Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
What does a successful alternative to the iPad look like?
- Thread starter Blakjack
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
According to most postings on internet forums I've seen, a "true" tablet should be a dual booting Windows PC tablet with Android that is thin and light. In online forums, numerous posters claim they cannot wait to buy such tablet. (Remember how so many said they were disappointed the first iPad isn't a Macbook sans display?) I always wondered why Windows tablets busted when there are so many willing buyers when there are so many willing buyers online 
On a more realistic note, for now I think it has to be well built and beat the iPad's price by a significant margin. Nook color seems to be a decent example of such product. I am intrigued by HP's TouchPad but not sure if I want to shell out the same price as the iPad for it.
On a more realistic note, for now I think it has to be well built and beat the iPad's price by a significant margin. Nook color seems to be a decent example of such product. I am intrigued by HP's TouchPad but not sure if I want to shell out the same price as the iPad for it.
Better display, battery life, ecosystem of apps, and cost equal to or less than iPad -- in other words - it ain't happening this year.
There is the magic word - "for some." But we are discussing how a product can achieve main stream success, not catering to "some." If iTunes was that big of hindrance for general consumers, iPods would all have been beaten and the iPod Touch wouldn't be dominating its market as with the iPad. For some Linux is god's gift. For most not really. There has to be something more than USB mass storage access to the success of a product.
But surely if that were the only or the most major requirement, then the Xoom should be flying off the shelves?
I did say for some
As has been said elsewhere, there may be a market for iPad's and yet there may not really be a market for tablets, it's too soon to tell yet.
It needs iPad's to get a lot better before they are really guaranteed to be must have's in the long term.
We are still well in the fad/novelty time period. Let's see what another 5 or 10 years shows us.
Well, personally, I'm pretty sure I'd be using the iPad 5 years from now, if it never got better than the iPad 1. I mean, I wouldn't upgrade if it didn't improve, obviously, but for me, it is plenty useful as it is now, and yes, a "must have." Of course, I'm not a typical general user by any means, so what is must have for me isn't necessarily so for anyone else.
What would make the iPad "must have" for you?
My problem is, I suppose I just don't have a use for an iPad really.
I may listen to a podcast at night, but I could use anything for that.
I buy games, but almost never play them for more than a few goes (with a rare few exceptions)
I find it very slow using the web compared to my PC, just editing postings, copying links and flipping between pages, copying and pasting links is just a pain in the butt.
The screen is too small, and it does not have the power, the screen size, as I said, or the controls in order to run the programs I wish to run.
It's not that it's a bad device, its just a jack of all trades and master of none really.
Almost anything it does can be done better on another device.
One could say, it's worse at everything if you are being cruel.
If I'm being kind, then I'd say it's great at some things, but at the moment it's being asked to do things that just are not suitable for such a device.
And I'm talking fundamental issues, like a touch screen is only really suitable for some things. In the same way you would not take 1 design of car and try and make it do everything. No your would pick the car most suitable for the job.
Well, I'm using my iPad in Canada, where the 3G service providers think 250 megabytes of monthly usage is adequate, and 500 megs is positively generous (Telus), so...
My idea of the perfect iPad would be one that could be used with "unlimited" 3G (or successor, e.g. 4G) without costing an arm and a leg.
While we're fantasizing, how about a world where 3G data "just works" everywhere, instead of worrying about roaming data charges that could add up to thousands of dollars.
It would also offer really good battery life and have an SD slot built in. Oh, and Flash on the browser would be nice (not necessary, I suppose, but nice).
I would argue that the iPad's specialty is being portable. I replaced my Windows netbook with the iPad, and have not looked back (despite the netbook being, technically, much more capable). I find myself often keeping my iPad on the bedside table so I can read one more chapter, check Facebook one more time, watch one more episode on Netflix, etc, while sitting in bed. Something I could never get comfortable doing on my laptop, even when that laptop was a 12" PowerBook.
My idea of the perfect iPad would be one that could be used with "unlimited" 3G (or successor, e.g. 4G) without costing an arm and a leg.
While we're fantasizing, how about a world where 3G data "just works" everywhere, instead of worrying about roaming data charges that could add up to thousands of dollars.
It would also offer really good battery life and have an SD slot built in. Oh, and Flash on the browser would be nice (not necessary, I suppose, but nice).
I would argue that the iPad's specialty is being portable. I replaced my Windows netbook with the iPad, and have not looked back (despite the netbook being, technically, much more capable). I find myself often keeping my iPad on the bedside table so I can read one more chapter, check Facebook one more time, watch one more episode on Netflix, etc, while sitting in bed. Something I could never get comfortable doing on my laptop, even when that laptop was a 12" PowerBook.
Last edited:
I do kind of agree with you on this, with the caveat that for me, it's the best ereader available. I know many people prefer eink screens, but for me eink has too low contrast. Apart from that though, yes, most things I do on the iPad can be done better on a desktop computer. But the iPad offers me the mobility to do things away from the desk. Like right now, I'm writing this post in the living room while watching a basketball game on TV. Now, some people might prefer a laptop or smartphone for this, but to me a laptop is too big and a smartphone too small. iPad is just right.
Same goes for all the other things I do on my iPad. It goes where a desktop cannot go, and while for some of the tasks I do on the go, I might look to my Air or my Touch, most of the time it is the iPad that is just right.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)
Oh yeah, a world where our Tekecoms are follow the ideas ... Like fast speed, less congestion, true flat rates with tethering... Without SimLocks.
So it's that we see nice things like FaceTime but just can't it because the ports are blocked, or it against TermOfSerivce.
Apples and Androids are ahead of what is reality for many of us.
That will not get better if we (have to) move to the cloud.
Oh yeah, a world where our Tekecoms are follow the ideas ... Like fast speed, less congestion, true flat rates with tethering... Without SimLocks.
So it's that we see nice things like FaceTime but just can't it because the ports are blocked, or it against TermOfSerivce.
Apples and Androids are ahead of what is reality for many of us.
That will not get better if we (have to) move to the cloud.
The problem I see with Piggie's comment is that he's confusing two things: touch tablet and iPad: many of the shortcoming brought up by him, such as the lack of keyboard and the small size, is inherent to pretty much any tablet yet he's not making any distinction on whether he's criticizing iPad-specific weaknesses or tablets as a whole. He even went so far to say "We are still well in the fad/novelty time period" but is that for all the tablets or just iPads?
For the same token, almost any modern post-iPad tablet with a competent graphical engine and a good display is an excellent ereader / media consumption device. The only problem is how much content is available to each platform and so far the iPad has more tablet-optimized content available than any other so the question would be what the competition can do to break iPad's grip on this. Some people, say flexengineer, have been adamantly claiming Flash would be the key to pretty much every problem related to the content but I have my doubt...
Software wise, it could be anything...windows, android, web OS, anything, as long as it does the following things as well or better than Apple...
Touch sensitivity
Clean intuitive GUI
a wide variety of quality malware/virus free apps
access to a huge music/video store
Seamless integration with a wide variety of desktop apps and web/cloud services.
Hardware wise, thinner, lighter, higher res screen, longer battery life.
And importantly, brick and mortar customer service
I'm happy to switch to whatever device might pull all these things off, but so far it has only been, and seems like it will remain, the iPad.
Touch sensitivity
Clean intuitive GUI
a wide variety of quality malware/virus free apps
access to a huge music/video store
Seamless integration with a wide variety of desktop apps and web/cloud services.
Hardware wise, thinner, lighter, higher res screen, longer battery life.
And importantly, brick and mortar customer service
I'm happy to switch to whatever device might pull all these things off, but so far it has only been, and seems like it will remain, the iPad.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8H7 Safari/6533.18.5)
The specs and style are not the issue. It needs a easy to use UI and a strong app community. All these companies are trying to just create product after product. Apple had been building brand equity for years and now they are reaping the benefits. Android fragmentation is holding back android. And the playbook has no apps and seems rushed to market
The specs and style are not the issue. It needs a easy to use UI and a strong app community. All these companies are trying to just create product after product. Apple had been building brand equity for years and now they are reaping the benefits. Android fragmentation is holding back android. And the playbook has no apps and seems rushed to market
Tablets don't interest me.
Big screen and IOS does = Ipad.
I have a PC for flash and all the USB ports. Ipad is great!
Big screen and IOS does = Ipad.
I have a PC for flash and all the USB ports. Ipad is great!
You realize the iPad is a tablet right? So while not all tablets interest you, ones with iOS seem to.
A touchscreen version of WebTV? I think the iPhone and other cellphones with similar screens would make such a device rather DOA (WebTV itself pretty much is dead for similar reasons), though perhaps it would be able to find a small, niche market (again, the way I think WebTV still does).