Xoom update system much better than ipad

[vrDrew]

Bring up points is one thing but don't bring up the app part, iPad didn't have a ton of optimized apps right away.

There were 2,000 iPad-specific Apps available the day iPad launched. Including Apple's own suite of productivity Apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote.) But also Epicurious; Scrabble; ABC Player; NPR; Pandora Radio; New york Times; Wall Street Journal; etc. et.c

I don't know exactly how many equivalent Xoom-optimized apps there are. But if there are a hundred, I'd be surprised. And please tell me if there is ANYTHING in the Android market thats equivalent to the Apple-produced productivity Apps.

My last comment on the Motorola Xoom "upgrade" joke: Take a look at the Getting Ready guide published by Verizon. Before you send your Xoom off for its theoretical upgrade, you have to connect via USB, and then dig down through all the files and folders to manually back them up to your computer's hard drive. And when the Xoom comes back, then you put it all back again.

I simply cannot imagine my mother, my (less technically adept) brother, or 95% of the people I know wanting to go through such a process.

That, all on its own, is why Apple is succesful selling devices like the iPad. And the Motorolas of the world are doomed (Xoomed?) to failure.

 

[Mitchrapp]

There were 2,000 iPad-specific Apps available the day iPad launched. Including Apple's own suite of productivity Apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote.) But also Epicurious; Scrabble; ABC Player; NPR; Pandora Radio; New york Times; Wall Street Journal; etc. et.c

I don't know exactly how many equivalent Xoom-optimized apps there are. But if there are a hundred, I'd be surprised. And please tell me if there is ANYTHING in the Android market thats equivalent to the Apple-produced productivity Apps.

My last comment on the Motorola Xoom "upgrade" joke: Take a look at the Getting Ready guide published by Verizon. Before you send your Xoom off for its theoretical upgrade, you have to connect via USB, and then dig down through all the files and folders to manually back them up to your computer's hard drive. And when the Xoom comes back, then you put it all back again.

I simply cannot imagine my mother, my (less technically adept) brother, or 95% of the people I know wanting to go through such a process.

That, all on its own, is why Apple is succesful selling devices like the iPad. And the Motorolas of the world are doomed (Xoomed?) to failure.

Exactly, iPad is meant for the casuals and the less techie people. Like your brother and mother. But it's too bad for the Apple owners who are techie and want more.

Apple moves slow, don't get me wrong the iPad was ingenious but they're talking about little upgrades to the 2nd gen and much more in the 3rd gen. Why not just go balls out and make big upgrades right away. Not Apples way I guess.

 

[jclardy]

This is very much what the iPad was sold on when it first released. Except without the Flash and LTE.

Not exactly, the iPad SDK was released around 3 months before the iPad launched so there were quite a few iPad optimized apps at launch. I still don't think it has realized its full potential in apps yet but it has much improved since then.

Honeycomb on the other hand just had its preview SDK released less than a month ago and it's release SDK came out about a week ago.

So that means 3rd party devs trying to make Honeycomb apps are 2-3 months behind where iPad devs were when the iPad launched.

I think Apps will come on Honeycomb, but probably at a much slower rate at least until there is more hardware in people's hands. (Also partly because the Honeycomb Simulator runs ultra slow compared to the iPad simulator because it is an actual hardware emulator versus Apple compiling for x86).

 

[gloss]

Not exactly, the iPad SDK was released around 3 months before the iPad launched so there were quite a few iPad optimized apps at launch. I still don't think it has realized its full potential in apps yet but it has much improved since then.

Honeycomb on the other hand just had its preview SDK released less than a month ago and it's release SDK came out about a week ago.

So that means 3rd party devs trying to make Honeycomb apps are 2-3 months behind where iPad devs were when the iPad launched.

I think Apps will come on Honeycomb, but probably at a much slower rate at least until there is more hardware in people's hands. (Also partly because the Honeycomb Simulator runs ultra slow compared to the iPad simulator because it is an actual hardware emulator versus Apple compiling for x86).

Yeah, this is fair. I do think people are unfairly slagging the Xoom for issues that are not necessarily Motorola's problem (Flash not being ready for Tegra 2, Honeycomb not being quite ready for primetime yet). I think it's a solid piece of hardware that will only improve with time. And heck, if you have a certain set of priorities, it's a superior device to the (current) iPad in a number of ways.

We shouldn't complain about having options.

 

[kdarling]

Re: initial apps.

Yes, a Honeycomb version of various apps using side-by-side fragments (pages) will be great to have, but it's not as huge a deal, because:

A major difference between the iPad and Android tablets, is that most Android phone apps expand to fill the extra screen space and show more information.

So there almost _had_ to be a Pulse iPad version because the iPhone version looked stupid being shown in a little window or x2 pixellated zoom. There doesn't _have_ to be a Pulse Honeycomb version to show more sections on the extra Xoom screen space.

There _had_ to be an iPad Angry Birds to fill the screen. Again, no such need with Android.

Ditto for most other apps. Android tablets already have tens of thousands of usable full screen choices, even if not tablet oriented.

 

[Consultant]

Maybe they'll install a WORKING SD card slot too.

Not really.

The "update" requires that you return the Xoom to the manufacturer for about a week for them to install the components to allow it to take advantage of LTE connectivity.

Lets be very clear about this: The LTE update is ONLY being promised because Motorola found itself in a difficult position. Either they delayed release of the Xoom till sometime this summer (at which point Apple would have presumably released iPad V2, and sold another 10 million or so iPads) - or they release a "stop gap" version now - that will require an expensive (for them) and inconvenient (for customers) refit once the LTE hardware becomes available.

Motorola presumably felt that their "window of opportunity" to get into the Tablet business was closing rapidly. But I doubt, sincerely, that Motorola - or any hardware manufacturer - will make a general policy of releasing hardware knowing (and promising) free future hardware updates.

Jus' sayin'

Exactly. They promised Flash at launch too. Too bad some people are easily fooled into the future-ware / vaporware full of broken promises.

 

[AppleGoddess]

wasteland in 3, 2,1

 

[BergerFan]

Exactly, iPad is meant for the casuals and the less techie people. Like your brother and mother. But it's too bad for the Apple owners who are techie and want more.

Apple moves slow, don't get me wrong the iPad was ingenious but they're talking about little upgrades to the 2nd gen and much more in the 3rd gen. Why not just go balls out and make big upgrades right away. Not Apples way I guess.

I'd love for them to do that, once in a while, but it's just not how Apple rolls unfortunately, for us who want the best of both worlds.

 

[dgree03]

Quite frankly, anyone who buys a Xoom at this point is either delusional or a rabid Apple-hater.

Why else would anyone pay an extra $100-$300 to buy a device for which there simply isn't much software? From a company whose track-record as a hardware manufacturer is, at best, spotty? Maybe these people think the Tron-themed Android interface is coolest thing ever. Then again, maybe people who think Tron is a worthwhile contribution to the cinematic arts.....

The Xoom does one thing particularly well: It displays widescreen movies. (Of course, the way it handles the sound for those movies is pretty poor..) But I don't need to spend $800 to watch Hi-Def movies on a 10" screen. If I'm going to spend that sort of coin, I'll buy a 46" flatscreen TV and do it in comfort, thank you very much.

The Xoom is being sold on a bunch of promises: Sure, it'll support Flash someday. It'll support LTE someday. And there will be thousands of Tablet-optimized Android Apps available someday.

Someday may indeed come. But that's not very compelling reason to go and spend your hard-earned money today.

Sounds like what people said about the ipad release.

Mulitasking someday
More apps someday
Flash Never
SD slot never
4g Someday
HDMI Never
Flash never

Hmmm.. take the blinders off kid.

 

[kdarling]

Maybe they'll install a WORKING SD card slot too.

It's just a software update away. Can't say the same for the iPad.

Exactly. They promised Flash at launch too. Too bad some people are easily fooled into the future-ware / vaporware full of broken promises.

So you're actually going on record as predicting that there will be no Flash or 4G for the Xoom ?

 

[Carouser]

Why not just go balls out and make big upgrades right away

Because if Apple's upgrades are N, then some people's demands will be N+1. There's no way to satisfy demands which don't consider long-term sustainability of Apple, or the state of the market including such things as price points, or product differentiation.

Apple already went balls out by establishing, defining, and dominating the tablet market.

 

[chrono1081]

.

 

[nomik2]

You mean sending it away for a week, is slick? Wow why would apple want to drop the OTA updates and start collecting everyone's iPads to update them.

Sorry, I'm not seeing how this is better then apple's approach.

FYI, iOS devices don't have OTA updates. It would be cool to have them though...considering Android, WebOS and even WP7 have it.

 

[shen]

Pretty sure it was sarcasm, people.

You win 15 internets.