Apple isn't sweating Kindle Fire; Android fragmentation will drive users to iPad
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I bet Apple is afraid of this tablet. It's likely to be the best-selling non-Apple tablet on the day of its first shipments. It's not going to kill the iPad, but it is going to take a big chunk of the market.
However, I think it's Google or Microsoft who should likely be more worried, as there is currently no #2 in the tablet platform space, and Amazon may pick up the silver easily if the Fire is as good as reviewers claim... the price itself is eye-catching.
Fragmentation of the O.S. is very a minor issue.
People want shit to work.
I just think the price point of cheap and super-cheap Android tablets will make minor incompatabilities (such as only one hardware button on the Nook Color, or apps that only work after Android 2.3, et cetera) acceptable for the masses. This is true for nearly every commercial good sold - no reason it shouldn't apply to tablet computers, too.
I don't agree with their assessment and I am assuming they're putting on a nice face for investors. I think most users will consider this as a cool eReader that they can play Angry Birds on, not an Android tablet.
It's not worth complaining about because more devices means more users.
How many Windows apps are targeted at a single model of computer and fail to work on others because they use a different size monitor?
While there wasn't a time you couldn't install a new version of windows, it used to require a professional due to all the issues involved.
And there were tons of applications and games that only worked on the right size monitor, and right speed of computer. Some computers even had a button that was used to slow them down for old software because of it.
People used to accept racism and spousal rape in the "old days" but we don't anymore. No reason we should accept half-baked apps on half-baked devices.
However, I agree that we've come to expect better. And Google is working on it. Each release of Android has been better about being resolution-independent and helping apps cope with screens that are of a different size, even if they weren't written for it.
And it's not Google's fault that many phones don't allow you to change the OS. They have certainly never recommended that approach. And some newer phones do not have this lock-in. And all the old ones have been hacked for it.
Apple is to be applauded for how far back IOS upgrades go, hardware-wise. I don't deny that they've done that right. But for Android, this is a hardware manufacturer problem, and something that a LOT of people complain about. I expect to see major strides in it soon.
Again, iPhone/IOS are basically the same thing, but Android is separated into hardware and software components. This makes it more versatile, but also brings some issues. It's just like the Mac vs PC all over again, as far as all that goes.
I imagine that Microsoft, Google, Apple, et. al are busy aiming their patent lawyers at Amazon.