More Thoughts on Tablets
With the growing popularity of tablets, the speed of web site rendering and the length of useful battery life are going to be continuously analyzed in various ways to help consumers make their device choices. CNET recently released some test data on several of the main tablets that are emerging on the market to help you gain insight as to how they will perform. They have also run a web site speed test specifically on the new iPad 2 and how it faired against the Motorola Zoom. When analyzing this kind of data, I tend to view it more subjectively. Tests like this often leave out quite a few variables such as time of day, traffic rush on a web site, and background device activity such as scheduled software update checks, all of which can factor into momentary performance hits on any device. I wouldn’t base my device choice solely with these test results, but the information is good to know to help gain an overall picture of what our options are.
Another tablet comparison indicates the issues with Flash that we’ve previously mentioned. Based on this data, Apple is still not going to support Flash. All of the other tablets emerging on the market, however, appear to be supporting Flash. The jury is still out as to who will win with this game, but we’d like to point out that the CNET test results were conducted with a website that does not run Flash. Why is Apple not supporting Flash? There are many opinions and editorials on this and the topic can be fiercely debated; but what we do know is Steve Jobs’ opinion:
“Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.”
Will tablets become part of your business operations? And how would you base your tablet choice – on operating system, manufacturer, battery life or reported web site speed?
