Sorry, but the thread concerned the new Lenovo tablet in comparison with the iPad. That seems a legitimate topic of discussion, at least to me. Especially if it illuminates features of the iPad. And that was the subject of my original post. I certainly agree that it degenerated into us vs them silliness, but that seems to be the result of fanboy reaction, not the nature of the topic itself.
As an aside, it does appear that iPad discussion forums differ in terms of users' tolerance for a diversity of opinion. I've read and participated in a number of these discussions on other forums and found them to be both civil and enlightening. Sad to see that was not the case here.
The situation was a little bit similar in the iPhone forum last summer.
This entire year has been dominated by a series of threads with intentionally inflammatory thread titles such as "Lenovo is brining the pain with their new tablet" and myriad others involving any number of tablets from any number of OEMS.
Inevitably there are a number of hardware features that individuals claim as being superior to iPad and individuals who respond note the shortcomings of Honeycomb and the developer community associated with it.
I think if there happens to be a mega-thread that deals with the Honeycomb OEMs versus iOS on the iPad that would be one thing, but every new thread rehashes the same tired arguments.
The bottom line is that until Google does something demonstrably different with Honeycomb or an OEM does something demonstrably different, such as offer a complete package of applications to compete with what makes iPad a success, there is going to be a certain level of backlash in such threads.
The cycle is such:
1. New thread created with inflammatory title about some new OEM offering something in the tablet space. Supporters of new device state added hardware features such as USB, hdmi, SD slot, tegra whatever, etc. They also lambast the "tired UI" and "closed nature of iOS" and the very tired "Flash" debate.
2. Individuals rightfully retort that such device offers nothing fundamentally new besides a number of hardware features or skins for Android and have not addressed some of the assumed reasons why iPad has been successful.
3. There is a back and forth over hardware features, how app numbers are irrelevant, and flash.
Basically until someone is proven to be really successful at an equivalent level as an Android phone OEM, we are discussing lipstick on a pig and that is a fundamental truth.