“This past week [Apple iPads] were given a boost from Apple’s two biggest rivals,” Vlad Savov writes for The Verge. “Google released the unsatisfying Nexus 9, which had posed the biggest threat of dethroning the iPad, and Microsoft made its Office suite of apps completely and utterly free on iOS. Without Apple moving a muscle, the iPad is today smarter, more productive, and apparently better value than it was just a few days ago. Such has been the history of this device since its inception.”
“As a device, the iPad is vulnerable to the caprices of an evolving and increasingly saturated market,” Savov writes. “As a platform for a new type of mobile computing, however, it now appears unassailable.”
“Microsoft made a sincere effort to compete with the iPad through its Surface RT tablet, but it crashed against the same unforgiving barrier of app inadequacy as every Android tablet to date,” Savov writes. “The Nexus 9, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab S, and Sony’s Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact are the most recent contenders to have dared to directly challenge the iPad, but all they’ve done is underscore the magnitude of Apple’s lead. Even at $100 less than Apple’s 9.7-inch Air 2, the Nexus 9 seems like a bad deal when compared to the refined design, excellent battery life, and multipurpose versatility of the iPad. As if to emphasize that point, HTC had the Nexus 9 on fire sale the day after its release. Summoning up the combined engineering and financial might of Google and HTC has produced yet another device destined to labor in the iPad’s looming shadow.”
Much more in the full article here.