Coming to their senses?
You mean people are finally (slowly; too slow IMO) coming to their senses that tablets are pretty much useless novelty items?
British punters continue to favour fondleslabs, but all the signs are that the rocketing growth in sales seen in recent years is a ghost of Christmas past. Growth is, however, robust, according to GfK, a market watcher which tracks over-the-counter sales in the UK rather than shipments from vendors. The number of tablets …
Sales growth is less than last year, which is not quite the same thing. The year before last, the market was basically owned by Apple with a few other people selling things that were the same price as the iPad and not as good, or cheaper than the iPad and completely rubbish.
Last year was the first time there was a real challenge to Apple and the market expanded rapidly. Apple lost their market-leading position, but still sold more than the year before. This year, the market is still growing, but not by quite as much.
I got a 2012 Nexus 7 a little over a year ago and it's a cracking little device for what it does. But it's exactly as good as it needs to be for that, and probably will be for quite some time.
When I saw the 2013 model in a shop the other week, I genuinely couldn't tell the difference between new and old without my old one in hand to compare. The screen might be slightly better, and all the performance numbers might be a little up, but I honestly couldn't feel it when I tried it out. And I'm a techie, I like shiny new things. I'm always staring at new laptops and desktop components, but I can't conjure up any desire for the newer Nexus over the older one. It's not like the PC scene, where new games are always stressing out old systems. I play Spelltower and Tetris.
The iPads have the same issue. Aside from the new Mini which finally has a good screen, they're just a bit thinner and a bit faster than the old ones. That doesn't light a fire under anyone but the most rabid fanbois.
I'm a techie as well and I know just what you mean. I own several abaci and they are all pretty much of a muchness. The earliest of which, thought to come from Isfahan (c.550 BC), is the best though, especially with a regular little dab of mutton fat on the 'wires'. Sure, over the development course of a thousand years the colour and texture of the beads changed from time to time but I wish I hadn't splashed out on some of the more recent models, just cos they were more blinged-up, sheesh.
Yeah I agree, tablets have come in in leaps and bounds over the last few years but are becoming mature technology now. I bought an Android tablet in late 2010/early 2011 and it was absolute dog poo. Fair enough it wasn't from a big maker (it was a Viewsonic Gtablet) but it was horrendous, constant freezes and reboots, low res screen and woeful performance.
I gave in and binned it for a Nexus 7 a few months ago and I couldn't be happier. Screen resolution, performance and reliability have advanced tremendously. Can't imagine what would tempt me to upgrade it in a near to medium future.
I think the growth we see now is remaining people who want a tablet but don't yet have one, people replacing their first generation tablets and a few rabid fanbois/fandroids slavishly buying whatever comes out. Oh yeah, and all those people buying Surface RTs. *Cough*.
Also got a 2012 Nexus 7, agree its fine for what it does. Wife has the 2013 model and screen looks good, adds the missing camera but not enough to tempt me to join the annual upgrade treadmill. The old iPad Mini felt dog slow but the new one hits the good enough for many casual uses spot IMO though Android and iOS devices still too sluggish to get overexcited yet speaking as a developer interested in porting PC level software.
So generally I disagree with your 'good enough' comment. Close but not there yet. Games, image processing still a lot to be desired. Next years process shrink to 20nm for ARM SoC (14nm Intel) should about do it and by 2015 I fully expect things to have settled down as with the notebook market in recent years.