[Discuss] Google's Nexus 7

[Kent Borg]

The form-factor question is a real one. I don't quite understand the 
Ipad size, yet they are wildly successful. I have used Ipads a fair 
amount and carried them around, and they are fun and even useful, but 
they are not a trivial thing to haul. What is the use case? I guess they 
are displacing notebook computers, and they are smaller and lighter than 
notebooks. They are compelling, people probably plan their schedules to 
include Ipad time.

My wife is carrying her new Ipad with her a lot, but is complaining 
about too much stuff and so quit bringing her Kindle on the bus in the 
morning. I predict that the Kindle will win. The Nexus 7 (340 grams) is 
heavier than her Kindle (247 grams), but that still seems way different 
from her Ipad 2 (600 grams).

A 7-inch tablet is still not in my pocket, but it does fit in the 
smaller bag that I pretty much carry everywhere. I can have it with me 
without planning to use it. A 10-inch tablet is for the couch, maybe car 
passengers, and when one has specific plans to use it. It is not 
opportunistic the way a phone can be.

Yes, maybe 7-inches is too compromised, but for those with good eyesight 
the Nexus 7 has a greater pixel-count than the original Ipad...

Interesting piece by Jean-Louis Gassée recently about the prospect of 
Apple selling an Ipad-mini, he thinks it would be very successful (I am 
more distracted what Steve Jobs' Ghost does to try to prevent it). I 
think the Nexus 7 will sell very well. We'll see.

I do admit I still entirely don't know what the Nexus 7 is good for, but 
I am working on that. Yesterday I was early for something and while 
waiting did some webpage reading on it, and boy was it better than 
reading off even a large phone.


Fingerprint-related observation: At Google IO the male/female ratio was 
predictably high (I think Google encouraged area female employees to 
attend just to beat back the ratio a bit) and the men's rooms were 
crowded between sessions. Moscone West has odd bathrooms with few sinks 
and only two paper towel dispensers, use of which block two of the 
precious sinks. If one thinks washing hands is optional, this would have 
been the time to take the easier path, yet these geeks were all bumping 
into each other washing their hands. I bet other conventions at Moscone 
West are less fastidious.



-kb, the Kent who still uses a Palm Pilot.