A tale of tablets – the beginning

Today marked a fairly big change in my daily use of devices, today I sold the last Apple product I still owned on eBay (…well – the Danish version dba.dk, same ol’ same ol’)

Goodbye, Apple iPad – we’ve had a great run together!

We have had an on/off relationship for better and worse. Ever since we first met in Denmark in November 2010 and you convinced me that tablets were the “real deal” (even though you were a bit on the slow side). Our relationship became better when you changed your name to iPad 2, speeded things with a sexy A5 processor and clickyti-click magnets and covers. I instantly grabbed you off the shelf in Chicago in the summer of 2011, and was a happy camper for a long time. Ahhh – good times…

apple

A new contender – the Google Nexus 7

I know it was my fault that our relationship didn’t last.

I sold you when Google wanted to fight you with the Nexus 7, in the summer of 2012. Since 7 is my lucky number I couldn’t resist – I went for the Nexus 7.

Boy was that a bad choice! The Nexus 7 was poorly build (unlike you), had worse battery life, had to be replaced twice due to construction errors, overheating and failing touch sensors, and a terrible experience in general. On a personal note, the 7” display on the Nexus 7 was simply too small, and not worth switching to from my Samsung Galaxy SIII. And let’s not forget the missing tableoptimized apps in Google Play at the time… Shame on you Google, better luck next time.

Needless to say, my Nexus 7 went back on eBay sooner than I could say “I miss you iPad, so so much”

I couldn’t take you back though. You had changed!!!!
How to put this politely… You had gained weight (a lot) when you called yourself iPad 3/4/Retina, and I couldn’t take you out anymore. Simply put, you were heavy, chunky and no fun.

And then something happened! Your team in Cupertino made you exercise, and you became thin, super fast, fancy and elegant. The iPad Air was born, you were pre-ordered yet again, we rekindled our relationship, and for the last year and a half we have had daily contact.

But…

You come with attachments and iTunes and I will NEVER be friends. Your interface and ecosystem is completely shut off for people (like me) who like to change things up a bit. Moving my media (pictures, videos, and music) through iTunes, was simply agonizing, and I refuse to do it all over in iTunes – I spend MONTHS on digitizing my CDs and DVDs. Your user interface was groundbreaking in 2008 and iOS super tight, but seven years later in 2015 you have barely changed. I’m bored – and we are done, I’ve had it – I break up!
Android caught up with you – and I finally feel ready to go “all Android” for my mobile devices. Once I also had an iPhone 3G & iPhone 4, but they were replaced for good in 2012 with various Android mobiles – Samsung Galaxy SIII in 2012, HTC One (m7) in 2013 and now Sony Xperia Z3 Compact (in 2014), which is my current mobile.

So what tablet will I go for? Read my next post: A tale of tablets – the evolution.

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