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Comment by dkarl | Hacker News Reader

It makes sense. Nobody has the credibility Apple has in this space. When Apple put iPads in the stores, everyone paid attention and took for granted it was something potentially great. Samsung has no credibility, so they are fighting against the tablet novelty and a huge history of "me-too" devices put out to compete with Apple. (I'm thinking of the "iPhone competitor" phones many companies put out that were nothing but cell phones with a color interface, a gimmicky touch screen, some horrid interface for playing mp3s, and a crippled browser.)

Ordinary consumers will not feel comfortable buying non-Apple tablets until they have a better idea what a tablet actually is and how to shop for one.

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I'm still angry about my Samsung Instinct, and now with my Samsung Epic being stuck at Android 2.1... Samsung has negative credibility with me, and anyone who asks me for phone advice.

Samsung Moment owner here, forever stuck on 2.1. I also steer people away from Samsung.

Downvoted? That's awfully harsh for just pointing out that most companies can't get consumers to drop hundreds of dollars out of sheer brand trust, on a product they don't understand and don't know how to evaluate.

"Ordinary consumers will not feel comfortable buying non-Apple tablets until they have a better idea what a tablet actually is and how to shop for one."

Bizarre.

The Tab hasn't sold well simply because it's not that great of a product (largely because it came with Froyo which is decidedly not ready for the form factor), sold at a really high price. I'm an Android guy, but I had zero interest in the device (just as I have no interest in the Nexus S).

The upcoming Honeycomb devices are far more convincing, however.

When expectations were on the order of millions of units, they must have expected some non-hacker consumers to buy the units for themselves or as gifts. Even if every Android guy and HNer in the world bought a Galaxy Tab, they still wouldn't sell a million without significant numbers of ordinary consumers deciding to buy one on the basis of ads, retail displays, and consumer electronics reviews. But that won't happen, because consumers won't pay several hundred dollars when they don't know how to distinguish a quality product from a crappy gimmick, especially when they know from past experience that (at least some) electronics manufacturers will rush to bring out a superficially similar competitor without waiting until they can replicate the technology.

Imagine if there was no Android -- you think there would be no competitors to the iPad? Someone would toss together something worthless based on Windows CE or Palm OS and call it an "iPad killer." Consumers do NOT want to fall for that, and the only way they know how to avoid it is to steer clear of non-Apple tablets for now.

Uptake of Android tablets will depend on tech-savvy folks buying them, showing them to their friends, who will buy Android tablets and show them to their friends, and so on. It will be slow.

Geek opinion can go further than just the people who hold those opinions. For example, device enthusiasts' lack of acceptance means that everybody's "Guy who knows about computers/phones/electronic gizmos" is giving the Galaxy Tab a thumbs-down. When you're selling a pricier alternative to an established brand, you need those cheerleaders.

> The upcoming Honeycomb devices are far more convincing, however.

Really? I must be missing something, because I just don't see the appeal.

My Nexus One appeals to me because I can't put my laptop in my pocket. My laptop appeals to me because I can't really type on my phone. A tablet really just sounds like the worst of both worlds. Not trying to be a buzz-kill, but genuinely curious: what's the driving factor here?

At home I find that even with multiple traditional computers, I resort to using my smartphone for convenience and enjoyment reasons a lot. Little things like looking up a movie review, pulling up a phone number, or to answer questions like "what are the guys who play that position in the NFL?" I pull it up on my smartphone and voila.

Now of course the restrictions of the smartphone are a bit of a pain. I would like something larger to more enjoyably interact with, hopefully with a higher resolution, but small enough and easy enough to use that it's just some accessory sitting on a coffee table. Of course in the connected world it can also control the cable box, start DLNA streams, etc.

That's where a tablet comes into play. Preferably one in the 7-9" range.

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