The Tablet Turnabout Conundrum

by Jeremy | December 2nd, 2011
Tablets

The iPad has been the undisputed king of tablets since its release. Others have struggled to catch up in market share, only to be thrown down in disappointment by the fruity market behemoth known as Apple. So you might be surprised to learn that the iPad isn’t the best choice for everyone despite its golden title. You should start by asking yourself, “what kind of consumer am I?”

Tablets have become more than the sum of their hardware. As a potential customer you are no longer buying a generalized computing device, but a collection of services and promises to help you navigate the ever increasing flood of information that the Internet has to offer. Sure, the hardware is important insomuch as it’s the focal point and relays the overall impression of smooth (or not) delivery of goods, but what is it worth without decent software and content for a user to ingest?

Amazon realized this very point, and rather than following in the footsteps of manufacturers such as Motorola and Samsung, decided to release a piece of outdated, yet affordable plastic backed up with their large array of web, products, and services. I’m speaking of the Kindle Fire, which lacks nearly every touted piece of extra electronics a tablet could possibly live without. Barnes and Noble quickly followed suit with their new Nook Color Tablet, which for $50 more than the Kindle, gives you a slight boost in performance and memory storage, but lacks the vast array of Amazon-ian purchasing opportunities.

Of course, Google offers an application store for all Android devices much like Apple does for their iOS products, but is still struggling to implement a comparable list of remaining services available by said competitor.

Are you getting lost yet?

By now, most future tablet purchasers have jumped off a cliff and gone to ask their nearest tech-savvy relative what to buy. I can’t say that I blame them, as I’m a tech-savvy person myself and find that I too get lost in the deluge of options these days. The interesting thing is, despite the confusion, a lot of people still want a tablet! The answer of which piece of electronics to throw your hard earned cash on isn’t a simple “this or that,” but it doesn’t have to be complicated either.

Let’s start with a simple breakdown of user types. What kind of a user are you? Gamer, Browser, or Developer?

Gamers

Gamers make a up a large chunk of the mobile computing crowd. Even those who don’t assume to be buying a new tablet for the games will often find some fascinating puzzler to occupy their downtime. I’m happy to report that any tablet you can currently buy will appease the casual gaming crowd (Angry Birds is available on everything!), but those looking to play something more challenging or graphics intensive may find the market far less selective.

Beyond the simple 2D platformers and puzzlers lies a growing world of mobile, power sapping, 3D intensive games that are held back merely by the limitations of the available hardware. Infinity Blade is the current showboat app for a solid, well designed 3D tablet application, but is only available on Apple’s platform. That isn’t to say that Android devices don’t have some competitive games as well (see Samurai Vengeance), though you’ll need to buy a higher end tablet (like the Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime or the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1) to enjoy most of them without some degree of choppiness.

This, of course, demonstrates that beyond the hardware you’ll also need to look at available apps for your future device. Currently, the two big app stores belong to Apple and Android. There are numerous reports of which store has the most applications available, but you might be surprised at the deluge of low quality games included in those numbers. From my own experience, both stores seem to have about the same quantity of high quality games for sale, though if you’re looking for a specific piece of software you should buy the tablet you know it’s available for.

For gamers, my hardware recommendations are in order of preference:

 

Browsers

Not everyone is in the tablet race for playing games. I enjoy a good game once in a while myself, but find that the majority of the time I use my tablet to browse the web, read a book, or watch a movie. This brings up a whole new perspective to tablet devices, in that not all hardware can view all the data that’s out there.

Apple has an obvious lead on the market here with a full repertiore of books, music, movies, and apps available from their iTunes services. iTunes has matured faster than any other store out there, and with the latest operating system update has finally started letting you redownload all previously purchased content (omitting movies), keeping you from having to worry about backing everything up for fear of losing it. It’s not all daisies and roses though, as you might be surprised when your first outing in Apple’s web browser leaves with you with some empty white space in place of where a flash video is supposed to be. Or you might be disappointed trying to play a video in a file format not supported (like just about anything you didn’t buy from iTunes). Apple keeps tight control (some use the word draconian) over what software is allowed on their platform, and the nearly ubiquitous Flash, along with other widely used formats, were left on the chopping block. So is there an alternative for those wishing for free and open consumption of information?

The answer is yes… and no. “Generic” Android devices are fairly open and are even regularly hacked by enthusiasts to enable otherwise absent functionality. You can freely copy and move files between the tablet and your PC, and the file formats supported are far more varied than Apple’s iOS. This comes with a downside however, as the more open a system becomes, the less secure it’s bound to be. Viruses and malware are more common for those who are prone to downloading and trying everything before doing any research, though that’s primarily limited to installing applications. For those who limit themselves to browsing the web and watching movies, Android is a terrific platform. In my own opinion (though some may disagree), the web browser on Android platforms is far superior to Apple’s attempt. The added functionality is a solid boon for both the browser’s usability and the content it’s able to view.

Then we come to the middle ground: is there a platform that does the best of both worlds? The recently released Amazon Kindle Fire may be the answer. It’s still too new to tell, but Amazon has taken an older version of Android, customized it, and coupled it to their own vast array of services and content. Though the tablet isn’t going to win any performance benchmarks (ever), it makes the entire Amazon library available to its users. Android apps that are compatible with the older version of the OS will run on it, and Amazon maintains their own app store that is controlled in similar fashion to Apple’s iTunes. For book lovers, this is the way to go – for web browsers, not so much, as the 7 inch screen makes reading a website a painful experience in zooming in and out to read once little section at a time.

I should also note that Barnes and Noble (B&N) recently released their new Nook Color Tablet to compete with Amazon’s Kindle Fire. It has better hardware for only $50 more, but I simply can’t recommend it on the basis of it’s almost complete lock in to Barnes and Noble’s services. 15gb of the tablet’s memory is reserved for B&N purchases, leaving only 1gb for whatever else you want. Though B&N have content available for sale, they’re no Amazon.

My recommendations in order of preference for browsers:

 

Developers

Developers are often overlooked in the consumer tablet market. Most assume that they’ll simply create software for whatever the prevailing platforms are, but not all developers can afford to do that, as not everyone works for a big company that’ll buy you whatever hardware you need to test on.

Lets get to the nitty gritty of this though. Apple has touted that we’re now in the “post-pc” era, as if everyone could simply run out, drop their PC off at the nearest electronic recyclers, and buy a tablet to replace all their needs. Developers know better. Developers realize that their precious personal computer will never be replaced so long as a tablet can’t compile, debug, and package their code. And let me tell you, that’s not going to happen anytime soon. All those games we’ve talked about, the operating systems, the apps, all of it, was developed on a computer and compiled for their targeted tablet. So lets talk about which tablet platform is the best for code jocks.

The very first thing that a developer will notice is the lack of available programming languages for each platform. If you go with Apple’s iOS, you’ll be programming in Objective-C with the option of some C++. If you go with Android, you’ll be programming in Java, also with the option of some C++. We’re not sure what Microsoft has in mind for Windows 8 tablets yet, but something tells me it’ll be C# based, with, you guessed it, an option for C++. Now, I’m not going to start a flame war by saying which I think is better, but I do want to help you make an informed decision. Lets start with some good, old-fashioned myth busting:

Myth: Applications in iOS are more stable than those in Android. Actual: Apple’s selection process weeds out a lot of bugs, but not all of them. In fact, Objective-C for iOS lacks some of the best benefits it has for Mac OSX, namely garbage collection. Users seem to be more forgiving when an iOS app crashes, but in reality it’s about the same on both systems. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve had applications crash my iPad 2.

Myth: Applications made for iOS are faster than those for Android. Actual: Yes, and no. Apple has had the superior hardware backing it up for a while now, but Android is catching up quick. There are now several cross-platform benchmarks that show the hardware has more to do with it than the programming language or platform does. Android also had some growing pains with it’s choppy GUI, giving users an overall impression that it was slower, though this didn’t extend into well written software.

Myth: Java sucks. Actual: Google made a wise decision to go with a type of Java for their platform. Java has made developing for different tablets much easier in that the hardware manufacturers can use different chips and combinations of hardware, but developers can compile a single codebase. Also, Java has been the number one language on the Tiobe Programming Language Index for as long as I can remember, and I’ve personally programmed a great deal (including 3D games) in Java without issue. If you’re going to pick a language for your potential developers, why not pick a popular one?

Myth: Apple forces developers to buy a Mac. Actual: Totally true. Even if you develop using a cross-platform suite (like Unity), you’ll still need to buy a Mac computer to compile the final project on. It’s Apple’s platform and they can make of it whatever they like.

Myth: Android is fragmented. Actual: So what? This comes from the fact that so many Android devices run different versions of the OS and have different resolutions. Anyone who’s programmed for Windows or Macs has had to deal with a lot worse. Google is actually bringing manufacturers into agreements to help bring everyone’s version of Android up to current, and the resolution issue has been around since at least he 1980s. Detect and scale… that’s the secret… detect and scale.

In the end, Apple iOS is still the most popular platform. Don’t go running out to develop for it quite yet though, as Apple’s reports of “billions” paid out is in actuality to only a small number of developers. Android has a compelling platform that is much more open and doesn’t require the restricted approval process of Apple’s higher ups. Many apps have been rejected by Apple for simply being something that Apple execs don’t want on their devices (see Wifi Network Diagnostic Applications). Also keep in mind that taking the time to train/learn Objective-C isn’t going to pay off for any other platform, whereas Java is usable just about anywhere.

For those interested in cross-platform development, you may be stuck with web application languages for now (like javascript and HTML). At least you could skip all of the red tape and put your app on the web if you like.

I won’t dare make any recommendations for developers (no matter what I say, someone will bite my head off for it), but my advice is to keep an open mind and to not simply build for the most popular platform. After all, “if you build it, [they] will come.”

Conclusion

Obviously buying a tablet is a personal decision, but I hope you come away from this article a bit more educated in what you may want. The selection of tablets is growing every year, and though there a more than the two platforms, Apple’s iOS and Android are currently the best ways to go for user and developer alike. Microsoft has a promising tablet OS coming out next year (hopefully), but I wouldn’t hold off buying a tablet now in order to wait for it.

One last area to consider is that of customer service. It’s not something most people think about when viewing their shiny new device, but after several months of use and fingerprints it can become incredibly important. Each of the Android tablets are supported by their individual manufacturers (Asus, Samsung, Motorola, etc.), and the iPad is supported by Apple which is the only company with dedicated retail outlets. Apple’s customer service is next to none. You can go in for free training with your device, or take it in for repair/replacement if anything goes wrong during the warranty period. For this reason, along with Apple’s solid hardware and selection of software, services, and content, my final recommendation for best all around tablet goes to the iPad 2.

iPad2

The other tablets are catching up, but the fruity king still reigns supreme.