[A7 General] robbbzilla:
Google's Android love and hate!

Funny you mentioned the 3.0 release.

I can see things a couple ways. Like Apple Google wants people to see their OS on a device that can actually use it so they are working with those companies to do so. I can understand they want people to get a good user experience and therefore are pushing to the best retail partners. It helps them and helps the companies by having a release before anyone else.

What I do not understand is the price point. I mean I can get a really nice laptop with a quad core, good graphics, huge hda, etc for $800 so why would I buy a tablet that will do a lot of what I want but not as much as I can with a real pc. Since the masses really only know iPad then wouldn't it make sense to start with 3.0 at a price slightly less than Apple? Offer better equipment or at least just as good and sell for a little less. That way when people try it they will be more apt to buying it. As it is now I paid $300 for my a7 and I could have gotten a Apple iPad for $429 refurb which I think is a really fair price for the unit with its hardware plus a feature rich environment and apps galore and Apples OS is very good. Now comes the xoom for $800??? What. I mean if Honeycomb had been out for a year or so and it was a proven OS with features Apple does not have then I could see it but really they should have at least come in around $500. Personally for me I had a hard time justifying my purchase above $300. I wanted a device I could use to replace a mp3 player with additional features. I already have a laptop and desktop so there is no need for the tab except I do need a portable media player and that is where the A7 and its size fit so nicely.

Add to all of this the system that Google has which is very confusing for a consumer who does not know much about android and not having regular updates from Google but through the manufacturer is a horrid choice!! I think Microsoft got one thing right and that is update the OS without manufacturer involvement. I mean any other OS, MS, Apple, Linux all update their os's independent of what machine it is installed on. Then because Google does not have any control the manufacturers will put out what ever version of Android they have slap it on the device and sell it and if you want a new os you have to buy a new tablet??? Apple iPad does not do this. I can get ios 4.2 for free. This is the same way it should work for Android. Instead you have a huge array of devices for sale all running different versions of Android some of which are outdated before they even start selling.

Because of this situation and the fact Honeycomb seems impossible for the a7 I was seriously thinking of a net book. I mean I can get a 250gb hda, 1.6 ghz 455 atom processor, 1 gb ram, incredible screen for $29 more than my elocity and it will have a full OS with a full browser, not a mobile version, and I can do a lot with it. I could install honeycomb on the netbook!! I did it on my laptop before. I could also install Linux which would run nice and have all I need. Problem again is portability. Netbooks are much better than laptops but not as convenient as the tablet and I find the touch screen interface more intuitive. I think as time goes by it will be the future. However, as things are now with Android and not having it on a phone but strictly for tabs the experience is not what I thought it would be. For a linux based os I do not have much control and that is not good.

Just my 2 cents

Robert