Tag: android

Hobson’s choice for Amazon’s Android Tablet

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If Amazon want a successful Android tablet with a volume of sales to make them a player in the tablet space, they’re going to need to price it incredibly competitively, not as low as the Touchpad clearance, but around the $200-$300 mark. Which means that they’ll be reliant on making up that difference on the other side, through App Stores, music sales, Kindle downloads and other incidentals (the so-called Nintendo method). But if the tablet priced is priced that competitively, my suspicion is that any “Amazon branding” and lock-in to their stores and revenue streams will be rooted away in a matter

It’s not a tablet market, it’s an iPad market

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…Apple has sold ten times as many iPads as the three biggest competing devices combined have shipped, which we’ve already established is a very generous way to represent device success. The iPad is clearly dominating the category in a massive way. When you make the category, make the rules, and tell the public what they want, of course you’ll dominate it.

Google spent two years of total profit on Motorola. Where’s the return?

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The finances of the Google/Motorola deal, and the impact on the Android system are providing fertile ground at the moent for tech writers. Here’s Slate: In other words—and I never thought I’d say this—Steve Ballmer was right. Android isn’t free. In fact, it’s not even cheap. As Daring Fireball’s John Gruber points out, the $12.5 billion that Google is spending for Motorola amounts to almost two years’ worth of the search company’s profits. No company—not even Google—can throw around that kind of cash without envisioning a direct return on its investment. Where indeed. Especially as everyone wants us to think

Adventures with the Galaxy Tab – The Interviewers Notebook

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One of the things I like to do when I’m at big events like The Fringe, BlogWorld, SXSW or the like is to try out a new bit of technology in the field. It’s all well and good reviewing in a sterile office, but throw something into the heat of battle with little choice but to make it work and you really find out what the strengths and limitations are. So for this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, I’m testing out a Galaxy Tab 7 (which has been supplied by O2 for the month). I’ll put some thoughts about the device here

The smartphone patent war delivers a tangible victim

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No more Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Europe: The leading German news agency, dpa, just reported that Apple has been granted a preliminary injunction against Samsung’s Android-based Galaxy Tab 10.1, barring with immediate effect all distribution of the product in the entire European Union except for the Netherlands on the grounds of an alleged infringement of Apple’s iPad-related [European] Community design no. 000181607-0001. There’s been a lot of talk around patent battles, and while this isn’t strictly a patent, the consumers aren’t going to note the difference, and simply hear “Apple stop Samsung”. I’ve no idea what their reaction beyond