No longer is the Apple iPad in an overwhelmingly dominant position in the international tablet market. The sales and revenue figures have tapered off, and growing discontent among users about the many glitches in the device has been the main cause for that. We will here take you through some of the problems that add to iPad owners’ woes.
Even a couple of years ago, anyone questioning the dominance of the iPad in the tablet markets worldwide would have been laughed at. Apple was enjoying amazing sales growth figures on the device (in the range of 75-80%), reviews were more than decent, and competitors like Amazon looked far off the pace. The flop show of the iPad Mini Retina has turned the tables quite a bit though – and Apple is currently not being able to sustain the earlier heady revenues on overall iPad sales. Complaints about unsatisfactory features of the Apple iPad have also become more common, particularly regarding the following issues:
- Frequent drops in wi-fi connectivity – The moment an iPad is moved from its optimal distance from its router – the wireless internet coverage on the former tends to weaken. There are cases of the connections getting terminated completely as well. You can try tapping on the Airplane Mode or simply reset the network settings, to get the device reconnected to the wireless environment (provided that the positioning of the router is correct). In certain cases, you might have to go for the Renew Lease option.
- Problems in getting the iPad switched on – Interesting applications are launched in large numbers every year, by iPhone/iPad app development companies every year. Users who have installed too many apps often face difficulties in turning on the device. Of course, not regularly charging the iPad would further add to the problem. Pressing the Home and Sleep buttons might bring back that Apple logo on the screen. This troubleshooting trick does not always work though, and people have to rush to a technician. This, understandably, does not please them.
- iPads can get overheated soon – And that’s even when they are not placed in protective cases. A malfunctioning battery and/or selection of an unnecessarily high display resolution option generally leads to this problem. There have been many instances of the device showing a brief warning and then automatically shutting down, much to the chagrin of users. Overheating is hardly ever a problem on Apple iPhones. It’s surprising why the iPad’s performance is not equally good in this regard.
- Appearance of ‘ghost applications’ – Nopes, iPads are not susceptible to attacks from the supernatural – but ‘ghost apps’ appear pretty regularly on them. People who often sync their devices over non-secure wireless networks are most likely to face this issue. A lot of apps – which have never been downloaded by a particular user – would appear on the home screen of his/her iPad. Their icons are faded, and tapping on them has no effects whatsoever. The only solution is to connect the device to iTunes, and delete these ‘ghost apps’. In other words, extra hassles!
- Abrupt screen freezes – All iPad-users have faced the problem of frozen screens – but for some, the problem simply keeps resurfacing too frequently. If you are in the habit of downloading and installing non-verified applications from any obscure mobile apps company, that can be the prime cause for such screen freezes. You need to restart/reset the iPad, look for the offending app, and permanently get rid of it (and not keep it running in the background!). According to many reports, this does not get the iPad back up though – and doing a complete System Restore remains the only other option.
- Performing data restore is a pain – Talking about system restores, we should highlight that it is not as easy a task as it might seem at first. Reports of the system restore process stalling midway (inexplicably) is far from being uncommon. Many users often complain that doing a data backup restore over a wireless network takes a frustratingly long time. Most of these problems are faced by users looking to restore data from iCloud. Switching over to iTunes and/or restarting the router might be a temporary remedy. Chances are high that the internal settings of the iPad have become damaged though.
- Stop-start charging – Apple iPads come with adapter cables for charging – but theoretically, you should be able to charge it by connecting the device with a Mac computer too. In fact, mobile app development experts recommend the latter process for iPod Touch as well as iPhones too. In truth though, there have been plenty of instances when iPads refuse to start getting charged (or, the charging stops after a few minutes) – when they have been connected to a Mac. This occurs even when the Mac in question is of the latest version. The battery life of the iPad is nothing to make a song and dance about – and if charging it becomes a worry, users can’t be held at fault for feeling disgruntled.
- Where is the iPad on iTunes? – A question that quite a few henpecked iPad-users have had to wonder about, in the recent past. Contrary to general belief, just deleting and reinstalling iTunes on the computer is not a sureshot solution to the issue. The problem might crop up if you have not opted for the updated version of iTunes, or (more seriously) there is something wrong in the setup files of your device. In case this occurs only because a port or a cable is faulty, you can consider yourself fortunate!
- Yellowish shades on the display screen – This is a problem exclusively for owners of the iPad Air – if we go by the complaints. Most users say that the color on their device screen is not uniform – with the left side often appearing more yellow than the right panel. Blackened lines can appear at or near the edges of the screen too, within weeks of the purchase. If you are indeed facing such problems, take the problematic device to an Apple dealer as soon as possible. It’s a production defect, and you cannot repair it manually.
- The app store icon is no longer visible – A shocker for iPad-addicts, and a potential source of business loss for iOS app developers as well! While doing a search using Spotlight generally helps users locate the sought-after icon, it might be necessary to navigate to the ‘Restrictions’ tab (under ‘General’), and switch on the ‘Installing apps’ option. There might well be a broken feature/bug in the iPad’s sync settings. A System Restore (from the last known good backup) should help. Make sure that you do not have too many apps on your iPad – locating the App Store icon in a crowd of other icons might be tricky!
- Drops in network coverage – We are here not talking about remote places, where getting network connectivity is practically impossible on any mobile device. It might well be that there is full cellular coverage on your handset, while the iPad keeps happily ‘searching for network’. The problem generally stems from faulty carrier services or snags in the software/network settings. Disabling the LTE connection option might also lead to the restoration of network services. Remember, if such cellular data drops are rather common on your iPad, it is probably nearing the end of its lifetime.
While the responsiveness of the iPhone touchscreen is one of the device’s high points, the same cannot be said about the iPad’s touch features. Accessing app data and syncing data via iCloud often prove to be rather troublesome processes too. If Apple does not remove all these glitches from its next iPad model, the device might cease to be a major source of the company’s revenue. Samsung and Amazon are already in hot pursuit, and it’s not impossible for either of them to emerge as the leader in the tablet markets in the foreseeable future.
Hussain Fakhruddin
CEO at Teknowledge Software
Hussain Fakhruddin is the founder/CEO of Teknowledge mobile apps company. He heads a large team of app developers, and has overseen the creation of nearly 600 applications. Apart from app development, his interests include reading, traveling and online blogging.
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