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Tag: Android tablets

  • Android Tablets For Every Budget

    Android Tablets For Every Budget

    These days everyone who is anyone owns at least one tablet. However, not everyone wants to break the bank in order to get their hands on one.

    Luckily, there are tablets available for every budget.

    Depending on how much you have available to spend, these are the tablets you’ll definitely want to check out.

    Android Tablets Under $100

    I’m going to be honest with you: The less money you spend on a tablet, the more crappy the tablet is likely to be. We’re talking low memory, non-existent storage, and very few “goodies”.

    If affordability is an issue, your best option is the Hisense Sero 7 LT which is currently available at Walmart for about $70. It has WiFi capabilities, a seven inch touch screen, 4GB of storage space (which can be expanded with a microSD card) and is Google-friendly.

    The Hisense Sero 7 LT also has a camera for taking pictures and recording video.

    If you’re looking for a cheap “starter tablet”, this is for you.

    If you want a bit more bang for your buck, you can check out the HP 7 Plus.

    It has double the storage memory of the Hisense Sero 7 LT and is more highly recommended of the two android tablets. At $99.99 it can also be considered something of a bargain.

    Android Tablets Under $250

    Quality tablets will usually cost you somewhere between $150 and $250 dollars. The best and most popular tablets you can get in this price range are typically Samsung products.

    Samsung’s Galaxy Tabs are seen as the answer to Apple’s iPads and are far more affordable.

    The HP Slate S8-7600US is another option. The eight inch touch screen tablet actually comes equipped with Beats audio.

    The most buzzed about tablet on the market right now is actually the Samsung Galaxy Tab S.

    At $500, it is most definitely among the priciest non-Apple tablets, but it’s also considered the best option for money well spent. If you can afford it, then definitely go for it!

    Know An Affordable Tablet Worth Recommending? Please Share In The Comments Below!

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Android Tablets Outsell iPads in 2013

    There’s a new tablet leader in town. The year 2013 was a big step for Android tablets. For the first time ever, they outsold the iPad. Sales for the Android tablet reached 195.4 million last year, which is a 68 percent increase in total sales over 2012.

    According to Gartner, Inc., Android tablets now makeup 61.9 percent of all tablets sold, iPads 36 percent, and Microsoft Corp.’s Windows 2.1 percent. This is a big drop off for Apple whose iPads dominated over half of the market just last year at 52.8 percent.

    Roberta Cozza, a Gartner research director, spoke of Android’s current place in the market, “In 2013, tablets became a mainstream phenomenon, with a vast choice of Android-based tablets being within the budget of mainstream consumers while still offering adequate specifications.” Cozza also discussed the importance for companies to keep improving technology, “As the Android tablet market becomes highly commoditized, in 2014, it will be critical for vendors to focus on device experience and meaningful technology and ecosystem value — beyond just hardware and cost — to ensure brand loyalty and improved margins.”

    However, it isn’t all bad news for Apple. They still dominate the high-end tablet market. While the Android tablet has successfully marketed itself to appeal to cost-conscience consumers, mobile experts don’t believe that the market shift will have a dramatic effect on Apple since iPad users buy and browse more than users of other leading tablets. We saw the market shift the same way with the iPhone. Several competitors took chunks of the smartphone market from Apple, however, iPhone consumers still accounted for the largest share of buying and browsing.

    If you’re interested in buying an Andriod tablet, here’s a link to a list of the five best that “represent the highest-quality Android-based tablets currently available” according to CNET.

    Image via YouTube

  • Dell Announces New Windows 8.1, Android Tablets

    Dell Announces New Windows 8.1, Android Tablets

    Last month, Dell shareholders approved a $25 billion buyout of the company by a group of investors led by Dell founder Michael Dell. Dell announced that he would take the company private and refocus its efforts on enterprise solutions and services. That doesn’t mean, however, that the company has fully given up on the hardware business.

    Dell this week announced its new lineup of Windows 8 and Android tablets. All of the tablets are a part of Dell’s Venue-branded lineup, and the Windows tablets all come running Windows 8.1.

    The Dell Venue 8 Pro and Dell Venue 11 Pro are the Windows 8 tablets that Dell seems to be pushing hardest. As per the names, the 8 Pro is an 8-inch tablet, while the 11 Pro has a full HD 11-inch display. The 8 Pro comes with Microsoft Office 2013 Home edition and costs $300.

    The 11 Pro comes with several keyboard options, including a mobile keyboard/cover, a full-sized keyboard with its own battery, and an entire desktop dock that essentially makes the tablet into a notebook, complete with USB and display ports. The device also has a replaceable battery. Priced at $499, the 11 Pro is quite obviously Dell’s competitor device to Microsoft’s recently announced Surface Pro 2, which costs more than double that amount.

    The Dell Venue 7 and Dell Venue 8 are both Android-based tablets. The hardware difference between the tablets is minimal, with the 7 having a 7-inch screen and the 8 having an 8-inch one. The price difference between them is also minimal, with the Venue 7 costing $150 and the Venue 8 costing $180.

  • Android Tablet Shipments Nearly Doubled in Past Year

    The modern tablet market, much like the smartphone market before it, was almost entirely created by Apple. Once again, however, the more open Android operating system now appears to be dominating the space that Apple pioneered.

    According to second quarter shipment numbers from analyst firm Strategy Analytics, Android-based tablets now account for a full two-thirds of the tablet market. 34.6 million Android tablets were shipped during the second quarter of 2013, almost double the 18.5 million tablets that shipped during the second quarter of 2012.

    “Global branded tablet shipments reached 36.2 million units in Q2 2013, up 4% from 24.6 million in Q2 2012,” said Peter King, director of the tablet division at Strategy Analytics. “The branded tablet market had a rest period as very few new products came to market during the quarter. When we add in white-box tablets, shipments reached 51.7 million units, up 43% from 36.1 million in Q2 2012. Android is now making steady progress due to hardware partners like Samsung, Amazon, Google and White-Box tablets which, despite the fact that branded OEMs are lowering price-points and putting pressure on the white-box manufacturers, are still performing well.”

    Apple did not fare as well during the second quarter. The company’s iPad shipments were down year-over-year, and its tablet market share has now fallen to 28.3% – a drastic drop from its 47.2% market share one year ago.

    “Apple iOS shipments were 14.6 million iPads in Q2 2013 which declined 14% annually,” said King. “In the same quarter a year ago the first ‘Retina’ display iPads were launched which could partly explain the decline as there were no new models in this quarter. However, to compensate that, iPad Mini which was not available a year ago, now freely available was expected to take the figure higher than 14.6 million.”

    The quarterly report also found that Windows 8 now has a full 4.5% share of the tablet market, up from only 0.5% last year. Microsoft recently cut the price of its Surface RT tablets to $349 due to slow sales of the device.

    Strategy Analytics' Q2 2013 tablet shipment numbers

  • Toshiba To Launch “Entry Level” 7-Inch Tablet Soon

    Between Apple’s iPad Mini, Amazon’s Kindle Fire, Google’s Nexus 7, and a wide array of products from other manufacturers, the 7-inch tablet market is looking pretty crowded. That evidently hasn’t stopped Toshiba from creating another mini-tablet, though.

    Digitimes today reported that Toshiba has placed manufacturing orders for an “entry-level” 7-inch tablet. According to the report’s unnamed “Taiwan-based supply chain makers,” the tablet has been dubbed the AT7-A and could launch as soon as the third quarter of 2013.

    Toshiba already offers a 7-inch tablet as part of its Excite-branded tablet lineup. The Excite 7.7, though, is priced starting at $500 – far from the sub-$200 prices of Amazon’s Kindle tablets or Google’s Nexus 7s.

    Digitimes’ report points out that while the 7-inch tablet market’s profit margins are slim, and while the market is now over-crowded, the quick growth of the market segment is still encouraging manufacturers to try their hand at grabbing first-time tablet buyers. Acer, Lenovo, and HP have all released 7-inch tablets priced under $200 in the past year, and Digitimes’ sources consider Dell the only “first-tier” tech manufacturer to not have a current 7-inch tablet on the market. Dell has not released a 7-inch tablet since the dismal failure of the Streak 7.

  • Samsung Announces New Windows8/Android ATIV Tablets

    Samsung Announces New Windows8/Android ATIV Tablets

    Back in April, Samsung re-branded all of its laptops under the ATIV brand. The manufacturer’s ultrabooks, all-in-ones, and smart PCs now go by ATIV Books, ATIV Ones, and ATIV Tabs with different numerical monikers. In case that’s not confusing enough for everyone, Samsung this week announced two new Windows 8 tablets, branded ATIV Q and ATIV Tab 3.

    The ATIV Q is the more fancy of the two, sporting a 13.3-inch, 275ppi, 3200×1800 resolution display. It also has an Intel Core i5 processor and 4GB of RAM. It comes with a 128GB SSD hard drive.

    The ATIV Tab 3 will be the lower-priced of the new tablets. It has a 10.1-inch, 1366×768 resolution display, an ATOM processor, 2GB of RAM, and comes with 64GB of embedded storage. It also comes pre-loaded with Microsoft Office Home & Student.

    The interesting thing about these tablets is that the ATIV Q is what Samsung calls “convertable.” The tablet can be switched from Windows 8 to Android Jellybean 4.2.2, allowing Android apps to be used. In addition, files and folders can be transferred and shared between the two operating systems, meaning multimedia can be viewed on both operating systems.

  • Android Tablets To Overtake The iPad This Year

    Android Tablets To Overtake The iPad This Year

    Android devices may be locked in a heated battle for supremacy with the iPhone, but the iPad has never really had much competition. Cheaper devices, like the Nexus 7, has ensured that some players find some form of success, but Apple is still the company to beat in the tablet market. That all may change this year.

    IDC released a revised tablet market forecast for the year today with the major takeaway being that Android tablets may finally become the dominant player in the market. The availability of cheap tablets, most noticeably Android tablets, will lead to tablet shipments to see a sizable increase this year.

    The firm predicts that the worldwide tablet market will ship 190.9 million devices over the course of this year with Android making up 48.8 percent of the shipments. Apple isn’t too far behind, however, with 46 percent of total shipments. Android may become the dominant player this year thanks to the wide breadth of options available, but it’s incredibly impressive to see Apple stand toe-to-toe in shipments with only three models.

    Both iOS and Android will see some losses in their marketshare over the next five years as Windows 8 and Windows RT tablets start to take hold. IDC predicts, however, that these Windows tablets will be much like their Windows Phone 8 counterparts – a distant third place with Windows 8 tablets expected to only command 7.4 percent of the market by 2017.

    “Microsoft’s decision to push two different tablet operating systems, Windows 8 and Windows RT, has yielded poor results in the market so far,” said Tom Mainelli, Research Director, Tablets. “Consumers aren’t buying Windows RT’s value proposition, and long term we think Microsoft and its partners would be better served by focusing their attention on improving Windows 8. Such a focus could drive better share growth in the tablet category down the road.”

    Android Tablets Will Overtake The iPad This Year

    Those who prefer eReaders over tablets may not like what’s coming next as IDC’s final prediction for the next five years sees the tablet precursors only having a few more years of growth ahead of it before the market starts an irreversible downward trend in 2015. By then, however, most consumers will have probably switched to multimedia tablets as the market will drive down prices to super affordable levels by then.