply 41 of 95
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post


    On example, Dell's Streak 5



    Do you mean For example or One example?



    A typo a day keeps the readers away!
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  • Reply 42 of 95
    d-ranged-range Posts: 396member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Bregalad View Post


    Steve Jobs makes me laugh. The resolution of the 3.5" iPhone (640x960) is almost as high as the resolution of the 9.7" iPad (768x1024). Do people have to file down their fingers to pencil points to use the iPhone? Of course not.



    Hate to say it, but that's a pretty stupid point you're trying to make there, the only thing it shows is that you didn't actually get what Jobs was saying. When the iPad was released, it came with one of the crappiest 'iPhone app compatibility' mode anyone could think of, it just ran iPhone apps on a tiny portion of the screen, or hideously pixelized at 2x, without any resampling, and still not using the whole screen. Very un-Apple to release a half-baked solution like that, but that made it all the more obvious that Apple didn't want you to run phone apps on a tablet. Apple basically forced developers to create custom tablet interfaces that were much richer in terms of the amount of information and controls you see on the screen, instead of compartmentalizing every application in multiple smaller steps like on the iPhone.



    What Steve Jobs was saying, is that you either make your application in a way that works well for smartphones with small screens, or you make it in a way that works well on a large screen around the size of an iPad. Anything in between doesn't make a whole lot of sense, because at 7" a phone UI would be ugly and wasteful, but a tablet UI would have to be scaled down so much it would be very hard to control. According to Apple, the sweet spot for phones is somewhere around 4" and for tablets it's around 10". Screen resolution has nothing to do with this by the way.



    I think Jobs was right on the money with his statement. All the 7" or smaller tablets have been downright disasters right now, Samsung already went from 7" to 8.9" to 10.1", and all the so-called 'competing Android tablets' are of the 10" variety. Apparently there is some truth in Jobs vision, like there is most of the time: people are not waiting for a killer tablet with a size halfway between a smartphone and a full-size tablet.



    Quote:

    It's probably true that there's no room in the market for a "tweener" device now. Apple maximizes profit by getting each customer to buy multiple devices. They are way better off if everyone buys both an iPhone and an iPad than they would be if everyone just bought the fictional 6" iNotePad.



    In an alternate universe everyone has a 6" hand-held device and a thin, light notebook computer instead of an iPhone and iPad. I wish I lived in that universe.



    Whatever makes you feel better... Turns out Dell wasn't too successful with their oversized phone/undersized tablet idea, and so far no-one else has.
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  • Reply 43 of 95
    realisticrealistic Posts: 1,154member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by sprockkets View Post


    That comment was taken out of context.



    https://plus.google.com/113901041381...ts/bTrnjUmnPuv



    BS he said it and now denies it.
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  • Reply 44 of 95
    gctwnlgctwnl Posts: 278member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by hittrj01 View Post


    P.S. For future reference, DOA stands for "Dead On Arrival", so it's pretty redundant to say "DOA on arrival". Just looking out for ya



    Yeah, should have been "DOA on announcement"
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  • Reply 45 of 95
    cloudgazercloudgazer Posts: 2,161member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by d-range View Post


    What Steve Jobs was saying, is that you either make your application in a way that works well for smartphones with small screens, or you make it in a way that works well on a large screen around the size of an iPad. Anything in between doesn't make a whole lot of sense, because at 7" a phone UI would be ugly and wasteful, but a tablet UI would have to be scaled down so much it would be very hard to control. According to Apple, the sweet spot for phones is somewhere around 4" and for tablets it's around 10". Screen resolution has nothing to do with this by the way.



    A UI optimized for 3.5inch is going to look bad at 7inch. A UI optimized for 10inch is going to be horribly fiddly at 7inch. But there's nothing to stop App UIs being designed for 7inch. The question is, whether it is worth fragmenting the App market further by introducing a tweener size, and that's unclear. Jobs may well be right, he often is, and the market may not be big enough. Jobs may also be wrong, it does happen - there may be a market for tweener devices that is big enough to justify optimized apps. There may be an enterprise market for 20inch+ tablets. Who knows?



    Quote:

    I think Jobs was right on the money with his statement. All the 7" or smaller tablets have been downright disasters right now, Samsung already went from 7" to 8.9" to 10.1", and all the so-called 'competing Android tablets' are of the 10" variety. Apparently there is some truth in Jobs vision, like there is most of the time: people are not waiting for a killer tablet with a size halfway between a smartphone and a full-size tablet.



    Thing is right now all we know is that Android tablets fail at 7inch, since they also fail at 10inches that's not proving anything is it? I mean it's kinda like the movie industry's assumption that Lord of the Rings was unfilmable because the animated feature was so bad.
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  • Reply 46 of 95
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by cloudgazer View Post


    There may be an enterprise market for 20inch+ tablets. Who knows?



    There's a product already. I don't think it has yet been determined if there's a market:

    http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/default.aspx
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  • Reply 47 of 95
    cloudgazercloudgazer Posts: 2,161member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by jragosta View Post


    There's a product already. I don't think it has yet been determined if there's a market:

    http://www.microsoft.com/surface/en/us/default.aspx



    Well there probably isn't a market for that product, in much the same way that there isn't for most android tablets. I imagine that any functional market for super big tablets will grow out of the iPad in time.
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  • Reply 48 of 95
    macrulezmacrulez Posts: 2,455member
    deleted
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  • Reply 49 of 95
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacRulez View Post


    Asus Transformer Tablet: Surprising Second Best in Sales After Apple iPad

    http://www.pcworld.com/article/23592...pple_ipad.html



    When those numbers are proven to be actual units sold and not just those shipped to resellers, call me.



    Quote:

    - larger screen (10.1", 1280x800)

    - higher resolution (160ppi)

    - MicroSD slot

    - HDMI port

    - Front camera: 2592x1944

    - Back camera: 1280x1024

    - Plays more video formats

    - Similar performance and battery life

    - Way more customizable (check out the live wallpaper in the video)

    - US$399

    - Optional keyboard dock US$149, doubles battery life and provides USB port, SD slot



    Funny how you people keep posting this stuff when it obviously doesn't matter.
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  • Reply 50 of 95
    macrulezmacrulez Posts: 2,455member
    deleted
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  • Reply 51 of 95
    jragostajragosta Posts: 10,473member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacRulez View Post


    Ah, right. I forgot about the mythic warehouse, supposedly like the one shown at the end of Indiana Jones and probably in some remote corner of Nebraska, where all Android tablets wind up.



    Silly me: I had thought that the tablet in my shoulder bag actually existed. Thanks for the reminder.





    "You people"? What does that mean?



    With the six Macs currently running in my office being just a slender subset of the dozens I've bought over the years, along with my iPad2, iPod, and Apple displays here, not to mention the metallic six-color Apple logo pin I got when I first joined the Apple dev program in 1992, I'm not sure who you imagine I am but it seems you've mistaken me for someone else.



    I'm just a guy that uses multiple operating systems, and understands that OSes are commodities and not religions. I agree that makes me the odd man out around here.





    They matter very much when Apple delivers an update to a product, but I agree that for those who limit their shopping to a single vendor the entire rest of the world is easily overlooked.



    Such people can ignore these specs for now and rave about them next year when they become the specs for the iPad3.



    If references to the outside world offend you, you're welcome if not encouraged to put me on your "Ignore" list.



    But before you do let me entertain you with a tale from yesterday's meeting:



    I was in a room full of iPad users, taking notes on my "netbook", the Transformer. We needed a picture taken of the white board, so I took the tablet out of its stand to take the picture. Suddenly there were question like "So that's a tablet?" I passed it around, and no one could keep their hands off it. Once they saw the SD slot, a couple of them said there were going to get one.



    But of course they won't. It'll just wind up in a warehouse outside of Omaha.



    lulz



    So you are convinced that you are the only person who matters? A good mental health professional can probably help with that.



    The fact is that it has not sold in numbers anywhere close to the iPad. Reviews are not as good and there are some serious deficiencies as well as concerns about durability.



    And, whether you like it or not, "shipped" is not the same as "sold". I realize that none of you fandroids have figured that out yet, but it's reality.
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  • Reply 52 of 95
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacRulez View Post




    With the six Macs currently running in my office being just a slender subset of the dozens I've bought over the years, along with my iPad2, iPod, and Apple displays here, not to mention the metallic six-color Apple logo pin I got when I first joined the Apple dev program in 1992, I'm not sure who you imagine I am but it seems you've mistaken me for someone else.



    I'm just a guy that uses multiple operating systems, and understands that OSes are commodities and not religions. I agree that makes me the odd man out around here.





    They matter very much when Apple delivers an update to a product, but I agree that for those who limit their shopping to a single vendor the entire rest of the world is easily overlooked.



    Such people can ignore these specs for now and rave about them next year when they become the specs for the iPad3.



    If references to the outside world offend you, you're welcome if not encouraged to put me on your "Ignore" list.



    But before you do let me entertain you with a tale from yesterday's meeting:



    I was in a room full of iPad users, taking notes on my "netbook", the Transformer. We needed a picture taken of the white board, so I took the tablet out of its stand to take the picture. Suddenly there were question like "So that's a tablet?" I passed it around, and no one could keep their hands off it. Once they saw the SD slot, a couple of them said there were going to get one.



    But of course they won't. It'll just wind up in a warehouse outside of Omaha.



    lulz



    You sound so much like DaHarder that I actually forgot for a moment that it wasn't him.
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  • Reply 53 of 95
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacRulez View Post


    Ah, right. I forgot about the mythic warehouse, supposedly like the one shown at the end of Indiana Jones and probably in some remote corner of Nebraska, where all Android tablets wind up.



    Silly me: I had thought that the tablet in my shoulder bag actually existed. Thanks for the reminder.



    Please quote where I said none had been sold. Please quote where I said anything about any sold numbers.



    Quote:

    "You people"? What does that mean?



    I believe the proper term is "spec whores". I was being nice.



    Quote:

    But of course they won't.



    Your sarcasm is particularly funny when you consider that's actually what will happen.



    Quote:

    lulz



    Indeed.
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  • Reply 54 of 95
    macrulezmacrulez Posts: 2,455member
    deleted
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  • Reply 55 of 95
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacRulez View Post


    In the post you replied to, I quoted:



    Well played. I'll rephrase that: Please quote where I said anything about actual numbers sold. I neither implied none had been sold nor that a large volume hadn't. I simply implied that the numbers in that article are very probably shipped, not sold, as MANY Android "sales" reports resort to that number.



    Quote:

    One man's "specs" is another man's "features".



    To quote 2005, "It's a feature!"







    Quote:

    specs are just how people quantify features



    And software is how people define the iPad.
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  • Reply 56 of 95
    macrulezmacrulez Posts: 2,455member
    deleted
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  • Reply 57 of 95
    cloudgazercloudgazer Posts: 2,161member
    Latest info on sell for google tablets



    http://developer.android.com/resourc...-versions.html



    Given that honeycomb 3.2 is at 0.2% penetration that would imply that Asus has sold no more than 300k units to consumers as of 1st August.



    The transformer might be the best selling non-Apple tablet, it might not - but so far all the rumours really say is that Asus is increasing supply.
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  • Reply 58 of 95
    I'm waiting to see how many of the Android machines shipping with Honeycomb will transition smoothly to Ice Cream Sandwich... or will it just be a sticky mess.
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  • Reply 59 of 95
    macrulezmacrulez Posts: 2,455member
    deleted
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  • Reply 60 of 95
    cloudgazercloudgazer Posts: 2,161member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by MacRulez View Post


    In spite of such wishful thinking, Asus wouldn't have doubled orders for a total of 4.5 million units by the end of 2011 if only to warehouse them.



    Nobody is really suggesting a huge warehouse a la Indiana Jones - but the channel can hold considerable numbers of units, especially once you go to a fully global distribution. There were 5.9 million iPhones in the channel at the end of Apple's Q3.



    However you parse the honeycomb numbers there are only around 2million Android tablets in circulation.
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