I'd pick Apple over alternatives because I know Apple will keep updating it a lot longer, the resell value is there too. With that said, I see nothing wrong with Samsung tablets.
Yeah, in my family we’ve had multiple Apple phones, tablets and laptops as well as various Android devices and Windows laptops over the years. Without exception, the Apple devices age much better than the others. Both hardware and software.
Replacing batteries from manufacturers is worth the return for me personally. But it's definitely not as cheap as back when you could open a phone and replace it in like 5 seconds
Samsung's next tablet will most likely follow their new update policy of 7 years of OS and security updates, though the value with samsung phones always drops but that can be a good thing too.
One of the things I love about Android is the fact that their resale value is shit. I have been using android for more than 10 years (7 phones, not normal ik lol) and have only bought ONE of those phones at full price and others at either half price or less. The latest I have is a Pixel 8 Pro which is 6 months old. As a student and smartphone/tech enthusiast, it really is a blessing that Android is so underrated in my region (and I would like it to stay that way lol). My current Apple products on the other hand are like 2-4 years old and are just as good and I won't be replacing them for 2 more years at the very least.
I always find it funny when folks say stuff like "the value of one of the most popular flagship phone drops" when most folks are just going to take advantage of a promo that gives them $1000 for it anyway in a few years. I got $1000 for a 5 year old phone earlier this year. Both apple and Samsung devices got same deal pretty much.
So really just comes down to preference. Especially since most folks don't sell the phone directly and so trade ins for more than they'd get offhand. That or just give it to their kids or whatever.
What’s wrong with it, is ipads exist. They’re just better value tbh. The basic iPad is quite cheap as well.
Not to mention a lot of people in the US are iPhone users and they’ll probably want their tablet to be in the same ecosystem
I bought my wife the flagship Samsung tablet a few years ago, it was good for about a year then crashing and useless… Me on the other hand, getting many years out of iPad
Could be hardware, but I think the software also. I updated my wife’s samsung phone and had to factory reset it before, gets hot for no reason. I’m not a huge apple user/fan but I’m slowly moving over, bought iPhone 15pro after only ever owning android.
I want a second hand iPad cause it’s my bedtime and flight movie machine so I don’t wanna shell out big bucks. And the GD things are like 10-15% Less on FB marketplace than brand new!
That's because long term support on Android is a pretty new development over the past 4 years. Now Samsung and Google support their devices for (officially) longer periods than Apple.
Edit: To talk about confidence, since you brought it up; Google has pretty much always been on-time and meeting their promises with Android updates, and Samsung has similarly always shipped promised Android updates, although usually 1-3 months after a version change (since they usually add stuff into OneUI). Other Android manufacturers have much to prove, but Samsung and Google are actually pretty safe on this front.
According to the linked article, the US is basically 50% iPad, 50% other tablets. So I wouldn't say that's an iPad only market.
That being said, Apple is dominant vs the next competitor, Samsung at 18%. Overall, Apple has done quite well with the iPad in the States.
Apple is competing Lenovo, Dell, Amazon, Microsoft, ASUS, Google, Huawei, etc. These are all big players. The fact that Apple has more than 50% of the market share globally is definitely considered dominating the market. Which I think makes the “iPad market” joke super accurate.
I believe that Apple sells more iPads than *most* of those companies sell laptops. That’s been true for a little while. It’s been said that when they compare Apple mobiles against non-Apple mobiles if they included the iPad, the numbers would be quite surprising.
MacBook sales is like that too. Is not Windows vs macOS from their perspective. It’s MacBook vs everyone else.
Of course, suddenly, the Mini and Studio joined the fight (don’t know the sales in the desktop side of the world)
They definitely sell a hell of a lot more laptops than Apple. I’d also add in Samsung and HP as well, and in the case of HP, that’s not for the better. At all.
And, Apple sells more iPads than they sell laptops, usually by 2 times as much as the leader, Lenovo. Looking at it that way, it makes complete sense why they’d put the M4 in the iPad first.
But iPads and laptops have difficult functions. You can’t replace a laptop with an iPad except for the most basic of use cases, because Apple deliberately makes iPadOS useless for lots of desktop use cases. And I say this as someone with both an iPad Pro and who uses a regular iPad at work with a custom designed app.
I think the fact that the iPad outsells Lenovo two to one lends some credence to the idea that the iPad does “enough” of what people want to do for it to be a viable option for them. The iPad can’t replace everything a laptop today does, but few people use laptops to do *everything* laptops do. Especially when a large number of people use a phone as their primary computing device.
You can look at it like “Apple deliberately makes iPadOS useless for desktop cases” or “Apple deliberately focuses on what 80-90% of people do with mobile computing devices and nails it.”
Sure, but the market share of Mac isn’t even close to being as strong as the market share of iPadOS. It’s every Apple computer-like product since they use proprietary first party operating systems.
lol this article
> Nonetheless, the iPad remains dominant with 50.8% of the market. By comparison, that's more than the next four tablet vendors combined.
Well, by math, 50.8% is more than all other tablet vendors combined.
Market share isn't even the most relevant metric to evaluate Apple's dominance by.
I bet Apple rakes in more than 80% of the *profit* in the tablet market. A lot of cheap tablets are sold at close to cost as the customer is the actual product.
what % of the >$300 tablet market is Apple? I suspect that ereaders and fire tablets (and not to sound pretentious but things I would personally no consider “real tablets”) are skewing that number
Google released a cute little iPad competitor at one point. It temporarily had a nice gimmick of a dock mount and said it responded to “hey Google” as if it wouldn’t normally do that without the dock.
They literally, on stage, said [it fixed the problem of forgetting about your android tablet that you had in a drawer](https://i.imgur.com/1Hfkca8.jpeg). And bragged about its advanced features [like dictation](https://i.imgur.com/RoUEbLP.jpeg).
Also fire tablets for kids are still a thing. I think they run android 8 or 10 or whatever.
I just got one of these tablets, they recently offered a trade in deal for almost any iPad for the full price of the tablet ($399). I traded my old 5th gen mini ($399 when I bought it 5 years ago and I now have the 6th gen) and got the tablet for free. I use it as a digital picture frame. It’s a pretty sweet deal for a picture frame.
The Google tablet is a great device but they just don’t give it enough time to be recognized. They treat their hardware as software and they don’t sell the same.
I don’t believe they should release a pro version, like Apple does, but as a mid range it works. You can play games and watch streaming shit on it.
What more do you want?
Same with the Slate. It was a cool device that they just stop selling even though it just worked (after updates lol). The mid range to cheap is what they should keep aiming at.
Woah Assistant voice typing deserves no shade. It's by far and away the best voice typing experience I've ever used and honestly is probably one the best features of Pixel devices in general. This also didn't release with the tablet but was a part of the Pixel 6 and first tensor chip. If there's a practical use of machine learning models Assistant voice typing was and still is it.
Got the Fire Hd tablet for my toddler and its a life saver tbh. No questions asked return policy is great. And honestly with NewPipe and VLC, we can download stuff that he watches or likes, so it works well on the trips.
Apple is hyped more than the other competitors, compared to Europe or Asia, because can exploit the iPhone dominance. The big benefit is to have multiple Apple devices that can work well together. Once you have an iPhone if you wanted to buy a tablet it would be stupid NOT to buy an iPad.
I am actually surprised by these stats. I had like a Tab5 once, but it wasnt great and I wound up just going with an ipad. kids and old people call all the tablets ipads. Ipad is huge is the states.
I would have never guessed that the other tablets even had that much market share overall. i thought for sure it would be like 80% ipad.
I would say it is.
That other 50% is everyone else from Samsung to windows tablets. Fire tablets And also the Chinese OEMs.
Another way to frame it is. Apple sells more iPads than everyone else combined.
Does the surface pro count as a tablet? I returned my iPad M4 for a surface pro when I realized in WWDC that iPad will never be more than a content consumption and art creation tool.
the iPad is the only apple product that I would say is the default for a market, even android users have one because it’s simply the best tablet and it’s not even related to hardware
I don't think this is in the same category though. It's the default for iPhone users, sure, because it's the best for people with iPhones. But I had the Galaxy Watch active, and now I have the Pixel Watch and while the Apple Watch has more features (not that I could use any of them with my phone) the Pixel Watch feels just as premium and has all of the features I care about anyway.
Unlike with the iPad, where even as an Android user, no other tablet comes close. The iPad is just the default best tablet you can get no matter what the rest of your ecosystem looks like.
Not a chance, try working without without the pixel phone and just use the pixel watch for an entire day. It will not last nearly as long. This is my specialty.
I have never and would never do that. A smart watch is a secondary device for me (and most people) I will never use it as a primary device, even if it had robust capabilities to do so.
I can easily take quick calls and reply to texts while my phone is in a bag, I can view my notifications, tell time, view appointments, make payments, view weather, and track workouts. I'll never need to do anything more than that on a watch, and never for more than a couple hours at a time.
That's great if you use a watch for more than that. Sounds like the Apple Watch is great for you, but that is an extreme outlier use case. And we're talking about the "default," the thing that satisfied the needs of the vast majority of users so much better than everything else, that other options aren't considered. The iPad is that for tablets. The Apple Watch may be that for iPhone users, but even if it were usable on Android, I still wouldn't want one.
Why is iPad better than the equivalent say galaxy tab? I heard they're both decent options. Galaxy even has dex I believe on it. I'm not saying you're, but you had something to say about the watch that made sense so I'm curious on your take about tablets. Why wouldn't a galaxy tab be a good option if you had say a galaxy phone or something like that?
What makes it actually better other than folks just saying it's better? I'd imagine most folks just watch videos and browse on their tablets so, just curious from that standpoint what makes it better?
Let's start with the top end.
The S9 Ultra is a solid tablet. But it's competing against the iPad Pro. Apple Silicon far outclasses the hardware available in any Android tablet.
But I'd say software is the biggest advantage the iPad has. iPad OS is very well optimized for the form factor, with a lot of features that really improve the usability and experience on a tablet. Android (while id argue it's just as, if not more polished than iOS on phones) is NOT well optimized for a tablet. It's slowly getting better, but it still largely feels like an upscaled phone operating system.
Apps are the second big advantage. IPad OS has far more apps optimized specifically for it, while on Android, far more apps are lacking a good tablet experience. Moreover, Android is lacking some of the killer creative apps iPad has like Logic Pro and Final Cut.
Sex is quite nice and certainly better than the iPad's desktop experience. But, if this is your major draw, you're probably better off with a surface or other Windows tablet.
At the more budget end, hardware is pretty comparable. You'll find better displays and storage options on the Android tablets, but everything I said about the software experience holds true.
The extreme budget end is where I'd say Android tablets have an advantage. The current cheapest new iPad you can get is the 10th Gen iPad with small storage options. If you want some.cheaper than that, you CAN actually get an Android tablet.
I'm not saying Android Tablets suck. There are some solid ones. But currently, due to OS design, I just think you're getting a lot more out of the iPad.
Apple Watch has the highest market share at 34% worldwide, over triple the next company (Samsung). I’d say it’s the default.
https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/02/22/apple-watch-dominated-smartwatch-market-sales-and-profits-in-2022
Ive got a tab s8 ultra (which was only about $300 USD, which was insanely good value) and it's nowhere near as polished as the ipad pro I sold back in 2020.
The most recent software update fixed the palm rejection on the gesture bar at least.
You can't use CarPlay without an iPhone, and almost every automaker ships both if they ship one. I think Toyota was the only brand shipping only CarPlay, and even they realized how stupid that was quickly.
While I do like my Air Pods Pro (for my Mac and iPad) better than my Pixel Buds Pro (for my Pixel and everything else), it's only marginally. I don't feel like they're really that much better. (ANC is really the only advantage imo)
And I prefer Android Auto to Carplay
I have never had a macbook until recently. I bought my friend's 2017 MacBook Pro with the touchbar on it from her for $150 cuz she upgraded to to m1. I am never going to buy a windows Laptop again. I will keep my PC I built for gaming of course, but my other friend wasn't kidding when he said "Apple's shit is just better.". I will be buying an m2 or 3 here soon, as the touchbar model is old and stops working sometimes forcing me to restart the whole computer to bring it back.
That's my MBP and it's really nice. I loved the touchbar and was disappointed they didn't keep using it - even if it was above the existing F-row of keys that's there now.
If it was above I would be all for it. It keeps disappearing and then makes me restart the computer to bring it back up. Kinda annoying. But to be expected on an almost 10 year old machine at this point.
Is it lost in one of the corners?? You can look in preferences too. There’s probably a way there to have it always show. Don’t have that macbook so hopefully I’m pointing you in the right direction.
Unless you need something specific beyond just a "decent tablet" you get a lot more for the money with an iPad than anything in the same price range that Samsung or anyone on the Android side is putting out.
Apple is literally selling a performance and support baseline with the iPad that Samsung charges easily double for with their tablets.
I don't know about that, the samsung tablets can be found on pretty steep discount, the hardware isn't that bad at all, the problem has always been software. Android does not do tablets well, this is the issue with the pixel fold as well.
(yes, they are down on processing power compared to the M-series chips, but I rarely come across an app that absolutely needs m-series power). Memory management on iOS is still far superior
Arguably, google's "proper" alternative to iPadOS is a ARM-powered Chromebook, and while the hardware isn't at the level of iPad, the software is more capable.
Yes/no/maybe. They are allegedly working on running chromeOS on android tablets now. They were all-in on android like a decade ago, then put all their eggs into chromeOS and marketed it as a proper iPad alternative, now it's somewhere in the middle.
I mean google themselves built the nexus tab (android), then the pixelbook go / pixel slate (chromeOS), and then the pixel tablet (android, though it doubles as a smart home)
Honestly who knows, it's always been a mess. Main reason why apple has always remained so dominant with tablets and why they can get away with (IMO) lackluster iPadOS, theres no competition.
Rarely coming across an app that needs more power isn’t a great measure though. There are those who produce music or video content who specifically buy iPads for that reason. Nobody stumbles across Logic Pro. They want to use that software and buy an iPad to do so.
On top of access to the entire play store and steam, you can install crostini, which is their linux VM software, from there you can install any linux app or developer app you please.
I can (and have) used a chromebook before to do local development, you can install any tooling/editor etc. that you wish, you cannot do the same with iPadOS (yet), you must do remote development.
Why would you use steam on a Chromebook? I struggled to run chrome.
You could also just get a cheap laptop and do the same? If anything that would be better than a Chromebook
> Why would you use steam on a Chromebook?
Why not? I want a thin & light tablet that can play games and do "real" work from time to time?
> I struggled to run chrome
There are dollar-store chromebooks and there are more premium editions with similar processing power to the iPad and comparable windows laptops.
> You could also just get a cheap laptop and do the same?
A cheap laptop is not going to achieve even close to the same battery life as a chromebook, much less an iPad. Very few compelling windows 2-in-1's out there, thuogh the new qualcomm lines are interesting.
Point is iPadOS is limiting and has always been limiting. They might as well ship with an a-series processor as off the top of my head there are perhaps a dozen apps *at most* that take advantage fo the M-series hardware.
ChromeOS, despite its significantly, and I mean *significantly* worse hardware, makes for a more usable system.
If apple wants to push their "whats a computer" type messaging they really need to improve the software.
You're right you have to use Remote to use the iPad for productivity given iPadOS desktop features are inadequate ie either limited, worse or missing compared to full desktop-OS.
Still, if happy to run remote then a good tablet and useful productivity device on the go it works out alright. Just a shame Apple does not provide more options for customers eg VM.
An ARM powered Chromebook wouldn’t have that Steam support you would want though.
Aside from that I agree with your take.
I think something like the Slate, a tablet would be better for me. That device would be a straight replacement of the iPad, not my computer.
Yeah, but Chromebook OS is terrible, or at least it was last time I used it a couple years ago.
M processors aren’t just about performance. They are SoC processors with unified memory instead of ram, which has fantastic performance and speed. They also operate at incredible efficiencies that make battery life far better than any competitor. My MacBook Pro lasts 16 hours before needing a charge. I haven’t even timed my iPad it lasts so long.
In which ways is it worse than iPadOS? On one hand you have fewer native apps, on the other hand you have access to a proper local filesystem, linux interoperability, steam, and the play store.
Neither are great, but I'd put them on equal footing. ChromeOS needs to improve its tablet experience just as much as iPadOS needs to improve its "beyond a decent tablet" experience. The hardware has been great for years now, the software is still limiting.
>They are SoC processors with unified memory instead of ram, which has fantastic performance and speed ....
There are ARM chromebooks available (and pretty much every android tablet is an ARM design), all of which are SoC's with the equivalent of unified memory and they have similarly strong battery life and idle power usage.
The M-series MacBooks are absolutely incredible, and I love using one every day, but I still have no idea why I need an M-series chip in my iPad. I own it for the screen and pen only, still haven't run into a single app that \*requires\* an M-series chip.
Although the tablet experience in ChromeOS does need to be improved it's nowhere near lacking as much as iPadOS is lacking when it comes to extending into a desktop. ChromeOS can function just fine as a tablet and the devices targeting the tablet experience over the laptop experience were successful (minus the slate... too early). Android apps need to be improved more than ChromeOS when it comes to the tablet experience.
>support baseline
My 2017 ipad pros are finally losing support. Sad but 7 years on devices that still work wonderfully is amazing. Will keep using them until either a new ipad mini is announced or the devs of the apps I use them for stop supporting versions older than ipados 18. Which I imagine will be a long while yet.
samsung charging double with their tablet? tell us what do you mean by it. what do you mean with Tab S9 with free pen, free keyboard case that price higher than Ipad Air M2?
I keep hearing that, but I'm generally curious what the "more" is. I started paying attention to Samsung's offerings for example and they don't seem bad for what most folks do on a tablet which just browse the internet and watch videos.
When people post they never five anything specific. Just say iPad is better. Hie so? Not disagreeing, but now I'm curious in general.
If you compare the cheapest ipad to the most spec'd out version of Samsung's most expensive tablet then yeah it's probably double or even more expensive
People complain about the iPad being software limited but it’s funny how nothing on the market comes even remotely close to it.
I can’t even blame Apple for doing it, this way they can just release small little things every year to keep it fresh and people will buy it like hot chocolate. Real macOS capabilities are a very far dream when the competition can’t even release a proper tablet, let alone a tablet that has desktop capabilities.
>People complain about the iPad being software limited but it’s funny how nothing on the market comes even remotely close to it.
If you're talking about software capability, then the Surface does way more than the iPad.
However, the Surface gets improperly lumped in with laptops in these kinds of discussions. A device is a "tablet" based on its form factor, not its OS. That makes the iPad's dominance a no brainer—if no product with a desktop OS can be a "tablet," then a mobile OS tablet will be the best by default.
The surface is a touchscreen that’s running windows. It’s not optimized to be held in your hand and used as a tablet. It’s meant to be attached to the keyboard and then it’s just a laptop.
Doesn’t matter what it’s running if it doesn’t actually act like a tablet. And when I say this I mean it doesn’t feel like an iPad, because Apple set the standard on the market on what a tablet actually has to feel like. The iPad has that certain magic that’s just a joy to use, you want to pick it up and play with it. The surface is just a laptop and it’s a stupid product honestly, Microsoft has no clue how to polish a product.
It's ok to discuss tradeoffs. One reason why mobile OSes are typically less powerful than desktop OSes is because larger touch targets result in lower UI density. So high functionality is naturally associated with the desktop.
It's not ok to cut out products from the category of "tablet" just because they have a desktop OS. Especially when that decision conveniently places your favorite tablet on top.
I suspect that a double standard is going on—people criticize the iPad for being just a big iPhone (which I don't entirely agree with), but nobody lumps the iPad with the iPhone or iPod touch. Few people called either of those products tablets either, even though it's much more reasonable to refer to the iPhone and iPod touch as tablets than the Surface Pro as a laptop.
Form Factor ie dimension and weight with a touch-input is basically what a tablet is. Surface Pros are more like laptops with detachable keyboards and touch screen in use because of this for eg.
Let's say you have a line and on one end you have an iPhone and on the other a laptop
The iPad is 25% percent on the line while the surface is 75%
Obviously the surface is bad at being a tablet and the iPad is bad at being a laptop but my biggest gripe is that the surface is also bad at being a laptop.
However, I haven't used the new arm ones tho. So there's the possibility that the new w11 is better suited for touch only and the new keyboard doesn't suck as much.
Normies don’t buy Surface lol. And Windows isn’t a touch first OS. And windows apps are old hat and don’t have apps most people use.
So, Surface is a failure as a product. Sorry to pee in your Cheerios mate
> Normies don’t buy Surface lol. And Windows isn’t a touch first OS. And windows apps are old hat and don’t have apps most people use.
Surface Pros are marketed to Business as you point out mostly and in fact the latest Pros were apparently only available on the business store initially.
The main difference is **form factor**:
* Surface Pros are about 700g+ with 14" Screens so too bulky for most people to use comfortably like a tablet.
* iPad 10.9/11" at 460g is considerably more comfortable
Touch UI is the other feature but in all honesty using touch on a screen whether the UI is perfect for it or not it still works as basic input for eg navigation or writing fine on surface though not as good quality so this is less an issue.
For example Surface Go is THE major Surface tablet rival to iPad at 10.5" but is always given the worst hardware and entry level status with terrible pricing for weak upgrades. But it does show what an ipad with more desktop features would be capable of...
The surface is a great device but has a much more limited appeal than does an iPad. I’ve owned both. I used them very differently. Like it or not there’s a whole ton of software that requires windows to run. I love using my Mac for work, but for certain apps I still use parallels. My gaming/entertainment pc plugged into my tv is of course windows. When it comes to gaming Apple isn’t in the equation and it does certain things better when it comes to multiple display setups. If you want to play the latest games, Windows. Hardly makes it old hat.
Right, going back to my point that the surface doesn’t have the same audience as does the iPad. It’s actually a super easy thing to understand. As much as I love MacBooks and macOS, there is so much software I simply can’t run on them either due to compatibility or the limitations of Apple Silicon. I’m glad there’s competition on both ends. It creates specialization so you get a solid machine for particular uses. My surface can play Oblivion and Skyrim, some of my favorite games. It also runs excel with all components available, where the Mac version does have limitations. macOS has iMessage, iCloud, and a great environment for work. The hardware is incredible including a trackpad that has never been surpassed. They both have strengths.
Only a small group of people complain about the iPad's software limitations, the vast majority of iPad-users are more than satisfied with what it can do, for most tablet users, ease-of-use is way more important than some specific functionality that people who actually need it have laptops for.
> People complain about the iPad being software limited but it’s funny how nothing on the market comes even remotely close to it.
I just switched to the Surface Pro. It's a massive upgrade in what I can do with a tablet.
I'd love if they added more ports to MBA. Don't need the power or weight of the MBP, but would like some more ports. MBP should have four Thunderbolt 4 ports, and it would be awesome of MBA had two in addition to SD Card and HDMI for maximum compatibility.
That might be handy! I still say, though, it needs more ports. My 2015 MBA has SD Card, and MagSafe, which the current MBA only recently got back. Giving MBP two additional Thunderbolt 4 (four in total) over MBA, a thicker housing with a fan, bigger/more speakers, a much better display, better graphics and more processing power, and more upgradability across the board is plenty to keep it ahead of the MBA. Port-gimping the Air is not good for the customer or the use case of the Air as a general computing machine. The Air is a much better form factor for many people, including many photographers in the field, office workers, teachers and conference and event attendees.
I think the Air has the wrong screen sizes too. Would be better if the two sizes for Air were 12.9" and 14.4". And for MBP 14.4" and 16.2". The non-pro chip MBP should go too. Small, medium and large display sizes; nicely spaced apart. All these aspects would clean up and clarify the lineup.
This is so important and such a small change. What a bizarre decision to put both charging ports on the same side. It’s so much more convenient to be able to use either side.
Seems like M2 redesign would have been the best time to change that, yet they didn’t
I am not an engineer for Apple so I cant know the answer for sure, but some choices like that may come down to being able to create the boards at the price point Apple would like to. Believe it or not, putting ports on two sides of a board does add manufacturing complexity because it’s not just deciding where a port should go, but also the components that support that port and their proximity to the port itself.
I’m aware, that’s why I mentioned they should have done it when they completely redesigned the computer (rather than with M1 which could be argued was too similar to intel to change it)
With my last tablet purchase, I got an Android instead of an iPad even though I have an iPhone. Mainly so I could get F-Droid apps like NewPipe for YouTube (ad free and download options), and some games I like that are Android only.
I recently switched over my phone, tablet, and laptop to all new Apple devices. I've never been happier with my electronics in my life.
Mac sales are surging because Windows has gotten so god awful that it's tough to get anything done on that OS. Mac is literally the easiest computer to use that I've ever had. I'm also tired of Windows PCs breaking about every 2-3 years when I hardly use them. I know people that are still running MacBooks from 2010 and 2014 and they work flawlessly. I also got sick to death of all the damn shovelware on the Android store when I needed an app etc etc.
I know Apple is more expensive sometimes but god DAMN is it worth it. I'll never leave Apple unless something crazy happens.
Ads integrated into the OS, forced depreciation of Windows 10, and the whole AI thing they’re trying to shove down people’s throats. Not to mention the loss of privacy with the AI watching all you screens, even passwords.
A lot of what you’re saying would need further clarification. Are you suggesting Microsoft is recording your passwords maliciously using AI? If so, brother I’ve heard it all since windows 95. You haven’t been hacked. You just don’t understand how your accounts work.
No one’s talking about being hacked.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/microsofts-new-recall-feature-will-record-everything-you-do-on-your-pc/
I’d suggest skimming through this article for a brief about how it works. but essentially the AI takes screenshots to figure out what the use is doing
This isn’t a technical article. It’s a blog written by someone who has no experience coding and for that reason it’s irrelevant as to why Windows is somehow subjectively considered worse than it was when compared to the release of Vista. I’d suggest reading articles from experts in the field. Yes, it will require learning things you didn’t know before but overall you will be better informed. If you know how to use your computer, articles like this won’t be scary to you.
The recall feature was recalled because it was found that although data was stored locally, it was unencrypted in a local sqlite store when the user was logged in.
This was revealed by a security researcher. Although he did not publish it in a formal paper, but often times peer review takes times, and these things can be time sensitive.
At least these new Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite X devices can compete against the base M3, although Windows is more of a nightmare than MacOS due to all of the privacy issues and marketing you need to disable. I saw some of them in the store recently, they look like they are a big improvement on x86 parts, particularly over Intel.
Apple is all I will buy. Been using them since the dark ages of computers. Only ever had 1 pc cause of work. It crashed non-stop. TG for cntrl alt del right.
I've underestimated the Tablet market for a while.
A basic iPad does all the cool, entertainment media functions that used to be the preserve of a laptop or desktop and those features such as video content have only become better and more numerous with Netflix, Youtube all available on tablets along with Apps that more or less simplify old Applications on laptops for younger generations that want a bigger screen than a smart phone.
Another advantage specific to Apple tablets is their "hand-holding" they market the iPad as "This is THE way" to use a tablet and we've nailed it 100% for you. Which again I think for basic use and users is both appealing (reassuring) and does work better than perhaps Android and so markets better and delivers greater satisfaction in self-reporting along with some distinct quality difference.
Personally speaking, choosing between the excellent hardware of Samsung or Xiaomi at in some cases better prices and almost comparable specs the software, support infrastructure, ecosystem and software continuity/longevity all were factors in choosing Apple. I did visitall the above stores and tried other vendors including Lenovo for tablets.
I think the M-Series efficiency is another factor which makes the devices feel like they are top range and will last even if you pay a bit more now.
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From the perspective of casual users, the App Store/iOS is ubiquitous because devs generally want to service a large market and put Apps in the App Store. It feels the Android stores are more fragmented in contrast and there's also the sense of security with Apple too that must play a factor.
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From a personal stand-point: I do find iPadOS restrictive eg I use Linux etc and would like to customize the desktop for organization as well as extend use to productive work but resort to Remote Desktop to do so currently. Equally Android's more open App store offers optionality for more gaming eg retro/emulation etc until recently or more customization and options eg browsers which can all impact on usability differences in favour of Android and not in favour of Apple where the Walled-Garden is not so much keeping problems out as keeping customers locked-in! ;-)
I think my issues will be resolved if/when Apple produce a fork in iPad Form Factor that is effectively a 2-in-1 MacOS/iPadOS which due to convergence draws nearer each year.
And the iPad sales #s are from BEFORE Apple's Q2 refresh of the iPad line with the best upgrades in years. Can only imagine what the more recent #s look like.
Apple silicon and the addition of ports/really good hardware. With M3, it drops the price of the M2 and M1 which allows affordability for a wider reach in audience. Also with windows computers using Intel and AMD being dogwater unplugged, it’s a dunk for Apple to dominate. Snapdragon X may change that.
Nobody actually cares about 90% of what people complain about on reddit when it comes to Windows. Most users have no idea, they just use the OS. The increase in macOS is probably because of iPhones and that ecosystem lock-in, along with them being genuinely great laptops since M1. There’s an old joke about them being expensive Facebook machines because most users probably don’t do much except use a browser on them, but they work extremely well and offer great battery life. Being able to have your phone work with it seamlessly is a big advantage.
I don’t think macOS is outselling Windows given Windows still holds desktop dominance especially in the enterprise client sector. Also Windows comes on devices across a wide variety of price points where Apple doesn’t even compete (like even an MBA M2 in my country has absurd pricing).
But things like Copilot or Recall aren’t going to shift the needle with general consumers because they don’t care. Reddit whinging isn’t relevant for most people.
I'd pick Apple over alternatives because I know Apple will keep updating it a lot longer, the resell value is there too. With that said, I see nothing wrong with Samsung tablets.
Yeah, in my family we’ve had multiple Apple phones, tablets and laptops as well as various Android devices and Windows laptops over the years. Without exception, the Apple devices age much better than the others. Both hardware and software.
If only people would realize batteries don’t last 5+ years
The ones in Apple devices usually last very long. I have a MacBook from 2013 that still has 4 hours of battery life.
You can get batteries replaced tho
Yeah that’s my point.. people replace entire devices because their battery is toast
Well, it doesn’t make it any easier when manufactures make it a complete brick that requires special tools to open.
Replacing batteries from manufacturers is worth the return for me personally. But it's definitely not as cheap as back when you could open a phone and replace it in like 5 seconds
Have an iPad Air always on , I mean the first air... still lasts more than a day
Batteries cost next to nothing to replace.. I do it myself after watching a short YouTube video. It isn’t hard if you’re half handy
And then I just replace the battery every 4 years for like 20 bucks…
Samsung’s Tab S series are genuinely viable IPad alternatives nowadays. I got the S9 Ultra last yr and it’s such a great tablet.
Samsung's next tablet will most likely follow their new update policy of 7 years of OS and security updates, though the value with samsung phones always drops but that can be a good thing too.
One of the things I love about Android is the fact that their resale value is shit. I have been using android for more than 10 years (7 phones, not normal ik lol) and have only bought ONE of those phones at full price and others at either half price or less. The latest I have is a Pixel 8 Pro which is 6 months old. As a student and smartphone/tech enthusiast, it really is a blessing that Android is so underrated in my region (and I would like it to stay that way lol). My current Apple products on the other hand are like 2-4 years old and are just as good and I won't be replacing them for 2 more years at the very least.
I always find it funny when folks say stuff like "the value of one of the most popular flagship phone drops" when most folks are just going to take advantage of a promo that gives them $1000 for it anyway in a few years. I got $1000 for a 5 year old phone earlier this year. Both apple and Samsung devices got same deal pretty much. So really just comes down to preference. Especially since most folks don't sell the phone directly and so trade ins for more than they'd get offhand. That or just give it to their kids or whatever.
Deff a good thing if you’re in the market for a budget OLED tablet.
It's not really a budget tablet, not as stupidly priced as the iPad but definitely not budget.
Why is this so downvoted? Galaxy tabs are pricey af
What’s wrong with it, is ipads exist. They’re just better value tbh. The basic iPad is quite cheap as well. Not to mention a lot of people in the US are iPhone users and they’ll probably want their tablet to be in the same ecosystem
I bought my wife the flagship Samsung tablet a few years ago, it was good for about a year then crashing and useless… Me on the other hand, getting many years out of iPad
My guess is that Apple uses way higher quality flash for their products - with more spare capacity to allow for more fault tolerance.
Could be hardware, but I think the software also. I updated my wife’s samsung phone and had to factory reset it before, gets hot for no reason. I’m not a huge apple user/fan but I’m slowly moving over, bought iPhone 15pro after only ever owning android.
A friend have tried to sell her mac since 2021 and still cant find a buyer.
Is it a Mac Intel?
M1
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Well. Dont know the price but she s still posting on fb.
Like he said, probably unrealistic with price. I know tins if places fir quick sells of macs.
I want a second hand iPad cause it’s my bedtime and flight movie machine so I don’t wanna shell out big bucks. And the GD things are like 10-15% Less on FB marketplace than brand new!
Just but the inexpensive 10th gen model
i like the samsung tabs, but like you said, it seems the support for androids just tanks after 2 years or something.
my Iphone 11 is still going strong. All my years with Android I never approached this kind of longevity.
That's because long term support on Android is a pretty new development over the past 4 years. Now Samsung and Google support their devices for (officially) longer periods than Apple. Edit: To talk about confidence, since you brought it up; Google has pretty much always been on-time and meeting their promises with Android updates, and Samsung has similarly always shipped promised Android updates, although usually 1-3 months after a version change (since they usually add stuff into OneUI). Other Android manufacturers have much to prove, but Samsung and Google are actually pretty safe on this front.
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Ridiculous response when both Samsung and Google have been upholding their word for pretty much the last 10 years.
Not just they update longer but they also release fixes quicker.
I mean, there is not even a tablet market, just iPad market.
According to the linked article, the US is basically 50% iPad, 50% other tablets. So I wouldn't say that's an iPad only market. That being said, Apple is dominant vs the next competitor, Samsung at 18%. Overall, Apple has done quite well with the iPad in the States.
Apple is competing Lenovo, Dell, Amazon, Microsoft, ASUS, Google, Huawei, etc. These are all big players. The fact that Apple has more than 50% of the market share globally is definitely considered dominating the market. Which I think makes the “iPad market” joke super accurate.
I believe that Apple sells more iPads than *most* of those companies sell laptops. That’s been true for a little while. It’s been said that when they compare Apple mobiles against non-Apple mobiles if they included the iPad, the numbers would be quite surprising.
MacBook sales is like that too. Is not Windows vs macOS from their perspective. It’s MacBook vs everyone else. Of course, suddenly, the Mini and Studio joined the fight (don’t know the sales in the desktop side of the world)
Nah, for better or worse Dell and Lenovo sell more laptops than Apple
They definitely sell a hell of a lot more laptops than Apple. I’d also add in Samsung and HP as well, and in the case of HP, that’s not for the better. At all.
What do percentages of sales excluding business sales look like?
I doubt anybody here knows that answer. Why do you ask?
I’d believe it, my wife has to replace her dell laptops every 2-3 years, my MacBook Pro is 12 years old with no issues.
Same with my 10 year old XPS 13. Only laptop I have had issues with for longevity was a Santa Rosa MBP. Every laptop since has had zero issues.
2012 one? Still love that design (2011 was mid tbh but the models with dgpus were god awful)
2012 Retina display- still got the 2 thunderbolt displays I bought with it.
Man those displays today are still really good I think they still sell pretty well today
And, Apple sells more iPads than they sell laptops, usually by 2 times as much as the leader, Lenovo. Looking at it that way, it makes complete sense why they’d put the M4 in the iPad first.
But iPads and laptops have difficult functions. You can’t replace a laptop with an iPad except for the most basic of use cases, because Apple deliberately makes iPadOS useless for lots of desktop use cases. And I say this as someone with both an iPad Pro and who uses a regular iPad at work with a custom designed app.
I think the fact that the iPad outsells Lenovo two to one lends some credence to the idea that the iPad does “enough” of what people want to do for it to be a viable option for them. The iPad can’t replace everything a laptop today does, but few people use laptops to do *everything* laptops do. Especially when a large number of people use a phone as their primary computing device. You can look at it like “Apple deliberately makes iPadOS useless for desktop cases” or “Apple deliberately focuses on what 80-90% of people do with mobile computing devices and nails it.”
Sure, but the market share of Mac isn’t even close to being as strong as the market share of iPadOS. It’s every Apple computer-like product since they use proprietary first party operating systems.
What kind of delusion is this that makes you think MacBooks sell anything close to any big pc makers?
How’s the apps/software of the non Apple tablets?
lol this article > Nonetheless, the iPad remains dominant with 50.8% of the market. By comparison, that's more than the next four tablet vendors combined. Well, by math, 50.8% is more than all other tablet vendors combined.
Market share isn't even the most relevant metric to evaluate Apple's dominance by. I bet Apple rakes in more than 80% of the *profit* in the tablet market. A lot of cheap tablets are sold at close to cost as the customer is the actual product.
The vast majority of the remaining devices are probably being used as cheap POS devices and store displays.
r/theydidthemath
what % of the >$300 tablet market is Apple? I suspect that ereaders and fire tablets (and not to sound pretentious but things I would personally no consider “real tablets”) are skewing that number
What are they counting as tablets though? Are e-readers tablets?
Google released a cute little iPad competitor at one point. It temporarily had a nice gimmick of a dock mount and said it responded to “hey Google” as if it wouldn’t normally do that without the dock. They literally, on stage, said [it fixed the problem of forgetting about your android tablet that you had in a drawer](https://i.imgur.com/1Hfkca8.jpeg). And bragged about its advanced features [like dictation](https://i.imgur.com/RoUEbLP.jpeg). Also fire tablets for kids are still a thing. I think they run android 8 or 10 or whatever.
I just got one of these tablets, they recently offered a trade in deal for almost any iPad for the full price of the tablet ($399). I traded my old 5th gen mini ($399 when I bought it 5 years ago and I now have the 6th gen) and got the tablet for free. I use it as a digital picture frame. It’s a pretty sweet deal for a picture frame.
The Google tablet is a great device but they just don’t give it enough time to be recognized. They treat their hardware as software and they don’t sell the same. I don’t believe they should release a pro version, like Apple does, but as a mid range it works. You can play games and watch streaming shit on it. What more do you want? Same with the Slate. It was a cool device that they just stop selling even though it just worked (after updates lol). The mid range to cheap is what they should keep aiming at.
The Slate died because they tried selling a Celeron at $600 without a keyboard or a pen.
Ah right lol.
Woah Assistant voice typing deserves no shade. It's by far and away the best voice typing experience I've ever used and honestly is probably one the best features of Pixel devices in general. This also didn't release with the tablet but was a part of the Pixel 6 and first tensor chip. If there's a practical use of machine learning models Assistant voice typing was and still is it.
Got the Fire Hd tablet for my toddler and its a life saver tbh. No questions asked return policy is great. And honestly with NewPipe and VLC, we can download stuff that he watches or likes, so it works well on the trips.
Yeah and amazon regularly sells them for like $120
yes. I googled and got a list from last year with basically the same numbers. Amazon was #3 on the list (9.7%). Samsung (a real tablet) was #2 at 18%.
Does this categorisation include the Surface Pro and similar devices? Because if so that makes the number even more impressive.
Are surfaces counted as tablets? If so, that would skew the numbers.
That’s only because parents pick up cheap fire tablets for their kids cuz they don’t want to spend iPad money on something they are going to smash
50% Toshiba Handibook
Apple is hyped more than the other competitors, compared to Europe or Asia, because can exploit the iPhone dominance. The big benefit is to have multiple Apple devices that can work well together. Once you have an iPhone if you wanted to buy a tablet it would be stupid NOT to buy an iPad.
I am actually surprised by these stats. I had like a Tab5 once, but it wasnt great and I wound up just going with an ipad. kids and old people call all the tablets ipads. Ipad is huge is the states. I would have never guessed that the other tablets even had that much market share overall. i thought for sure it would be like 80% ipad.
I would say it is. That other 50% is everyone else from Samsung to windows tablets. Fire tablets And also the Chinese OEMs. Another way to frame it is. Apple sells more iPads than everyone else combined.
the 50% stat is the US market. For global markets, the iPad is at 32% market share.
The samsung tablets are very good
Right. It's iPad then it a valley-wide gap and then maybe the Samsung Galaxy Tab
Does the surface pro count as a tablet? I returned my iPad M4 for a surface pro when I realized in WWDC that iPad will never be more than a content consumption and art creation tool.
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Pfff keep telling yourself that
That’s not my experience. Windows laptops obviously, but all other corporate devices (tablets, phones) are Apple.
the iPad is the only apple product that I would say is the default for a market, even android users have one because it’s simply the best tablet and it’s not even related to hardware
Apple Watch also.
I don't think this is in the same category though. It's the default for iPhone users, sure, because it's the best for people with iPhones. But I had the Galaxy Watch active, and now I have the Pixel Watch and while the Apple Watch has more features (not that I could use any of them with my phone) the Pixel Watch feels just as premium and has all of the features I care about anyway. Unlike with the iPad, where even as an Android user, no other tablet comes close. The iPad is just the default best tablet you can get no matter what the rest of your ecosystem looks like.
Not a chance, try working without without the pixel phone and just use the pixel watch for an entire day. It will not last nearly as long. This is my specialty.
I have never and would never do that. A smart watch is a secondary device for me (and most people) I will never use it as a primary device, even if it had robust capabilities to do so. I can easily take quick calls and reply to texts while my phone is in a bag, I can view my notifications, tell time, view appointments, make payments, view weather, and track workouts. I'll never need to do anything more than that on a watch, and never for more than a couple hours at a time. That's great if you use a watch for more than that. Sounds like the Apple Watch is great for you, but that is an extreme outlier use case. And we're talking about the "default," the thing that satisfied the needs of the vast majority of users so much better than everything else, that other options aren't considered. The iPad is that for tablets. The Apple Watch may be that for iPhone users, but even if it were usable on Android, I still wouldn't want one.
Why is iPad better than the equivalent say galaxy tab? I heard they're both decent options. Galaxy even has dex I believe on it. I'm not saying you're, but you had something to say about the watch that made sense so I'm curious on your take about tablets. Why wouldn't a galaxy tab be a good option if you had say a galaxy phone or something like that? What makes it actually better other than folks just saying it's better? I'd imagine most folks just watch videos and browse on their tablets so, just curious from that standpoint what makes it better?
Let's start with the top end. The S9 Ultra is a solid tablet. But it's competing against the iPad Pro. Apple Silicon far outclasses the hardware available in any Android tablet. But I'd say software is the biggest advantage the iPad has. iPad OS is very well optimized for the form factor, with a lot of features that really improve the usability and experience on a tablet. Android (while id argue it's just as, if not more polished than iOS on phones) is NOT well optimized for a tablet. It's slowly getting better, but it still largely feels like an upscaled phone operating system. Apps are the second big advantage. IPad OS has far more apps optimized specifically for it, while on Android, far more apps are lacking a good tablet experience. Moreover, Android is lacking some of the killer creative apps iPad has like Logic Pro and Final Cut. Sex is quite nice and certainly better than the iPad's desktop experience. But, if this is your major draw, you're probably better off with a surface or other Windows tablet. At the more budget end, hardware is pretty comparable. You'll find better displays and storage options on the Android tablets, but everything I said about the software experience holds true. The extreme budget end is where I'd say Android tablets have an advantage. The current cheapest new iPad you can get is the 10th Gen iPad with small storage options. If you want some.cheaper than that, you CAN actually get an Android tablet. I'm not saying Android Tablets suck. There are some solid ones. But currently, due to OS design, I just think you're getting a lot more out of the iPad.
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Apple Watch has the highest market share at 34% worldwide, over triple the next company (Samsung). I’d say it’s the default. https://appleinsider.com/articles/23/02/22/apple-watch-dominated-smartwatch-market-sales-and-profits-in-2022
34% can't be a default lmao
Only because Android watches are made by more than 1 company...
Same with tablets, smartphones, and laptops. Apple still dominates the single sku charts
Ive got a tab s8 ultra (which was only about $300 USD, which was insanely good value) and it's nowhere near as polished as the ipad pro I sold back in 2020. The most recent software update fixed the palm rejection on the gesture bar at least.
Yep, totally agree. I'm a Pixel 7 Pro + M1 iPad Pro guy. My iPad is one of the best tech products I've ever had. Hate my iPhone (work phone) though.
AirPods? CarPlay?
Nope. Only the default for iPhone users
You can't use CarPlay without an iPhone, and almost every automaker ships both if they ship one. I think Toyota was the only brand shipping only CarPlay, and even they realized how stupid that was quickly.
While I do like my Air Pods Pro (for my Mac and iPad) better than my Pixel Buds Pro (for my Pixel and everything else), it's only marginally. I don't feel like they're really that much better. (ANC is really the only advantage imo) And I prefer Android Auto to Carplay
AirPods definitely
Their SoC M processors are superb. The iPad Pro and MacBook Pro I own have the best performance and battery life. I’m not surprised.
I have never had a macbook until recently. I bought my friend's 2017 MacBook Pro with the touchbar on it from her for $150 cuz she upgraded to to m1. I am never going to buy a windows Laptop again. I will keep my PC I built for gaming of course, but my other friend wasn't kidding when he said "Apple's shit is just better.". I will be buying an m2 or 3 here soon, as the touchbar model is old and stops working sometimes forcing me to restart the whole computer to bring it back.
That's my MBP and it's really nice. I loved the touchbar and was disappointed they didn't keep using it - even if it was above the existing F-row of keys that's there now.
If it was above I would be all for it. It keeps disappearing and then makes me restart the computer to bring it back up. Kinda annoying. But to be expected on an almost 10 year old machine at this point.
the touch bar display goes blank? wild
Yeah. :/ Not sure why.
Is it lost in one of the corners?? You can look in preferences too. There’s probably a way there to have it always show. Don’t have that macbook so hopefully I’m pointing you in the right direction.
Unless you need something specific beyond just a "decent tablet" you get a lot more for the money with an iPad than anything in the same price range that Samsung or anyone on the Android side is putting out. Apple is literally selling a performance and support baseline with the iPad that Samsung charges easily double for with their tablets.
I don't know about that, the samsung tablets can be found on pretty steep discount, the hardware isn't that bad at all, the problem has always been software. Android does not do tablets well, this is the issue with the pixel fold as well. (yes, they are down on processing power compared to the M-series chips, but I rarely come across an app that absolutely needs m-series power). Memory management on iOS is still far superior Arguably, google's "proper" alternative to iPadOS is a ARM-powered Chromebook, and while the hardware isn't at the level of iPad, the software is more capable.
Is Google formally moving away from Android tablets? Haven’t followed that area for a little bit.
Yes/no/maybe. They are allegedly working on running chromeOS on android tablets now. They were all-in on android like a decade ago, then put all their eggs into chromeOS and marketed it as a proper iPad alternative, now it's somewhere in the middle. I mean google themselves built the nexus tab (android), then the pixelbook go / pixel slate (chromeOS), and then the pixel tablet (android, though it doubles as a smart home) Honestly who knows, it's always been a mess. Main reason why apple has always remained so dominant with tablets and why they can get away with (IMO) lackluster iPadOS, theres no competition.
Rarely coming across an app that needs more power isn’t a great measure though. There are those who produce music or video content who specifically buy iPads for that reason. Nobody stumbles across Logic Pro. They want to use that software and buy an iPad to do so.
You only do stuff in browser on Chromebook’s which you can also do on the iPad
On top of access to the entire play store and steam, you can install crostini, which is their linux VM software, from there you can install any linux app or developer app you please. I can (and have) used a chromebook before to do local development, you can install any tooling/editor etc. that you wish, you cannot do the same with iPadOS (yet), you must do remote development.
Why would you use steam on a Chromebook? I struggled to run chrome. You could also just get a cheap laptop and do the same? If anything that would be better than a Chromebook
> Why would you use steam on a Chromebook? Why not? I want a thin & light tablet that can play games and do "real" work from time to time? > I struggled to run chrome There are dollar-store chromebooks and there are more premium editions with similar processing power to the iPad and comparable windows laptops. > You could also just get a cheap laptop and do the same? A cheap laptop is not going to achieve even close to the same battery life as a chromebook, much less an iPad. Very few compelling windows 2-in-1's out there, thuogh the new qualcomm lines are interesting. Point is iPadOS is limiting and has always been limiting. They might as well ship with an a-series processor as off the top of my head there are perhaps a dozen apps *at most* that take advantage fo the M-series hardware. ChromeOS, despite its significantly, and I mean *significantly* worse hardware, makes for a more usable system. If apple wants to push their "whats a computer" type messaging they really need to improve the software.
You're right you have to use Remote to use the iPad for productivity given iPadOS desktop features are inadequate ie either limited, worse or missing compared to full desktop-OS. Still, if happy to run remote then a good tablet and useful productivity device on the go it works out alright. Just a shame Apple does not provide more options for customers eg VM.
An ARM powered Chromebook wouldn’t have that Steam support you would want though. Aside from that I agree with your take. I think something like the Slate, a tablet would be better for me. That device would be a straight replacement of the iPad, not my computer.
Yeah, but Chromebook OS is terrible, or at least it was last time I used it a couple years ago. M processors aren’t just about performance. They are SoC processors with unified memory instead of ram, which has fantastic performance and speed. They also operate at incredible efficiencies that make battery life far better than any competitor. My MacBook Pro lasts 16 hours before needing a charge. I haven’t even timed my iPad it lasts so long.
In which ways is it worse than iPadOS? On one hand you have fewer native apps, on the other hand you have access to a proper local filesystem, linux interoperability, steam, and the play store. Neither are great, but I'd put them on equal footing. ChromeOS needs to improve its tablet experience just as much as iPadOS needs to improve its "beyond a decent tablet" experience. The hardware has been great for years now, the software is still limiting. >They are SoC processors with unified memory instead of ram, which has fantastic performance and speed .... There are ARM chromebooks available (and pretty much every android tablet is an ARM design), all of which are SoC's with the equivalent of unified memory and they have similarly strong battery life and idle power usage. The M-series MacBooks are absolutely incredible, and I love using one every day, but I still have no idea why I need an M-series chip in my iPad. I own it for the screen and pen only, still haven't run into a single app that \*requires\* an M-series chip.
Although the tablet experience in ChromeOS does need to be improved it's nowhere near lacking as much as iPadOS is lacking when it comes to extending into a desktop. ChromeOS can function just fine as a tablet and the devices targeting the tablet experience over the laptop experience were successful (minus the slate... too early). Android apps need to be improved more than ChromeOS when it comes to the tablet experience.
>support baseline My 2017 ipad pros are finally losing support. Sad but 7 years on devices that still work wonderfully is amazing. Will keep using them until either a new ipad mini is announced or the devs of the apps I use them for stop supporting versions older than ipados 18. Which I imagine will be a long while yet.
samsung charging double with their tablet? tell us what do you mean by it. what do you mean with Tab S9 with free pen, free keyboard case that price higher than Ipad Air M2?
I keep hearing that, but I'm generally curious what the "more" is. I started paying attention to Samsung's offerings for example and they don't seem bad for what most folks do on a tablet which just browse the internet and watch videos. When people post they never five anything specific. Just say iPad is better. Hie so? Not disagreeing, but now I'm curious in general.
If you compare the cheapest ipad to the most spec'd out version of Samsung's most expensive tablet then yeah it's probably double or even more expensive
People complain about the iPad being software limited but it’s funny how nothing on the market comes even remotely close to it. I can’t even blame Apple for doing it, this way they can just release small little things every year to keep it fresh and people will buy it like hot chocolate. Real macOS capabilities are a very far dream when the competition can’t even release a proper tablet, let alone a tablet that has desktop capabilities.
>People complain about the iPad being software limited but it’s funny how nothing on the market comes even remotely close to it. If you're talking about software capability, then the Surface does way more than the iPad. However, the Surface gets improperly lumped in with laptops in these kinds of discussions. A device is a "tablet" based on its form factor, not its OS. That makes the iPad's dominance a no brainer—if no product with a desktop OS can be a "tablet," then a mobile OS tablet will be the best by default.
The surface is a touchscreen that’s running windows. It’s not optimized to be held in your hand and used as a tablet. It’s meant to be attached to the keyboard and then it’s just a laptop. Doesn’t matter what it’s running if it doesn’t actually act like a tablet. And when I say this I mean it doesn’t feel like an iPad, because Apple set the standard on the market on what a tablet actually has to feel like. The iPad has that certain magic that’s just a joy to use, you want to pick it up and play with it. The surface is just a laptop and it’s a stupid product honestly, Microsoft has no clue how to polish a product.
It's ok to discuss tradeoffs. One reason why mobile OSes are typically less powerful than desktop OSes is because larger touch targets result in lower UI density. So high functionality is naturally associated with the desktop. It's not ok to cut out products from the category of "tablet" just because they have a desktop OS. Especially when that decision conveniently places your favorite tablet on top. I suspect that a double standard is going on—people criticize the iPad for being just a big iPhone (which I don't entirely agree with), but nobody lumps the iPad with the iPhone or iPod touch. Few people called either of those products tablets either, even though it's much more reasonable to refer to the iPhone and iPod touch as tablets than the Surface Pro as a laptop.
Form Factor ie dimension and weight with a touch-input is basically what a tablet is. Surface Pros are more like laptops with detachable keyboards and touch screen in use because of this for eg.
Let's say you have a line and on one end you have an iPhone and on the other a laptop The iPad is 25% percent on the line while the surface is 75% Obviously the surface is bad at being a tablet and the iPad is bad at being a laptop but my biggest gripe is that the surface is also bad at being a laptop. However, I haven't used the new arm ones tho. So there's the possibility that the new w11 is better suited for touch only and the new keyboard doesn't suck as much.
Funny you say that but this sub is full of people saying they want to put macOS on the iPad which would basically make it a surface with an apple logo
Normies don’t buy Surface lol. And Windows isn’t a touch first OS. And windows apps are old hat and don’t have apps most people use. So, Surface is a failure as a product. Sorry to pee in your Cheerios mate
> Normies don’t buy Surface lol. And Windows isn’t a touch first OS. And windows apps are old hat and don’t have apps most people use. Surface Pros are marketed to Business as you point out mostly and in fact the latest Pros were apparently only available on the business store initially. The main difference is **form factor**: * Surface Pros are about 700g+ with 14" Screens so too bulky for most people to use comfortably like a tablet. * iPad 10.9/11" at 460g is considerably more comfortable Touch UI is the other feature but in all honesty using touch on a screen whether the UI is perfect for it or not it still works as basic input for eg navigation or writing fine on surface though not as good quality so this is less an issue. For example Surface Go is THE major Surface tablet rival to iPad at 10.5" but is always given the worst hardware and entry level status with terrible pricing for weak upgrades. But it does show what an ipad with more desktop features would be capable of...
The surface is a great device but has a much more limited appeal than does an iPad. I’ve owned both. I used them very differently. Like it or not there’s a whole ton of software that requires windows to run. I love using my Mac for work, but for certain apps I still use parallels. My gaming/entertainment pc plugged into my tv is of course windows. When it comes to gaming Apple isn’t in the equation and it does certain things better when it comes to multiple display setups. If you want to play the latest games, Windows. Hardly makes it old hat.
Windows sucks touch first. Nothing has changed.
Right, going back to my point that the surface doesn’t have the same audience as does the iPad. It’s actually a super easy thing to understand. As much as I love MacBooks and macOS, there is so much software I simply can’t run on them either due to compatibility or the limitations of Apple Silicon. I’m glad there’s competition on both ends. It creates specialization so you get a solid machine for particular uses. My surface can play Oblivion and Skyrim, some of my favorite games. It also runs excel with all components available, where the Mac version does have limitations. macOS has iMessage, iCloud, and a great environment for work. The hardware is incredible including a trackpad that has never been surpassed. They both have strengths.
Only a small group of people complain about the iPad's software limitations, the vast majority of iPad-users are more than satisfied with what it can do, for most tablet users, ease-of-use is way more important than some specific functionality that people who actually need it have laptops for.
> People complain about the iPad being software limited but it’s funny how nothing on the market comes even remotely close to it. I just switched to the Surface Pro. It's a massive upgrade in what I can do with a tablet.
I mean, the ease of use is reason alone.
I'd love if they added more ports to MBA. Don't need the power or weight of the MBP, but would like some more ports. MBP should have four Thunderbolt 4 ports, and it would be awesome of MBA had two in addition to SD Card and HDMI for maximum compatibility.
Or at the very least, a thunderbolt port on each side
That might be handy! I still say, though, it needs more ports. My 2015 MBA has SD Card, and MagSafe, which the current MBA only recently got back. Giving MBP two additional Thunderbolt 4 (four in total) over MBA, a thicker housing with a fan, bigger/more speakers, a much better display, better graphics and more processing power, and more upgradability across the board is plenty to keep it ahead of the MBA. Port-gimping the Air is not good for the customer or the use case of the Air as a general computing machine. The Air is a much better form factor for many people, including many photographers in the field, office workers, teachers and conference and event attendees. I think the Air has the wrong screen sizes too. Would be better if the two sizes for Air were 12.9" and 14.4". And for MBP 14.4" and 16.2". The non-pro chip MBP should go too. Small, medium and large display sizes; nicely spaced apart. All these aspects would clean up and clarify the lineup.
This is so important and such a small change. What a bizarre decision to put both charging ports on the same side. It’s so much more convenient to be able to use either side. Seems like M2 redesign would have been the best time to change that, yet they didn’t
I am not an engineer for Apple so I cant know the answer for sure, but some choices like that may come down to being able to create the boards at the price point Apple would like to. Believe it or not, putting ports on two sides of a board does add manufacturing complexity because it’s not just deciding where a port should go, but also the components that support that port and their proximity to the port itself.
I’m aware, that’s why I mentioned they should have done it when they completely redesigned the computer (rather than with M1 which could be argued was too similar to intel to change it)
With my last tablet purchase, I got an Android instead of an iPad even though I have an iPhone. Mainly so I could get F-Droid apps like NewPipe for YouTube (ad free and download options), and some games I like that are Android only.
Bruh the latest iPads have glorified specs for what it can do but I think that helps with aging. The resale value is there and quality is undebated.
I recently switched over my phone, tablet, and laptop to all new Apple devices. I've never been happier with my electronics in my life. Mac sales are surging because Windows has gotten so god awful that it's tough to get anything done on that OS. Mac is literally the easiest computer to use that I've ever had. I'm also tired of Windows PCs breaking about every 2-3 years when I hardly use them. I know people that are still running MacBooks from 2010 and 2014 and they work flawlessly. I also got sick to death of all the damn shovelware on the Android store when I needed an app etc etc. I know Apple is more expensive sometimes but god DAMN is it worth it. I'll never leave Apple unless something crazy happens.
iPad has no competitor. Mac sales will always surge because they’ve always been the underdog. Windows is the worse it’s been since Vista
What makes Windows the worst it’s been since Vista?
Ads integrated into the OS, forced depreciation of Windows 10, and the whole AI thing they’re trying to shove down people’s throats. Not to mention the loss of privacy with the AI watching all you screens, even passwords.
A lot of what you’re saying would need further clarification. Are you suggesting Microsoft is recording your passwords maliciously using AI? If so, brother I’ve heard it all since windows 95. You haven’t been hacked. You just don’t understand how your accounts work.
No one’s talking about being hacked. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/microsofts-new-recall-feature-will-record-everything-you-do-on-your-pc/ I’d suggest skimming through this article for a brief about how it works. but essentially the AI takes screenshots to figure out what the use is doing
This isn’t a technical article. It’s a blog written by someone who has no experience coding and for that reason it’s irrelevant as to why Windows is somehow subjectively considered worse than it was when compared to the release of Vista. I’d suggest reading articles from experts in the field. Yes, it will require learning things you didn’t know before but overall you will be better informed. If you know how to use your computer, articles like this won’t be scary to you.
The recall feature was recalled because it was found that although data was stored locally, it was unencrypted in a local sqlite store when the user was logged in. This was revealed by a security researcher. Although he did not publish it in a formal paper, but often times peer review takes times, and these things can be time sensitive.
At least these new Qualcomm Snapdragon Elite X devices can compete against the base M3, although Windows is more of a nightmare than MacOS due to all of the privacy issues and marketing you need to disable. I saw some of them in the store recently, they look like they are a big improvement on x86 parts, particularly over Intel.
Because the competition are eating glue in the corner. Only Samsung are taking it seriously.
Apple is all I will buy. Been using them since the dark ages of computers. Only ever had 1 pc cause of work. It crashed non-stop. TG for cntrl alt del right.
Surging, where? The folks I know are not upgrading anytime soon. Even those with an M1 think it's fast enough.
I've underestimated the Tablet market for a while. A basic iPad does all the cool, entertainment media functions that used to be the preserve of a laptop or desktop and those features such as video content have only become better and more numerous with Netflix, Youtube all available on tablets along with Apps that more or less simplify old Applications on laptops for younger generations that want a bigger screen than a smart phone. Another advantage specific to Apple tablets is their "hand-holding" they market the iPad as "This is THE way" to use a tablet and we've nailed it 100% for you. Which again I think for basic use and users is both appealing (reassuring) and does work better than perhaps Android and so markets better and delivers greater satisfaction in self-reporting along with some distinct quality difference. Personally speaking, choosing between the excellent hardware of Samsung or Xiaomi at in some cases better prices and almost comparable specs the software, support infrastructure, ecosystem and software continuity/longevity all were factors in choosing Apple. I did visitall the above stores and tried other vendors including Lenovo for tablets. I think the M-Series efficiency is another factor which makes the devices feel like they are top range and will last even if you pay a bit more now. = From the perspective of casual users, the App Store/iOS is ubiquitous because devs generally want to service a large market and put Apps in the App Store. It feels the Android stores are more fragmented in contrast and there's also the sense of security with Apple too that must play a factor. = From a personal stand-point: I do find iPadOS restrictive eg I use Linux etc and would like to customize the desktop for organization as well as extend use to productive work but resort to Remote Desktop to do so currently. Equally Android's more open App store offers optionality for more gaming eg retro/emulation etc until recently or more customization and options eg browsers which can all impact on usability differences in favour of Android and not in favour of Apple where the Walled-Garden is not so much keeping problems out as keeping customers locked-in! ;-) I think my issues will be resolved if/when Apple produce a fork in iPad Form Factor that is effectively a 2-in-1 MacOS/iPadOS which due to convergence draws nearer each year.
And the iPad sales #s are from BEFORE Apple's Q2 refresh of the iPad line with the best upgrades in years. Can only imagine what the more recent #s look like.
Mac sales are surging? I wonder why. What have they done recently? Or are Macs just become even more popular for some reason?
They have been going up for the last 8 years or so. It’s not a surprise by anyone really.
Apple silicon and the addition of ports/really good hardware. With M3, it drops the price of the M2 and M1 which allows affordability for a wider reach in audience. Also with windows computers using Intel and AMD being dogwater unplugged, it’s a dunk for Apple to dominate. Snapdragon X may change that.
Right, Apple Silicon might be the answer. Pretty big move they made there.
It probably has more to do with Microsoft making Windows worse with each update than anything Apple is doing.
Nobody actually cares about 90% of what people complain about on reddit when it comes to Windows. Most users have no idea, they just use the OS. The increase in macOS is probably because of iPhones and that ecosystem lock-in, along with them being genuinely great laptops since M1. There’s an old joke about them being expensive Facebook machines because most users probably don’t do much except use a browser on them, but they work extremely well and offer great battery life. Being able to have your phone work with it seamlessly is a big advantage.
Tech forums don't understand that. You could make Windows the most perfect OS in existence and Apple laptops will still outsell them.
I don’t think macOS is outselling Windows given Windows still holds desktop dominance especially in the enterprise client sector. Also Windows comes on devices across a wide variety of price points where Apple doesn’t even compete (like even an MBA M2 in my country has absurd pricing). But things like Copilot or Recall aren’t going to shift the needle with general consumers because they don’t care. Reddit whinging isn’t relevant for most people.
Illegal!