Dell and HP Poke Fun At Apple, iPad

almost sounds like new jersey election season

Quote from unnamed partner: "On the tablet side, why wouldn't you just get an iPad?"

For the same reason that not everybody is getting iPhones, buddy. As great as Apple's iPad may be, there are legitimate reasons to go somewhere else. That being said, it does seem like about 50% of the non-iPad tablet market is overpriced junk and another 25% is correctly-priced junk.

I was in an Apple store asking questions about the iPad 2 and was very surprised to find out that, although the iPad can be loaded with music from iTunes, it cannot sync with an iPod. How ironic would it be if a Windows 7 tablet would sync with an iPod, which seems fairly reasonable since any Windows computer can already do this.

They should first make decent products themselves before bashing what their competitors are doing.
They just don't understand what the consumer actually wants. Openness is meaningless to 99% of the potential customers. What the consumer cares about is apps apps and more apps.

That's obviously a killer feature that every tablet needs to have...

molo9000, you see this is exactly what you don't understand. You are correct that 99% of users don't care about openness. But a lack of openness restricts them from doing what they want. And this they do care about. This is extremely common in tech. 99% of the people don't care about FFTs, but they sure do care about being able to watch HD content from a single disc.

It's becoming increasingly common that I show a non-tech savvy friend something I've done on my droid, they think it's cool and ask me if I can do it on their iphone, and I have to explain to them that it's impossible because apple won't let me do it. This restricts the "apps, apps and more apps", thus potential customers do care about openness, even if not directly.

^ I can show anyone something my device can do that there's can't. Doesn't mean a thing as there's always going to be advantages to anything.

I'd lime to know which Android phone you have, which version of Android you have and which iPhone your friend had. Then I'd like to know specifically what you showed him that he couldn't do.

FullMalls is about to be taken out by Tomshardware...

I could agree. Openness only matter to those only who knows, such as visitors of TH.
Yes, apps matter but it is also the simplicity and ease of use as a whole.
I'm sounding like an Apple fan but if the competition wants to join in, they must create very well thought out products that just works and seamless with other systems.

Wow, Apple fanboys have no limit. Did you just wake up and miss the last decade? What do you think Apple was doing for years in their Mac vs. PC commercials?

How dare anyone make fun of my beloved Apple! Kill them all!!! Ha

Apple lost the PC wars to Windows because 90% of all computer users were tech nerds (I was one of them). Back then, I had to concede that Apple had a superior OS on stable hardware running great software; but it was expensive and closed off. I stayed with Windows because I liked having the access to hardware options and OS/software tweaking.

Today, the portable market is made up of a greater percentage of the "average Joe" types. They aren't as interested in seeing the Wizard behind the curtain. They're comfortable just knowing he is there and that the show will go on. Because of this, Apple won't topple as easily this time. I still believe an open community (such as android) is better, but I'm not part of the majority as I was during the PC/Apple war.

BTW, I'm buying my first android tablet within the next month; but my wife is buying an iPad. Oh, the inhumanity.

Dell & HP are.... lazy. So very, very lazy

HP Slate 500 & Dell Duo are the best you can both do and DON'T blame Windows 7. Asus got off of it's behind and released the (nearly perfect - battery life) Asus EP121 which could possibly be the finest Windows Slate money can buy. The screen is perfect, extra bright, responsive and very easy to use with touch. (Entire clean install, drivers, domain join, installs, config, all with my pinkies).

What do you guys do? Slate (Did you see what I did there) Apple. Well done. Although i don't appreciate apple as they are evil and treat their customers like fools, how about you (Dell, HP) actually release something of worth instead of showing us pictures and nothing more. Web OS? Good luck with that. Any machine that hits this company will have that bloat removes. Dell... (Sounds of wind moving past)

Don't be lazy, innovate.

What those people said is true, but to have some weight to those arguments they could do with bringing out a product that competes well with the iPad first.

The whole debate between Apple fans and non-Apple fans is the modern iteration of the whole 'the king has no clothes on' story.

I don't care whether it has "killer features" or not. I care about whether a device meet my needs, as any intelligent consumer should. Unless, of course, you are just buying something to show off to the world how cool you are, with your "killer features" and all.

Yes, you bloody puppet, having unrestricted access to my own content is a killer feature, that renders all Apple products pretty much dead for me.

... don't poke apple, they will sue you... or do some magic stuff...

Why is syncing your iPad with an iPod so important? Is syncing it with your PC so difficult? Why use it as a music player in the first place if you have an iPod?

A tablet is an entertainment device or a toy, not a productivity device. It's not supposed to do everything. It's supposed to do a few things well. What really matters is quality software and a great user experience.

All iPad software is specifically written for the iPad. What device to Android coders design their software for? What screen aspect ratio? What screen diagonal? what resolution? What processor? what graphics chip?

Openness sounds positive, but a closed system can offer a better user experience.

Wow, this is some funny crap from those other companies!
[Note: I own PCs and Thinkpads - no Mac computers or iPhone, but a new iPad owner]

Yeah, Dell and HP have Apple cornered in the corporate tablet market with their non-existant products! Apple created the market that MS has failed to do in 10 years.

Dell depends on Android and for the most part - what little they have is only available from their website. My Galaxy-S phone doesn't sync/work with my Windows7 computer (same with most Galaxy users) - so I had to buy an 8GB memory card and adapter to xfer photos and music between the two. I'm not impressed - crappy software and drivers. Yet, my 3 year old STUPID Sony phone works just fine. (Yes, this is more of a Samsung problem than Android)

Lark of Dell said:

Yes, if you ARE talking about phones. In general, I like my Android phone. We're talking tablets here, moron. Even as of today, there isn't a good competing product yet - but in 2-5 years there should be. So until then, why bother with the dinky Streak?

In 12 months, Apple has sold over 17 million iPads, way more than anyone else over the past 10 years. The 7" Dell streak is not sold at bestbuy, much less anywhere else. $400 for the 5" model and $450 for the 7"? For my business needs, they would not work. Screen is too small.


Yeah, someone from India. And what would that person tell an owner of the HP tablet? I know "sorry sir, I cannot help you with your HP tablet as they are not on the market" About the business. That is business. Customers / end users don't care. We don't see that side... and its not like HP is some sort of Awesome company that everyone loves.

We bought an iPad because it WORKED, easy to use and price fine. There was no competing product we could use and there is still nothing today. XOOM requires a subscription to even work - how stupid.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of Apple etc... but for a tablet - they set the bar.

Well, personally, I've got the new HTC Thunderbolt. I replaced my much loved iPhone 3G, and I've got a couple friends with the iPhone 4.

What I can do that they can't?

* Unrooted/Un-jailbroken video call on 3G or 4G alone. (No Wifi, and yes, I can do this even on 3G).
* Plug my phone in to any PC and copy over movies and music without needing to have 3rd party crapware (itunes) installed.
*Use Flash based games/websites

*Upgrade the storage capacity of my phone (Removable SD card, though it came stock with 32GB.)

*Replace the battery without complete disassembly (obviously will need to do this, w/ the crap battery life my phone has)

*Pwn any version of iPhone. (duh, winning)

Yes, I do see your point - to a degree. I am looking at getting a tablet device for my girlfriend who is completely computer illiterate and she loves the idea of an iPad. She also has an iPod and uses my PC to sync her tunes. She doesn't want a laptop or netbook. Giving her one of these would be taken as a sign that either I don't listen to her or don't care (I'm sure you know what I mean). So I want to give her a device that meets her simple needs and make her happy. The iPad comes so close, yet for some strange reason, isn't capable of something which seems so simple, and as I pointed out, will likely be possible with other tablets.

I don't care what they say, if they make it available (like the i-products) and competitively priced, then they'll sell. Why is it that these idiot manufacturers can't get this simple ideology??? Cheap and available??? What about advertising? I've YET to see an ad for Dell and it's streak, but I've seen hundreds of iPad/iPhone/iPod commercials. Have they just thought that these things will sell on brand recognition alone???

First of all, I am NOT an apple fanboy (actually I'm kind of an Android one) BUT even when the Xoom let me drooling as soon as I saw the price it was all over... I would never pay 600dlls for something that have LESS features than a 300dlls netbook, with all the poor opinions I have about Apple and specially iTunes I have to admit they are pricing their products better than most of the other Android tablet manufacturers.
The way I see things as soon as Asus and Samsung tablets get here that will start to change, and maybe in a year when Honeycomb or it successor get more mature and get a lot more apps the same thing that happened with smartphones will happen with tablets.
But as today, Dell with their crappy 7 inch tablet with poorer screen resolution than my frikkin original Droid and HP with their vaporware shouln't be making fun of a company they are trying so hard to emulate.

"But longer term, open, capable and affordable will win, not closed, high price and proprietary,"
With exception of being open, current iPad 2 is more capable and affordable than competition. Performance-wise it beats more expensive competition (4 times better performance than Xoom), even those which are not on the market yet (like Galaxy S II, which is likely similar in performance to Xoom due to used chipset).
So, they explain quite well why Apple won so far the tablet war.

@cyprod: You don't seem to understand the typical consumer. For the typical American consumer there are more apps out there then they would ever want or use in a lifetime. Why do you need 50 different versions of the same thing, especially if 4-5 decent versions are already available? The consumer has no idea of what openness is, nor do they care, nor will it have any impact on them and their choice of apps.

Having access to numerous apps brings to mind the typical teenage software pirate. They brag how they have over 50 apps for doing everything under the sun. Ask them how many they use everyday and you will get a response like "two or three." The first thing is that you have to learn the app, and then apply it. Add to the fact that you can only do so much in one day, then what is the point of owning or having access to hundreds of apps? There is none.

HP and Dell can bash Apple all they want, but they would be well served to spend their energies creating innovation. To give American's some credit here, I think the people of this country are growing weary of the continual bashing and criticizing of anything and everything.

First thing that comes to mind:
-Download a DivX video.
-Plug in android phone, copy video onto it like you would on a flash drive without needing any additional software.
-Play the video on the phone.

For iPod/iPad/iPhone, you have to first convert that video into Apple-friendly format, then use iTunes to copy it on your phone. If you have a season of a TV show, we are talking hours and hours of conversion time. Doesn't sound like it "just works" to me.

Hey Charlie Sheen... You are a crazy dude, trust me - you have Woodpecker blood, not tiger.

Anyways, good points. I think the iProducts are built for a 2~4 year life span... with new features that the owners would want to upgrade. The battery is still an UGH thing - not so much for replacement, but for a hard-reset - pull the battery. But by not having a battery cover - its a cleaner design and perhaps a bit more waterproof, also allowing them to make the unit a tad bit thinner.

Wow, that's amazing, I know the primary use for my phone is to watch videos.

I can side load apps on my Gtablet running 2.1, 2.2, or 2.3 with a microSD card without root or jailbreaking. Is there an app for that?

I dislike Apple as much as the next Windows fanboy, but HP and Dell have some serious problems themselves (doesn't help their users are idiots). I had an HP laptop and the thing was constantly overheating. I had an HP printer and it went dead after a year. Both companies need to get cases with more cooling and higher quality parts because their users will leave their PCs on for days on end.

"Wow, that's amazing, I know the primary use for my phone is to watch videos. "

Lol @ Apple fanbois. I don't like that feature so it doesn't count...

If the primary use for your phone is being a phone.... why the F do you have an iphone? Any old free with contract phone does that. You know what's supposed to make the iPhone different? The sh*t it can do on top of being a phone.

here is the facts folks. Right now. all tablets suck donkey. The Ipad is a glorified large screened Ipod nothing more. There isn't competition from Hp and Dell because what they have sucks too. Android is the only real innovative anything in the last 5 yrs. I'm not talking about phones here just the OS.

One another note the fact that numerous phone manufacturers make Android phones spreads the wealth around and more importantly gives consumers options and choices.

I see Apple as a communist regime who dictates approved computing devices for citizens. While i understand not everyone is a techie and not everyone wants to know how things are done or how to change them, many of us do. and if that ability is taken away or made modular and simplified it isn't interesting any more. It feels like technological censorship. Open markets based on approved standards is the way to go. Not simpleton products which gain notoriety solely based on ignorant popularity. Cocaine and free love were popular once too but that didn't make them the right choices for anyone. Conformist hipsters, fooouey.

You are holdi... thinking it wrong. No seriously. You are thinking as a techie. Average Joe does not think "let me find divX video" - he thinks "I want to watch a movie". And there are several ways to do it on iOS - the Apple way (iTV, iTunes store, whatever), Netflix and youtube comes to mind. There are probably others as well.

That's the whole idea of "closed" system - it forces you to use particular formats (and get milked in the way), but make it very eazy for you (to depart with money).

So, absolutely iPad2 device can do what you suggest doing. More over it has Airplay, so you can play movie directly from your iPad through iTV. That's what average Joe sees. Not DivX format - average Joe gives $$#$ about it