Tablets: The Market We See Today!

[MarkWF1]

As a few of you know by now, I'm one to be into watching markets. Specially when it's in areas of interest to me. Android versus Apple is one of my tech area's of interest. This leads us to what I've been seeing in the emerging tablet market. So far the android market in the area of tablets is hurting. Article showing a graph of Tablet sales against Apple

In the last few weeks I've been watching all kinds of tablet news in respect to new devices that are either on there way, or are already out. Using Best Buy as my benchmark for sales and delivery of the product. I'm sorry to say there falling way short of what it's going to take to really get a foothold in the market.

Now for myself I'm interested to see what the market holds for 10+ inch tabs. The six to seven inch tabs to me really aren't a tablet in the sense I'm looking for. The first one out that really caught my eye was the Motorola Xoom. I took it home from the store and returned it within a week of the test drive. Why? Because I soon found out what was happening in the driving force behind these tablets. Media! It is my opinion that media is what is and will be driving the sales of these devices. (It's what I want as a consumer.)

So far each device has a lock out in media. What I am seeing in the market is the forces behind the media distribution are locking out the big boys. Netflix is the main one for inexpensive movie offerings to the consumer, so there my benchmark here. Many of the company's have there own distribution outlets. Samsung, Best Buy and more are all showing up with there own media hubs trying to sell movies.

Until the device makers can realize that without an open market there devices are doomed to failure. And or the media outlets realize that without the devices, there sales are seriously curtailed.. I think you get the point I'm trying to make here. We live in a supply and demand free market economy, yet these company's want to play hard ball with the consumer and think they will make it. By locking out the other guy.. In the end my point is this. Let the consumer decide were he wants to go and allow for a free market. The media hub that sells it for the best price and brings the best services to there outlet will be the one that wins..

In the end and in closing. I see a future of hardship for the consumer in the next few years. As it is there education that will bring up the demand. I'm just hoping that the tablet manufacturers and the media outlets can get it all worked out before they sour the customer on what could very well be a revolution in sales. Sales of Media and Sales of Tablets.. One cant go without the other!


Yours through the screen

MarkWF1

 

[Tom T]

You may have missed Amazons entry into the equation. They have a name trusted by consumers much like Apple, and are building the infrastructure of a marketplace that may well be able to compete with iTunes. To tie this all together they will soon offer branded tablets running Android that may set a standard that can make the whole thing work.
The beauty of competition in an open marketplace is that the consumer nearly always wins.
Sent from my GT-P1010 using Android Tablet Forum

 

[MarkWF1]

Tom..Nope didn't miss it. I'm watching them all pretty closely. I didn't mean to slight anyone by not mentioning them.. And your right there moving in the right direction.. Fun to watch isn't it? ;-) One of the main reasons I haven't jumped into the water as of yet, is because I'm waiting to see what happens in the next year or so.. Once it breaks open the way I feel it should, I'll jump in. Only reason I will buy early now is because I want something to play with.. What can I say, I'm a geek that likes to play with new things.

P.S. For myself I like what I see in the subscription models of services. Brings the price down and allows for a more robust service. Articles, Interactions with the customer base etc etc.. For example I love Rhapsody. I also subscribe to Netflix.. To me this is the wave of the future..

 

[MarkWF1]

This is what I'm talking about. Streaming media, the cloud, video, music etc etc. This is what will drive the sales of tablets in the end.. The consumer wants the media, the device is what will/ or wont deliver the media they want.. Lock them out and they wont buy your device.. Article on the growth of the streaming media market

Just realized that this article is a couple years old. any one have fresher data please feel free to post it. MF.

 

[Tom T]

Amazon seems to know this (no real suprise there) as streaming movies seem to be part of their plan. Its unclear, to me at least, wether this will be limited to their branded tablets or available to all. Which, I suppose, brings up a reasonable concern for Android platform content providers: do you try to cater to the widest possible variance of devices or set a strict standard to be met to gain access. I believe Amazon will take the latter of the two options as it may well be the only way to compete with Apple, which has this luxury by default (they are both the content provider and hardware provider). Funny really, because in this scenario the content providers will determine our future hardware choices. Can you imagine a market where someone writes a piece of software first and then the scramble ensues to build the hardware that can run it. I supose this already happens to a degree, especially with graphics accelerators, but the landscape is certainly changing.

Sent from my GT-P1010 using Android Tablet Forum

 

[MarkWF1]

No Amazon will distribute to all but here is my point in spades!

There coming out with a tablet.. The tablet will be locked to allow only there distribution hub.. This is exactly what I'm talking about.. I want to be able to pick and choose what service I want to be able to use, not be forced by my choice of device what service I am going to use.. You see my point?

I will keep doing my small part to point out what is happening in the market and hope that the general public picks up on it and rallys against it.. Bottom line I like and want an Android/Google device. Mainly because I believe in an open market. But if you take away the open market with how you configure your device. I might as well buy Apple. This is the whole difference between Android/Google and Apple. Its what makes or "made" Google so strong. This fundimental belief in the open market. Or it was to start but the market is getting slanted in how it is developing and taking this away from us.

The general public is just to nieve at this point to see it.. In the end the hackers and those that can root there machines are the only ones that can get around this.. To me this is just a rip off of the general public that they are too ignorant to see at this point..

Starting to get disillusioned with Google and the Android platform pretty fast if this keeps up..

Yours through the screen

MarkWF1

 

[skoster]

Well, if you believe in an open market, you kinda have to accept the fragments that such a market creates. That's the whole point, competition. Frankly, I believe that the open market is ALWAYS a path to a ripoff of the general public, because the driving force is always profits.

Personally, I don't think the whole purpose behind tablets is, or should be thought to be, media consumption. It narrows the view and the field considerably. I can count on one hand how many times I've done any media consumption on my tablet, but I've scheduled hundreds of appointments, sent countless work emails, edited reports, followed the gps, and generally made my working life far easier.

Someone makes a tablet which can handle all of my work related things at a reasonable price, without having to root it or otherwise screw around, and I predict that the millions of people like me who really just want to be able to get through the working day more easily will buy them.

As far as I'm concerned iPad can have the video watchers, let Android take the people who have things to actually do.

 

[Tom T]

Android may simply not be the answer, and with Apple being a locked platform the answer may be a windows tablet.They are getting cheaper, more powerful, and they wake from a sleep state fast ( not quite instant on but getting closer). An embedded windows product could get even better.

Sent from my GT-P1010 using Android Tablet Forum

 

[RJazz117]

I'm thinking the manufacturer that truly opens their devices, and allows you to install whichever OS and/or software you'd like on it (just like a PC) is the one that wins. Right now, the most open devices run Android.

I wouldn't be surprised to learn of someone trying to port Linux to them already though, and I'd be interested in insalling it if they managed to cobble together a working distro.

Anyway, this tablet I have is three times as powerful as my first PC, and it ran Windows and played videos and mp3s and everything else a PC could do at the time, so I see no reason these things can't as well. All the right "stuff" is there, the only thing missing is the code.

Meanwhile, I guess I'll stick with Froyo, and see what "stuff" I can get rid of to keep this little computer speedy.

RJazz117

Sent from my Sylvania 10" Magni Tablet using Android Tablet Forum.

 

[Tom T]

Actually Android is based on Linux, I already run a linux distro on my old Archos 5IT. If the OS supports the processor you are trying to run it on its possible someone could port the OS to the device. The beauty of Linux is that odds are if it has a processor someone has probably tried to port Linux to it.

Sent from my GT-P1010 using Android Tablet Forum

 

[skoster]

The problem with both Windows and the various non-android distros of Linux is that they really don't work very well for small screens with only touch input. I haven't figured out the perfect size tablet for me yet, but it's somewhere around the size of my S7 (except in a 4:3 aspect ratio). Win 7 barely works with touch on my TM2 laptop, I cannot imagine it on a tablet. Another non-Android Linux distro may be the answer; however it might need something besides X windows since I haven't seen an X windows based gui that would really work for small and medium form factor tablets.

 

[RJazz117]

Yeah, I know Android is Linux-based, but I had a more full distro in mind...something put together with these devices in mind.

RJazz117

Sent from my Sylvania 10" Magni Tablet using Android Tablet Forum.

 

[Tom T]

Rumor has it that Apple is working on an OSx tablet, which is basically a highly optimisef version of xwindows running over a version of bsdunix as I undwrstand it, but Apple seems to have made it clear the iPad has the smallest size screen that it considers useful for a tablet, and an OSx tablet will likely have a considerably larger screen than that.
It will be interesting to see where webos goes and what kind of interest there is from other compamies in licenaing it.

Sent from my VM670 using Android Tablet Forum

 

[MarkWF1]

Good to see you guys have been chiming in on the topic. I enjoy seeing other's with some interest and smarts on the topic put in there points of view. I was going to start a new thread to post this article I just found, but it pairs with this thread to well to do that. This article pretty much points out my whole point. Do locked in markets help or hinder the market??

The next OS battle: Windows vs iOS vs Android | News | TechRadar UK


This one quote from the article reaffirms my point and pretty much says it all..

"Locked in:
Firms don't just want to sell you a single bit of kit any more. They want to sell you an ecosystem - and the more bits of the ecosystem you invest in, the more difficult it is for you to jump ship."


Good article enjoy!

Yours through the screen

MarkWF1