Marco.org

I can’t support or deny ZDNet’s trashy headline about today’s tablet platforms being “basically equal”, although the market certainly doesn’t seem to agree. But this statement about the author’s usage, implying that his conclusions are broadly applicable, is comical:

My usage covers a broad spectrum, from surfing the web and consuming content to working with office documents.

Nearly everyone “surfs”¹ the web and “consumes content” on tablets. Not everyone works with office documents, but I bet among people who do anything else besides basic web tasks and media consumption, it’s probably a close runner-up to game-playing.

With everything that modern tablets can do, web browsing, media playing, and basic office tasks are hardly a broad spectrum. It’s really the lowest-common-denominator of tablet (and PC) usage.

If you venture into any non-mainstream apps, the differences become much clearer. And this works like the 80/20 feature myth: the likelihood of any given person needing a specific app niche are low, but the likelihood of a person needing any niche apps is high.

(Also, Amazon tablets are notably missing from the author’s assessment. They’re certainly a major player, and their tablets are different enough from stock Android that they’re worth evaluating separately.)