Is the End Nigh for the Ipad & Android Tablets.

[AnotherJoe]

For a while now Apple & Android have had the tablet market virtually to themselves - Windows RT was an abysmal failure, and companies like Apple and Samsung have been able to enjoy huge profit margins on their tablets - but that could be about to change,

First you had the Nexus 7 from £199 and then the Nexus 10 at £319 cutting into these profit margins, with Apple responding with the underwhelming Ipad Mini at £269.

Nov 7th sees a new danger - with the introduction of affordable Windows 8 tablets - not RT either, full blown Windows Pro 8.1

Dell will be bringing out the Venue 11 Pro with quadcore CPU, full HD display (1920x1080) and windows 8.1 from around £420 inc vat. The range will go all the way up to 256GB storage with up to 8GB RAM, and around 10hour battery life.

For the same price as a 32GB Ipad you get a windows tablet that will run all your existing applications (assuming you're a windows user).

Microsoft may be late to the party - and RT was a disaster - but things are about to get interesting.

The need for a mobile OS on a tablet looks like it could be over - will Apple respond by putting OSX on their new Ipad instead or IOS to try and counter the threat?

Personally I would be very interested in one of these dualbooting Windows 8.1 and Ubuntu Touch 13.10 tablets.

 

[professorhat]

To answer your original question, no.

 

[fr0g]

I agree with ph.

I have a full win 8, now 8.1 HP Envy x2.

Love it, even if it isn't so powerful.

But I think it appeals more to techies. WinRT isn't dead yet and ultimately is a more apt comparison to the simple nature of ios and android.

ipads and android are popular BECAUSE they are simple.

 

[scene]

I'm with the prof as well - no.

With an iPad or Android tablet, anyone (including my 5 year old son) can pick one up and start using it immediately. Getting software onto it is intuitive, there's a lot of choice on apps, they're usually pretty cheap and work reliably on the whole. They are pretty robust as fr0g implied, very consumer friendly.

Windows RT is closer to this and as it slowly merges its OS with the Windows Phone it will become more and more of the above. But it isn't there yet

Window 8.1 full fat tablets are a bit too much like a laptop without a screen, a bit too heavy, fragile and counter-intuitive - though I grant you they have improved 8.1 over 8.0

 

[Xanderzdad]

So long as I've got access to a proper PC for some of my photography and CD ripping then my android tablets do eveything brilliantly.

I'm constantly amazed by the power of the apps available.

 

[AnotherJoe]

Windows RT is going to quickly disappear - already its only Microsoft who support it on tablets, everyone else is moving or has moved to Windows 8.

The power of these new tablets is more like a hybrid laptop - for a lot of people, a windows tablet with a dock and a couple of USB ports will be the only computing device they need.

The Ipad could see see itself marginalised - the same as the mac is - if Windows takes over the tablet world.

And Android tablets could find themselves being squeezed further down towards the cheap end of the market.

At the very least the days of being able to charge £700 for a tablet that doesnt run the same apps your desktop/laptop does are numbered.

 

[minidisc apologist]

ipads and android are popular BECAUSE they are simple.

This line sums it all up for me.

 

[Deleted member 2457]

Nope, not in a million years (which currently they sell by), I am getting ready for my next purchase.

 

[MajorFubar]

I think Joe has a point, even though I'm not sure it's quite so black and white. If I was predominantly a Windows user - and I was upto two years ago - then a tablet which runs the full-fat version of Windows would be hugely appealing to me because my assumption would be that it would run most of my software without having to buy cut-down Fisher Price equivalents.

 

[landzw]

He does have a point about having full blown windows on a tablet, but hasn't Nokia just launcha tablet running RT ?

As far as i'm aware Microsoft are planning update there App store in the near future and Windows RT was still included in the update