How a dead Galaxy tablet forced this Android user to switch to iPad

You’ve probably heard that the iPad dominates the tablet market, with some stats putting its share at about 50 percent worldwide, a huge number. Why is that? It could be because iPads are well-made, or that iPadOS benefits from being derived from iOS. It could be how well Apple’s ecosystem works. Those are all reasons, but there’s another major reason: Android tablets suck.

Don’t take the word of this devoted Apple user, though. Take the word of my colleague, Hans-Christian Dirscherl, the managing editor of PCWelt in Germany. Hans recently wrote (in German; English translation available at Tech Advisor) about an experience years ago with an Android-based Samsung Galaxy Tab  10.1 (GT-P7500) that forced him to become a devoted iPad user.

In 2011, Dirscherl bought the Galaxy Tab and was “impressed” enough to take it with him when out and about. But, being a tech-savvy kind of guy, Dirscherl wondered why Android updates weren’t regularly arriving on his tablet. Turns out it wasn’t a problem with the device, but rather that the Android 3.1 OS that was on the tablet received only one minor update during his time with it. That’s all, just one.

If you don’t remember, Android Honeycomb was a big deal for Android tablets back in 2011, which were only just beginning to compete with Apple’s popular iPad. Version 3.1 smoothed a lot of Honeycomb’s rougher edges and made it stable for tablets. But while the first round of Honeycomb tablets, including the Galaxy Tab 10.1, were promised an upgrade path to Android Ice Cream Sandwich, they didn’t begin arriving until August 2012. So it was a long wait.

That was a “disappointment,” Dirscherl says, but it gets way worse. Not long after the one-year warranty expired, the Galaxy Tab stopped working. He tried charging it. Nope. He let it sit for a while and then tried turning it on. Nothing. He attempted a hard reset/reset. “Keine weiteren,” Dirscherl concluded that his Galaxy Tab was dead.

The letdown was enough to push Dirscherl’s “dark side of the Force” to the iPad, and he’s been a satisfied iPad user ever since. He never had any problems with that iPad or its successors, he wrote.

Unfortunately, it took a serious device failure to cause Dirscherl to switch, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the experience of many switchers. But hey, it’s good to hear that things are working out! Let’s hope other disgruntled Android tablet users learn the lesson. In the meantime, Hans-Christian, I’ve got a cool new laptop called MacBook Neo you should check out…

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