I would think make an Android tablet that rather than be stock is greatly simplified so users can configure and be up and running. Apple is eating other alive because 1 they market what the product does while other companies are marketing tech jargon like dual core tephra 2 processor. 2 it is easy to configure. 3 they have a retail outlet that only sells Apple products. 4 they are a large support network which includes free setup service at their stores. the average slashdot reader wouldn't need help configuring email or wifi settings but very many non-IT related people struggle with simple things like this.

You think Android sales are based on open and free. Most people could careless about wither, it's called Android 2 for 1 deals on Verizon and major Droid marketing by all carriers without the iPhone. Also 2:1 android to iPhone makes it sound like they are the only two platforms, what a bouts Windows Phone and Blackberry?

The Xoom and Playbooks problem is price, the iPad is extremely competitive at it's price, they see them as fast as they can build them. It was only about a month ago that you could even begin to order an iPad online and have it ship within 24 hours. I can remember two years ago when all the predictions said it would cost over $1000 and be less capable. The iPad starting at 499 let's it compete nicely with notebooks.

Let's see do most people care about being able to browse and edit system files? do most people want a device with a ten hour battery life or a 1.5 hour battery life? How about instant on or 2 minute boot time? How about a device that runs cool without a fan or a device that sounds like it is about to take off from the runway when it kicks on it's fan and is still very warm to touch?

I don't think there is any comparison between the 9 and 10 inch tablets and a smart phone, the screen area is much greater. I hardly think 5inch phones could be considered a threat to anything except to their own companies balance sheets, they are just too big to be convenient as a phone. Dell Streak anyone???

The iPad is still in it's growth phase, sales aren't waining. One thing the press and so called analysts have been slow to catch on to is that iPads and perhaps other tablets if someone's creates one replace laptops and pcs for many home users. So the tablet is a replacement product for some users and a complimentary product for others, it will continue to show strong growth for years.

What generation iPod touch are you using? I have hooked up iPhones, iPads, and Macs without any performance issue.

I don't think Google is light years ahead of icloud, iTunes/app store blow away Googles offerings. Google is too handsoff with it's ecosystem.

How back the fact that Audi doesn't make discount crap and Dell tries to compete in that market.

The teal reason to fret is that on an article about webOS the majority of the posts don't even mention HP or webOS but instead apple, iOS, and ipad

SharePoint 2010 is easier to manage they have simplified several features and PowerShell is supported for scripting. However Some parts of the product such as the BCS service are very time consuming to configure and use even for simple tasks.

SharePoint is a decent platform for several tasks the problem I've seen is that overzealous sales consultants come in and tell management all applications should be hosted in SharePoint and that usually doesn't workout very well.

Consumer electronics are a very small portion of manufacturing.

That is the difference, the US is also the largest consumer market so most goods made here never leave our shores.

You gave a list of exporters, US manufactorers have a viable market to sell to inside the country and much of the manufacturing is for internal consumption, China is largely poor and it exports a much larger percent of their manufacturing.

I feel no need to provide a link to show how wrong you are since others have already, anybody who has ever watched CNBC, or anybody who knows how to use Google can clearly see that the US is the worlds largest manufacturer.