"Tablet shipments continued to wane in Q2 2015, falling 11% year on year to 42.5 million units. After three years of explosive growth, the tablet market peaked in Q4 2013, going into decline a year later. Tablet shipments fell in every worldwide region in Q2 2015, with no reason to believe that growth will return in the short term. Sales in high-growth markets are dwindling as large-screen smart phones grow in popularity to become buyers’ first Internet-enabled devices of choice. In addition, tablets will have to compete against a new wave of two-in-one devices designed to take advantage of Windows 10.
‘Despite the sudden downturn in shipments, tablets are certainly here to stay. Yes, they have matured and commoditized quickly, but there are still opportunities for vendors to profit from the category,’ said Tim Coulling, Canalys Senior Analyst. ‘Unlike consumers, businesses have been slow when it comes to mass adoption of tablets. They are willing to spend more on products that satisfy a specific need and meet key requirements, around durability for example. In the consumer space, demand for premium tablets in established markets has noticeably slowed but is not going to disappear. The top five countries accounted for half the world’s tablet shipments and Apple led in all but one, Brazil. It is well placed to continue leading the market for the time being.’
What absolute bullshit. Name one $200 - 300 tablet that has a "better" price/quality ratio? Quality also encompasses security, OS, support, ease of use, build quality, resale value, ecosystem etc. etc. etc. the ONLY issue is price, and as seen by the markets where iPad dominates, those in general are the most important markets. The fact that Android has such a high market share in the tech sector says more about OS philosophy than anything else. Lastly, one quarter does not a market make. Stay tuned.
While I don't completely agree with cropr, I should point out that there are some quality Android devices in that $200-$300 price range.
The Nokia N1 (stock Android + Nokia's Z Launcher) for example is $250 versus the iPad Mini 3 which is $400.
The Nokia has a better build (thinner, lighter), a better display (laminated), better audio (Wolfson), a more powerful processor (64-bit Intel Moorefield), more ram (2 GB), more internal storage (32 GB), a better front/rear camera (5MP/8MP) and it was the first consumer product with USB type-C.
Funny: these studies won't include the iPad when counting overall computer sales to protect Windows' marketshare, but they include Windows "tablets" when counting the tablet market in order to spin the oldie but trollie "iPad is 'loosing' (sic) marketshare to Windows" narrative.
While I don't completely agree with cropr, I should point out that there are some quality Android devices in that $200-$300 price range.
The Nokia N1 (stock Android + Nokia's Z Launcher) for example is $250 versus the iPad Mini 3 which is $400.
The Nokia has a better build (thinner, lighter), a better display (laminated), better audio (Wolfson), a more powerful processor (64-bit Intel Moorefield), more ram (2 GB), more internal storage (32 GB), a better front/rear camera (5MP/8MP) and it was the first consumer product with USB type-C.
The Mini 3 is the worst priced Apple product (and supposedly you pay the extra mon y for the Touch ID), you could have compared it to the Mini 2, which would have been a better deal since your not getting touch ID.
The Nokia N1 is a shameless Apple Mini clone, so says ALL REVIEWS, even the ones that are positive.
The current price of the Mini2 2 with 32GB on Apple's site is $350, the N1 on Amazon.com is .... $368... Hmmmm.
Pointless or even negative supposed superiority..
- The Atom Intel chip is NOT faster than the A7.
- Android needs more memory to operate so getting more means nothing
- "Better" audio on such a small platform is just a ridiculous marketing point.
True superiority
- The camera is indeed better
- The bonded screen is a bit better
- Usb - C
- Very slightly thinner and lighter (we are talking fraction of mm and a few grams).
Negative
- Versions currently on sale on Amazon Don't support the Google Play store....
That's one hell of a negative unless your chinese or a electronic hobbist
- Support/service in the US and Europe pretty iffy (Produced in china for the Chinese market, hope it doesn't fail).
Maybe it will be sold directly (not imported) in the US and Europe eventually and service will actually exist eventually!
- Build quality was reviewed as not quite on par with the Ipad Mini by a few, Not sure how thinner and lighter would equal "build quality"
So, all and all, probably not a fantastic deal. It is not a horrible deal either if you understand the limitations.
Is that really the best they can do, not even really beating the nearly 2 year old Ipad Mini that's about to be replaced?
That this thing is produced under license by Foxcon is a bit worrying considering how much it looks like a Ipad Mini.
Anyway, the lack of play store, not that competitive price and lack of support and service makes this a non starter for now.
The Mini 3 is the worst priced Apple product (and supposedly you pay the extra mon y for the Touch ID), you could have compared it to the Mini 2, which would have been a better deal since your not getting touch ID.
The Nokia N1 is a shameless Apple Mini clone, so says ALL REVIEWS, even the ones that are positive.
The current price of the Mini2 2 with 32GB on Apple's site is $350, the N1 on Amazon.com is .... $368... Hmmmm.
Pointless or even negative supposed superiority..
- The Atom Intel chip is NOT faster than the A7.
- Android needs more memory to operate so getting more means nothing
- "Better" audio on such a small platform is just a ridiculous marketing point.
True superiority
- The camera is indeed better
- The bonded screen is a bit better
- Usb - C
- Very slightly thinner and lighter (we are talking fraction of mm and a few grams).
Negative
- Versions currently on sale on Amazon Don't support the Google Play store....
That's one hell of a negative unless your chinese or a electronic hobbist
- Support/service in the US and Europe pretty iffy (Produced in china for the Chinese market, hope it doesn't fail).
Maybe it will be sold directly (not imported) in the US and Europe eventually and service will actually exist eventually!
- Build quality was reviewed as not quite on par with the Ipad Mini by a few, Not sure how thinner and lighter would equal "build quality"
So, all and all, probably not a fantastic deal. It is not a horrible deal either if you understand the limitations.
Is that really the best they can do, not even really beating the nearly 2 year old Ipad Mini that's about to be replaced?
That this thing is produced under license by Foxcon is a bit worrying considering how much it looks like a Ipad Mini.
Anyway, the lack of play store, not that competitive price and lack of support and service makes this a non starter for now.
It has an MSRP of $250 in China, the market this device launched in. Judging it by a random Amazon price is nonsense as this device has not been released outside of Asia. Moorefield does outperform the A7 and the Snapdragon 801. Audio, as in the audio hub (3.5mm output), not the speaker quality. An international version of the hardware does come with the Google Play Store and Google Play services.
While this version is obviously not geared towards the US market, the hardware and software foundation is definitely there. Nokia and Foxconn will have to decide how to proceed globally, if it gets to that point. The Nokia N1 was announced towards the end of 2014, a refresh should be coming soon.
Do I think there are Android options at low cost that can match or beat the iPad in quality/performance like another user said? No, but devices like the Nokia N1 show a lot of promise, especially with Nokia focusing on re-entering the mobile market in 2016.
I own an Apple iPad Mini Retina(Gen 2) and my wife has the original iPad Mini(non-retina).
I can only share what I personally have used and witness and what my workplace has done. I don't know where Chromebooks slot into the sales tables but schools are buying them hand over fist. My school had roughly 10 Chromebook carts with approximately 40 laptops each arrive on our site last year and we are just an elementary school. Middle and High School are buying much more of them.
On a lark, I bought an Insignia Windows tablet which has 1 gig of ram, 32 gigs of storage, etc. It was $99 and I figured that since I don't own a Windows PC, I could remain somewhat technologically knowledgeable about Windows 8.1 and now 10 on it.
The Chromebooks have been a huge success. Their battery-life easily goes the entire schoolday play. I think they can get around 10-11 hrs of light use out of them. The screens can lay all the way flat and the USB ports allow us to use flash drives with them in addition to cloud storage. They can also be used as laptops with both a keyboard and a mouse. I've enjoyed using them so far with my class.
I've upgraded the Insignia tablet to Windows 10 and enjoy watching video, reading and especially browsing with Chrome on it most evenings. The battery life could be a bit better and it charges too slow for my taste but it is a very fair and capable tablet for the price point.
There are many things I love about my iPad but lately it seems that web browsing isn't one of them. Safari just seems to need to refresh tabs far too often. A few friends I know who do web development could be biased but they complain somewhat bitterly that Safari is far behind the times compared to Chrome and even Firefox. (I'm not a developer so I have no idea.) When I have to switch between tasks on the iPad it seems to store fewer apps in memory and needs to refresh them more often than the Windows tablet, etc.
I'm hoping iOS9 helps with the browsing issue regarding tabs and I am hoping Apple really ups their RAM game with the iPad refreshes. Part of what will affect my buying decisions with iPhone or iPad is amount of RAM and how they browse with it. I feel like Safari used to be much better than most competitors with RAM and TAB management but perhaps they've fallen behind the times or others have just progressed further along.
Going further, I think in the future that Apple should make sure iPads have double the RAM of iPhones since they are trying to differentiate but also because people are seeing iPads as laptop replacements and will be engaged in more demanding tasks on them. Apple could also help iPad sales by including more iCloud storage with them as a default and make it possible to combine with other iCloud allocations. Thus if you buy an iPhone, you might get 5 gigs of iCloud storage. (Really should be bumped in the future as well.) If you buy an iPad perhaps you get double that and it combines with the iPhone storage. So a baseline iPad could perhaps get 10 gigs of iCloud storage that would combine with the 5 gigs from iPhone for 15 gigs of storage. Higher physical storage could earn more cloud storage.
Ideally you'd have a scenario whereby you could shoot a bunch of video on your iPhone or compose some music and have it quickly go to iCloud where you could handle it more easily on the larger and more powerful iPad. Value-added proposition for users and Apple as well. More RAM, more iCloud storage and perhaps an improved camera module that all work together via some continuity feature.
Recently I became aware of serious drawback of iPad. It seems funny all the supposedly long term Apple fans have not mentioned it here or anywhere else. I was trying to use Apple Play+mirroring to display the iPad screen on a HD TV through Apple TV. The iPad screen displayed on the TV in a smaller area. This is not desirable as this is to let a group of people to be able to look at the iPad together.
Later, I tried to do this with an iPhone 5. Wow! The display almost occupied the entire TV screen. I found out this is because the iPad has a 4:3 aspect ratio. Take a look of the Android tablets. They all have a 16:9 aspect ratio. So I found out one feature the Android tablet is better than the iPad. I wonder if anyone in Apple has dared to tell Cook about this?
I think the iPhone designers in Apple are a different group of people from the iPad designers. The iPhone 4S has a 3.5" screen thus an aspect ratio of 4:3. Then Apple released iPhone 5 with 4" screen which is closer to 16:9. This is three years ago.
If true this has nothing to do with ecosystem and everything to do with price point.
SURE these devices are best in class with great hardware, software and battery life.
But here, have this 50$ shit-droid tabled with a resistive touchscreen. Just as good, right?
Well, not necessarily...
I work for small IT company in NZ... we provide support and management for around 1000 seats, give or take. While we are not the only source of hardware for our customers, we are the only source for setting up devices, so we have reasonably good visibility on trending when it comes to devices.
While iPhone and Android phones are quite equally represented among our customers, iPad was tablet of choice, while Androids were all but invisible. Well, that was until end of 2014.
Since end of 2014, it is pretty much Surface Pro 3. We have actually sold more SP3 in 2015 than all the laptops and desktops together, and customers are BYO them as well - in fact I don't recall when was the last time we did set up anything but Surface tablet.
Some of the customers are actively replacing laptops and desktops with this. It has serviceable docking station (with USB ports, LAN, multi-stream DisplayPort), so it can act as desktop replacement... type cover is not as comfortable as good laptop keyboard, but seems to be sufficient when away from the desk... and of course, it is tablet as well. It fits in existing system - AD, group policies, remote management (through Kaseya or other competing systems), it runs all the business software already running on PCs... understands all the printers... can access all the network shares... RDS works exactly the same as on PC... all the security authentication methods work exactly the same, down to USB tokens like Yubico... it is exactly what it is, a PC in convertible form.
With classic tablet, users still need a laptop or desktop, tablet is side-kick, not replacement. And then, they'll also need a phone. With Surface, they can get tablet functionality in device that can replace their conventional PC. One device less and less bulk to carry around. It does make sense.
Again, this is our experience. Don't know how applicable it is in general, but must be to some degree - our customers are normal business clients, some in finance, some in manufacturing, insurance... nothing too exotic and unusual.
My employer installed a bunch of Lenovo tablets running Windows. Totally useless for anything other than reading installed pdf files. I thought it was just me that hated them, but it turns out no one is using them.
I work for small IT company in NZ... we provide support and management for around 1000 seats, give or take. While we are not the only source of hardware for our customers, we are the only source for setting up devices, so we have reasonably good visibility on trending when it comes to devices.
While iPhone and Android phones are quite equally represented among our customers, iPad was tablet of choice, while Androids were all but invisible. Well, that was until end of 2014.
Since end of 2014, it is pretty much Surface Pro 3. We have actually sold more SP3 in 2015 than all the laptops and desktops together, and customers are BYO them as well - in fact I don't recall when was the last time we did set up anything but Surface tablet.
Some of the customers are actively replacing laptops and desktops with this. It has serviceable docking station (with USB ports, LAN, multi-stream DisplayPort), so it can act as desktop replacement... type cover is not as comfortable as good laptop keyboard, but seems to be sufficient when away from the desk... and of course, it is tablet as well. It fits in existing system - AD, group policies, remote management (through Kaseya or other competing systems), it runs all the business software already running on PCs... understands all the printers... can access all the network shares... RDS works exactly the same as on PC... all the security authentication methods work exactly the same, down to USB tokens like Yubico... it is exactly what it is, a PC in convertible form.
With classic tablet, users still need a laptop or desktop, tablet is side-kick, not replacement. And then, they'll also need a phone. With Surface, they can get tablet functionality in device that can replace their conventional PC. One device less and less bulk to carry around. It does make sense.
Again, this is our experience. Don't know how applicable it is in general, but must be to some degree - our customers are normal business clients, some in finance, some in manufacturing, insurance... nothing too exotic and unusual.
Yet, actual sales number don'T reflect your anecdote. Strange.
For me Surface3 build quality and usability is pretty blah and I'Ve been using Windows 10 and its nothing to write home about either.
Yet, actual sales number don'T reflect your anecdote. Strange.
For me Surface3 build quality and usability is pretty blah and I'Ve been using Windows 10 and its nothing to write home about either.
You might be right... we'll see. MS is still quiet about actual SP3 numbers, beside selling much better than previous gens. However, this very article is saying that something is happening... I can see SP3 being part of it.
NZ might be specific regarding iPads and Apple in general, as in - beside iPhone - other Apple products are not as popular as they are in US. Don't know. We did fair share of iPad setups until recently... so there's that. Again, it can be completely anecdotal.
Re SP3 build quality and usability, I'd disagree. It is as usable as any PC, which is quite a bit - much as average business needs are concerned. Rest is, of course, matter of personal needs and preferences. And it's built quite well. I've seen some shattered screens due to drops - device is heavier than average ARM tablet - but beside that, it withholds normal usage well - including kickstand.
Win10, still to early to judge. Far as my opinion goes so far, it improves a lot over Win8.1 on desktops and laptops, but doesn't work any better in tablet mode. In fact, I prefer Win8.1 tablet than Win10 tablet at the moment, but again - that's only my personal opinion. It is also work in process - first service pack (or whatever they call them today) should be released shortly, second one in October, I think.
Even in NZ 1000 seats isn't representative of the professional community. We're a spendthrift bunch at the best of times and masters of the false economy. If they're SMB users you'll be hard pressed to find an Apple logo anywhere off an iPhone. In my business meetings MBAs & iPads are still the rage (though again not really representative of all pro seats)
All that aside, are SP3s and other smearable PCs really being used as tablets? Or was it just the slightly cooler item against the super cheap WinPC options?
Comments
"Tablet shipments continued to wane in Q2 2015, falling 11% year on year to 42.5 million units. After three years of explosive growth, the tablet market peaked in Q4 2013, going into decline a year later. Tablet shipments fell in every worldwide region in Q2 2015, with no reason to believe that growth will return in the short term. Sales in high-growth markets are dwindling as large-screen smart phones grow in popularity to become buyers’ first Internet-enabled devices of choice. In addition, tablets will have to compete against a new wave of two-in-one devices designed to take advantage of Windows 10.
‘Despite the sudden downturn in shipments, tablets are certainly here to stay. Yes, they have matured and commoditized quickly, but there are still opportunities for vendors to profit from the category,’ said Tim Coulling, Canalys Senior Analyst. ‘Unlike consumers, businesses have been slow when it comes to mass adoption of tablets. They are willing to spend more on products that satisfy a specific need and meet key requirements, around durability for example. In the consumer space, demand for premium tablets in established markets has noticeably slowed but is not going to disappear. The top five countries accounted for half the world’s tablet shipments and Apple led in all but one, Brazil. It is well placed to continue leading the market for the time being.’
The same god damn clickbait news on and on and on and on.
How big is the share of tablets in CURRENT USE, would be a much more interesting number than sales.
Why? Because those are the one's reinforcing Apple's ecosystem and OTHER SALES.
Funny how those so called "analysts" have no clue about that. Not one clue.
If you sell a craptastic turd tablets 10 times in 10 years to the same person, making $10 bucks profits on each
do you in fact increase your market share compared to selling 2 tablets to a person over that period making $250 each time : NO.
Yet, the analysts will be pissing their pants about the first scenario.
Will companies/schools use shit quality unsecured tablets; if they do, they deserve all the crap that will come with it.
Funny how the Iphone is below 20% and the sky is not falling on Apple, but ON THE COMPETITION.
I think its time for those so called analysts to retire; they're ALWAYS WRONG.
What absolute bullshit. Name one $200 - 300 tablet that has a "better" price/quality ratio? Quality also encompasses security, OS, support, ease of use, build quality, resale value, ecosystem etc. etc. etc. the ONLY issue is price, and as seen by the markets where iPad dominates, those in general are the most important markets. The fact that Android has such a high market share in the tech sector says more about OS philosophy than anything else. Lastly, one quarter does not a market make. Stay tuned.
While I don't completely agree with cropr, I should point out that there are some quality Android devices in that $200-$300 price range.
The Nokia N1 (stock Android + Nokia's Z Launcher) for example is $250 versus the iPad Mini 3 which is $400.
The Nokia has a better build (thinner, lighter), a better display (laminated), better audio (Wolfson), a more powerful processor (64-bit Intel Moorefield), more ram (2 GB), more internal storage (32 GB), a better front/rear camera (5MP/8MP) and it was the first consumer product with USB type-C.
While I don't completely agree with cropr, I should point out that there are some quality Android devices in that $200-$300 price range.
The Nokia N1 (stock Android + Nokia's Z Launcher) for example is $250 versus the iPad Mini 3 which is $400.
The Nokia has a better build (thinner, lighter), a better display (laminated), better audio (Wolfson), a more powerful processor (64-bit Intel Moorefield), more ram (2 GB), more internal storage (32 GB), a better front/rear camera (5MP/8MP) and it was the first consumer product with USB type-C.
The Mini 3 is the worst priced Apple product (and supposedly you pay the extra mon y for the Touch ID), you could have compared it to the Mini 2, which would have been a better deal since your not getting touch ID.
The Nokia N1 is a shameless Apple Mini clone, so says ALL REVIEWS, even the ones that are positive.
The current price of the Mini2 2 with 32GB on Apple's site is $350, the N1 on Amazon.com is .... $368... Hmmmm.
Pointless or even negative supposed superiority..
- The Atom Intel chip is NOT faster than the A7.
- Android needs more memory to operate so getting more means nothing
- "Better" audio on such a small platform is just a ridiculous marketing point.
True superiority
- The camera is indeed better
- The bonded screen is a bit better
- Usb - C
- Very slightly thinner and lighter (we are talking fraction of mm and a few grams).
Negative
- Versions currently on sale on Amazon Don't support the Google Play store....
That's one hell of a negative unless your chinese or a electronic hobbist
- Support/service in the US and Europe pretty iffy (Produced in china for the Chinese market, hope it doesn't fail).
Maybe it will be sold directly (not imported) in the US and Europe eventually and service will actually exist eventually!
- Build quality was reviewed as not quite on par with the Ipad Mini by a few, Not sure how thinner and lighter would equal "build quality"
So, all and all, probably not a fantastic deal. It is not a horrible deal either if you understand the limitations.
Is that really the best they can do, not even really beating the nearly 2 year old Ipad Mini that's about to be replaced?
That this thing is produced under license by Foxcon is a bit worrying considering how much it looks like a Ipad Mini.
Anyway, the lack of play store, not that competitive price and lack of support and service makes this a non starter for now.
The Mini 3 is the worst priced Apple product (and supposedly you pay the extra mon y for the Touch ID), you could have compared it to the Mini 2, which would have been a better deal since your not getting touch ID.
The Nokia N1 is a shameless Apple Mini clone, so says ALL REVIEWS, even the ones that are positive.
The current price of the Mini2 2 with 32GB on Apple's site is $350, the N1 on Amazon.com is .... $368... Hmmmm.
Pointless or even negative supposed superiority..
- The Atom Intel chip is NOT faster than the A7.
- Android needs more memory to operate so getting more means nothing
- "Better" audio on such a small platform is just a ridiculous marketing point.
True superiority
- The camera is indeed better
- The bonded screen is a bit better
- Usb - C
- Very slightly thinner and lighter (we are talking fraction of mm and a few grams).
Negative
- Versions currently on sale on Amazon Don't support the Google Play store....
That's one hell of a negative unless your chinese or a electronic hobbist
- Support/service in the US and Europe pretty iffy (Produced in china for the Chinese market, hope it doesn't fail).
Maybe it will be sold directly (not imported) in the US and Europe eventually and service will actually exist eventually!
- Build quality was reviewed as not quite on par with the Ipad Mini by a few, Not sure how thinner and lighter would equal "build quality"
So, all and all, probably not a fantastic deal. It is not a horrible deal either if you understand the limitations.
Is that really the best they can do, not even really beating the nearly 2 year old Ipad Mini that's about to be replaced?
That this thing is produced under license by Foxcon is a bit worrying considering how much it looks like a Ipad Mini.
Anyway, the lack of play store, not that competitive price and lack of support and service makes this a non starter for now.
It has an MSRP of $250 in China, the market this device launched in. Judging it by a random Amazon price is nonsense as this device has not been released outside of Asia. Moorefield does outperform the A7 and the Snapdragon 801. Audio, as in the audio hub (3.5mm output), not the speaker quality. An international version of the hardware does come with the Google Play Store and Google Play services.
While this version is obviously not geared towards the US market, the hardware and software foundation is definitely there. Nokia and Foxconn will have to decide how to proceed globally, if it gets to that point. The Nokia N1 was announced towards the end of 2014, a refresh should be coming soon.
Do I think there are Android options at low cost that can match or beat the iPad in quality/performance like another user said? No, but devices like the Nokia N1 show a lot of promise, especially with Nokia focusing on re-entering the mobile market in 2016.
I own an Apple iPad Mini Retina(Gen 2) and my wife has the original iPad Mini(non-retina).
I can only share what I personally have used and witness and what my workplace has done. I don't know where Chromebooks slot into the sales tables but schools are buying them hand over fist. My school had roughly 10 Chromebook carts with approximately 40 laptops each arrive on our site last year and we are just an elementary school. Middle and High School are buying much more of them.
On a lark, I bought an Insignia Windows tablet which has 1 gig of ram, 32 gigs of storage, etc. It was $99 and I figured that since I don't own a Windows PC, I could remain somewhat technologically knowledgeable about Windows 8.1 and now 10 on it.
The Chromebooks have been a huge success. Their battery-life easily goes the entire schoolday play. I think they can get around 10-11 hrs of light use out of them. The screens can lay all the way flat and the USB ports allow us to use flash drives with them in addition to cloud storage. They can also be used as laptops with both a keyboard and a mouse. I've enjoyed using them so far with my class.
I've upgraded the Insignia tablet to Windows 10 and enjoy watching video, reading and especially browsing with Chrome on it most evenings. The battery life could be a bit better and it charges too slow for my taste but it is a very fair and capable tablet for the price point.
There are many things I love about my iPad but lately it seems that web browsing isn't one of them. Safari just seems to need to refresh tabs far too often. A few friends I know who do web development could be biased but they complain somewhat bitterly that Safari is far behind the times compared to Chrome and even Firefox. (I'm not a developer so I have no idea.) When I have to switch between tasks on the iPad it seems to store fewer apps in memory and needs to refresh them more often than the Windows tablet, etc.
I'm hoping iOS9 helps with the browsing issue regarding tabs and I am hoping Apple really ups their RAM game with the iPad refreshes. Part of what will affect my buying decisions with iPhone or iPad is amount of RAM and how they browse with it. I feel like Safari used to be much better than most competitors with RAM and TAB management but perhaps they've fallen behind the times or others have just progressed further along.
Going further, I think in the future that Apple should make sure iPads have double the RAM of iPhones since they are trying to differentiate but also because people are seeing iPads as laptop replacements and will be engaged in more demanding tasks on them. Apple could also help iPad sales by including more iCloud storage with them as a default and make it possible to combine with other iCloud allocations. Thus if you buy an iPhone, you might get 5 gigs of iCloud storage. (Really should be bumped in the future as well.) If you buy an iPad perhaps you get double that and it combines with the iPhone storage. So a baseline iPad could perhaps get 10 gigs of iCloud storage that would combine with the 5 gigs from iPhone for 15 gigs of storage. Higher physical storage could earn more cloud storage.
Ideally you'd have a scenario whereby you could shoot a bunch of video on your iPhone or compose some music and have it quickly go to iCloud where you could handle it more easily on the larger and more powerful iPad. Value-added proposition for users and Apple as well. More RAM, more iCloud storage and perhaps an improved camera module that all work together via some continuity feature.
Recently I became aware of serious drawback of iPad. It seems funny all the supposedly long term Apple fans have not mentioned it here or anywhere else. I was trying to use Apple Play+mirroring to display the iPad screen on a HD TV through Apple TV. The iPad screen displayed on the TV in a smaller area. This is not desirable as this is to let a group of people to be able to look at the iPad together.
Later, I tried to do this with an iPhone 5. Wow! The display almost occupied the entire TV screen. I found out this is because the iPad has a 4:3 aspect ratio. Take a look of the Android tablets. They all have a 16:9 aspect ratio. So I found out one feature the Android tablet is better than the iPad. I wonder if anyone in Apple has dared to tell Cook about this?
I think the iPhone designers in Apple are a different group of people from the iPad designers. The iPhone 4S has a 3.5" screen thus an aspect ratio of 4:3. Then Apple released iPhone 5 with 4" screen which is closer to 16:9. This is three years ago.
Well, not necessarily...
I work for small IT company in NZ... we provide support and management for around 1000 seats, give or take. While we are not the only source of hardware for our customers, we are the only source for setting up devices, so we have reasonably good visibility on trending when it comes to devices.
While iPhone and Android phones are quite equally represented among our customers, iPad was tablet of choice, while Androids were all but invisible. Well, that was until end of 2014.
Since end of 2014, it is pretty much Surface Pro 3. We have actually sold more SP3 in 2015 than all the laptops and desktops together, and customers are BYO them as well - in fact I don't recall when was the last time we did set up anything but Surface tablet.
Some of the customers are actively replacing laptops and desktops with this. It has serviceable docking station (with USB ports, LAN, multi-stream DisplayPort), so it can act as desktop replacement... type cover is not as comfortable as good laptop keyboard, but seems to be sufficient when away from the desk... and of course, it is tablet as well. It fits in existing system - AD, group policies, remote management (through Kaseya or other competing systems), it runs all the business software already running on PCs... understands all the printers... can access all the network shares... RDS works exactly the same as on PC... all the security authentication methods work exactly the same, down to USB tokens like Yubico... it is exactly what it is, a PC in convertible form.
With classic tablet, users still need a laptop or desktop, tablet is side-kick, not replacement. And then, they'll also need a phone. With Surface, they can get tablet functionality in device that can replace their conventional PC. One device less and less bulk to carry around. It does make sense.
Again, this is our experience. Don't know how applicable it is in general, but must be to some degree - our customers are normal business clients, some in finance, some in manufacturing, insurance... nothing too exotic and unusual.
Well, not necessarily...
I work for small IT company in NZ... we provide support and management for around 1000 seats, give or take. While we are not the only source of hardware for our customers, we are the only source for setting up devices, so we have reasonably good visibility on trending when it comes to devices.
While iPhone and Android phones are quite equally represented among our customers, iPad was tablet of choice, while Androids were all but invisible. Well, that was until end of 2014.
Since end of 2014, it is pretty much Surface Pro 3. We have actually sold more SP3 in 2015 than all the laptops and desktops together, and customers are BYO them as well - in fact I don't recall when was the last time we did set up anything but Surface tablet.
Some of the customers are actively replacing laptops and desktops with this. It has serviceable docking station (with USB ports, LAN, multi-stream DisplayPort), so it can act as desktop replacement... type cover is not as comfortable as good laptop keyboard, but seems to be sufficient when away from the desk... and of course, it is tablet as well. It fits in existing system - AD, group policies, remote management (through Kaseya or other competing systems), it runs all the business software already running on PCs... understands all the printers... can access all the network shares... RDS works exactly the same as on PC... all the security authentication methods work exactly the same, down to USB tokens like Yubico... it is exactly what it is, a PC in convertible form.
With classic tablet, users still need a laptop or desktop, tablet is side-kick, not replacement. And then, they'll also need a phone. With Surface, they can get tablet functionality in device that can replace their conventional PC. One device less and less bulk to carry around. It does make sense.
Again, this is our experience. Don't know how applicable it is in general, but must be to some degree - our customers are normal business clients, some in finance, some in manufacturing, insurance... nothing too exotic and unusual.
Yet, actual sales number don'T reflect your anecdote. Strange.
For me Surface3 build quality and usability is pretty blah and I'Ve been using Windows 10 and its nothing to write home about either.
You might be right... we'll see. MS is still quiet about actual SP3 numbers, beside selling much better than previous gens. However, this very article is saying that something is happening... I can see SP3 being part of it.
NZ might be specific regarding iPads and Apple in general, as in - beside iPhone - other Apple products are not as popular as they are in US. Don't know. We did fair share of iPad setups until recently... so there's that. Again, it can be completely anecdotal.
Re SP3 build quality and usability, I'd disagree. It is as usable as any PC, which is quite a bit - much as average business needs are concerned. Rest is, of course, matter of personal needs and preferences. And it's built quite well. I've seen some shattered screens due to drops - device is heavier than average ARM tablet - but beside that, it withholds normal usage well - including kickstand.
Win10, still to early to judge. Far as my opinion goes so far, it improves a lot over Win8.1 on desktops and laptops, but doesn't work any better in tablet mode. In fact, I prefer Win8.1 tablet than Win10 tablet at the moment, but again - that's only my personal opinion. It is also work in process - first service pack (or whatever they call them today) should be released shortly, second one in October, I think.
In my business meetings MBAs & iPads are still the rage (though again not really representative of all pro seats)
All that aside, are SP3s and other smearable PCs really being used as tablets? Or was it just the slightly cooler item against the super cheap WinPC options?