What is the best tablet for you: iPad or Android? Why is one better than the other? We will first review Android and Apple software platforms in general and then discuss them concerning tablet computers, namely the iPad 2 and Android Honeycomb operating system running on Motorola’s Xoom tablet. here you will know What’s the difference between an iPad and an Android tablet?.
For tablet computers, the key difference between Apple and Android is that Apple is a closed system, limited to iOS devices, while Android is an open-source system. As a result, Android is available for free to developers, both in terms of the hardware used to run it and building apps to run on it.
The Android operating system is now owned by Google, which acquired it from the Android Inc. developers in 2005. Open Handset Alliance (OHA) is Google’s initiative for making it open source. Under the Apache license, it is freely available. According to Canalys, the platform was the world’s top-selling software platform for smartphones in 2010.
A Common Platform
The Android operating system has been used in tablets to compete with Apple’s iPad. Since the iPad runs on a proprietary software platform, it is by nature more restrictive than Android devices and, as a result, cannot communicate across devices as effectively as Android tablets could. Due to their infancy, Android tablets have yet to take full advantage of this platform commonality.
There’s a very good chance that individual Android users will protect their devices, which means that a common platform will not be as valuable as it could be. However, the common platform will likely lead to more apps and other forms of software being developed for Android rather than Apple in the future. While Apple devices currently offer a wider choice of apps than Android tablets, this situation is expected to last only a short while, as Android apps are now being continually developed.
IPad 2 Vs Android Tablets
Using each of these two operating systems, how does all of this translate into hardware? The comparison is primarily among the top Android tablets and the iPad 2. Although several tablets can’t compete with iPad or iPad 2, there have been several good Android tablets developed by top companies like Acer, Samsung and Motorola, and this is the one we’ll discuss here.
Android Honeycomb runs on the Motorola Zoom Tablet, which is thicker and heavier (0.34 compared to 0.5 inches). The Zoom and iPad 2 have dual-core 1GHz processors, but the Zoom has 1GB RAM versus the iPad 2’s 512MB RAM.
Plugging the Xoom into your PC so you can access your files is an excellent feature. You can transfer files between your PC and Xoom. The iPad 2 requires you to do this through iTunes, which is time-consuming. With the Xoom tablet, downloading music is as easy as drag and drop, without requiring a huge ponderous iTunes file to reside on your computer.
Multitasking Comparison
The Android tablet also has the advantage of performing multitasking, as the iPad cannot. Multitasking on the iPad is more of an exercise in switching from one task to another, with a little processing in the background. In addition to more flexibility in file handling and better icon presentation, Android tablets provide many other advantages over the iPad 2. Using any Android open-source software program does not limit you to Apple formats.
Even though the iPad is thinner and lighter, it also has some advantages, one of which is the number of apps it offers. Since most tablet apps are developed for the iPad, they are usually modifications of iPhone apps. It will not be long before Android apps overtake iPad apps in terms of popularity. A growing number of these apps are now created on the Android platform.
Apple Fan or Android Fan
In the end, the choice between an Apple iPad and an Android tablet, such as the Motorola Xoom, will probably boil down to your preferences. Apple fans are likely to stick with Apple products, while PC fans appear to have no compelling reason to choose the iPad over Xoom – although there are some excellent Android tablets on the market as well.
Since the Android software platform started eating into the Apple market, the iPad 2 will face more competition from Android tablets as more companies offer their versions. In a few years, the tablet market will be much like the current state of the laptop market, where the dominant players are Apple and Windows. The only difference is that it’s now Apple versus Android. Your choice is who wins.
