Apple missed the plot regarding pricing of 7" tablets? Some of us may say they've missed the plot with the whole of their pricing but it doesn't really seem to have harmed them that much…
the price of the 16gb one in argos is still 199$ and the 32gb is 199$ tesco is still the same
Im interested to find out some pricing for the 32GB 3G model (there is going to be one, right?). I have been tethering to my phone so far but if i can get a decent data plan version for a reasonable price, i might sell and move on.
Biscuit
Im interested to find out some pricing for the 32GB 3G model (there is going to be one, right?). I have been tethering to my phone so far but if i can get a decent data plan version for a reasonable price, i might sell and move on.
The Nexus tablets have been Wifi only, so far, part of the reason for the low pricing of them.
32GB @ £199 and 16GB @ £159 sounds great. Does this mean that there's a chance that the (presumably dropped) 8GB will also get a price cut? If so, then £99 for the 8GB would surely see them fly off of the shelves!
Of course, there's some folks I know who'd still insist that the reason that the iP Mini is £100 more expensive is that “it's £100 better” (at least they didn't say “it's £100 more magical” - because this'd have me reaching for the sick bags).
3dcandy
Apple missed the plot regarding pricing of 7" tablets? Some of us may say they've missed the plot with the whole of their pricing but it doesn't really seem to have harmed them that much…
IMHO iProducts are mostly bought by people who fit one of these profiles:
- A perception of owning “the stylish best thing” is more important than price/benefit ratio (same reason people buy designer jeans etc)
- Already investment-locked into iTunes
- Non-technical but want smartphone/tablet rather than feature phone and paper so buy the colourful and simple iOS product (and it is fairly idiot-proof, credit to Apple there)
- An quick and easy buy - i.e. follow the crowd and can't go far wrong, the media love it after all
As a geeky nerd with many computers I find iProducts irritatingly limited for tinkering, iTunes makes me want to go postal with its controlling idiocy and instability, also my eyes are terrible so Retina screens are largely wasted on me.
If you look only at internal hardware specs and pricing then Apple wouldn't sell anywhere near as many units, iPads & iPhones would occupy the same % of the market Macs do. Much of Apple's astounding success is down to marketing, perception of style, media brown-nosing and sheepery.
YenRug
The Nexus tablets have been Wifi only, so far, part of the reason for the low pricing of them.
A 3g version was rumoured though
I would have thought a 3G version would eventually appear if they can get the price right
Interesting. The 16Gb one at £159 could become my happy Xmas to me present.
kingpotnoodle
IMHO iProducts are mostly bought by people who fit one of these profiles:
- A perception of owning “the stylish best thing” is more important than price/benefit ratio (same reason people buy designer jeans etc)
- Already investment-locked into iTunes
- Non-technical but want smartphone/tablet rather than feature phone and paper so buy the colourful and simple iOS product (and it is fairly idiot-proof, credit to Apple there)
- An quick and easy buy - i.e. follow the crowd and can't go far wrong, the media love it after all
I'll add another reason, and this is exactly why I'll be buying an iPad for my wife:
- One or more essential apps are only available on the iPad
She needs it for creating music, there are fantastic apps that she knows will work (she's seen friends using them), Garage Band is one, and that will never be released on Android.
OMG Garage Band…have you used it? Next you'll be saying antares autotune is being released for the ipad
Nah, never used it. That might not be one that she will be using, I'm not interested enough to really find out.
But she knows professional musicians that use their iPads all the time for writing and managing their own music.
GarageBand for the iPad is pretty damn good, though you interact with virtual instruments… I'm personally a little more procedural in generating sounds, it depends on what you're best working with, tho it's no doubt great for hashing up a quick idea or trying a tune to master seriously when you get back on the computer.
kingpotnoodle
also my eyes are terrible so Retina screens are largely wasted on me.
:lol:
Don't get me wrong, the ipad is loads better than android for music apps - just garage band is not the killer app that would convince me…
animoog or the fairlight app maybe!
3dcandy
Don't get me wrong, the ipad is loads better than android for music apps - just garage band is not the killer app that would convince me… animoog or the fairlight app maybe!
Hmm, I've heard that before (many times) along with the statement that the iPad is also better for art - David Hockney uses one for example.
Enthusiasts have said to me that this is because “the iPad is just better”, but personally I've got severe doubts about that and suspect it's got a lot more to do with the very late availability of a proper tablet-compatible version of Android. I mean iPad's been around since spring of 2010, but Android-Honeycomb has only been out since spring of last year - so iPad's been around almost twice as long, which surely must be an appreciable head start?
This is interesting to me because the tables are turned when we're talking about the mini-tablets - there's been Android-running ones for quite a while (a quick look at Wikipedia shows the Galaxy Tab being released here in November of 2010), whereas Apple's scorned those until now.
It's much much simpler than that! Android fragmentation means the latency is much much higher on Android…simple as
This makes music apps a lot less useful, intuitive and less likely to succeed on Android
3dcandy
It's much much simpler than that! Android fragmentation means the latency is much much higher on Android…simple as
This makes music apps a lot less useful, intuitive and less likely to succeed on Android
I actually did a side by side test on skitch (available on both platforms) between the N7 and an ipad 2… latency was a LOT better on the ipad. Not convinced its to do with ‘fragmentation’ though :/
I reckon it is…no standardisation of the audio hardware means a lack of optimisation of the audio drivers…I reckon that is by far and away the biggest reason
3dcandy
I reckon it is…no standardisation of the audio hardware means a lack of optimisation of the audio drivers…I reckon that is by far and away the biggest reason
I still think it's down to the fact that the kind of people that are going to use these apps were most likely to buy an iPad to begin with. So the paid apps all appear on that platform, which means eveyone else that comes along that wants those apps also buys an iPad (because that is a single good reason to get one). So the pattern continues for a long time.
3dcandy
I reckon it is…no standardisation of the audio hardware means a lack of optimisation of the audio drivers…I reckon that is by far and away the biggest reason
Latency i experienced was because of the touch screen drivers as it was purely drawing and no audio, so it could make an interesting experiment to do a side by side test for audio stuff and try and get to the bottom of it.
possibly but the only dev I spoke to said audio support is miles behind iOS too. He said some devices were good (Galaxy S 3 with it's wolfson DAC being a good example) but others were shocking…
3dcandy
possibly but the only dev I spoke to said audio support is miles behind iOS too. He said some devices were good (Galaxy S 3 with it's wolfson DAC being a good example) but others were shocking…
Agree there - the S3 IS good. Although to be frank most of the Sony devices I've tried have also been pretty notable in their music capabiliities. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the “poor” audio support is down to the sheer variety of Android devices (Sony alone has more Android models than Apple has iPhone ones - and as for bigger players like HTC, Samsung, etc). Hopefully the slackening of pace of launches will see Android manufacturers take a little more care and optimize a bit better in future.
Interesting to read the comments about latency on Android - it's that kind of in-depth technical appraisal that draws me to Hexus (as opposed to the crass fanboyism you get on other sites). And I wonder whether Google are addressing this - i.e. is latency lower in Jelly Bean than Gingerbread for example. Given that some manufacturers (Sony and Samsung notably) are basing their music products on Android I would hope that some work is being carried out to improve this.
The dev I spoke to said that later version are better, but still not as good as Apple's products - they have kept the audio side pretty much the same from the beginning so everybody knows what they are getting. ICS and onwards there are strides to make the audio side better, but seeing as the largest installed base is still Gingerbread is a big stumbling block right now
3dcandy
The dev I spoke to said that later version are better, but still not as good as Apple's products - they have kept the audio side pretty much the same from the beginning so everybody knows what they are getting. ICS and onwards there are strides to make the audio side better, but seeing as the largest installed base is still Gingerbread is a big stumbling block right now
Thanks for that info. :thumbsup:
Yes, you're correct - according to
http://developer.android.com/about/dashboards/index.html GB devices outnumber the ICS ones by more than 2:1 at the moment, (and I place the blame for that squarely on the shoulders of the manufacturers that refused to upgrade - LG etc). Although ICS is heading rapidly towards occupying 25% of the market, so maybe it's getting close to that “critical mass” point - from what I've seen all the major tablets (Galaxy Tab, Transformer, Xoom 2, etc) are either shortly due to get ICS or already on it.
However - getting back to the thrust of the article - as a disinterested party (I'm not a musician - unless you count the learning the guitar I'm doing at the moment) I've got to wonder if the availability of a relatively inexpensive but very portable device like the Nexus 7 will make the situation better wrt music package support on Android. I am assuming, of course, that a music sequencer etc doesn't need the larger (10") screen and will work okay on a smaller device. Apologies if this is an incorrect assumption. :embarrassed:
Nope you are totally correct, again to help you understand the problem that Android faces, the dev also spoke about the difficulties of getting people to part with their cash on the Android platform. More specialised apps such as music therefore are not developed at the same rate or with so much care as iOS ones due to the income being less