STOP PRESS – Richard Wright reverts to iPad from Samsung Galaxy tab
Back in the dim and distant days before Christmas 2010 I wrote a post describing how Timico sales manager Richard Wright had switched from the iPad to the Samsung Galaxy tab. Well gadget freak Richard has switched back!
With echoes of the Consumer Electronics Show still swirling around the ether with tales of 26 new tablets on view I thought I would find out why the sudden reversion. Richard’s feedback is provided below:
- Android Marketplace did not have as much choice
- A few apps he used on iPad either weren’t available or not written as well. This was especially true when it came to “sharing” eg Stumbleupon – the iPad app shares very easily but with Android he had to download a 3rd party app called Facebook share – also Stumbleupon just puts the url in.
- The Galaxy acted more like a big phone rather than a tab. He liked the widgets but size of widget and how it is placed on the screen didn’t work – this might have worked ok on a phone.
- Another aspect of it working like a phone was with Tweetdeck – all you had was a little update bar across the top that didn’t take advantage of the available screen size.
- All in all the Android device was not as easy to use as the iPad, didn’t feel as comfortable and intuitive and sometimes froze.
Richard gave Android a month, sold the Galaxy and went back to the iPad.
Now this has not been a scientific study but it does give us a feel for the difference between the two devices. A dispassionate observer would say that the forthcoming version of Android for tablets will sort some of these issues and the number and maturity of apps is growing at a massive rate. It will be worth revisiting this subject in six months time.
In the meantime Richard is looking forward to seeing how the PlayBook performs. I’m lucky. I don’t need to buy gadgets. I have Richard 🙂
PS that’s Richard in the header photo (click to enlarge). He is on his mobile phone either doing a big deal with a customer or talking to Steve Jobs about getting some sponsorship in return for boosting the Apple share price.
2 replies on “What went wrong with the Samsung Galaxy tab?”
It will be interesting to see how these tests fare when set againast the BlackBerry PlayBook later in the year. The number of apps available (to begin with) will be an issue I’m sure.
I went into a phone shop last week with a view to getting a new phone or tab.
I had lusted over the Galaxy Tab in principle for many reasons, but when I saw it I realised it was too small to replace my little netbook as a tab, but too big to replace my smartphone as a combined phone etc. So it fell between two stools, and I quickly fell out of love. I’m not sure what the point was – and that makes me a Sad Panda.