Difference between iPad and Tablet

Tablet

iPad

The i-generation has brought into the market new products at such a fast rate that it’s no wonder people are getting confused by their names. So I’m not surprised that you are here searching for the difference between iPad and Tablet.

Well, the term tablet is actually an umbrella term used to refer to mobile computers that are primarily operated through a touch screen. The computers resemble a smart phone but come with a large display which the user touches to initiate and navigate through programs. Tablets have a virtual keyboard that is activated on the touch screen only when it is needed. These mini-computers also come with a radio component (that is they can access mobile telephone network) to make them communication gadgets without the need of external gadgets.

On the other hand, iPad is a term used to refer to a specific product that operates in much the same way as described above. iPad is actually a tablet computer designed and manufactured by Apple Inc. and runs in Apple’s operating system iOS.

The term tablet is however commonly used to refer to the gadgets that run on Android, Google’s operating system for tables and smart phones. Most people will actually talk about Android Tablets. The different operating systems bring about a notable difference between iPad and Tablet computers, or rather Android Tablets.

Tablets have flash, a component that missed in iPads. Flash is the software that enables the user to watch online videos such as the ones you will find on YouTube. Currently, you cannot watch any form of online video on iPad and there is no way you can install flash on it.

Another major difference between iPad and tablet is in multitasking. Tablets have a commendable ability to multitask in that you can have a program running in the background while using the tablet to do something else. It is only with iOS 4 that iPads got a tweak of multitasking, which still cannot be compared to that of Android tablets.

Finally, iPad, having come before Android tablets, has more applications. Most of the applications developed for Apple’s iPhone can still run on iOS. Although tablets can still borrow applications from the Android’s store for mobile application, the platform is relatively young thus has quite few applications.

Summary: difference between iPad and Tablet

•  iPad is a single specific product by Apple Inc. while Tablet is an umbrella term for all such gadgets
•  iPad uses the iOS operating system designed by Apple Inc. while Tablets use Android operating system
•  iPad cannot accept flash while tablets can be installed with the software and used for watching online videos
• Tablets have a better multitasking ability compared to iPad and only iPads running the latest iOS 4 show this slight ability
•  iPad has more downloadable applications than is available for Android Tablets.