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Comment by wccrawford | Hacker News Reader

Sure, Apple has half the market... Of a market they created and had a headstart on.

Seems to me the others are catching up nicely, especially since most of them are using the same OS series.

I just got an Asus Transformer and it is NICE. Especially now that I found some software to let me remote into my desktop and have the tablet act as a dumb terminal. My tabletpc (which I used mainly as a laptop) sits unused now because the tablet is smaller, lighter, snappier, and produces no heat. I can do all my Android-y games and little apps, as well as access the big stuff from my PC in the other room, all from the couch.

And reading comics on it? Awesome.

I considered an iPad. Seriously considered it. What finally decided it was open source software and creating my own apps. (And I have written 1 so far, but not published... Need to polish it.)

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So you're really looking for a netbook and you decided (wisely) not to choose the iPad?

The real slam here is that there is any such thing as the "tablet" market. There's an iPad market, the netbook market, smartphone market, and PC market. Trying to make something that addresses all of these poorly is a bad idea.

Windows TabletPCs never really caught on, and as you mention, an ARM-based android "netbook" kills it for the target market.

Android tablets suffer from an app deficiency and still-maturing OS, not to mention, they are addressing the iPad's native market (if they switched gears, took netbooks head-on like the Asus Transformer they would probably have better results).

Actually, what I wanted was an extremely lightweight netbook that could run Android apps, but Bluestack hasn't taken off yet. The fact that the keyboard is removeable is a huge bonus because it drops half the weight and size.

There will probably be something in the future that does more of what I want, but this is good enough to get me by for a few years.

As far as I know, the iPad can't do what I want, even if I replace 'android apps' with 'ipad/iphone apps'.

Um, Remote Desktop and VNC apps are on the App Store aplenty.

And there are plenty of Keyboard Docks / Bluetooth Keyboards for the iPad.

Huh? Bluetooth keyboards works with iPad and (I assume) with Androids.

"Seems to me the others are catching up nicely, especially since most of them are using the same OS series."

I'm not sure the sales data backs that up, especially if the #2 is now Blackberry.

>Of a market they created and had a headstart on.

The real question: why is Apple so much better than these other companies at creating markets?

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