Ipad vs Tab: Asian price wars set to spread to North America and perhaps, Europe

Over here in Asia, the competition posed by the Samsung Galaxy Tab and others have prompted rumors that Apple is considering slashing prices in some countries here in Asia. It therefore would be perfectly logical for Apple to make a similar move in North America where I understand that the Tab could be offered at US$400 with a data contract while the cheapest Ipad is still priced at $499 from the Apple store.

Samsung is aggressively entering the tablet market and in some markets such as Singapore, some telcos are even giving away the Tab for free if it is bundled with a new cable tv + internet subscription.

Given that Apple could soon launch their new iOS4.2, it will make sense for Apple to announce an across the board price drop of US100 in conjunction with the launch, and allow them to keep up the pressure on competitors. This will make up for their recent underwhelming Beatles-Itunes announcement.

Ipad vs Tab: How not to name your Home/Start Button in Romanian

We all know that the closest competitor to the Ipad is the Samsung Galaxy Tab (or just, "Tab"). We also know that to "Start" something in Romanian is to "Porni", so....check out what happens to the Home Button in Romanian when it gets truncated by the Tab. :) I don't know whether this is a photoshop job but it was reported here at huffingtonpost.com and elsewhere too.
Round 1: Ipad 1-0 Tab

How Smartphone Users see themselves

This is from a blog post by David Averbach of IphoneLife. LOL

Impending iOS4.2 for Ipad: 4.2 random thoughts

The web is abuzz with the impending release of this long overdue update to the Ipad. Having been long accustomed to features such as multitasking and folders on the iPhone, the limitations of iOS 3.2 has become painfully obvious and unbearable.

(1)Will the apple server crash from the sheer demand of 10 million iPad users downloading the os at the same time?

(2) What apps that I hardly use (and deleted to make space for new apps) will i have to download again from the app store now that I have folders?

(3) Which of my ipad apps are going to crash because the app developer did not work on an update for iOS4.2?

(4) Will I lose the wonderful screen rotation lock button becos Steve Jobs prefers a mute button?

(4.2) Why did we spend $9.99 on a printing app just a couple of months ago only for apple to include airprint for free now (not that I am complaining)?

Skyfire browser brings Flash Video to Iphone and Ipad

The Skyfire browser app has reportedly been approved by Apple and that's going to be a pretty exciting development for those of us who have had to forego watching videos from some of our favourite Flash-heavy sites like the Dailyshow, Colbert Report, Collegehumor etc.


Skyfire’s nifty work-around is to stream users’ browser requests for flash video from their servers, thus circumventing the Flash-hating iOS4. CNET has reported about how it is supposed to work: “When you get to a site that plays video, Skyfire will display the usual error message or symbol and then pop up a thumbnail with a "Play" button on it. That's what you press to launch the video playback.”

The downside is, Skyfire will only work for Flash Video. That means no Flash interactivity or Flash games (but who plays flash games nowadays anyway). And it doesn’t work with popular TV-streaming site Hulu cos they said no thanks. (But I’m not based in the US so that doesn’t bother me since Hulu isn’t offered outside the US anyway...)

Given the upside and downside, will we pay for this app at a launch price of $2.99? I predict that it will at least make Top 25. At the moment, Skyfire’s website, blog and facebook entries are all quiet about this momentous approval milestone and I can only guess that their PR guys are celebrating outside the office (guys you need to update your website!)

Amazon scores with new app Windowshop but faces ire of Kindle fans

I’m a big fan of Amazon. Actually bought 1000% more e-books from the Kindle store compared to the anaemic shelves of the Ibook store. Price-wise, Amazon has also consistently been cheaper than all the other major e-book retailers. As far as my experience goes, their Kindle app on the Ipad and Iphone has also been relatively bug free and very user-friendly.

So it was a major coup again for Amazon to introduce a new and free app Windowshop for the Ipad that IMHO sets the standards in terms of what a shopping app should be: full of pictures, fast-loading, fast-scrolling, great pricing and a meaningful variety of merchandise.




Don’t get me wrong, Zappos has got a great new shopping app too (But surprisingly, they are so low-key about their app that I struggle to find any mention of it on the Zappos website). And out of preference, I shop at Amazon far too often compared to the others e-retailers. Even in Asia and Singapore, inclusive of freight, Amazon still remains competitive in certain sales categories, such as Blu-ray discs.

But where Amazon might have gone wrong is to seemingly ignore the growing numbers of Kindle fans who are complaining that e-book prices have gone out of whack – some Kindle titles have reportedly exceeded the prices of paperbacks or hardbacks that are on sale. Since last year, a small group of Kindle followers have started what is known as the 9 99 boycott. By placing such tags on e-books that exceed the price of US$9.99, this group wants to draw attention to the uncompetitive pricing of e-books. Some go so far as to say that this is a betrayal by Amazon since e-books incur almost zero marginal costs, and most Kindle fans expect e-books to bring the prices of readership down, given that unlike print, it is extremely inconvenient to share e-books.

So I hope apps for the Iphone and Ipad stay sane (I’m still waiting for Apple to offer Keynotes, Pages and Numbers for a bundle price of $9.99)...

Update Top 10 App List (Oct 2010)

I've updated my Top 10 Ipad app list:

Updated on 20 Oct 2010
1. Cut The Ropes HD
2. Kindle HD
3. Stanza (for reading .cbr files, that's comics!)
4. W.TV HD (free movies - IT'S FOR REAL!)
5. AppsFire
6. Scrabble
7. Skype (Much faster than having to take out and boot up the laptop)
8. Perfect Browser (for tabbed & private browsing)
9. Pleco (chinese dictionary)
10. Labyrinth 2/Medieval