It appears that the Pixel C was planned as launch hardware for a new, all-touch version of Chrome OS which at some point got canceled – necessitating a switch to Android. The story is a lot more complicated than that, though. What follows is the best timeline we could piece together showing the Pixel C’s troubled development history.
The launch of the Pixel C is baffling. Not only is it lacking features that Android needs to work well on the device, it’s also got numerous bugs, indicating the Android port was done in a rush. I just don’t understand why Google didn’t just wait with this device until Android 6+1 with multiwindow was done. Now they’ve severely blemished their Pixel name.
Reading this and posting from my this evening arrived Pixel C, with which I am so far ridiculously pleased.
Interesting. How is the software experience and what can you do on it that you can’t on a 100 Euro Android device?
Well for starters, you can probably run more than two apps without dragging the system to a crawl as has been the case with the cheapo Android tablets I’ve encountered. They’re cheap for a reason.
I was asking for facts and experiences, not assumptions.
And in general tablets don’t RUN multiple apps, they put them to sleep when not in focus. I haven’t experienced any recent 100 dollar tablet slowing down much when it had a couple of apps open, even if some of those open apps were active in the background. Of course performance of the pixel C should be awesome, but does that allow you to do things on it that you cannot do on the 100 dollar device?
So far I’ve found the software experience very good. My last two tablets have been of the type that also provide a “mini-laptop” experience (specifically the Transformer Prime, and the Jide Remix) and I find I like that form factor really well. I also want at least a 10″ screen for reading full size PDFs and comics, which caused me to find the Nexus 9 just a little to small for my ideal. When used as a tablet alone, I found the Pixel C surprisingly light. Then again, the Jide Remix is rather bulky, so it trained me to be used to a heavier device. The Pixel C is also blazing fast, very responsive and snappy. The keyboard takes a little getting used to at first, being full size in the center but compressed around the edges. You adapt quickly, but you notice something is odd about it at the beginning. I’ve not experienced the loss of connection between the keyboard and the device that many reviewers were reporting; I got a software update when I first unboxed the device, so I suspect that issue may have been fixed. The battery life is excellent, help no doubt by the fact that it is running M.
I’m quite happy with the device as it exists now, but I wouldn’t mind if in a year it gains some form of split screen functionality. I don’t often find I need something like that, but when I do, it would be really nice to have.
The only app I regularly use that feels really out of place on the table form factor is Hangouts, but Hangouts is for whatever reason the ugly stepchild of the Google apps. Gmail, Evernote, Feedly, G+, Google Photos, these all feel quite at home on the tablet.
Personally, I use 3 different devices with 3 different operating systems, each optimized to the device.
I have a Moto X Pure Android smartphone that is my constant companion and assistant, a C720P touch Chromebook for writing, browsing, and controlling Chromecast while relaxing in our den, and a homebrew workstation running Ubuntu for serious work in my study.
I would be very surprised if a single consolidated OS could ever cover all 3 devices acceptably well.
Google has the income to support different operating systems optimized to more than one market segment, and they are seeing good success with ChromeOS in managed environments and light consumer computing. I hope they don’t screw it up by quixotically aiming for Android Everywhere.
I think you are nailing it quite squarely.
The unification of devices (desktops, notebooks, phones, tablets)into one grand super user interface maybe just a wish dream in the end. After all, each physical format has specific advantages and hence preferred uses over the others:
– A desktop has plenty of drive bays (e-media storage, software development, etc.) and cooling capacity (overclocking of CPUs and GPUs comes to mind for gaming).
– A notebook is essentially a portable desktop albeit with constraints on display size, cooling capacity, and storage capacity to enable portability. A webbook (a.k.a. chromebook) is a subset targeting specific uses within a network context.
– A phone is an always-on and geo-locatable communication device with associated instant gratification for games, media, pictures, and selfies.
– A tablet is primarily a media consumption device and within a network context like the webbook.
Although it is always possible to use each one in a more generalized fashion, there are limitations – often visible in the user interface.
With respect to the Pixel C, we will unfortunately have to wait for some developers/hackers to find a way to enable its full potential – a convertible/hybrid as capable as a notebook as a tablet.
Clearly Google struggles in the tablet market. OK.
They can do nothing about it. Not good.
One of the things they can do is to keep working on creating an attractive platform – hardware included. OK.
Will they improve the software with time? Probably yes.
Will their improvements satisfy everyone? Probably not.
Is the trolling tone of the original post useful? Definitely not.
Edited 2015-12-11 17:26 UTC
Struggles? Android holds 69% of the global tablet market by sales, according to Statista (1Q15). iOS has 24% and Windows 7%.
Maybe by “struggles” you mean that you don’t like the quality of low-cost Android tablets, or the slim profit margins compared to Apple’s hefty markups? I get that Apple and Microsoft effective leave all but the premium market to Android-based products, but since that’s a market Google actively pursues, “struggles” seems to me the wrong descriptor of their remarkable success.
I think what was implied is that while the majority of tablets sold are Android, the vast majority of quality Android applications work just acceptably on Android tablets. The application scene for Android tablets is still pretty abysmal compared to iOS.
I was really hoping the Pixel C was going to have some special cooked up Android or ChromeOS Hybrid thing released with it, I never expected it to be released without it. Trying to still hit a holiday release schedule is only a great thing if you have a finished product.
Ah, OK. “Struggles in the tablet market” would have been much better phrased as “struggles to attract as large a stable of quality tablet-specific apps as the iPad enjoys”, in which case I would have agreed.
Really? Most of the apps I use work very well.