iPad 2 – Why not?

I’ve considered getting an iPad lately. A few days ago I voiced this thought to my friends, who completely raged. Funny thing with Apple products, they spark love, or hate. Either you’re a fierce hater of Apple products, or you love them. Back to my friends. They could not belive that I was considering buying such an, and I quote: “Overpriced, no-use, luxury, closed in, and piece of shit”-product. They promptly suggested that I rather should buy a Samsung Galaxy Tab, or even the Xoom, which has yet to hit the stores btw. Let’s study this statements, shall we?

Price

One of the most used arguments against buying an iPad it its price tag, some people seem to believe that its way to overpriced to for a tablet you should consider buying.  The low-end iPad, 16 GB WiFi edition, comes in  at 499$. The Samsung Galaxy Tab is priced at 600$ dollars. Already the iPad wins hands down. Of course, you can’t make cellphone calls with an iPad, but let’s face it; who want to hold a 7 inch device with one hand while making a call? Come on, it looks ridiculously, and is rather unpractical. Yes, I’m aware that the Galaxy Tab has inbuilt 3G network, and the iPad price quoted is for a model without 3G. The most affordable iPad 3G model comes in at 629$, so it’s a whopping 29$ more expensive than the Galaxy Tab. Rather anti climatic ey?

Closed ecosystem

Another much used argument against the iPad, and other iOS products, is that Apple has its fat iron fist wrapped around all these products. No app is allowed to go live on the App Store before it has been Apple approved. Apple is also known for declining apps which replace, or replicate core functionality of the iOS system. Still, despite the strict regime of Apple, the App Store is filled with apps, both useful and not-so-useful. As of this writing, the App Store has more than 350 000 apps, and over 10 000 000 000 (Yeah, three are that many zeroes) total downloads [Source]. Most of these apps are designed with the iPhone and iPad touch in mind, but will run on the iPad. There are also more than 30 000 apps specifically made for the iPad. The Android Market on the other hand, which is 100% free, anyone can submit an app, has less than 100 native apps for Android powered tablets [Source]. So, you have to choose between buying  an iPad, with a closed in ecosystem, but with more than 30 000 apps made for the iPad, or buy an Android powered tablet with less than 100 native apps? I do grasp the ideological arguments people make against Apples app policy, but come on? 30 000+ apps vs less than 100? Those numbers outweigh  the agony of Apple ruling with its iron fist.

Browsing

iPad 2 wins hands down

Smaller numbers are better

When the iPhone was first launched, it revolutionized the mobile browsing experience. The ease of use, and the quality of the Safari web browser stumped all other mobile browsers on the market. This is still the trend. As you can see by this benchmark [Source] the iPad’s browser has a superior JavaScript performance compared to the Samsung Galaxy tab. One should however note that the Android OS was winning this benchmark until Apple released the iOS 4.3, which featured an updated and optimized JavaScript engine.  The only real downside with the Safari mobile web browser used by the iOS, is the lack of flash. Apple has refused to build this in, criticizing its bad performance, and extreme power draw. Some tests showed that using flash enabled bowers more than halved the usage time of mobile products due to the increased power draw.

It would of course be nice to have a flash enabled web browser, since most sites still contain flash elements, even tho they’re moving over to HTML 5 based elements, which the iOS supports. Apple could add this support, and include an easy toggle for people to either turn on or off flash support in on their iOS products.

Performance

People owning tablets use them for more than browsing and checking their mail. Games on tablets is a marked in strong growth. Customers are demanding more and more life-like graphics. To do all this, you need your tablet to be able to render a lot of data quickly

The following benchmark [Source] shows that the new iPad 2 is more than twice as fast at the yet not released Motorola Xoom. The iPad is clearly winning this one. Not only does it have to power to render high detail game, its App Store also has apps and games which leverage this power. Among these games is Infinity Blade by Epic Games. The game was originally released to showcase the power of the iPad, but has grown to become a popular game on the iPad. The game has now been updated to take advantage of the much more powerful iPad 2, and the results are stunning. A gallery showing the crisp graphics can be seen here [Touch Arcade].

Software support

When Android was first released it was thought of the start a new era for mobile OSes. Google allowed manufacturers to take advantage of the open source Android, and add their own flavour. Soon the Android scene got fragmented with different user interfaces, widgets and so on. The manufactures are in a never-ending race to produce more and more stunning visuals for their phones. Sadly this has  created a problem for Android users. When a new Android version comes out, the manufactures tend to release new phones with the new Android version, leaving customers with older handsets out in the cold.  If you want a phone with the new Android version, you might need to invest in a new mobile phone.  This quickly gets expensive.  Apple on the other hand has a track record for updating older iOS devices with new iOS versions when they’re released. This means that you with an iPad can be guaranteed to get updates from Apple for 2-3 years, most likely for free.

Conclusion

I will most likely buy an iPad and not an Android powered tablet in the future. Not because the iPad is hip, not because it has an Apple logo on it. Not because I’m a fanboy. I will however by an iPad because it is in my opinion a superior product compared to Android based tablets.

What do you guys think? Is the iPad the best tablet, or will Android tablets evolve over time to take the lead?


  • Angrydroid

    I’m fairly certain you need a credit card to purchase this at an apple store. This is something I am unwilling to do for financial reasons.

    • http://www.techtach.org Sven Bakken

      That is a valid argument. I do however believe that you can buy it through other stores than Apples, without having to use a credit card. Is having to use a credit card the only thing that would steer you in the direction of not getting an iPad, and instead acquiring an Android based tablet? That is if you’re going to buy a tablet.

      • Angrydroid

        Possibly. I am not exactly anti-Apple out of any brand-loyalty factor. I just don’t like their proprietary formulas and technological politics. I also loathe iTunes and being tethered to that has steered me away as well. I like open source devices. And I also tend to prefer to stay behind-the-curve technologically. I’m a musician so what I drool over on the iPad specifically are the audio apps. But Korg makes some nice products for the Nintendo DS and so, believe it or not, I am content for now with that. The problem with the Android is that a lot of the apps appear to be garbage… but I can’t say I’ve really looked into it all that much. But that would probably be the deciding factor in me not getting anything at all.

        • http://www.techtach.org Sven Bakken

          I agree with you on the Apple being “closed in” and too restrictive. Especially the forced us of iTunes.

          I’m also drawn to Open Source devices. The problem with Android is that it’s in reality not Open Source. Sure, the base Android OS is Open Source, but all the OS, UI, and other vendor specific add-ons are not. This practically makes Android as closed source as Apple’s iOS. Atleast from the end users perspective.

          The App Store is however thriving, with an abundance of apps. The difference in mentality between the App Store , and the Android Market is the amount of control exhibited by the company “owning” the Store. Apple’s take on a good App Store is a store where they have absolute control over what enters the stores. The Android store on the other hand is much more open. This has however lead to some nasty cases where Apps are stealing the private information from users of some apps from the Android Store. Google has latly taken a step in Apple’s direction, by removing such fraudulent apps, and started working on something that is more like Apple’s policy on reviewing apps before letting users download them. So, if I have to chose between a store where only apps that are tested and proved to be safe are allowed to enter, and a store where basically everything goes, I’d definitely use the first.

          Trust me, a lot of apps on the App Store are close to garbage, but they at least want steal your private information like certain apps on the Android market has.

          As a platform, both OSes have things that need to be sorted out before we can call them perfect. I do however find the Apple product to be the best.

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