Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

American Airlines as tablet showroom: Apple enterprise grade, Samsung consumer

By Larry Dignan | December 14, 2011, 7:59am PST

Summary: Airlines are sending a message about tablet use cases. Apple’s iPad is cockpit critical. Samsung’s Android army is for the cabin.

Take a captive bored audience stuck on a plane. Add consumer electronics. Stir with inflight entertainment and flight plans and you get an interesting tablet face-off and a tug of war between business and consumer uses.

American Airlines on Tuesday got approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to put Apple iPads in the cockpit in all phases of flight. A day later American Airlines touted Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 devices in the cabin for inflight entertainment.

The airline, which filed for bankruptcy recently, said in-cabin Galaxy Tab devices will be loaded with moves and new releases. The Tabs will be on first and business class transcontinental flights.

Note the difference between the use of Apple’s iPad vs. the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Samsung is all about consumer. Apple has the enterprise strategic role, the B2B app store and the applications needed for flight plans. Most of the iPads used by airlines feature the Jeppesen Mobile FliteDeck app. Jeppesen is a unit of Boeing and has delivered flight plans, navigation and other data to pilots via paper.

As a frequent flyer, I’m happy to take this split between Samsung and Apple tablet uses. I’ve endured way too many force closes on the Galaxy Tab to want it in the cockpit.

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Topics

American Airlines, Samsung Galaxy Tab, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Apple Inc., Tablets, Notebooks, Travel, Hardware, Notebooks & Tablets, Larry Dignan

Larry Dignan is Editor in Chief of ZDNet and SmartPlanet as well as Editorial Director of ZDNet's sister site TechRepublic.

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RE: American Airlines as tablet showroom: Apple enterprise grade, Samsung consumer

WinTard 15th Dec

@daikon

Nice, you ask a question, that is answered and disproves your futile argument.

As a sore loser, you accuse me of lying on ZDNet.

Typical of Apple zealots. You didn't disappoint me. But in the end, you give a bad name to Apple.

~~~~~~~~~~
When you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself.
~ Wayne Dyer, American motivational Speaker and Author

Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something.
~ Plato

It is impossible to defeat an ignorant man in argument.
~ William G. McAdoo

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This is why we see the same split in the rest of the tech world

toddybottom 14th Dec

"I've endured way too many force closes on the Galaxy Tab to want it in the cockpit."

OS X for those who are comfortable enduring endless kernel panics, Windows for those who want something that just works.

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RE: American Airlines as tablet showroom: Apple enterprise grade, Samsung consumer

daikon Updated - 14th Dec

@toddybottom
Where are these Windows tablets you speak of?
Consumers may want to buy.

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RE: American Airlines as tablet showroom: Apple enterprise grade, Samsung consumer

swmace 14th Dec

@daikon

Well, my company laptop has been replaced with an Asus Eee pad (not the Transformer) which runs a full version of Windows 7 flawlessly. We've also just got a Samsung tablet in running full Windows 7 that we're testing for deployment. So, there's those.

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RE: American Airlines as tablet showroom: Apple enterprise grade, Samsung consumer

WinTard 14th Dec

@daikon

My Dell Inspiron Duo 10" tablet / transformer which came preloaded with Windows 7, runs much quicker (fluid) on Windows 8 Developer Preview.

Rock solid. Flawless. And runs everything that ran on Windows 7, including the full Microsoft Office and whatever else you can think of.

Come to think of it, Windows 8 DP isn't even a beta... Yet hasn't crashed Nor caused a single problem since installation back in September 2011.

Does that answer your question?

What was your point?

~~~~~~~~~~
"I was born in Canada"...
"What part?"
"All of me"
~ Alex Phillion

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RE: American Airlines as tablet showroom: Apple enterprise grade, Samsung consumer

daikon 14th Dec

@WinTard
Keep believing you have a Dell tablet and one day it may come true.
Its not like you have never lied about anything on ZDNET.

Keep believing the holidays are coming up.

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RE: American Airlines as tablet showroom: Apple enterprise grade, Samsung consumer

WinTard 15th Dec

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RE: American Airlines as tablet showroom: Apple enterprise grade, Samsung consumer

kenosha77a 14th Dec

@toddybottom

Endless kernel panics? You really are trying too hard, Todd. Microsoft makes fine products and supplies excellent software services. No need to make false accusations against Apple in order to boost Microsoft's reputation.

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First it's iOS not OSX. Second kernel panics...huh?

James Quinn 14th Dec

@toddybottom ... So you own an iPad but don't know what OS you are running it on? You also own a Galaxy Tab and a mysterious Windows Tablet that as of yet is unnamed? Where do you get the time and money? These plus all the other products you've claimed to have owned makes you someone who has a lot of spare change and a lot of time. So why are you not a ZDnet blogger anyway with all this tech experience and all.

Pagan jim

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RE: American Airlines as tablet showroom: Apple enterprise grade, Samsung consumer

toddybottom 14th Dec

I guess considering you don't know how to write, I shouldn't be surprised that you don't know how to read:
"This is why we see the same split in the rest of the tech world"

Rest of the tech world. Meaning not tablets. When you want something enterprise grade, you don't want something that force closes a lot. In the tablet market, that means buying an iPad. In the rest of the tech world, that means buying Windows. I've tried Android in the store and it is truly terrible. It isn't competition for the iPad at all. My iPad is great and thanks, I know it runs iOS, never claimed otherwise. Only those who have grade 6 level reading like you would think that. I've also tried OS X and it too is truly terrible. Endless kernel panics. I can see why 95% of the enterprises have chosen not to use OS X just like 95% of the enterprises have chosen not to use Android.

And thank you, I do have a lot of spare change. I'm not a 60 year old failed PC tech like you.

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49 that you very much and failed by who's standards?

James Quinn 14th Dec

@James Quinn ... OSX again kernel panics huh? The enterprise standardized on MS back in the Dos days because it was the OS that IBM choose and in those days IBM was the tech God and what God said businesses followed to the letter. Once a business or businesses had spent countless monies on custom programs and infrastructure to make it almost work the very idea of going in another direction was beyond imagination. Since I've not had a single kernel panic on my iMac 27" at home nor have I seen it at work I have to assume you are making this up again some more still. Now not being an Android fan I have to say one thing it's fans claim is it's very customizable. So perhaps if you'd done a bit more than try it at the store and took the time to customize it to your liking you'd have come away with a better feeling on it? Or maybe that would be counter to your pro MS agenda eh NonZealot?

Pagan jim

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WHOSE standards have you failed by?

toddybottom 14th Dec

@James Quinn
"49 that you very much and failed by who's standards?"

At a minimum you've failed by every single educational standard.

Now go away or I shall taunt you a second time.

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Or have the Educational standards failed me?

James Quinn 14th Dec

@toddybottom ... As for taunting well I'm enjoying our little frays so please do continue:P

Pagan jim

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Isn't about time?

ego.sum.stig@... 14th Dec

For zdnet to toss you out onto the streets? Do they have a limit of how persistently bad one's posts need to be to get tossed? Because you have crossed over.

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RE: American Airlines as tablet showroom: Apple enterprise grade, Samsung consumer

toddybottom 14th Dec

@ego.sum.stig@...
"Do they have a limit of how persistently bad one's posts need to be to get tossed?"

Clearly not because you are still here.

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And AA has gone bankrupt. Who'da thought?

happyharry_z 14th Dec

@toddybottom Probably from decisions like this one. Soon there will be shots of pilots playing Angry Birds at the stick!

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iPads are the only tablet available in the market so it wasn't bad decision

toddybottom 14th Dec

@happyharry_z
There is no real competition in the tablet market. Sure, alternatives like Android technically exist but they are such a horrific mess that no one in their right mind would possibly buy one. There is a reason why Windows has a 95% marketshare and why iPad has a 95% marketshare: they are the best in their respective markets. Just like I'd love to see a good OS emerge to challenge Windows (Linux and OS X suck so much they aren't a real alternative to Windows) I'd love to see a good tablet emerge to challenge the iPad. From the standpoint of a consumer, having real choice means having access to a healthy market. That doesn't exist right now. And what have the anti-trust agencies done? Instead of demanding that Linux and OS X get better, they try to encourage competition by making Windows worse. Consumers don't win. These are sick markets. We all lose.

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RE: American Airlines as tablet showroom: Apple enterprise grade, Samsung consumer

dave95. Updated - 14th Dec

@toddybottom

"And what have the anti-trust agencies done?"

Yawn! Wake me up when you've found something legitimate on Apple that would cause the anti-trust agencies to take notice. Something on the level of Microsoft using its monopoly to kill off the competition like Netscape, Lotus Notes, Java, Real Networks, Linux, and others. And trying to sabotage competing media software on Windows like Quicktime.

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You must have missed the official DOJ and EU anti-trust probe in Apple?

WinTard Updated - 14th Dec

@dave95.z

You said:

"And what have the anti-trust agencies done?"

Yawn! Wake me up when you've found something legitimate on Apple that would cause the anti-trust agencies to take notice. Something on the level of Microsoft using its monopoly to kill off the competition like Netscape, Lotus Notes, Java, Real Networks, Linux, and others. And trying to sabotage competing media software on Windows like Quicktime.

Wake up call!

Unfortunately for your wishes, Microsoft isn't being probed, but Apple currently is. By the DOJ and EU.

Simple just Google Apple antitrust probe and read all about it.

Please enjoy and have a great day!

~~~~~~~~~~
Few people have the imagination for reality.
~ Johann von Goethe

Reality is that which does not go away when you stop believing.
~ Philip K. Dick

Learning never exhausts the mind.
~ Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519,

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Please stick with the subjects or topics in the article when responding..

lenohere 14th Dec

@toddybottom
This is about Apple and Samsung with their respective OS's. and Please do NOT try to make everything about Microsoft or windows when it clearly does not belong.

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RE: American Airlines as tablet showroom: Apple enterprise grade, Samsung consumer

simpleone71 14th Dec

As long as they don't use Safari, they will be fine. Using that makes me feel like I'm in the outback. It closes 10 times out of 20 since the 5.0.1 update.

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Interesting cause mine does not. Haven't had a single close

James Quinn 14th Dec

@simpleone71..since my upgrade nor prior for that matter so go figure.

Pagan jim

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RE: American Airlines as tablet showroom: Apple enterprise grade, Samsung consumer

kenosha77a 14th Dec

@James Quinn

I'll second that.

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No problems with mine

toddybottom 14th Dec

@simpleone71
Sorry to hear that your iPad isn't working out for you. Too bad there are no real alternatives in the tablet market. It is a sick market. We all lose.

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RE: American Airlines as tablet showroom: Apple enterprise grade, Samsung consumer

Samic Updated - 14th Dec

So for every 2 iPad there will be 30-50 more Galaxy Tab 10.1 eh?

They use Galaxy tabs probably because you can just drag and drop movie files into the tabs like a USB drive rather than slow sync it through iTunes with profiles and whatnot. So much easier to deploy than dealing with the iTunes' nonsense.

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Wow, hypocrisy at it's worst.

sean_hando@... 14th Dec

This announcement comes just one week after American Airlines threw Alec Baldwin off one of their planes because he refused to turn off HIS tablet before take-off. Wow, pure hypocrisy. Of course, turning off an iPad, Kindle, or any other type of tablet doesn't actually turn it off. It only shuts down the display while the inner working of the device, wireless radio included, remain on and performing tasks.

Granted, Alec Baldwin was apparently acting as a jerk and his further actions justified his removal from the plane. But the fact that what he was doing before the incident is now allowed by AA crews makes it hypocritical and essentially proves the points he so humourously stated on SNL last weekend, that these types of devices cause zero problems to an aircraft's operation. Same goes for using wireless devices in hospitals (who, BTW, don't mind having cellular providers install antennas on their roof to bring in extra income).

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RE: American Airlines as tablet showroom: Apple enterprise grade, Samsung consumer

Ididar 14th Dec

Considering there is no Jeppesen chart app for Android (as far as the Jeppesen website says) ... the airlines didn't have much choice, did they? Even if they wanted to put a Galaxy Tab in the cockpit, without the app from Jeppesen they couldn't do it. To say they picked the iPad because of any "quality" issue is a joke. They had one choice of using a tablet.

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Bottom Line:

WinTard 14th Dec

The point being that consumers see free publicity in their hands, whereas the pilots have no choice.

And after seeing the Galaxy Tab, and what it can do, there's no turning back to any iDevice.

Play with it; You'll like it.

~~~~~~~~~~
Christian: One who believes that the New Testament is a divinely inspired book admirably suited to the spiritual needs of his neighbour.
~ Ambrose Bierce