Google has quietly crept out of the tablet business, removing the "tablets" heading from its Android page. Perhaps it hoped no one would notice on a Friday and by Monday it would be old news, but Android Police caught them in the act. It was there yesterday, but it's gone today.
[...] Google in particular has struggled to make Android a convincing alternative to iOS in the tablet realm, and with this move has clearly indicated its preference for the Chrome OS side of things, where it has inherited the questionable (but lucrative) legacy of netbooks. They've also been working on broadening Android compatibility with that OS. So it shouldn't come as much surprise that the company is bowing out.
[...] Google's exit doesn't mean Android tablets are done for, of course. They'll still get made, primarily by Samsung, Amazon and a couple of others, and there will probably even be some nice ones. But if Google isn't selling them, it probably isn't prioritizing them as far as features and support.
Also at 9to5Google.
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(Score: 4, Insightful) by Marand on Sunday June 03 2018, @04:09AM (3 children)
Android sucks, but iOS sucks even more, especially if you ever try to go off the beaten path, so to speak. For all its warts, Android can still do things like side-load applications easily, have alternate storefronts such as F-Droid, and run usable Linux userlands like Termux. You can even overhaul the UI considerably with things like custom launchers. With iOS, you're out of luck if you want to do any of this in addition to the normal phone/tablet things Apple graciously allows. Yeah, I know, tablets aren't proper laptop replacements, but with a bluetooth keyboard and the right stuff installed you can come pretty close with a tiny device that has an excellent battery life.
I'd love to see more, better options, but so far nothing has managed to make any inroads into this market, especially in the US. Competitors like Nokia, Blackberry, and Microsoft have done a great job of fucking up over the years, so now it's an Android and iOS world. Given that, I'll take Android over iOS just due to the lack of better options. It's not great, but it still has less lock-in and more user control than Apple provides.
I had hoped that something would come of either Sailfish OS or Canonical's attempt to enter the market, but neither seems to have gone anywhere.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 03 2018, @09:41AM (2 children)
Hey it’s op here.
Side loading is one of the things that makes android suck and prone to malware.
I run a MDM platform as part of my day job. And I develop software for iOS. It’s not even hard to side load on iOS if you know what you are doing.
Side loading is hard on iOS because it’s actually got a security model. It shouldn’t be easy on any platform.
All this, and I’m primarily a java developer. Android is easier for me to develop for, but it’s a steaming pile of bullshit co pared to apples platform.
As for the rest of your post, agreed.
(Score: 2) by Marand on Sunday June 03 2018, @11:54AM
That makes sense. Some of the things that make iOS suck for an end-user are the same things that make it more appealing for someone that needs to lock down devices. I understand how ease of side-loading can be a headache from an admin perspective, but I thought Android had a way to block side-loading on managed devices. Am I mistaken on that, or does it exist but is poorly executed?
Regardless, you have my sympathy for having to deal with securing either type of device. Ultimately both OSes are consumer platforms, so I suspect enterprise management of them is probably an afterthought at best. I'm guessing that's probably a good source of frustration.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 04 2018, @08:40AM
I'm willing to accept ads in an app but too many developers seem to make them really really bad - cover the whole screen etc. Many android apps go from buggy to good to full of annoying ads.