[kartu]

Originally Posted by afa

All those differences are largely very minor. For example, Samsung might indeed have the best screen, but it's not like the others are crap. Most good tablets will have a good screen. Weight is negligible since mostly we're talking about a few ounces (within the same size, of course). And so on...

If that were the case, I would have bought Sony's tablet, not Samsung's, or first Asus Transformer.

Don't they have to pay some sort of patent fees to Microsoft or something?

Only if Microsoft "approaches" them, mafia style, with patent portfolio that looks like this.

In any case, it's great to have a free OS, and one that is quite popular, but individually they have no chance of competing with the Apple juggernaut. Google loves to mention that Android is the most popular mobile OS; true enough, but it's worth mentioning that iOS runs on a single phone made by a single manufacturer.

iOS runs on a number of phones made by the same manufacturer, but I get your point. Note that Apple is not a dominant player on smartphone market anymore. Samsung's smartphone market share is nearly twice that of Apple's. (well, 14% vs 24%)

Android gained marketshare by bombarding the market with hundreds of devices from dozens of manufacturers. How many of those phones actually sell significantly? Does anything even approach the iPhone (or iPad for tablets)?

Galaxy SII alone sold over 10 millions this year, starting from mid summer.
Android phones aren't exactly cheap. And google isn't exactly bombarding anything, manufacturers choose to create or not create a phone with Android. (Nokia chose not to and to stick it with Microsoft, co-incidentally its CEO is former microsoft manager)
iPad market share is down to about 70%, from about 94% last year. Obviously in several years it will end up as with iphones, niche market with about 15% of the market share.

Then again, I admit I'm not the best judge in this matter. I don't own a tablet and -- between my iMac, Dell laptop and BlackBerry -- see absolutely no reason to get one.

Probably that's the main reason why you don't get "what's the deal". There is no deal. New manufactuer tries to advertise its product. That's it. It looks the same as the others to you, since you don't really consider buying it.

PS
A couple more points:
1) Regardless how good android is (and it is damn good and way ahead competitors if you ask me) it's not good if we end up with android alone
2) On the other hand, I don't want every single hardware manufacturer to spend money on developing their own platform. They are HARDWARE manufacturers, they better focus on hardware.