<story><title>Google quits selling tablets</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/01/google-quits-selling-tablets/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>__sr__</author><text>Good riddance! It’s not like they have actively been developing Android to support tablets. In fact, it is the other way around. The older versions had better support for tablets. Even Nexus 9 was a half hearted attempt at best — and the rest is history. Google’s lack of interest in nowhere more evident than their own apps — many of them were just scaled versions of phone apps. And if Google is not bothering to optimise their apps for tablets, what motivation do third party developers have?&lt;p&gt;Strictly speaking, Android tablets never even competed in the same arena as the iPad. Samsung is an exception, but they don’t control the ecosystem — which makes things much harder for them — even if we ignore their atrocious software.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dalbasal</author><text>In a lot of cases a scaled (or just small) phone app is good enough. But... overall.. I think the tablet category is just not a very big one. I had an iPad and an old 7&amp;quot; nexus. When they died, I didn&amp;#x27;t replace.&lt;p&gt;Phones got bigger and better. We got better at thumb typing and comfortable holding screens close. 
Reading on a tablet for example, is not &lt;i&gt;that&lt;/i&gt; different to a phone these days and a (cheap) dedicated reader is better still. Meanwhile, laptops kept getting more mobile. The space between my phone and my laptop is just not that big. I found that I only ever charged it before flights, for movies which is great on tablets. But even that.. laptops and phones work good too.&lt;p&gt;Otherwise, my tablets were often battery-dead and I most tablets i come across in friends living rooms are dead. They don&amp;#x27;t get much use. When a laptop or phone died, I need a new one tomorrow. The tablet... no urgency.&lt;p&gt;Tablets are fun and cool. People like them. I&amp;#x27;m not sure they use them as much as they expected to. It&amp;#x27;s a less extreme version of smart watches. Fun. Likeable. Not essential for most people.&lt;p&gt;The problem is that the android and iOS monoliths (especially sofwarists) will always put the phones first. If we had a less centralised ecosystem, tablets would have their own specialists.</text></comment>
<story><title>Google quits selling tablets</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2018/06/01/google-quits-selling-tablets/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>__sr__</author><text>Good riddance! It’s not like they have actively been developing Android to support tablets. In fact, it is the other way around. The older versions had better support for tablets. Even Nexus 9 was a half hearted attempt at best — and the rest is history. Google’s lack of interest in nowhere more evident than their own apps — many of them were just scaled versions of phone apps. And if Google is not bothering to optimise their apps for tablets, what motivation do third party developers have?&lt;p&gt;Strictly speaking, Android tablets never even competed in the same arena as the iPad. Samsung is an exception, but they don’t control the ecosystem — which makes things much harder for them — even if we ignore their atrocious software.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>euyyn</author><text>I admit that I haven&amp;#x27;t paid much attention. But the whole revamp of the UI framework into Fragments was precisely to let app developers support both phones and tablets.&lt;p&gt;Why do you say older versions of Android had better support for tablets?</text></comment>