iPad And Android Tablets: Which Is Best For You?

Are iPads better than Android tablets? In fact, can they genuinely be compared like for like given the fundamental difference in the operating systems? After a discussion of their respective platforms we shall compare the Apple iPad2 with the Motorola Xoom tablet that employs the Android Honeycomb OS.

The fundamental difference between the Apple and Android operating systems for tablet computers is that the Apple system is a closed system, specific only to apple devices, while Android is open source. What this means is that developers can use Android free of charge, boih to deign apps and to create hardware to use with the OS.

Android now belongs to Google, who purchased it form the developers Android Inc. in 2005. Google made it open source, under the Open Handset Alliance (OHA). It is available as part of the Apache free software license. Canalys listed Android as the worldwide best-selling software in 2010 for smartphones.

A Common Platform

That's the background for Android, which is now being used in tablets in competition to Apple's iPad. Because the iPad uses a proprietary software platform, it is by nature more restrictive than Android devices, and therefore does not have the same breadth of communication between devices as Android tablets would theoretically have. However, because Android tablets are in their infancy, this degree of platform commonality has yet to be used to any advantage.

In fact, it is highly likely that individual Android users will be protective of their own devices, and that the full benefits of a common platform are unlikely to be developed. It is very likely that future app development will focus on the more encompassing platform of Android than on Apple's relatively isolated software systems. Nevertheless, apps for Apple still outnumber those for Android devices - but not for long - but this is expected to be only a temporary situation because development of Android apps is now continuous.

iPad 2 Vs Android Tablets

So how does all this translate into the hardware using each of the two operating systems? It is fundamentally now a comparison of the iPad 2 with the top Android tablets. There are several tablets that fail to match iPad let alone iPad 2, but there have been several good tablets developed using Android by top firms such as Acer, Samsung and Motorola, and is the latter that we shall consider here.

The Motorola Zoom Tablet uses the Android Honeycomb OS, and is thicker and heavier than the iPad 2 (0.34 v 0.5 inches). Both have dual-core 1GHz processors, but the Zoom has 1GB RAM against the 512MB believed to be offered by the iPad 2.

One excellent feature of the Xoom is that you can plug it into your PC and access your files. You can transfer files or download from one the other. To achieve this with iPad, you have to do it through iTunes which is a bit clunky and nowhere near as sleek as the Android system. No need you use iTunes to download music: you can easily download music to the Xoom tablet by drag and drop without requiring a massive ponderous iTunes file to reside on your memory.

Multitasking Comparison

Another advantage of the Android tablet is that it is true multitasking which the iPad is not. The iPad is more a matter of changing between tasks, with a small amount of processing in the background, but not true multitasking. There are many other benefits that the Android tablets can offer over the iPad 2, including more flexibility in file handling, and icon presentation. You are not restricted to Apple formats because you can use any that uses the Android open source software.

However, the iPad does have some advantages in addition to being thinner and lighter, and one of these is the number of available apps as suggested earlier. This is likely because most tablet apps are based on the iPad, and are generally developments of the apps developed for the iPhone. Now, however, an increasing number are being created on the Android platform, and it will not be long before they overtake the iPad apps.

Apple Fan or Android Fan

Ultimately, the choice between the iPad and an Android tablet, exemplified here by the Motorola Xoom, will possibly come down to whether or not you are an Apple fan. Apple fans will likely stick to the Apple product, while there currently appears to be no compelling reason why PC fans should go with the iPad rather than the Xoom - though there are more excellent Android tablets on the market.

Android devices have been steadily coming onto the market, and taking an increasingly larger bite of Apple - this will increase as more firms appreciate the advantages of using shared Open Source software. Before long, the tablet market will be very similar to the current situation in the laptop market where we have those that go with the Apple way of doing things and those that prefer Windows. Except it is now Apple Vs Android. Who will win - you will decide that.


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Whether you prefer an iPad or Android tablet, each has its own merits. You will find more information on both of these alternative forms of tablet computer on Larry's Android Tablet website so that you can make up your own mind which is best for you.