Apple has a year head start on their competition in tablets, and the slow rate of updates coming from their competition does not make me believe the lead shrink in the future. Releasing software is hard, but Apple seems to be the only one that can release half a dozen updates over the course of a year that both fix bugs and add functionality to users existing tablets and phones. Microsoft continues to release major updates as giant service packs that seemingly will come out twice a year. Google’s not saying much about their Honeycomb improvements and how or if they will even be distributed to existing tablet owners. If anything, RIM’s eighteen CEO’s keep it interesting by promising everything they can dream up.
To make a dent in Apple’s market lead, Google, Microsoft, Blackberry and HP (eventually) need to focus less on the hardware specs or openness of their platform, and more on getting software updates to their existing user base on a regular basis. Hardware specs are porn for the gadget blogs, but software and apps are what sell tablets and phones to regular users. iOS is not without flaws, but I can’t think of any gaping holes in the platform that make it hard to justify an iPad or iPhone to someone. I would run out of fingers if I had to list all the holes in the Xoom or Playbook.
via carpeaqua – We’ll Fix Our Platform In Post. It’s one thing to come out with a product half finished, it’s another to come out and say you’ll finish the product and never do. The biggest thing that Apple tends to get right is nothing comes out feeling unpolished, there may be things missing from the product that people desire (copy and paste and an SDK for iOS is a good example) but the product itself doesn’t feel incomplete without those pieces. This work by RIM and Microsoft in particular not only is the product itself lacking but the companies keep promising the sky and delivering very little.