Here’s an interesting infographic about popular electronic devices in 2013. I like how they broke it out into different categories:
Winners
Clunkers
Game Changers
Contenders
While on the one hand I wish they had added an “eReader” category, I can’t fault them for skipping it. It wasn’t a particularly exciting year for eReaders.
I basically agreed with most of their conclusions, especially in the Tablet area. While I didn’t upgrade to an iPad Air, I have to acknowledge that it’s a nice device. They scored the 2013 Nexus 7 as a Contender and the Microsoft tablets as Clunkers. Can’t argue with those. However, I do think they missed the point that 2013 was the year of the budget tablet. For the first time, we saw some near $100 tablets that are actually decent. It would have been nice if they had mentioned that.
I have to disagree with them on Smartphones. They rated the HTC One as a Contender and ignored the Samsung Galaxy 4 and Nexus 5. While I’m still firmly in the iPhone camp, I think both of those phones, while not quite as loved by reviwers, will ultimately significantly outperform the HTC One. If I were going to buy an Android phone today, it would probably be the Nexus 5, certainly not the HTC One.
Honorable mention has to go to the Hapilabs Hapifork, which I hadn’t heard of until I saw the infographic. They rated it as Clunker, and I have to agree. I am NOT spending $100 for a fork to measure how fast I eat my food. And while I’m a sucker for gamification, I’m also not sharing my eating speed with my friends. Plus, can you imagine the badges you might receive? The jokes just write themselves.
Anyone else want to agree or disagree with the ratings?
Interesting that, while the iPad wins on device, Android wins on operating system. Have a Nexus 7 and Chromecast, and love ’em both. Interestingly, Ars Technica rates the Moto X as the best all-around Android smartphone of the current batch. Maybe I’ll get one for Republic Wireless at some point.
I’ve actually used Waze; my brother uses it a lot so I snagged it. It’s interesting, though I’m not sure I’d want to do much with it if I was actually driving rather than a passenger.
Went ahead and grabbed Tinder to check it out. Not too impressed so far. Seems to be about the same as any other dating site where you give people thumbs up or down and then hope one of the ones you thumbed up thumbs you up too. Not sure what the big deal is.
Funny that they call all the tablet OSes “free” when you generally have to buy a device to get the OS. Just because it’s bundled doesn’t mean it’s “free”.
@Chris, yeah, it was odd. I like my Nexus 7 too, but it isn’t an iPad. I think the Android OS is superior to iOS, but there isn’t (yet) a hardware build that equals the iPad. I definitely notice subtle differences when I go back and forth between the two devices.