Before you rush out and get a Xoom...

[Kargurin]

I played around with the Xoom at BB today.....and in the interests of full disclosure I own an iPad 1 and Droid X.

I love the Xoom OS. Quite honestly I think it trashes the IPad. Too bad the Xoom is gonna get killed in the marketplace. There were three people I saw around the iPad kiosk and the Xoom was all alone....except me! The app disadvantage is hard to ignore but I found text quality superior to the iPad 1 and speed too (granted I'm comparing a new tech with my IPad 1.) And the multitasking user interface of the Xoom.....far superior IMO. The apple OS just felt like a dinosaur. It simply wasn't designed for a tablet but the Xoom OS clearly is.

 

[freebirdforever]

I played around with the Xoom at BB today.....and in the interests of full disclosure I own an iPad 1 and Droid X.

I love the Xoom OS. Quite honestly I think it trashes the IPad. Too bad the Xoom is gonna get killed in the marketplace. There were three people I saw around the iPad kiosk and the Xoom was all alone....except me! The app disadvantage is hard to ignore but I found text quality superior to the iPad 1 and speed too (granted I'm comparing a new tech with my IPad 1.) And the multitasking user interface of the Xoom.....far superior IMO. The apple OS just felt like a dinosaur. It simply wasn't designed for a tablet but the Xoom OS clearly is.

Duh? This has been well documented by now. However, saying that iOS was not optimized for tablets is....a stretch. It obviously has been.

The xoom is a beta device. That's why moto stopped production of the 3g versions since they aren't selling.

 

[Kargurin]

One small problem I have with the Apple OS....eh, it has no desktop. It's a sea of icons. It's eternal....the way it's been the way it will always be. Probably. I don't know how you optimize that other than giving it pseudo multitasking. Yep the xoom is a little buggy but I enjoyed using it. The real test in the marketplace will come with the wifi which will cut the price considerably.

But Apple will easily prevail in the short run no doubt just on the basis of it's incredible branding, having a polished (though somewhat backward) product, and a big advantage with apps. On the negative side, no flash is a biggie for alot of people....including financial investment people (like myself) who like to follow stock charts. Which are almost universally flashed and unreadable on an iPad. People want simple.....the iPad is simple. Personified. Again, disclosure....I own both platforms so I'm not hating. I like the iPad I just think its tech is getting long in the tooth and the lack of flash is getting real bothersome.

 

[tzimisce]

But Apple will easily prevail in the short run no doubt just on the basis of it's incredible branding, having a polished (though somewhat backward) product, and a big advantage with apps. On the negative side, no flash is a biggie for alot of people....including financial investment people (like myself) who like to follow stock charts.

The lack of Flash is an issue for some people, but judging how iPads have been flying off the shelves by the millions, obviously it is not a problem for even more people. Apple has the first-mover advantage (coming on a year already and counting) and strategically, that kind of lead is very difficult for competitors to overturn.

 

[zorah]

And there are the alternative browsers for Flash that while not ideal, seem to work. I even have Skyfire. The laugh though is that I have yet to find I need it! I use my iPad for so much more than browsing. Sure-it's a big part, but the productivity and e-reader apps are equally big. Flash always gets cited as the iOS negative, but it's so true that it sure doesn't seem to stop the iPad 2 from selling and from people buying used first generation models or clearance/refurb models.

 

[tzimisce]

I think those who claim that Apple's dominance will not last because their operating system is "better" or they're selling more Android devices have missed the point that Apple, after having one whole year to itself in the tablet market, has a very solid first-mover advantage. You cannot underestimate the strength of having that because a first-mover advantage effectively prevents competitors from gaining traction against your market share, regardless of how good the competing product is.

For example, look at the iPod in the digital player space, or Google in search engines, or Facebook in social networks. Right now there are 15 million+ iPad owners out there already, and even if a competitor comes up with a superior product, they aren't going to just abandon their investment (financial and emotional) as long as the iPad is good enough to keep their loyalty.

 

[ipfuser653]

Using Google or Facebook actually shows the opposite of the example you were making, as both took on and ousted a major incumbent (Yahoo and Livejournal respectively). Saying that, I do agree that anyone coming into the tablet space has a lot of hard work to do to not only take Apple on, but to make their own tablets a better system than the one Apple has, otherwise people won't see a reason to change. However, Apple are their own example of a new player taking on the incumbent and carving out a major slice of the Market, in the way they have knocked Nokia down from it's previously unassailable position.

Just because they look unassailable doesn't mean their not, just that they have to work twice as hard to keep ahead, something that will only benefit the consumer.

Have fun,
Gleth

 

[Gabriel1]

Using Google or Facebook actually shows the opposite of the example you were making, as both took on and ousted a major incumbent (Yahoo and Livejournal respectively). Saying that, I do agree that anyone coming into the tablet space has a lot of hard work to do to not only take Apple on, but to make their own tablets a better system than the one Apple has, otherwise people won't see a reason to change. However, Apple are their own example of a new player taking on the incumbent and carving out a major slice of the Market, in the way they have knocked Nokia down from it's previously unassailable position.

Just because they look unassailable doesn't mean their not, just that they have to work twice as hard to keep ahead, something that will only benefit the consumer.

Have fun,
Gleth

I have to agree with that plus most manufacturers have a shop window of individual devices whereas Apple have a whole family of complimentary devices which all work together seamlessly. They don't share their OS's, so it's not just the hardware that is complimentary it is the software as well, from phones to desktops to tablets to Apple TV, it all works, it's all stable, it's all seamless and to top it all it's all good quality and desirable. Who knows in ten years time I might be a Dell fanboy (although I highly doubt it!) but for someone to knock them down they are going to need more than one device, and like it or not a locked down OS, why, because having it locked down provides stability.

The Archangel

 

[xasdta]

Thanks for the great post. My cousin was saying how safe Xoom is ..now i can show him this. LOL

 

[Vocali05]

I think google did an excelent job of removing the bad apples from devices and eradicating the situation

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

 

[thekarens]

Thanks for the great post. My cousin was saying how safe Xoom is ..now i can show him this. LOL

Seriously? Ios was hacked in pwn2own in like 5 seconds. No os is fool proof.



Sent from my HTC Evo 4g

 

[tzimisce]

Using Google or Facebook actually shows the opposite of the example you were making, as both took on and ousted a major incumbent (Yahoo and Livejournal respectively).

Actually, I've never considered either Yahoo or Livejournal (who?) as major incumbents in their respective markets at all.

With search engines it was a pretty fragmented pie - Yahoo was in there somewhere, alongside Lycos and Altavista, and Yahoo have by their own admission are "not a search engine" (although you can happen to also do search.) Livejournal is essentially a blogging place (which has its own market), and not even close to Facebook in terms of social networking offering and service, so not comparable. MySpace would be a better comparison for Facebook and they preceded Facebook, but they patently failed to retain their first-mover advantage.

 

[Tinman]

I also would say it was MySpace and not LiveJournal.

But I also think MySpace blew it too. They had the chance for sure. But it became more of a child's playground, and graphically assaulting IMO. Facebook was cleaner, consistent, and you didn't people who know nothing about designing "creating" garbage that you have to look at to read their page.

Contrast that to Apple being first with the iPad. That was very well done, and followed up with a worthy followup... and people already waiting for the followup to that.



Michael

 

[tzimisce]

Contrast that to Apple being first with the iPad. That was very well done, and followed up with a worthy followup... and people already waiting for the followup to that.

Actually Apple did the same thing with iPod: before the iPod, there wasn't much of a digial player market. Since it appeared, through successive generations of redesigns (e.g. iPod Nano), the iPod still remains overall the dominant device in its market. Competitors have clawed back some market share, but it also looks like that's as much as they'll manage to.

 

[iPadCharlie]

Since it appeared, through successive generations of redesigns (e.g. iPod Nano), the iPod still remains overall the dominant device in its market.

But it isn't just the device alone that makes iPods so successful. Apple offers the device AND also provides the major source of content. Like many others, I have some issues with the functionality of iTunes, but it provides a constant revenue stream for Apple and that is at the core (no pun intended) of their success.

Before I bought my first iPod many many years ago, I used to buy MP3's from Wal-Mart's web site, but I don' know if they even offer that any more. Their only other real competitor in terms of music is Amazon. Once in a while there is something really obscure that is only available in a digital format from Amazon, but for the most part, iTunes rules the music market.

As a side note (and totally off topic), that is what is so surprising that these roles are exactly reversed when it comes to books. If Apple and Amazon would ever collaborate (which won't ever happen), they would completely be in control of content.

[/rant] OFF