Become a fan of Slashdot on Facebook

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Handhelds Portables (Games) Games

Gaming Is the Most Popular Use For Tablets 174

Posted by Soulskill from the only-because-nobody-admitted-to-tablet-porn dept.
The Guardian's Games blog reports on a survey from Google's Admob, which found that more people use tablets for gaming than for any other purpose, even viewing news or email. Quoting: "According to the survey (PDF), 84% of tablet owners play games, ahead of even searching for information (78%), emailing (74%) and reading the news (61%). 56% of tablet owners use social networking services on their device, while 51% consume music and/or videos, and 46% read ebooks. ... The survey found that 38% of respondents spend more than two hours a day using their tablets, while another 30% spend 1-2 hours. It appears that tablets are predominantly domestic devices, with 82% of people primarily using their tablets at home, versus 11% who say they are used primarily on the go, and 7% who said at work. 28% of respondents say their tablet is now their primary computer, while 43% say they spend more time using their tablet than they do their desktop or laptop computer."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Gaming Is the Most Popular Use For Tablets More

Gaming Is the Most Popular Use For Tablets

Comments Filter:
  • Step 1: make some affordable accessories to comfortably set up a tablet as if it were a PC monitor; keyboard, speakers, etc.

    Step 2: start marketing parts instead of finished products only so it isn't an entire industry of iMacs. Let people build their own.

    Step 3: open things up and give people more control over what they do with their devices; if you buy it you get to decide how it's used.

    Boom, tablets are the new PCs. Not a replacement, simply an evolution out of the old form. Until all this happens the

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Then though, all you have is a PC with a small screen that happens to be portable...

    • Re:My thought: make tablets more like PCs/consoles (Score:5, Insightful)

      by DurendalMac ( 736637 ) on Friday April 08, 2011 @11:32PM (#35765432)
      1. Those are afterthoughts. Tablets aren't designed to replace desktops. They're meant to be highly portable and quick to use.

      2. Um, how do you plan on building a tablet? Laptop kits are hard enough to find. Do you really think you could self-assemble a tablet as slim and light as an iPad? I just don't see it happening. Furthermore, rolling your own tablet will do jack shit for business market share.

      3. Android already does this, but has diddly in tablet market share in business or otherwise. Businesses don't really give a damn if it's open or not as long as it can talk to their network, servers, etc and they can load their own custom apps into it, which just about any tablet (iPad included) can.

      Those gimmicky toys are selling by the millions per month. Apple can't build the iPad 2 fast enough. Seems like adoption is moving right along as it is.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Thank you for this post, you just inspired me.
          I have an archos 7 and it has usb Host mode and I just tried plugging in a cuecat. Wasn't sure if there would be enough power on the usb port to run it but it does.

          Simple test capturing to the browser (google is pretty good on finding barcodes) works fine.
          Now I have a very portable handheld scanner :)

          That is useful.

          I wouldnt have thought about this as an option.

        • Except you still have to deal with the lack of a desktop OS, so the tablet would need two separate environments. Then you'd need a bundle of hardware to go with it. Then you'd have to deal with the tablet still being slower than a laptop at the same price as the tablet + accessories and not running the same software. On that note, apps would have to be with a separate environment for kb/mouse and touchscreen, much higher resolutions, no multitouch...the list goes on. The two devices are pretty distinct, and
          • Comment removed based on user account deletion

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by tepples ( 727027 )

              It is the OS itself which handles input devices, the apps only respond to signals from the OS.

              Some applications make use of multitouch gestures, for which I see no general analog on a mouse. For example, how do I pinch to zoom with a mouse?

              • Some applications make use of multitouch gestures, for which I see no general analog on a mouse.

                Oh, come on. You're making too much of multitouch.

                You can do two things at a time on a mouse, like click and turn the wheel. I don't really see how different multi-touch is from CTRL-click. Hell, if the OS supports multi-touch why couldn't it support simultaneous input from a touchpad and mouse? That gives me an idea...

                • I don't really see how different multi-touch is from CTRL-click.

                  Applications that expect a multitouch movement event would misinterpret a Ctrl+tap event as a tap event.

                  Or say I'm playing one of those games that puts a virtual gamepad on the bottom corners of the screen. It expects two touch points: one on the directional pad at the bottom left and one on one of the buttons at the bottom right. How would a keyboard and mouse automatically emulate that?

                  • Or say I'm playing one of those games that puts a virtual gamepad on the bottom corners of the screen. It expects two touch points: one on the directional pad at the bottom left and one on one of the buttons at the bottom right. How would a keyboard and mouse automatically emulate that?

                    A mouse and a keyboard with a touchpad. All the multi-touch you want, plus WASD keys for first person shooters.

                    As long as we're using a clean sheet of paper, why not keyboards that accept multitouch? Think about this: Whe

              • Comment removed based on user account deletion

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by tepples ( 727027 )

                  As others have commented

                  And as I have replied. Please see my replies to tkdtaylor and PopeRatzo about using a mouse with existing apps.

        • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

          by Wovel ( 964431 )

          You can use any blue tooth keyboard and most USB keyboards today. Apple released a keyboard dock the first day the iPad came out, if that's your thing Wtf would you want a mouse for..

          Not sure why I am always amazed when people at slashdot talk authoritatively about things they know nothing about.. No reason you can't use a real keyboard. No shit. Maybe that is why the iPad has supported external keyboards since the day it was released.

      • they can load their own custom apps into it, which just about any tablet (iPad included) can.

        When did the iPad (or any tablet) get IE 6?

    • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

      by Dr Max ( 1696200 )
      Exactly why microsoft needs to convert the xbox 360 into a tablet.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by tepples ( 727027 )
        Microsoft has already gone halfway there with Windows Phone 7. It supports the same XNA API as Xbox Live Indie Games, and porting an XNA game to WP7 involves 1. rewriting the small section of a game's code that translates player input to game actions, and 2. using lower detail meshes and textures.

    • You mean like the iPad does already? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Friday April 08, 2011 @11:35PM (#35765444)

      Step 1: make some affordable accessories to comfortably set up a tablet as if it were a PC monitor; keyboard, speakers, etc.

      With the iPad2 I can mirror to any monitor, or use a keyboard stand that Apple makes, or use any bluetooth keyboard, or buy any number of speaker docs [mashable.com].

      Step 2: start marketing parts instead of finished products only so it isn't an entire industry of iMacs. Let people build their own.

      And how is that different with the entire iPad ecosystem today, where people are doing just that with a huge range of third party accessories? Otherwise you aren't seriously arguing that people surface-mount components in a homebrew tablet right? Because that is what you'd be doing to keep the size and weight anywhere near current tablet standards.

      Step 3: open things up and give people more control over what they do with their devices; if you buy it you get to decide how it's used.

      99% of iPad buyers have all the control they can use, they use the web and buy a huge range of tablet specific apps and that is enough.

      The other 1% can jailbreak. And that is in fact better for the technical user than using any other device because of how much easier it is to hack ObjectiveC apps to tweak the system and individual apps instead of having to write whole applications from scratch. A huge part of the Cydia app store is not just superficial customization like the home page, but about customization to add features to existing apps (like Mail.app).

      Now you may start to understand why Apple calls the tablet the "post-PC", the only missing component is off-pC backup. Hmm, I wonder what Apple is doing with a huge new datacenter?

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by gman003 ( 1693318 )
        You can't upgrade an iPad. You can't install more RAM, or a new processor, or even (IIRC) a new battery. Even the XBox is more moddable. That's different than peripherals.

        • You can't upgrade an iPad. You can't install more RAM, or a new processor, or even (IIRC) a new battery. Even the XBox is more moddable. That's different than peripherals.

          Well in that case you're no worse off than any other tablet made today or the foreseeable future.

          And you are still substantially better off because as I noted the iPad has a huge world of accessories targeting it, which are the only components mentioned in the original post that the user would change or replace or add.

          But to make what you

          • I even have a tablet computer I've upgraded the RAM on (MicroDIMMs... oh so economical!!), added a solid state drive, and a larger battery. A Fujitsu P1610 ... weighs about 1 kg, on par with the iPad. Similar screen size. Some dude in China even upgraded the CPU on his. Microsoft continues to support tablet PCs in Windows 7. And there are many of them on the market.

            So if he wants an "open" tablet PC, they certainly exist. And guess what? They suffer because they lack the cohesive and efficient mesh

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Wovel ( 964431 )

              If by on par you mean roughly twice the iPads 613g, sure. The ipad is 8.8mm thick, the P1610 also has a smaller screen then the iPad (8.9"), and is roughly 3.5x as thick as the iPad (34.5mm vs the IPads 8.8mm). What possessed you to make make a comparison. Of course you can upgrade the parts in the p1610, it is thicker than a MacBook pro (24.1mm).

              The original iPad outsold the entire 10 year history of tablets like the p1610 in it's first week. Consumer and business alike have shunned the desktop OS table

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by am 2k ( 217885 )

              A Fujitsu P1610 ... weighs about 1 kg, on par with the iPad.

              Uhhh... No? The iPad2 has 601g, which is a huge difference when you're holding it with one hand.

              Microsoft continues to support tablet PCs in Windows 7.

              Technically, yes. I recently tried using Windows 7 with a touchscreen monitor (by iiyama). Technically it worked (after fiddling around for 20mins), but I was unable to hit any menu on the screen, it was too small by far, even though I cranked the resolution down to unbearable levels. On the iPad, every dev knows that a touch area has to be at least 44x44px

          • It doesn't matter if your MPS library is 400GB is as much as you need is cached locally or streamed

            But when will U.S. carriers start to offer enough data transfer to get things in and out of that cache at a non-prohibitive price? It's no good to have 400 GB if you can only stream 5 GB every month. Or are you talking about waiting until in range of an open Wi-Fi and then swapping things in and out of the local cache?

            it's not like real PC's are going away.

            That's not always true. The idea of a home computer connected to a television has gone away; it was common in the early 1980s but is nearly unheard of now in favor of locked-down devices. (I c

        • How is the XBox more moddable? You can add... a USB hard drive that doesn't hold most of the 360's content? A USB memory stick, but only if it's less than 16GB? A proprietary hard drive, or Microsoft will invalidate yours if you try hacking one in? You can't install more RAM or a new CPU on a XBox.

          The iPad is a system on a chip. SoCs don't have SODIMM sockets or a PCI Express slot to plug in your NVidia card that would devour the battery in under a second and start an electrical fire. Expecting to
      • You had me until..

        The other 1% can jailbreak. And that is in fact better for the technical user than using any other device

        I think you're stretching a little too hard on that one.

        because of how much easier it is to hack ObjectiveC apps to tweak the system and individual apps instead of having to write whole applications from scratch.

        Wait, what are my choices here? Hack ObjectiveC or write whole applications from scratch. I think you might be leaving one or two other choices out.

        Leave that paragraph out and your post is stronger. There's no way to legitimately spin the 'advantages' of having to circumvent the design of a device. Just accept that you can't please all of the people all of the time. :)

      • All I want is god damn bluetooth controller support. Until Apple allows for one, I can't see my ipad as a gaming device. There are some games that multitouch works OK for, but I would still rather have a controller.

    • Furthermore, everyone knows the big automobile market—especially the business market— is in custom-built hot rods that only a local grease monkey knows how to fix.

      Sure, they may break down every 3000 km and have lots of strange compatibility issues between the random engines, transmissions, and everything else that got shoved together, but hey...At least they're better than those gimmicky "factory built" toys that some wackos drive.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by node 3 ( 115640 )

      -cut- Senes' three step plan to completely destroy the tablet market -cut-

      Boom, tablets are the new PCs. Not a replacement, simply an evolution out of the old form. Until all this happens they'll still just be a gimmicky toy that some people happen to spend a lot of time on. Make these things happen and you'll see business tablets as well.

      That's the exact opposite of what people want. It makes no sense to turn the tablet into a PC. We already have something like that... the PC. For people that want that, they can buy a... PC!

      The tablet is for people that don't actually want a PC, and for those that do want a PC (and there will be plenty of such people, especially amongst the slashdot crowd), the tablet is for them too, for those times when they don't want to use a PC.

      F

      • For people that want that, they can buy a... PC!

        The tablet is for people that don't actually want a PC

        So once the market shifts such that the "people that don't actually want a PC" so greatly outnumber the people that do want a PC, and the economies of scale of making PCs have dried up, what should people that do want a PC do?

        • So once the market shifts such that the "people that don't actually want a PC" so greatly outnumber the people that do want a PC, and the economies of scale of making PCs have dried up, what should people that do want a PC do?

          I wouldn't worry about your PC, the tablets will still require a PC if just to store stuff, and most people will still have PCs for the original reasons they bought them in the first place. What you should worry about would be laptops. Tablets wont cut into PC sales as much as they mig

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by tepples ( 727027 )

            I wouldn't worry about your PC, the tablets will still require a PC if just to store stuff

            Not once USB host adapters and Wi-Fi NAS devices become common. Imagine a future model of iPad not designed to require iTunes. It can store stuff on a Time Capsule or other NAS, on a USB hard drive, or on a leased FTP server. What will its users need a PC for?

            [Tablets are] much lighter and easier to carry [than laptops], do 98% of the work they need to with email and the web

            I do a lot of programming on the bus commute. Tablets are explicitly not designed for programming. Therefore, I carry a 10" laptop because I'm a 2%er. Trouble is, 2%ers do not a market make.

            and for the other 2%, they RDC back to their office computer.

            That would cost me an extra $720 per year for a mobile data pl

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by jedidiah ( 1196 )

              >> I wouldn't worry about your PC, the tablets
              >> will still require a PC if just to store stuff
              >
              > Not once USB host adapters and Wi-Fi NAS devices become
              > common. Imagine a future model of iPad not designed to
              > require iTunes. It can store stuff on a Time Capsule or other
              > NAS, on a USB hard drive, or on a leased FTP server. What
              > will its users need a PC for?

              Then the iPad has become a PC. Will Apple really allow that to happen? Doubtful.

              Something like Android may allow for su

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by tepples ( 727027 )

                Then the iPad has become a PC.

                Not exactly. The owner of a PC has root. The owner of an iPad does not, even if the iPad can store documents on FTP, NAS, or USB mass storage.

                • Re: (Score:2)

                  by node 3 ( 115640 )

                  Then the iPad has become a PC.

                  Not exactly. The owner of a PC has root. The owner of an iPad does not, even if the iPad can store documents on FTP, NAS, or USB mass storage.

                  The thing you and jed and the rest don't understand is people don't want root. They don't want FTP, NAS, USB host devices, etc., etc. They just want to turn it on and use it.

                  For those in the minority, like you, there will always be options with more flexible capabilities. You're witnessing the advent of the automatic transmission, and freaking out that people won't be in full control over what gear they are in. Most don't need to, and simply don't care. Those that do need to can buy a car with manual trans

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by node 3 ( 115640 )

                Already, even iDevices are far more capable than Apple allows them to be.

                Actually, iOS devices are far more capable now than they would be if they were more "open" or more PC-like in terms of things like root access and open filesystems and all the other things geeks bitch about. That's why they are so popular, and Android devices have failed miserably outside of the artificially affected handset market.

                Additional capabilities only help if the user can make use of them. Geeks can make use of these things, but most other people either cannot, or simply don't care enough to expend

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by node 3 ( 115640 )

          For people that want that, they can buy a... PC!

          The tablet is for people that don't actually want a PC

          So once the market shifts such that the "people that don't actually want a PC" so greatly outnumber the people that do want a PC, and the economies of scale of making PCs have dried up, what should people that do want a PC do?

          The same thing people who want a record player do today. They buy a record player.

    • May I suggest an asus eee pad transformer http://www.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=gHh4q7I8dvWJzhdV [asus.com]? It has a detachable keyboard and extra stuff like USB ports and SD card slots. It isn't really moddable to a large degree though.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • if you call Angry Birds and Farmvillve games instead of time wasters then MAYBE.

        Farmville, I totally agree. It's rather aptly name in that the ONLY thing you are doing is literally farming, in the classic MMORPG sense.

        The thing that takes it away from being a "game" in my mind, is that a lack of skill does zero to hurt you, or even really help you that much. All you have to do is exist.

        But Angry Birds is very much a game in any sense, and not a "time waster". At the start anyone can easily complete level

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by TheLink ( 130905 )
      <quote>Step 2: start marketing parts instead of finished products only so it isn't an entire industry of iMacs. Let people build their own.</quote>

      Uh how many tablet users actually want to build their own?

      Some desktop/tower PC users may want to build their own - that's why they buy those sort of computers.

      Judging from the article summary: tablet owners want to buy something and be able to play games on it near immediately.

      They don't want to do some DIY assembly.

      The real next form of computing wo
    • +1! Indeed the iPad is shackled to bloated iTunes installed on a laptop or desktop of some sort. Apple was clever to do this, and clever to dumb down it's gadget so it was itself a peripheral and not a replacement for the other computers it sells. They also were clever to make it big enough not to be a replacement for a iPod which one might find a 5-7" inch tablet capable of being - it could fit in a womans handbag and therefore become a portable music player or drive bluetooth headphones in another bag or

    • I don't think DIY tablets will arrive anytime soon. a standard port would be very nice though, so that we don't have to change docks everytime we change tablets. Actually, a standard port for phones would be nice too.

  • More like "common denominator". (Score:5, Insightful)

    by pushing-robot ( 1037830 ) on Friday April 08, 2011 @10:57PM (#35765284)

    Some people use their hands to perform surgery. Some use them to play the violin. Some use them to flip burgers. Nearly all, however, use their hands to brush their teeth.

    Thus, tooth-brushing is the most popular use for hands.

    • Some people use their hands to perform surgery. Some use them to play the violin. Some use them to flip burgers. Nearly all, however, use their hands to jerk off.

      Thus, jerking off is the most popular use for hands.

      FTFY. And improved the analogy with tablets, too.

  • News at 11 (Score:4, Insightful)

    by iSzabo ( 1392353 ) <tyler.szabo@gma i l . com> on Friday April 08, 2011 @10:59PM (#35765300)

    Do people play with toys more often than they play with tools? Tonight, we investigate.

    • No, no, you are mistaken... it is not a toy, it is a tool.
       
        For productivity and stuff... the games and 'cool factor' are only icing on the real productive producing cake.
      Seriously.
      Not a toy.
      Really.

  • Amazing (Score:3)

    by gmuslera ( 3436 ) on Friday April 08, 2011 @11:09PM (#35765346) Homepage Journal
    I thought that the main use for tablets would be programming, blogging and writting books.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by 1u3hr ( 530656 )
      I thought it was for prescribing aspirin.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pmontra ( 738736 )

      I thought that the main use for tablets would be programming, blogging and writting books.

      Maybe parent wanted to be modded funny but...
      Programming?!
      Blogging, yes.
      Writing books: fingers don't last much if they hit a hard surface all the day. Keyboards give way not only to activate a sensor but also to attenuate the hits.

    • I thought that the main use for tablets would be programming, blogging and writting books.

      Book? What's a book? Oh, you mean an ePUB file! Got it.

      This post sent back in time from the year 2015.

  • and for my Android Phone (T-Mobile G2 with Google by HTC). Much to the dismay of my battery...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Wovel ( 964431 )

      Do you find it awkward that you need to use like 8 words to effectively communicate what phone you have?

  • As someone who is about to add a third monitor I might be a "power user" but when I use my iPad I realize that here is the future baby. For most people the choice of a small handheld device will become more and more obvious. Thinking through my family I can't count many who need a anything much beyond a tablet/smartphone to meet their computing needs.
    This might actually bode well for us users of many monitors and powerful desktops as these "old school" computers will be more aimed at us instead of the yout

    • I set up an old laptop for my mother. It runs ubuntu and goes online through a 3G connection. I loaded it with links to news, social networks and blogs but her favourite application by far is the local weather radar. She has a big garden where she spends much of her time and knowing what weather is coming is really useful for her. I am now looking out for a tablet with a screen which is positively easy to read in bright sunlight. Something like fast e-ink would be ideal. Then she can spend more time where s

      • Stop torturing her with the chinese-app-drip and just buy her an iPad to give her the freedom she deserves to be able to work the device yourself without your help.

        It's readable out in the sun. Closing the cover to turn it off and on makes it foolproof (might want to buy a sturdier surrounding case if it's going out in the garden, most now have adopted the magnets that turn it off). Just come over once a week or month to back it up for her but otherwise she can just do everything on the device herself.

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by jedidiah ( 1196 )

          > Stop torturing her with the chinese-app-drip and
          > just buy her an iPad to give her the freedom she
          > deserves to be able to work the device yourself
          > without your help.

          It's not the device or the OS, it's the user.

          If they can't fend for themselves with WinDOS or Linux or MacOS, giving them the magical tablet isn't going to help.

  • Here i thought the tablets computers main use was a substitute for toilet paper, or some sort of laxative. I really could not figure out what the main use was.

  • If gaming is their primary use, then tablet is doomed because the general purpose computers, game consoles and portable game consoles are all much, much better for playing games. It's not a good sign if the device's primary use involves a function it sucks at.

    The tablets failed to take off in the past and I think they'll fail again. They just don't fill a credible niche. They're largely useless. Maybe doctors and nurses will use them in hospitals to keep the patient notes, or maybe tablets can fill some

    • If gaming is their primary use, then tablet is doomed because the general purpose computers, game consoles and portable game consoles are all much, much better for playing games.

      That depends on the type of game. Tablets do not work for an FPS game, or a button bashing one. But they are suitable for mouse type games like Civilization or puzzle games. I loaded SCUMMVM on my tablet, and found that point and click adventures are well suited to it. I guess it is going to be more popular with the ever-growing casual gaming market rather than hardcore gamingt.

      I imagine that click and flick games would be ideal when interactive with your finger, and this isn't an action that suits a mouse.

      • Tablets do not work for an FPS game, or a button bashing one. But they are suitable for mouse type games like Civilization or puzzle games.

        True, a handheld or a laptop with a gamepad is better for platformers and the like, and a tablet could be better for RTS games such as Starcraft or Total Annihilation. But not all puzzle games are better with a tablet. Bejeweled wants a tablet, but Tetris wants a gamepad or an arcade joystick. How would this [youtube.com] be done on a tablet?

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • If gaming is their primary use, then tablet is doomed because the general purpose computers, game consoles and portable game consoles are all much, much better for playing games.

      If by doomed you mean selling 15 million units within 9 months since release (Apples iPad 1), then count me in on the 'doomed' thing. ...
      And please don't forget that gaming also was the main reason PCs took of back in the day.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by aeoo ( 568706 )

        And please don't forget that gaming also was the main reason PCs took of back in the day.

        PC were great for gaming. They were both open and very flexible devices in terms of both input and output.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by node 3 ( 115640 )

      If gaming is their primary use, then tablet is doomed because the general purpose computers, game consoles and portable game consoles are all much, much better for playing games.

      Your logic is, something is doomed if people are using it a lot?

      Games are everywhere. What would be significantly more troubling for iPads would be if people *weren't* playing games on them.

      It's not a good sign if the device's primary use involves a function it sucks at.

      Says who? The millions of people spending many millions of hours playing games on them?

      The tablets failed to take off in the past and I think they'll fail again. They just don't fill a credible niche. They're largely useless.

      The iPad had, in less than one year, completely outsold all other tablets ever put on the market. That's not just a "credible niche", that's mainstream. The iPad is the most successful consumer electronics device ever. The market has s

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by aeoo ( 568706 )

        Games are everywhere. What would be significantly more troubling for iPads would be if people *weren't* playing games on them.

        I'm a huge gamer. Now tell me why I should play on an iPad. What will make me ditch my PC, PS3, xbox360, PSP and Nintendo DSi, and pick up iPad when I want to play some games?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by node 3 ( 115640 )

          Games are everywhere. What would be significantly more troubling for iPads would be if people *weren't* playing games on them.

          I'm a huge gamer. Now tell me why I should play on an iPad. What will make me ditch my PC, PS3, xbox360, PSP and Nintendo DSi, and pick up iPad when I want to play some games?

          Who's asking you to ditch your PC, PS3, Xbox 360, PSP or DSi? No one here is even asking you to get an iPad. But even if they were, it would just be an additional device to play games on. You didn't get rid of any of the other devices each time you bought a different one.

          Most people don't have a cornucopia of gaming systems. Who are you to tell them the iPad sucks for playing games? For a lot of people, their iPhone or iPad is the best gaming device they have. Why shouldn't they play games on it if they are

    • If gaming is their primary use...

      I doubt that gaming is the primary use, the reason they bought the tablet, however it is probably the most common use. People by the tablet to get email, browse the web, read books, watch videos, but while finding themselves on the bus, in a car, or a boring meeting, games are much easier to do and can take up much more time. I suspect you'd find the same thing with smart phones. People bought them as a phone but I bet lots of people spend more time playing games than talkin

  • Bad news for Android then (Score:3)

    by Sarusa ( 104047 ) on Saturday April 09, 2011 @12:24AM (#35765570)

    I love my Android phone - I'd much rather have a good Android tablet than an iPad. But right now, Android on tablet sucks (3.1 please?) and the Android tablet gaming ecosystem is abysmal. One session of Infinity Blade and then browsing the iTunes App Store for iPad only apps is enough to confirm that unless you're stupidly partisan.

    So if gaming is the primary use, there's no reason whatsoever for people to buy a XOOM over an iPad 2. Hell, I wouldn't either right now.

    This may change in the future. I sure hope so.

    • Not to mention fruit ninja's lack of multitouch on Andriod. Programmers are really dropping the ball on Android for some reason, choosing to support outdated versions despite some vast majority of the population running 2.2 or higher. One thing Apple has is apps that are more refined. Less free apps, but more refined none the less.

      • Programmers are really dropping the ball on Android for some reason, choosing to support outdated versions despite some vast majority of the population running 2.2 or higher.

        It might have something to do with the fact that a lot of people buy cheaper Android-powered devices that lack a cellular radio because they're priced for up-front purchase rather than for being subsidized by a monthly wireless data bill. A lot of these manufacturers don't support their products with operating system upgrades as long as Apple does. Many of these "Wi-Fi only" devices can't officially be upgraded past 1.6, past 2.1, or past 2.2.

  • I have a Flash video game, I wrote over the past year(about 800+ hours worth of work by me, maybe 4,000 man hours across the project). I think it just might run on Tablets easy. I'm going to drive to Best Buy and run a version of it on their store product because I don't actually own a tablet myself. So thank you Slashdot. I get to get out tomorrow.

    Now here is a question, if you write a hit game on Android and sell it for $0.99 in their ap store, what would you make in profits?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ADRA ( 37398 )

      70% gross on sales - Opportunity cost of writing the game = ($100,000)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pmontra ( 738736 )

      Now here is a question, if you write a hit game on Android and sell it for $0.99 in their ap store, what would you make in profits?

      Something proportional to the amount of time and money you invest in advertising. Tablets may have changed the market but not the rules.

    • 100% profit, if you sell the app on your own website, right?

  • Gaming is the most popular use for over priced toys?

    I'm truly shocked!!!

  • Of course more people probably use them more for work, but they want to use them for games, so its more popular.

    And in other news minesweeper and Solitaire top the 'most often used PC applications' list

Slashdot Top Deals

The unfacts, did we have them, are too imprecisely few to warrant our certitude.

Close