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Tablet Wars – iPad vs Surface vs Nexus 7

June 29, 2012 by Omkar Jadhav 2 Comments

With the long history and availability of tablets in the market, none of them have been potent enough to rival the Apple’s iPad. Market statistics prove it. While, this is not just about the hardware and software richness, it’s more about convincing and winning the mass consumers. A long list of tablets have come and failed. They were somehow flawed with either features and/or design. Hence, they have been unsuccessful in convincing the mass consumer market. This year we might witness a major change with the announcement of Microsoft’s Surface tablets and Google’s Nexus 7 tablet. The 2 recently announced tablets have plenty of sensible features to offer you’ve always wanted to see in a tablet. Read more as I talk about how each of the 3 major tablets might ably win the mass consumer market.

ios-vs-andriod-windows — iOS vs Android vs Windows

Why Apple iPad has been winning

Apple’s vast eco-system of apps has yet to be matched by any other software company. Though Android has achieved a rapid growth in their apps collection it hasn’t yet surpassed their rival’s offerings. Also Apple’s notable hardware and software integration along with finesse in hardware design has been able to create a far superior user experience that has yet to be rivaled. This self-sustaining ecosystem comprising of iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, platform specific apps, operating systems and their cross platform integration has been the thriving force behind this market reach.

Strengths – App Store, Presence in Smartphone, Notebook and Desktop Markets, Build quality and design, Wide range of Accessories, commendable hardware and software integration.

How Microsoft’s Surface can win

Surface showed some amazing never-seen-before features that no other tablet could pull off this gracefully. A full desktop PC experience in a package which is slim and handy, has only been embodied by Microsoft’s Surface yet. It is just a tablet, but with capabilities surpassing those of other tablets, notebooks and most PCs. Does it really perform as good? This is yet to been seen. Windows already has a vast eco-system with over 1billion PCs from tablets – desktop computers – laptops – ATMs all over the globe. With Surface as a productivity device can attract and complement a considerable portion of this existing customer base. By offering options such as high speed USB ports, SD card slots, video out ports, touch & type keyboard covers and many unmatched functions Microsoft can outsmart its competitors with its Surface range of products. Eventually, the price and the entire product package is what will determine the magnitude of its success.

Strengths – Full Desktop Capabilities, Kickstand, Touch/Type Keyboard, Windows 8, Well-established Windows Eco-system, Premium Design.

How Google’s Nexus 7 can win

Google with its latest tablet innovation Nexus 7 has pitched an unexpected product. Priced just at $199 and $249 (8GB,16GB), falling in the same category as a Kindle Fire($199) and boasting specs unmatched by any other tablet in that price segment or even in higher price segments. It boasts a 7″ 1280×800 HD display, along with a Tegra 3 chipset with a Quad-Core CPU and a 12 core GPU, front facing camera 1.2MP, Wi-Fi bluetooth, NFC, gyroscope, accelerometer battery packing up to 9hours of video playback and 300hours of standby time and weighing just 340gms. With this amazing feature rich high end tablet priced at a mass market level Google has another chance, though this time by its new partner ASUS and not by Samsung – the biggest hardware partner of Google whose efforts in tablet segment haven’t had much of an impact. Google with its Android has already cast its imprint in the world of smartphones with its apps based eco-system falling second in position to Apple’s. With this tablet as its centre stage to showcase its content from Google Play in the tablet market, Google now has the ability to capture a significant share in the tablet market just like it has in the smartphone market.

Strengths – Low Competitive Pricing, CPU and GPU powerhouse, Google Play Store, Wide presence in smartphone market.

All of the above tablets offered by the respective manufacturers have their own unique way of delivering the desired user experience through their own well established eco-system. Whether these new products will be able to expand their respective company’s eco-system or will their eco-system sustain them in this iPad dominated tablet market, is to be seen.

End User License Agreements – Do You Care?

June 26, 2012 by Raj Agrawal Leave a Comment

As an end user, I like software that communicate well; we all love flawless communication. While installing a software package, we usually encounter a window with a terribly long and heavily jargoned ‘end-user license agreement’ (EULA). We tend to not bother reading the entire contents at all. A first time computer user might attempt to peek into the contents of the user license agreement out of curiosity or as a challenge, but that attempt doesn’t go far. We try and bail out of the setup wizard by abusing the “I agree”, “Next” or “Continue” button and arrive at a point where we can finally use the software. That’s a regularity for most end users; something we all are used to.

The contents of an EULA convey important messages which aren’t really delivered to the user, due to it’s redundancy and complexity. What’s worse is that plenty of software packages are nowadays equipped with silly mechanisms to force the users read the EULA. I say, why not rather simplify the terms and conditions to a point where the user can understand them?

If the software makers really want the users to read and grasp all the terms and conditions mentioned into the license agreements, they must have them simplified. And I really appreciate the fact that *some* vendors have taken notice of this and have already begun simplifying their agreements, but a major chunk of them are still on with the conventional ways. And ofcourse, with newer ways to simply render the license agreements pointless. Ways like swapping the next button with a cancel button, enforcing timers where the users cannot proceed until the timers runs out and all jazz.

This reminds me of a hilarious 3 minute stand up act by one of my favorite comic artists – Eddie Izzard, who describes his funny endurances while installing the apps and software updates on his Mac computer.

What is your opinion? Do you think the conventional ways of presenting the user license agreements a best way of communicating the legal messages? Do you read them?

Android Expected To Dominate Global Market Till 2016, Despite Saturation

June 20, 2012 by Omkar Jadhav 3 Comments

According to the recent figures, Android is dominating the smartphone OS market worldwide, holding a market share of 59% of the 152.3 million smartphones shipped in the first quarter of 2012 (1Q12). This is expected to peak at 61% this year and steadily decline to 53% by 2016. It is still expected be the market leader considering its massive market presence. This staggering hold is a reflection of the major players sailing on Google’s mega-ship (OHA).

android domination — Image credit: TalkAndroid.com

Mass Market Approach

Device manufacturers viz. Motorola, HTC, Samsung, LG, Sony have enabled Google to convert Android OS into a mass-market offering. The search engine giant teamed up with these manufacturers, has successfully covered a wide array of mobile market segments by offering handsets varying in price, specification & design. This strategy is one of the vital reasons for such astounding success though Google’s Open Source Approach (AOSP) cannot be discredited.

Challenges faced by Developers

So we have the software & hardware side of the table satiated, but the main spinner falls on the ultimate growth & sustainability determining side of the smartphone industry platter – developers side. Though open source gives developers more freedom and flexibility to experiment with their creations, it has its disadvantages.

The open nature coupled with the wide range of devices (from Rs. 3,300 – Rs. 39,000) each having its own hardware capabilities transforms the fun-loving app development task into a rather tedious one. This variability has fragmented the market to an extent that writing and testing apps for Android has become cumbersome. Each app must be tested on devices differing in aspects from screen resolution to processing power and the list of those devices can’t be counted on fingers.

Consequences of the open-source approach

The outcome of this is reflected on the statistics, stating that developers build two iOS apps for every Android app. Also the revenue developers generate from an iPhone app is four times more than they generate from an Android – the counter-effect of the open source approach.

Apple’s Move

Furthermore Apple’s move to replace Google Maps with its own mapping application will cost Google about half of its map traffic that comes from iPhones and iPads. The loss here is in terms of valuable location data generated from mapping apps that helps improve the service and provide utility based features (traffic updates, nearby locations etc.) which creates brand recall and builds strong brand association, serving best as a future investment.

Current Situation

On the basis of the current situation only 7% of the total Android devices in the world are running ICS which include just the high-end devices like the Galaxy Nexus, Note, HTC One X, Galaxy SII & SIII. So a large number of device users who form a major chunk of market are left with outdated OS versions, which is one of the reasons why the growth is peaking. Sadly, most devices aren’t configured to run the likes of ICS but a lighter versions of upgrades can possibly help satisfy the majority and also help sustain the growth.