Comment by BugBrother | Hacker News Reader

Comment by BugBrother | Hacker News Reader

I'm an iPad user in Romania, right now.

The salaries are really low here, most sales seem to be 100-200 Euro cheap Androids.

The Androids are often used for specific applications/niches (e.g. in taxis and by poor students). If buyers had money, they'd at least get Androids with better screens.

I believe the market for paid Android apps here is more or less nil.

(I hope the cheap Androids aren't used for banking etc, considering the lack of security updates.)

In short -- these cheap Androids aren't really competing with iPads. People just can't afford better (or they are used for a specific application 20 minutes a day).

All that said, I still would consider to switch from iOS if I could get better Emacs support with external keyboard than a terminal (which work on iOS now).

That's like saying cheap Windows PC's didn't really compete with $2000 Macs. Cheap PCs is what helped Microsoft gain its monopoly power, and what put Apple in a niche position.

This is a strength of Android - that it can be on inexpensive devices for the billions of potential users out there.

That analogy would work better if the cheap Androids sold software, too. And were nice to use with those apps.

But maybe ads to people without money will be enough to finance software? I think before that happens, good cheap screens (maybe not IPS) and lowering electronic prices will push the prices for usable xPAd down anyway -- what seems to happen for phones now. Then everything in the xPad market changes (just don't ask me how).

I don't think Apple minds being in a niche position.

Remember their original goal for the iPhone? Capture one percent of the market. Their products have always catered to a niche, only with the iPod did they ever start seeing mainstream popularity.

I don't think it would hurt Apple to fall back to being a niche in the current computing landscape — they are just amassing money otherwise — their company does not seem designed to actually grow with the money they earn.

> This is a strength of Android - that it can be on inexpensive devices

iOS can be on inexpensive devices, too; Apple just chooses not to. Now, maybe that's a good decision, and maybe it's not—but it's a decision that they're making, not a corner they've been backed into.

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