I for one am not a apple fanboy and until my ipad purchase I was anti apple never bought a product from them. But for the life of me I cannot understand why nobody makes better products than them.

I mean all these tablets coming out made out of plastic (yuck), crappy battery life, buggy software, and then they are still expensive. I will never buy a tablet that is not some kind of metal or aluminum it's kinda important for something over 400 dollars for me. If it was a nook or a kindle I can understand but in that price range it better be pretty nice to look at.

It's like peolpe just want to make a tablet and be like hey look it turns on we did it! Hurry up package it and ship. And the sad thing this has actually happened in many cheap tablets.

Hey I'm all for other people giving it a shot but at least make it so cheap that it's worth the risk. It makes it look like apple went above and beyond but they actully just delivered a product that works and does what they said it was going to do.

Here's an article you should read:
I don't hate Macs, but they do give me a syncing feeling | Charlie Brooker | Comment is free | The Guardian

First of all, you would have to know that Charlie Brooker (Tech guy at Guardian) used to HATE (with a passion) Apple products. He still has problems with Apple, but found like you did that some of their stuff just works. Of course, it's a backhanded compliment as he finds stuff he still hates (syncing instead of just dragging media to the device, for example). But the transformation of this guy is amazing. He honestly says he "no longer hates Apple." One of the big haters has softened -- considerably.

Originally Posted by writerranger

Here's an article you should read:
I don't hate Macs, but they do give me a syncing feeling | Charlie Brooker | Comment is free | The Guardian

First of all, you would have to know that Charlie Brooker (Tech guy at Guardian) used to HATE (with a passion) Apple products. He still has problems with Apple, but found like you did that some of their stuff just works. Of course, it's a backhanded compliment as he finds stuff he still hates (syncing instead of just dragging media to the device, for example). But the transformation of this guy is amazing. He honestly says he "no longer hates Apple." One of the big haters has softened -- considerably.

Great link to article. I was the same way until i got the ipad. Its now my sole form of computing. I do "Everything" with it. It even landed me my last job ;-)

Apple thinks ahead of the competition and controls the hardware, software, and periphials to a high degree. They try to be 2 years ahead of their competition, so they are often the first to introduce a product and it is a finished product with all things needed to make it work. What the competition fails to do is to control their product as a system. The Xoom may be a decent product, but all of their competition will have their own version of Honeycomb that is adapted to their desires. You then have a hodgepodge of systems that are sometimes not compatible with apps available on another Honeycomb device. And look at how they brought it out before Flash 10.2 was ready for it. They would be a lot better if Motorola and Google had worked together with a single product that was exclusive to the Xoom. Microsoft realized this reality, but waited too long to bring the Zune on the market and by the time it arrived, they were too little, too late. Right now RIM has the best shot at a competitive product. Their Playbook is doing all the right things, but if they wait too long, it will be that much harder to catch up. That is probably the big issue. Everyone is playing catchup to Apple, and you cannot do that.

Thanks for the article. I too really dislike how I have to go through iTunes to put anything on my iPod or iPad. I have music on my Droid and that's just drag-and-drop. It's annoying because Apple makes so many things easier and they take one of the easiest things in the world and make it unnecessarily difficult.

Originally Posted by gatecitycanes

Thanks for the article. I too really dislike how I have to go through iTunes to put anything on my iPod or iPad. I have music on my Droid and that's just drag-and-drop. It's annoying because Apple makes so many things easier and they take one of the easiest things in the world and make it unnecessarily difficult.

That's why I use Dropbox. Hate syncing with Itunes. Haven't tried it with music and suspect it wouldn't work for that though. I'm a long long time PC user and others before but love my Ipad and Touch. Don't think I will ever be all Apple but for portable devices I am a bit of a fangirl LOL.

Originally Posted by Diane B

Originally Posted by gatecitycanes

Thanks for the article. I too really dislike how I have to go through iTunes to put anything on my iPod or iPad. I have music on my Droid and that's just drag-and-drop. It's annoying because Apple makes so many things easier and they take one of the easiest things in the world and make it unnecessarily difficult.

That's why I use Dropbox. Hate syncing with Itunes. Haven't tried it with music and suspect it wouldn't work for that though. I'm a long long time PC user and others before but love my Ipad and Touch. Don't think I will ever be all Apple but for portable devices I am a bit of a fangirl LOL.

Hey, I see you're from NC too. Which part? I'm from Greensboro (hence the Gate City in my name). I'm yet to see an iPad in the wild here.

Originally Posted by gatecitycanes

Hey, I see you're from NC too. Which part? I'm from Greensboro (hence the Gate City in my name). I'm yet to see an iPad in the wild here.

I know Greensboro well. Lived there a long time ago and have friends there, a couple of whom have Ipads LOL. I'm in Hickory.

Thanks for that link Writerranger, I like Charlie Brooker and he's got a point
He always has a nice line in invective.

Originally Posted by FatalDesain

I for one am not a apple fanboy and until my ipad purchase I was anti apple never bought a product from them. But for the life of me I cannot understand why nobody makes better products than them.

It's actually not difficult to see why at all. They were the first (and to some extent, only) company whose products are, first and foremost, design driven. Their products and stores look cool, are instantly recognizable even to non-users, and they are very good at both anticipating market need and creating market want.

It's no coincidence at all, for instance, that the iPad has become the one of the most commonly offered (and highly desired) lucky-draw prize for all manner of contests, sign-ups and raffles.