This is the type of article that brings out the best in AI forums. We have a lot intelligence, imagination and experience. It comes right out in topics like this.
To me, iOS and macOS need to have discreet functionality for each to be optiomized. The discreet hardware form factors are actually a reflection of this functionality, rather than the other way around.
Accordingly, when macOS runs on ARM, then we have seemless hardware form factor options. We have an iPad/iPhone that functions as macOS when docked with a full sized keyboard and display and then can function as an iPad/iPhone/Mac when carried about. This is full functionality in any scenario, which I imagine is the next paradigm. iCloud provides the common cross-OS file system. This seems the obvious solution.
For business users (spreadsheets, word processing, presentations, etc...), the tablet format stinks. The IPad as it exists does NOT " function as an iPad/iPhone/Mac when carried about" -- at least not very well. That's why it needs to be expanded into a 2 in 1 device if it is to be competitive in a "Post-PC" world.
I think Apple has lost its way with the iPad. Instead of committing to the touch interface paradigm, Apple chose to backtrack with its keyboard cover and, to a lesser extent, the pencil. Now the iPad is just another touchscreen laptop. It's as if they took the original idea of the iPad and handed it over to Microsoft.
So tell us how the IPad suffered by expanding its capabilities without relinquishing a thing.... Go ahead. I'll wait.
Good analysis and the suggestions for improvements are all relevant, but you have missed the big improvement that is totally necessary if the iPad is to be truly post-PC: native handwriting recognition. <...>
Handwriting ! relics of the past ! who still uses handwriting ?
I do, and millions more. Much of my working life is spent in meetings. In meetings I want to take notes. Typing in a meeting is not appropriate. Dictating comments is not appropriate (particularly comments like "this guy is a dickhead"). So, ever since I had to give up my beloved Newton, I handwrite on paper.
If I want to handwrite who are you to tell me that I shouldn't.
Not sure what the issue is for some people about handwriting notes; seems a useful alternative to typing or voice to text.
There appear to be plenty of third party handwriting recognition apps for iPad Pro using the pencil. If anything, the Pencil(s) will probably become a ubiquitous accessory for all iPad's and even the iPhone over time. The only issue is whether Apple should have provided it, and I'm guessing that Apple thought that third parties could provide this better, at this time at least, than Apple.
Enjoy your iPad Pro.
LOL... If you could see my handwriting, you would not have asked that question... .... Not even I can read it!
Actually, that's one of the advances in electronic medical records: Physician orders that are now typed instead of handwritten has cut down on a lot of medical errors...
But I get your point. It's good to have the option of either. And, while I haven't been in a classroom for 10 years, I can see the
advantage of having a copy of the slide presentation on my tablet and
taking notes in the border -- just as I did on paper, except without the
paper.
Good analysis and the suggestions for improvements are all relevant, but you have missed the big improvement that is totally necessary if the iPad is to be truly post-PC: native handwriting recognition. <...>
Handwriting ! relics of the past ! who still uses handwriting ?
Actually in terms of learning handwriting is neurologically more complex. Hence making hand written notes are more effective than simply typing them. Your brain binds the position of the hand with the words themselves. Handwriting is no more the past than drawing is.
Very true. There are times when a hand written note just sticks in your memory and is permanently associated with something. Typically, typing the same note doesn't have the same effect or associative result.
Both input methods can co-exist with both having their benefits.
Good analysis and the suggestions for improvements are all relevant, but you have missed the big improvement that is totally necessary if the iPad is to be truly post-PC: native handwriting recognition. <...>
Handwriting ! relics of the past ! who still uses handwriting ?
Are you suggesting that using a keypad is more natural than handwriting? People only type because the technology does not allow HWR, not the other way around. I am not suggesting that keyboards, real or virtual, be banned, but you are implying that HWR should be banned. The reality is that many of us (people who work outside IT) spend a lot of time in meetings where it is not practical to type or dictate, so I carry a notebook and an iPad. I would like to just carry an iPad and I suspect there are millions like me. Apple already owns the IP for HWR, yes they have to open up the archives and update the code, but it's not the same as building the code from scratch.
"For years, critics have trotted out the trite notion that iPad is "not powerful enough to be a real computer" and therefore only good at "consumption."
This is a very poor evaluation and deliberately stirs things up to take a stab at 'critics'.
Firstly, for years the critics were right. It has only been recently and through advances across the board (processors, graphics, iOS advances etc) that iPads like the Pro have taken a big step forward.
For years the iPad was mainly a consumption device with creative options. I wonder, out of all the iPads ever sold, how many were purchased with the purchasers seeing them as 'real' computers or simply additional devices to give them more flexibility?
The word 'trite' is out of place and even the word 'critics' is dubious. 'Commentators' would fit better.
I haven't used an iPad Pro so can't speak about it as a real computer but if you line up a desktop, a laptop and a tablet and ask a user to carry out real computer tasks, I'm sure the tablet would see little use, even if it were more powerful than the other two.
Tablets are great, they have a use. Take the above example and ask me to carry out the same tasks while sitting on a train. The tablet would get more attention this time around but depending on the task I'm sure the laptop would be the preferred option.
However, for most of its existence, the tablet has not aimed to fulfill the role of a 'real computer', it has aimed to be flexible while overlapping some of the functionality of real computers but overwhelmingly fulfilling the role of a mobile consumption device. It has done that very well (at least the iPad has).
It was able to do this principally on price. If it had been much more expensive people would have stayed with their laptops. Making it economically viable as a platform was key. That factor and initial success, also provided some tailwind to distance it from other tablets.
With the groundwork done, it was just a question of staying ahead of the pack. The Mini was another key moment although previously, we had been told there was no need for a smaller tablet.
Precisely because it is not a real computer but nevertheless manages to cover users' needs so well, people don't feel the need to upgrade so often. This doesn't represent the decline of the tablet. It's a natural situation although definitely accentuated by the lack of new updates to the line. That is a management problem not a tablet problem.
The iPhone will probably hit a similar plateau after sales settle for the next version.
There will be a lot of pressure from competitors offering premium phones at far lower prices.
I have some data from Spain for 2016. I think Spain has one of the highest ratios for mobile phones per inhabitant and one of the most frequent upgrade cycles.
As far as sales for 2016 go, the iPhone was at number 5 (but with the iPhone SE). Huawei took top spot with the P8 lite, a phone that was heavily promoted by carriers during the year.
As we see smartphone saturation in the developed world, it will be harder to sell premium devices and their will be far more quality competion in that space. Far more than ever before and Apple has already been overtaken in some aspects.
Huawei today announced the P10 and P10 Plus in Barcelona. A day before the MWC officially kicks off in the same city. For premium phones, they seem to offer a very good deal for the price.
You're honestly pimping the latest iphone knockoff? Pssst, your agenda is showing.
As as noted by others, at one point haters (mainframe priests) claimed PCs couldn't do "real computing" so wrote stuff identical to yours. They were wrong and you'll be wrong.
Good analysis and the suggestions for improvements are all relevant, but you have missed the big improvement that is totally necessary if the iPad is to be truly post-PC: native handwriting recognition. <...>
Handwriting ! relics of the past ! who still uses handwriting ?
Are you suggesting that using a keypad is more natural than handwriting? People only type because the technology does not allow HWR, not the other way around. I am not suggesting that keyboards, real or virtual, be banned, but you are implying that HWR should be banned. The reality is that many of us (people who work outside IT) spend a lot of time in meetings where it is not practical to type or dictate, so I carry a notebook and an iPad. I would like to just carry an iPad and I suspect there are millions like me. Apple already owns the IP for HWR, yes they have to open up the archives and update the code, but it's not the same as building the code from scratch.
Incorrect -- people type because it's much, much faster than writing by hand.
First, let me congratulate AI for having the courage to discuss the 'IPad in the Post-PC era'. That took guts!
But, the article is flawed for two reasons: 1) It bases its conclusions and projections on revenue. Steve Jobs' Apple was based on technological innovation that made people's lives better. Revenue derived from that. It didn't drive that. And, in fact, tech companies that drive innovation based on revenue projections are the most likely to fall behind and fail. I hope that Apple does not fall into that trap. It would be a great loss for all...
2) They say: "Apple appears to be doubling down on Steve Jobs' vision of iPad as a "Post-PC" computing device". In that statement they are pitting the tablet format against the laptop format. In the past and even today, that is a valid stand to take. Tablets have simply not had to power to compete with their larger, heavier siblings. But, that distinction is ending. With 64bit, multi-core processors tablets are approaching the power of the laptop -- certainly that of the lower end laptops such as the MacBook. The little brother is nipping at the heals of his older, larger brother....
But, much more importantly, the functional abilities of each are constrained by their form factor. Take a typical business example: An accountant is sitting at his desk preparing reports and spreadsheets for a coming month-end report and presentation. For that, his laptop is well suited. But, in the afternoon he needs to go out onto the shop floor to take an inventory. For that task, his tablet is best suited to his needs because trying to balance a laptop in one hand and type with the other just doesn't work well.
Ok, so now consider the future: The accountant gets to work, drops his tablet into its dock and uses its keyboard, mouse and large screen to prepare his reports and spreadsheets. In the afternoon, he pulls the tablet out of its dock and takes it out onto the shop floor and uses it as a conventional tablet to take inventory.
Some would derisively call that devise a "hybrid". It is not. It is a convertible fully capable of providing high quality functionality of either a laptop or tablet at will. It is the future. If Apple does not do it, Microsoft & Samsung will -- with Google soon to follow. The question is not IF, it is WHEN?
In Apple ecosytem those are called "toaster-fridge".
Corporations could easily do it. But they didn't go that way. They have gone the iPad way and they still put true computers on the desk of their accountants, not empty shells with keyboard, mouse and large screen. Laptop with detachable display was already a patent of Apple. Microsoft is not a hardware producer and it will never be. They've just produced demo units to show their self-claimed versatility of Windows. If they will conquer the enterprise world, they will do that with many flavors of Windows, not with Surface.
I looked for some logic in that, but found nothing but a chuckle -- especially at: "Corporations could easily do it. But they didn't go that way". There's a good reason why they didn't go that way: It doesn't exist. Apple hasn't done it, yet.
Of course it doesn't exist because iPad exists and it will never exist because again iPad exists.
Toaster-fridge has appeared as the brilliant idea of Steve Ballmer as soon as Steve Jobs pronounced "Post-PC". Since then Steve Ballmer has been fired, iPad prevailed and "convertibles" business didn't hold. And to put an end to this convertibles saga and to undo the damage Steve Ballmer's epiphany has done to the PC industry, Microsoft released the good old PC in the form of a folding desktop: Surface Studio. There is nothing "convertible" in it, it's screen doesn't even swivel. Surface Studio marks the end of the "convertibles" urban legend.
In the wireless era, any "dock" idea is obsolete because a dock is a wired connection. iPad is docked everywhere and to everything thanks to wi-fi/LTE and Blutooth. I don't need my iPad be "docked" to my computer because I already use my computer from within my iPad thanks to VNC over wi-fi. Thanks to the Continuity feature of iOS/macOS I continue any task on my iPad from where I left off on my computer. All these achievements make the "dock" idea obsolete.
Your logic continues to go down hill... ... That's typically what happens when a person argues from the standpoint of a rigid ideology. They have to justify their conclusion -- even if it is unjustifiable.
I submitted facts, you call them as "ideology". Who is blindfolded ? Here are the facts again and I'm done:
the firing of a founder of Microsoft.
The obsolescence of the "docking" scheme in the wi-fi/BT/LTE era.
Continuity in iOS/macOS
VNC over wifi on iPad
Surface Studio as a good old PC not "convertible".
"For years, critics have trotted out the trite notion that iPad is "not powerful enough to be a real computer" and therefore only good at "consumption."
This is a very poor evaluation and deliberately stirs things up to take a stab at 'critics'.
Firstly, for years the critics were right. It has only been recently and through advances across the board (processors, graphics, iOS advances etc) that iPads like the Pro have taken a big step forward.
For years the iPad was mainly a consumption device with creative options. I wonder, out of all the iPads ever sold, how many were purchased with the purchasers seeing them as 'real' computers or simply additional devices to give them more flexibility?
The word 'trite' is out of place and even the word 'critics' is dubious. 'Commentators' would fit better.
I haven't used an iPad Pro so can't speak about it as a real computer but if you line up a desktop, a laptop and a tablet and ask a user to carry out real computer tasks, I'm sure the tablet would see little use, even if it were more powerful than the other two.
Tablets are great, they have a use. Take the above example and ask me to carry out the same tasks while sitting on a train. The tablet would get more attention this time around but depending on the task I'm sure the laptop would be the preferred option.
However, for most of its existence, the tablet has not aimed to fulfill the role of a 'real computer', it has aimed to be flexible while overlapping some of the functionality of real computers but overwhelmingly fulfilling the role of a mobile consumption device. It has done that very well (at least the iPad has).
It was able to do this principally on price. If it had been much more expensive people would have stayed with their laptops. Making it economically viable as a platform was key. That factor and initial success, also provided some tailwind to distance it from other tablets.
With the groundwork done, it was just a question of staying ahead of the pack. The Mini was another key moment although previously, we had been told there was no need for a smaller tablet.
Precisely because it is not a real computer but nevertheless manages to cover users' needs so well, people don't feel the need to upgrade so often. This doesn't represent the decline of the tablet. It's a natural situation although definitely accentuated by the lack of new updates to the line. That is a management problem not a tablet problem.
The iPhone will probably hit a similar plateau after sales settle for the next version.
There will be a lot of pressure from competitors offering premium phones at far lower prices.
I have some data from Spain for 2016. I think Spain has one of the highest ratios for mobile phones per inhabitant and one of the most frequent upgrade cycles.
As far as sales for 2016 go, the iPhone was at number 5 (but with the iPhone SE). Huawei took top spot with the P8 lite, a phone that was heavily promoted by carriers during the year.
As we see smartphone saturation in the developed world, it will be harder to sell premium devices and their will be far more quality competion in that space. Far more than ever before and Apple has already been overtaken in some aspects.
Huawei today announced the P10 and P10 Plus in Barcelona. A day before the MWC officially kicks off in the same city. For premium phones, they seem to offer a very good deal for the price.
"real computer tasks"
That's where you lost me.
"real computer tasks" used to require a mainframe computer sitting in a nearby building.
Somebodies thought about taking newly developed microprocessors and creating a "Personal Computer". and yeah, Apple was in on that early with the Apple I and II. Pretty soon, developers created software for these "Personal Computers" that would accomplish many of the same "real computer tasks" that mainframe computers did. But it didn't stop there.
Somebodies thought that command line interfaces could be replaced with Graphical User Interfaces to make it easier to do "real computer tasks" on "Personal Computers" and yeah, Apple was in early on that as well with the Macintosh.
Apple has been in on everything that has happened in personal, desktop, portable, and mobile computing since almost the start of the "Personal Computer" revolution. I'm pretty sure that Steve Jobs had an idea on how the iPad could be used as a computer to do "real computer tasks". How about we wait a bit longer to see if the iPad does indeed morph into a form factor that can do "real computer tasks", because I'm not seeing much of a barrier to that happening.
As for your statement that "The iPhone will probably hit a similar plateau after sales settle for the next version. There will be a lot of pressure from competitors offering premium phones at far lower prices."
You really don't have a clue about how Apple's ecosystem and product roadmap will play out, and I'd argue, it will be a long time before Chinese OEM's can put all of the pieces together to match or exceed Apple's ecosystem, no less Apple's hardware.
And please, you might want to hold off hawking your Android OS devices in this particular thread.
I'm sorry you got lost. Perhaps you are just being obtuse. I'm sure you got the gist of the post even though you chose not to 'get' it.
As for 'hawking' I have no idea what you are talking about. I have an Android and iPhone 6 at home. I'm probably more qualified to talk on the subject of Android when pitted against iOS phones/tablets than your average AI member.
I gave information relevant to iPhone in a particular market, and not an insignificant market at that. I supported that information with some facts.
Perhaps you saw those facts as 'alternative' facts. That's up to you. The point is that, as with every market, there is a saturation point. The market I mentioned is entirely representative of that with 73% of the population using smartphones and there being a frequent upgrade cycle. Now, do you think the smartphone has reached saturation point in the developed world? Do you think that Android phones have consistently been stepping past Apple on features and how those features are implemented? Producing phones of the same build quality as iPhones? With a broader spread of pricing?
Answer those questions then ask yourself what Apple can bring to the table to distance itself from competitors again? To put it back out in front or do we already have what most users want from a phone and in sufficient quality?
Most will agree that massive growth for iPhone in its current presentation is unlikely and that competition will be intense. More intense than ever. The iPhone 8 will surely do well. It's going to fall in a major upgrade cycle. Thinking otherwise wouldn't make much sense. Economically speaking, the worst of the financial crisis has passed.
Will Apple be content with retaining its current users? Surely not. So, how will it approach the future? Apple has effectively fallen to pieces in Spain. Not so in the UK where users remain very loyal to the brand - at least up to now, but the results in Spain are surely cause for concern because they know Huawei will try to replicate its success there (not only in trumping Apple but also Samsung) in Spain (leveraging it's mobile networking hardware and carrier deals) in other markets.
I don't particularly like the P10 but it is just one phone on its roster and users can fine tune exactly where they want to be on that roster. Huawei is also offering an improved antenna array on the P10 (which supports 4.5G) and promising far better performance in difficult situations (tunnels etc), and improved holding of voice calls.
As Android isn't tied to an 'ecosystem' as such it doesn't really matter if Chinese OEMs want to replicate Apple's or not. After all Android holds 80%+ in spite of the integration that Apple has achieved. The Apple eco system is great for some Apple users but it isn't something the rest are envious of. The ecosystem is also a source of frustration. Simple file management and transfer is still incredibly backwards thinking and often broken. Try taking a photo and sending it directly to the phone in front of you for example If what you seek is a behind the scenes ecosystem then that is already there and managed by Google. That is something that is a very good earnings driver for Google even if it means you are providing data to Google to process.
Nobody has a clue about Apple's roadmaps. Sometimes not even Apple itself! So much for vision! Sometimes Apple gets things right and sometimes it doesn't. Believe me, we don't have large screen iPhones because Apple thought it would be great to have them. Ditto on the issue of smaller screens on the iPad. We have them because market research showed that not having them was not going to give users what they wanted.
"For years, critics have trotted out the trite notion that iPad is "not powerful enough to be a real computer" and therefore only good at "consumption."
This is a very poor evaluation and deliberately stirs things up to take a stab at 'critics'.
Firstly, for years the critics were right. It has only been recently and through advances across the board (processors, graphics, iOS advances etc) that iPads like the Pro have taken a big step forward.
For years the iPad was mainly a consumption device with creative options. I wonder, out of all the iPads ever sold, how many were purchased with the purchasers seeing them as 'real' computers or simply additional devices to give them more flexibility?
The word 'trite' is out of place and even the word 'critics' is dubious. 'Commentators' would fit better.
I haven't used an iPad Pro so can't speak about it as a real computer but if you line up a desktop, a laptop and a tablet and ask a user to carry out real computer tasks, I'm sure the tablet would see little use, even if it were more powerful than the other two.
Tablets are great, they have a use. Take the above example and ask me to carry out the same tasks while sitting on a train. The tablet would get more attention this time around but depending on the task I'm sure the laptop would be the preferred option.
However, for most of its existence, the tablet has not aimed to fulfill the role of a 'real computer', it has aimed to be flexible while overlapping some of the functionality of real computers but overwhelmingly fulfilling the role of a mobile consumption device. It has done that very well (at least the iPad has).
It was able to do this principally on price. If it had been much more expensive people would have stayed with their laptops. Making it economically viable as a platform was key. That factor and initial success, also provided some tailwind to distance it from other tablets.
With the groundwork done, it was just a question of staying ahead of the pack. The Mini was another key moment although previously, we had been told there was no need for a smaller tablet.
Precisely because it is not a real computer but nevertheless manages to cover users' needs so well, people don't feel the need to upgrade so often. This doesn't represent the decline of the tablet. It's a natural situation although definitely accentuated by the lack of new updates to the line. That is a management problem not a tablet problem.
The iPhone will probably hit a similar plateau after sales settle for the next version.
There will be a lot of pressure from competitors offering premium phones at far lower prices.
I have some data from Spain for 2016. I think Spain has one of the highest ratios for mobile phones per inhabitant and one of the most frequent upgrade cycles.
As far as sales for 2016 go, the iPhone was at number 5 (but with the iPhone SE). Huawei took top spot with the P8 lite, a phone that was heavily promoted by carriers during the year.
As we see smartphone saturation in the developed world, it will be harder to sell premium devices and their will be far more quality competion in that space. Far more than ever before and Apple has already been overtaken in some aspects.
Huawei today announced the P10 and P10 Plus in Barcelona. A day before the MWC officially kicks off in the same city. For premium phones, they seem to offer a very good deal for the price.
You're honestly pimping the latest iphone knockoff? Pssst, your agenda is showing.
As as noted by others, at one point haters (mainframe priests) claimed PCs couldn't do "real computing" so wrote stuff identical to yours. They were wrong and you'll be wrong.
Not pimping anything at all. Just giving an opinion based on what I see and what I use which, remember, is both systems and hardware.
FWIW, I don't like the design of the P10 for many of the same reasons I don't like the design of the iPhone 6 or 7 but it's just one phone of its many models and it seems they have taken steps to reduce the 'slipperyness' in the hand. What parts of Huawei's premium line phones are iPhone knock-offs and, perhaps more importantly, which parts aren't?
I answered the 'real computing' in a previous post.
Good analysis and the suggestions for improvements are all relevant, but you have missed the big improvement that is totally necessary if the iPad is to be truly post-PC: native handwriting recognition. <...>
Handwriting ! relics of the past ! who still uses handwriting ?
Are you suggesting that using a keypad is more natural than handwriting? People only type because the technology does not allow HWR, not the other way around. I am not suggesting that keyboards, real or virtual, be banned, but you are implying that HWR should be banned. The reality is that many of us (people who work outside IT) spend a lot of time in meetings where it is not practical to type or dictate, so I carry a notebook and an iPad. I would like to just carry an iPad and I suspect there are millions like me. Apple already owns the IP for HWR, yes they have to open up the archives and update the code, but it's not the same as building the code from scratch.
Hand writing recognition more deeply engrained into iOS for iPads would indeed support more productivity, more uses cases, and lead to wider use. It would drive sales of Pencil. It of course is optional to keyboard entry, but is much more practical in many situations, as is noted above. Taking notes in meetings or classrooms often requires hand written vs. typing. Creating diagrams with text, small notes in text alongside diagrams, marking up documents.
While 3rd parties have apps for this, adding the functionality into iOS would enable this capability into any app going forward.
This functionality would tip me from an iPad Air 2 user to an iPad Pro model. I am not a creative in the drawing/painting/etc area, and so the value-add to me of a Pro over Air is not currently worth the money (to me). However, being able to take notes, do markups in word & PPT, and have those become text, would be valuable and I would move up.
"For years, critics have trotted out the trite notion that iPad is "not powerful enough to be a real computer" and therefore only good at "consumption."
This is a very poor evaluation and deliberately stirs things up to take a stab at 'critics'.
Firstly, for years the critics were right. It has only been recently and through advances across the board (processors, graphics, iOS advances etc) that iPads like the Pro have taken a big step forward.
For years the iPad was mainly a consumption device with creative options. I wonder, out of all the iPads ever sold, how many were purchased with the purchasers seeing them as 'real' computers or simply additional devices to give them more flexibility?
The word 'trite' is out of place and even the word 'critics' is dubious. 'Commentators' would fit better.
I haven't used an iPad Pro so can't speak about it as a real computer but if you line up a desktop, a laptop and a tablet and ask a user to carry out real computer tasks, I'm sure the tablet would see little use, even if it were more powerful than the other two.
Tablets are great, they have a use. Take the above example and ask me to carry out the same tasks while sitting on a train. The tablet would get more attention this time around but depending on the task I'm sure the laptop would be the preferred option.
However, for most of its existence, the tablet has not aimed to fulfill the role of a 'real computer', it has aimed to be flexible while overlapping some of the functionality of real computers but overwhelmingly fulfilling the role of a mobile consumption device. It has done that very well (at least the iPad has).
It was able to do this principally on price. If it had been much more expensive people would have stayed with their laptops. Making it economically viable as a platform was key. That factor and initial success, also provided some tailwind to distance it from other tablets.
With the groundwork done, it was just a question of staying ahead of the pack. The Mini was another key moment although previously, we had been told there was no need for a smaller tablet.
Precisely because it is not a real computer but nevertheless manages to cover users' needs so well, people don't feel the need to upgrade so often. This doesn't represent the decline of the tablet. It's a natural situation although definitely accentuated by the lack of new updates to the line. That is a management problem not a tablet problem.
The iPhone will probably hit a similar plateau after sales settle for the next version.
There will be a lot of pressure from competitors offering premium phones at far lower prices.
I have some data from Spain for 2016. I think Spain has one of the highest ratios for mobile phones per inhabitant and one of the most frequent upgrade cycles.
As far as sales for 2016 go, the iPhone was at number 5 (but with the iPhone SE). Huawei took top spot with the P8 lite, a phone that was heavily promoted by carriers during the year.
As we see smartphone saturation in the developed world, it will be harder to sell premium devices and their will be far more quality competion in that space. Far more than ever before and Apple has already been overtaken in some aspects.
Huawei today announced the P10 and P10 Plus in Barcelona. A day before the MWC officially kicks off in the same city. For premium phones, they seem to offer a very good deal for the price.
"real computer tasks"
That's where you lost me.
"real computer tasks" used to require a mainframe computer sitting in a nearby building.
Somebodies thought about taking newly developed microprocessors and creating a "Personal Computer". and yeah, Apple was in on that early with the Apple I and II. Pretty soon, developers created software for these "Personal Computers" that would accomplish many of the same "real computer tasks" that mainframe computers did. But it didn't stop there.
Somebodies thought that command line interfaces could be replaced with Graphical User Interfaces to make it easier to do "real computer tasks" on "Personal Computers" and yeah, Apple was in early on that as well with the Macintosh.
Apple has been in on everything that has happened in personal, desktop, portable, and mobile computing since almost the start of the "Personal Computer" revolution. I'm pretty sure that Steve Jobs had an idea on how the iPad could be used as a computer to do "real computer tasks". How about we wait a bit longer to see if the iPad does indeed morph into a form factor that can do "real computer tasks", because I'm not seeing much of a barrier to that happening.
As for your statement that "The iPhone will probably hit a similar plateau after sales settle for the next version. There will be a lot of pressure from competitors offering premium phones at far lower prices."
You really don't have a clue about how Apple's ecosystem and product roadmap will play out, and I'd argue, it will be a long time before Chinese OEM's can put all of the pieces together to match or exceed Apple's ecosystem, no less Apple's hardware.
And please, you might want to hold off hawking your Android OS devices in this particular thread.
I'm sorry you got lost. Perhaps you are just being obtuse. I'm sure you got the gist of the post even though you chose not to 'get' it.
As for 'hawking' I have no idea what you are talking about. I have an Android and iPhone 6 at home. I'm probably more qualified to talk on the subject of Android when pitted against iOS phones/tablets than your average AI member.
I gave information relevant to iPhone in a particular market, and not an insignificant market at that. I supported that information with some facts.
Perhaps you saw those facts as 'alternative' facts. That's up to you. The point is that, as with every market, there is a saturation point. The market I mentioned is entirely representative of that with 73% of the population using smartphones and there being a frequent upgrade cycle. Now, do you think the smartphone has reached saturation point in the developed world? Do you think that Android phones have consistently been stepping past Apple on features and how those features are implemented? Producing phones of the same build quality as iPhones? With a broader spread of pricing?
Answer those questions then ask yourself what Apple can bring to the table to distance itself from competitors again? To put it back out in front or do we already have what most users want from a phone and in sufficient quality?
Most will agree that massive growth for iPhone in its current presentation is unlikely and that competition will be intense. More intense than ever. The iPhone 8 will surely do well. It's going to fall in a major upgrade cycle. Thinking otherwise wouldn't make much sense. Economically speaking, the worst of the financial crisis has passed.
Will Apple be content with retaining its current users? Surely not. So, how will it approach the future? Apple has effectively fallen to pieces in Spain. Not so in the UK where users remain very loyal to the brand - at least up to now, but the results in Spain are surely cause for concern because they know Huawei will try to replicate its success there (not only in trumping Apple but also Samsung) in Spain (leveraging it's mobile networking hardware and carrier deals) in other markets.
I don't particularly like the P10 but it is just one phone on its roster and users can fine tune exactly where they want to be on that roster. Huawei is also offering an improved antenna array on the P10 (which supports 4.5G) and promising far better performance in difficult situations (tunnels etc), and improved holding of voice calls.
As Android isn't tied to an 'ecosystem' as such it doesn't really matter if Chinese OEMs want to replicate Apple's or not. After all Android holds 80%+ in spite of the integration that Apple has achieved. The Apple eco system is great for some Apple users but it isn't something the rest are envious of. The ecosystem is also a source of frustration. Simple file management and transfer is still incredibly backwards thinking and often broken. Try taking a photo and sending it directly to the phone in front of you for example If what you seek is a behind the scenes ecosystem then that is already there and managed by Google. That is something that is a very good earnings driver for Google even if it means you are providing data to Google to process.
Nobody has a clue about Apple's roadmaps. Sometimes not even Apple itself! So much for vision! Sometimes Apple gets things right and sometimes it doesn't. Believe me, we don't have large screen iPhones because Apple thought it would be great to have them. Ditto on the issue of smaller screens on the iPad. We have them because market research showed that not having them was not going to give users what they wanted.
I don't find that Spain, with 0.61% of the world's population is all that indicative of the world's smartphone sales. I would note that Spain was especially hard hid by the "Great Spanish Recession" so we really don't know yet if Apple's market will in Spain will improve.
I don't see much value in Android OS being 80% of the market if Apple still makes all but 10% of the profits, though Google does profit in most areas other than China.
Your complaints about Apple Marketing and iOS file management are noted, as is the fact that Apple was late to that phablet and small tablet, albeit it doesn't seem to have had any impact in sales in the long term. How about you throw in how successful Apple has been with AirPods and killing the headphone jack?
To wrap it up, you prefer Android OS devices, and aren't interested in the Apple ecosystem. The rest of your points are your conjecture, which is fine, but hardly something that needs detailed response. You might want to read Part two of DED's Editorial, in AI above.
As is often the case on the iPad & "PC" debate, many like to focus on the traditional definition of "computer" (= "PC"), and not look at the broader needs that people have for "computing". Computing needs change & evolve, and the smartphone and tablet are examples of new devices which change the nature of personal computing. A smartphone is not a PC replacement for many that have traditionally used a PC, but led by the iPhone it has significantly changed computing by the combination of small pocketable form factor + high speed always on data + communications + location + touch UI + security +...
A smartphone can't easily do many things that a PC can do, but it can has enabled many more applications that it can do much better than a PC. Thus "computing needs" change. Workflows change. Jobs change. The iPad (and along with the very small handful of other tablets that actually are focused in this area) is similar. It offers that larger screen to allow a different workflow than the smartphone, but has almost as much portability. With the portability + large screen + Pencil input, things are also evolving.
The example of spreadsheets is brought up, and one I can relate to as I use them everyday. I spend a lot of time in Excel with both simple and complex data sets, manipulating data, creating graphs & tables for reports. In *my* company, I need this. HOWEVER, what I really need is to have dashboards that present data graphically. My company is well behind in being a leader of IT systems/cloud computing, and so Excel is our workaround (along with thousands of other legacy companies). If the data was properly managed in the backend, then I could setup some queries and build dashboards, and present them in apps with links to the cloud backend, then perhaps *I* would not need Excel at all! This part of my job then, in terms of reviewing the data, presenting, might be *better* done on an iPad.
In this scenario, I am sure some still need the traditional PC (truck) to do some heavy lifting with ensuring data is loaded, creating reports in backend, managing the framework - but the number of personnel that need Excel would dramatically lower. I expect that new companies forming are doing things in this manner.
In the early days of PC's, people printed off emails, printed documents to markup, access mainframe applications, etc. It took many years (decade +) for applications (like Lotus 123) to appear and really change the workflows and jobs. Mobile devices + cloud backends + high speed data are enabling the same, but it doesn't happen overnight. "Post-PC" is an accurate description. The car & truck analogy is right. Jobs was right.
If Apple wants to sell a significantly larger number of iPads, it only needs to do two things to iOS: implement a file system and give mouse capabilities. (After all - it was Apple that said your hands belong on the keyboard when defending the MacBook Pro's touch bar. It's hypocritical to call the iPad Pro a "Super Computer" and not apply that same logic).
But Apple won't do that because they're more concerned with revenue from their laptops than they are in bringing a true solution that customers want.
So I bought a Surface and am loving it (you know - that whole "toaster/refrigerator hybrid Cook said doesn't work). And if Apple ever does make those two changes to iOS I'll be the first to come back. But as it stands now it's a real pain to even download stock video from the Internet to an iPad for a video project - something I do with ease on my Surface daily.
So much for the iPad Pro being a "super computer."
My MacBook Pro with touch bar beats Surface hands down. It has longer battery life. Light. High resolution retina screen. Touch bar will provide many capability of a touch screen. Apple has outsmarted Microsoft with the touch bar.
I'm sure it does -- until you rip the screen off to use it as a tablet.
Surface is a laptop disguised as a tablet. It costs as much as a MacBook. To compare it with an iPad is not fair. Compare it with a MacBook is fair.
Sorry, but it is both.... It is a 2 in 1. Deal with it.
Surface is a Windows laptop with touch capability. Windows tablet is a failure. Nobody buys a pure Windows tablet.
The example of spreadsheets is brought up, and one I can relate to as I use them everyday. I spend a lot of time in Excel with both simple and complex data sets, manipulating data, creating graphs & tables for reports. In *my* company, I need this. HOWEVER, what I really need is to have dashboards that present data graphically. My company is well behind in being a leader of IT systems/cloud computing, and so Excel is our workaround (along with thousands of other legacy companies). If the data was properly managed in the backend, then I could setup some queries and build dashboards, and present them in apps with links to the cloud backend, then perhaps *I* would not need Excel at all! This part of my job then, in terms of reviewing the data, presenting, might be *better* done on an iPad.
This is exactly why Excel is no longer a must in that Web era. As I witness in the government and corporate usage, employees always switch to the corporate web or to in-house application to accomplish a task. I have yet to see any employee opening a spreadsheet for a given task.
Even before the Web, the main usage of Excel was to create daily printouts, sales offers being hand calculated on the desk calculator then typed into the proforma invoice prepared in Excel. Those who use Excel as Excel with data sets, calculations, statistics, data graphing and alike did not exceed 5% (as a guesstimate) of total users IMO. Excel has been always taken as an easy to use word processor thanks to its cell grid because managing tables in a word processor is still a nightmare. It was also the database of choice of relatively sophisticated users.
And yet Apple has committed seriously to office applications with the iWork suite, leading the way to Microsoft. We cannot deny Microsoft's great commitment to iPad, all their iOS applications are mature and well elaborated products. As operating system developers, they deeply understand where the value resides. With its Office and other products, Microsoft set the cornerstones for the iPad and there is no going back...
If Apple wants to sell a significantly larger number of iPads, it only needs to do two things to iOS: implement a file system and give mouse capabilities. (After all - it was Apple that said your hands belong on the keyboard when defending the MacBook Pro's touch bar. It's hypocritical to call the iPad Pro a "Super Computer" and not apply that same logic).
But Apple won't do that because they're more concerned with revenue from their laptops than they are in bringing a true solution that customers want.
So I bought a Surface and am loving it (you know - that whole "toaster/refrigerator hybrid Cook said doesn't work). And if Apple ever does make those two changes to iOS I'll be the first to come back. But as it stands now it's a real pain to even download stock video from the Internet to an iPad for a video project - something I do with ease on my Surface daily.
So much for the iPad Pro being a "super computer."
My MacBook Pro with touch bar beats Surface hands down. It has longer battery life. Light. High resolution retina screen. Touch bar will provide many capability of a touch screen. Apple has outsmarted Microsoft with the touch bar.
I'm sure it does -- until you rip the screen off to use it as a tablet.
Surface is a laptop disguised as a tablet. It costs as much as a MacBook. To compare it with an iPad is not fair. Compare it with a MacBook is fair.
Sorry, but it is both.... It is a 2 in 1. Deal with it.
Surface is a Windows laptop with touch capability. Windows tablet is a failure. Nobody buys a pure Windows tablet.
Sorry, but that is just not reality. You can't ignore the fact that the Surface can operate either as a laptop or a tablet and then criticize it for only being a laptop with a touch screen. You don't get to use alternative facts or alternative reality.
You can't ignore the fact that the Surface can operate either as a laptop or a tablet and then criticize it for only being a laptop with a touch screen.
You can't ignore the fact that Surface doesn't excel in either role.
Good analysis and the suggestions for improvements are all relevant, but you have missed the big improvement that is totally necessary if the iPad is to be truly post-PC: native handwriting recognition. <...>
Handwriting ! relics of the past ! who still uses handwriting ?
Just a few folks in China. I use it, too, for teaching Chinese, comes in handy to use a pen instead of a finger and the iPad Pro is awesome for that.
Handwriting is important in China because of the vast number of used symbols. iOS has had a Chinese handwriting recognition 'virtual keyboard' for many years now. As you start to sketch out the character the edges of the screen depict possible final characters, it's like auto correct or auto complete: As for English? I personally think typing is way faster. However there are various apps, one being MyScript, that due to iOS's 3rd party keyboard support allow handwriting to text recognition in English for any text field across the OS. So this is already possible since iOS 9 if you download an app.
Good analysis and the suggestions for improvements are all relevant, but you have missed the big improvement that is totally necessary if the iPad is to be truly post-PC: native handwriting recognition. <...>
Handwriting ! relics of the past ! who still uses handwriting ?
Just a few folks in China. I use it, too, for teaching Chinese, comes in handy to use a pen instead of a finger and the iPad Pro is awesome for that.
Handwriting is important in China because of the vast number of used symbols. iOS has had a Chinese handwriting recognition 'virtual keyboard' for many years now. As you start to sketch out the character the edges of the screen depict possible final characters, it's like auto correct or auto complete: As for English? I personally think typing is way faster. However there are various apps, one being MyScript, that due to iOS's 3rd party keyboard support allow handwriting to text recognition in English for any text field across the OS. So this is already possible since iOS 9 if you download an app.
The biggest deal for me, to make the iPad more fit into my workflow, is to open up file management. I'm working with animation, illustration, video editing, music. Media creation in other words. Out of these four segments, I find only illustration is efficient over iCloud Drive. As soon as you're working with video, animation or making music (any sort of timeline based content, I guess), the file directories are simply too big to be shared, backed up, loaded efficiently over iCloud. The wait!! The iPad should support external drives. It should support Logic Pro X, Final Cut Pro X even. And they should be able to work directly with media and projects that are stored on an external drive. No copying.
With USB-C/3 it should also offer native support of the iPad Pro as a wired, no-lag, retina, extended pen/ touch display for the Mac. It should just be there, you know. It should've been there years ago. And certainly with the iPad Pro 12" launch that already has a USB-3 chipset.
Comments
.... Not even I can read it!
Actually, that's one of the advances in electronic medical records: Physician orders that are now typed instead of handwritten has cut down on a lot of medical errors...
But I get your point. It's good to have the option of either.
And, while I haven't been in a classroom for 10 years, I can see the advantage of having a copy of the slide presentation on my tablet and taking notes in the border -- just as I did on paper, except without the paper.
Both input methods can co-exist with both having their benefits.
As as noted by others, at one point haters (mainframe priests) claimed PCs couldn't do "real computing" so wrote stuff identical to yours. They were wrong and you'll be wrong.
As for 'hawking' I have no idea what you are talking about. I have an Android and iPhone 6 at home. I'm probably more qualified to talk on the subject of Android when pitted against iOS phones/tablets than your average AI member.
I gave information relevant to iPhone in a particular market, and not an insignificant market at that. I supported that information with some facts.
Perhaps you saw those facts as 'alternative' facts. That's up to you. The point is that, as with every market, there is a saturation point. The market I mentioned is entirely representative of that with 73% of the population using smartphones and there being a frequent upgrade cycle. Now, do you think the smartphone has reached saturation point in the developed world? Do you think that Android phones have consistently been stepping past Apple on features and how those features are implemented? Producing phones of the same build quality as iPhones? With a broader spread of pricing?
Answer those questions then ask yourself what Apple can bring to the table to distance itself from competitors again? To put it back out in front or do we already have what most users want from a phone and in sufficient quality?
Most will agree that massive growth for iPhone in its current presentation is unlikely and that competition will be intense. More intense than ever. The iPhone 8 will surely do well. It's going to fall in a major upgrade cycle. Thinking otherwise wouldn't make much sense. Economically speaking, the worst of the financial crisis has passed.
Will Apple be content with retaining its current users? Surely not. So, how will it approach the future? Apple has effectively fallen to pieces in Spain. Not so in the UK where users remain very loyal to the brand - at least up to now, but the results in Spain are surely cause for concern because they know Huawei will try to replicate its success there (not only in trumping Apple but also Samsung) in Spain (leveraging it's mobile networking hardware and carrier deals) in other markets.
I don't particularly like the P10 but it is just one phone on its roster and users can fine tune exactly where they want to be on that roster. Huawei is also offering an improved antenna array on the P10 (which supports 4.5G) and promising far better performance in difficult situations (tunnels etc), and improved holding of voice calls.
As Android isn't tied to an 'ecosystem' as such it doesn't really matter if Chinese OEMs want to replicate Apple's or not. After all Android holds 80%+ in spite of the integration that Apple has achieved. The Apple eco system is great for some Apple users but it isn't something the rest are envious of. The ecosystem is also a source of frustration. Simple file management and transfer is still incredibly backwards thinking and often broken. Try taking a photo and sending it directly to the phone in front of you for example If what you seek is a behind the scenes ecosystem then that is already there and managed by Google. That is something that is a very good earnings driver for Google even if it means you are providing data to Google to process.
Nobody has a clue about Apple's roadmaps. Sometimes not even Apple itself! So much for vision! Sometimes Apple gets things right and sometimes it doesn't. Believe me, we don't have large screen iPhones because Apple thought it would be great to have them. Ditto on the issue of smaller screens on the iPad. We have them because market research showed that not having them was not going to give users what they wanted.
FWIW, I don't like the design of the P10 for many of the same reasons I don't like the design of the iPhone 6 or 7 but it's just one phone of its many models and it seems they have taken steps to reduce the 'slipperyness' in the hand. What parts of Huawei's premium line phones are iPhone knock-offs and, perhaps more importantly, which parts aren't?
I answered the 'real computing' in a previous post.
While 3rd parties have apps for this, adding the functionality into iOS would enable this capability into any app going forward.
This functionality would tip me from an iPad Air 2 user to an iPad Pro model. I am not a creative in the drawing/painting/etc area, and so the value-add to me of a Pro over Air is not currently worth the money (to me). However, being able to take notes, do markups in word & PPT, and have those become text, would be valuable and I would move up.
I don't see much value in Android OS being 80% of the market if Apple still makes all but 10% of the profits, though Google does profit in most areas other than China.
Your complaints about Apple Marketing and iOS file management are noted, as is the fact that Apple was late to that phablet and small tablet, albeit it doesn't seem to have had any impact in sales in the long term. How about you throw in how successful Apple has been with AirPods and killing the headphone jack?
To wrap it up, you prefer Android OS devices, and aren't interested in the Apple ecosystem. The rest of your points are your conjecture, which is fine, but hardly something that needs detailed response. You might want to read Part two of DED's Editorial, in AI above.
A smartphone can't easily do many things that a PC can do, but it can has enabled many more applications that it can do much better than a PC. Thus "computing needs" change. Workflows change. Jobs change. The iPad (and along with the very small handful of other tablets that actually are focused in this area) is similar. It offers that larger screen to allow a different workflow than the smartphone, but has almost as much portability. With the portability + large screen + Pencil input, things are also evolving.
The example of spreadsheets is brought up, and one I can relate to as I use them everyday. I spend a lot of time in Excel with both simple and complex data sets, manipulating data, creating graphs & tables for reports. In *my* company, I need this. HOWEVER, what I really need is to have dashboards that present data graphically. My company is well behind in being a leader of IT systems/cloud computing, and so Excel is our workaround (along with thousands of other legacy companies). If the data was properly managed in the backend, then I could setup some queries and build dashboards, and present them in apps with links to the cloud backend, then perhaps *I* would not need Excel at all! This part of my job then, in terms of reviewing the data, presenting, might be *better* done on an iPad.
In this scenario, I am sure some still need the traditional PC (truck) to do some heavy lifting with ensuring data is loaded, creating reports in backend, managing the framework - but the number of personnel that need Excel would dramatically lower. I expect that new companies forming are doing things in this manner.
In the early days of PC's, people printed off emails, printed documents to markup, access mainframe applications, etc. It took many years (decade +) for applications (like Lotus 123) to appear and really change the workflows and jobs. Mobile devices + cloud backends + high speed data are enabling the same, but it doesn't happen overnight. "Post-PC" is an accurate description. The car & truck analogy is right. Jobs was right.
Even before the Web, the main usage of Excel was to create daily printouts, sales offers being hand calculated on the desk calculator then typed into the proforma invoice prepared in Excel. Those who use Excel as Excel with data sets, calculations, statistics, data graphing and alike did not exceed 5% (as a guesstimate) of total users IMO. Excel has been always taken as an easy to use word processor thanks to its cell grid because managing tables in a word processor is still a nightmare. It was also the database of choice of relatively sophisticated users.
And yet Apple has committed seriously to office applications with the iWork suite, leading the way to Microsoft. We cannot deny Microsoft's great commitment to iPad, all their iOS applications are mature and well elaborated products. As operating system developers, they deeply understand where the value resides. With its Office and other products, Microsoft set the cornerstones for the iPad and there is no going back...
As for English? I personally think typing is way faster. However there are various apps, one being MyScript, that due to iOS's 3rd party keyboard support allow handwriting to text recognition in English for any text field across the OS. So this is already possible since iOS 9 if you download an app.
As for English? I personally think typing is way faster. However there are various apps, one being MyScript, that due to iOS's 3rd party keyboard support allow handwriting to text recognition in English for any text field across the OS. So this is already possible since iOS 9 if you download an app.
With USB-C/3 it should also offer native support of the iPad Pro as a wired, no-lag, retina, extended pen/ touch display for the Mac. It should just be there, you know. It should've been there years ago. And certainly with the iPad Pro 12" launch that already has a USB-3 chipset.