Could happen if the simultaneity (2 or more apps) issue is solved. I've read here and there that might happen in November. It'd probably take a good amount of time to happen, though since most businesses are PC/Windows based.

Haha.

Android has much more potential in this area. It uses the same model Microsoft used to dominate Apple and IBM in 90's, only more open. It's built on a flexible yet rock solid OS that is being used everywhere for new projects, Linux.

It also has much faster growth in the smartphone area, overtaking the iPhone in short order and it's going to do the same thing to the iPad in the next twelve months.

On top of that, Apple has no interest in making iOS available outside of Apple's own projects. It's their golden goose, they aren't going to be licensing it any time soon.

I highly doubt Android will be taking over the iPad market, at least anytime soon.  

As long as Bill Gates has a hand in MS, it will not happen (Windows is not the best, it just has the best Marketing).  Once he has retired, I would not bet against another OS taking over.

Hasn't he been retired for over 2 years now?

I agree with reply #2. I see ipad as a quickly passing phase which will be dominated by Android. Until Apple loosens the grip and allows its OS to be installed on 3rd party hardware they will remain a limited vendor.

So does this mean less investment in the Windows customization line?

Sorry, I'm not an Apple fan (to the point that my Wikipedia page used to have me down as an Apple detractor) but Android is a piece of crap.

No sane person, and I mean no sane person would prefer using Android over iOS. The difference in experience, performance, and quality is just massive.

Comparing Android to iOS is a lot like comparing Linux to Windows in desktop experiences. Yea, the Linux zealots can argue bullet points all day but at the end of the day, Linux still is awful as a desktop experience compared to the alternatives.

Using my wife's Droid 2 is a pain and I'm the one who bought it for her because I wanted to like Android because I'm in the same camp as others -- I don't want an Apple dominated world.

Using an iPad (and I mean using one as an actual user for a bit) is like using a device that has been transported from 5 years from the future when compared to the alternatives.

Android not only isn't competitive as a platform today but I don't see any chance it'll be competitive for the foreseeable future. 

I hope your crystal ball is accurate for your sake. Just remember (which I'm sure you do) how OS2 was leaps and bounds above Windows and what came of that. Android is a spawn of Google which could present the same outcome as the aforementioned scenario could it not?

That's pretty short sighted given Android devices range from the truly terrible (check any cheap or very old Android phone) to fantastic, iPhone beating devices (see any of the recent high end Samsung phones). Going from the iPhone (okay) to the G1 (okay) to the Epic 4G (amazing) really solidified for me where Android is going to end up.

Linux vs Windows is a good analogy. Recent Linux distributions like Ubuntu 10.10 are fantastic in every regard, hardware support is there and the software experience is great. Desktop OS innovation has been hitting diminishing returns for a while now, look at how little improved Windows 7 is over XP or the marginal gains each Mac OSX upgrade brings. This bodes well for companies like Google and Canonical and not so well for companies like Apple and Microsoft (and Stardock I suppose).

Leaps and bounds of improvement. 7 is stable as hell.

I haven't found it to be much more stable than XP. It's more stable than Vista though.. but Vista was a step backward from XP in practice.

Unfortunately, all of the same problems plague it that have plagued all windows releases, it gradually gets slower, it attracts all kinds of bad software, its hard to properly secure, there's no sane way to manage software, etc.

But Windows 7 isn't the kind of leap that 2000/XP was from Windows 98. It's a marginal improvement because all the low hanging fruit is gone.

Not trying to be biased or start anything but The Blackberry Playbook from RIM is showing promise based on the QNX OS.

But then again all major cellphone brands have a tablet in the works with various OS's....

I've been using 7 for some time now. 7 doesn't slow down over time. At least in my experience. I am careful about where I go on the net and what I download. AVG keeps the virus attacks at bay and Auslogics Disk Defrag keeps my hard drive running great. I would say that 7 is far more stable than XP.

NoobFukAire ...

Windows is the first 'functional' OS that MS has produced.

It worked out-of-the-box and takes a concerted effort to 'break', unlike ANY of its predecessors.

The leap from XP to 7 is massive, far greater than the graphical 'tweaking' that XP really was over 2000/98/95.

No MS OS has been as stable/usable on release....