Im doing some research for my friend who is living in australia. The dont have very many ipads down there-- she said theyre hard to find, stores in her area dont stock them because of the price.
She is looking for another tablet comparable to ipad.
Right now she is looking at an Asus Transformer but is open to other tablets also. I have ben reading that Asus has terrible customer support.
Im trying to find her something. She is very very VERY technically challenged so it needs to be very easy to use.

It also HAS to have skype, apps to IM people, and apps to do writing on the internet (she has a popular blog she authors)

Can i get your input on the best tablets, while i am up doing my own research tonight?

TIA

[mazing]

Hmm strange - I'm in Australia and haven't had a problem finding ipads, however I guess it probably depends on the area.

As for other brands though, my partner has an acer tablet and has found it really easy to use and never had any problems. It took a while to get all of the apps (as you will need to download all the apps you mentioned) but afterwards it was pretty easy and we haven't had any problems with it.

Can't really compare with other brands though as we have only had this one and an ipad.

[DenisDonnacha]

I have the Asus Google Nexus 7, it's a 7 inch tablet made by Google and Asus, it's very good and the price is really great, 250 euro for a 32gb version. It's got a great screen and feels really nice to use, and is really quick and responsive. You can get about 9 to 10 hours of watching HD video on a full charge, if you only use it lightly you will have no problem getting 4 days out of a charge, I use mine pretty heavily throughout the day and I still only have to charge it maybe every 2 days. It also has a front facing camera for apps that can video chat, it's not the highest quality camera by any means but it's only really for video chatting not taking pictures. It also comes with the newest version of Android which is great.
You can install Skype and other IM apps through the android app store, I have a few IM apps on my mine already and there are plenty of blogging apps you can get on it too like Blogger, Wordpress etc, you do have to download them onto it because they won't come on it but they are free on the android app store.

[vlad007]

Nexus 7 and 10 by google are very hot right now. Theres also Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 or Asus Transformer prime that are very interesting.

[DenisDonnacha]

I forgot to mention however the Nexus 7 tablet does not have 3g or 4g, you can only connect to the internet through Wifi, it's a wifi only tablet

[ECHOES]

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/tablets.htm

If it was me, I would start my search here.

Good luck!

[Wren_]

whichever your friend ends up with it should be easy to order online anywhere in aus through a number of stores including apple if they stick with the ipad so that part shouldn't be an issue

Here's another comparison: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/29/te...me&ref=general I hope this helps.