Hottest Android news and rumors for the week ending Oct. 25

25.10.2012
It's been a big week for tablet news, though most of that was due to non- stuff like Surface and that other thing ... what was it ... oh yeah, the mini.

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A word on the latter, even though it's not Android: There's been a lot of media speculation about how the iPad mini is going to affect the Android tablets currently on the market, some of it my own. Briefly, my take is that it's tough to say for certain how Android tablet sales will react, since there are a host of factors at play. Yes, it'll sell a gazillion units within the first 10 seconds of retail availability, because it's Apple, but it's also considerably more expensive than the top Android 7-inchers and doesn't really have a differentiating factor other than the aforementioned "because it's Apple."

Apple gained its reputation - which it more or less deserves - because it continually made products that were simply better than the competition for a long time, justifying the premium prices. Given that neither the 5 nor the iPad mini are anything like revolutionary products in their respective markets, it's reasonable to wonder how much longer "because it's Apple" will be enough to move devices on its own.

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