Sorry for being vague. I meant to iterate that that consumers are much more aware of the "iPad" name and product, just like folks know of "iPod".
I think consumer awareness, especially when they are considering purchasing a product, is better defined as "mindshare". "Relative public awareness of a phenomenon" is how the Mac OS X dictionary defines mindshare. (Just hold the cursor over a word and press <ctrl><cmd>D.)
iPad has certainly gained a lot of mindshare since last January. At first, only the techno-geeks knew about it because they surf AppleInsider, Engadget, etc. But by the end of the year, the all-important holiday buying season, even the mainstream public knew all about iPad. And all the clones just made iPad look better.
My 10-year-old grandson was the last to get a push-down iPhone:
iP4--> me iP 3GS --> My Daughter --> iP 3G --> grandson (SIMless)
His sister and brother each have a pushed-down iP 1s (SIMLess).
Then, my granddaughter was fooling around and flung her Mom's 3GS against the floor smashing it.
My daughter traded her WiFi iPad to the 10-year old in exchange for his (her previous) iP 3G.
So my grandson is the envy of his bro & sis and all his playmates. He takes the iPad everywhere and is very protective of it.
His sister, soon to be 15 is saving for an iPad -- she should have most of the money when the 2 G is announced.
So, we'll push down the iPads as follows:
iPad Gen 2 --> me iPad Wifi + 3G --> my daughter
This approach seems to work quite well. I will buy the iP5 and push it down to my daughter and she will push the iP 3G back to the grandson.
We are trying to teach the middle child to save money, & he will be the only one in the family w/o an iPad. If we can get him to show good saving habits, we will, likely, help him buy an iPad for himself.
They have all had gameboys, peps,etc, and they have lost or broken these.
iDevices have a longer life, are (usually) better taken care of, and have a wide variety of uses: games, movies, apps -- that are purchased once and run on all devices.
It's a pretty good bang for the bucks (and buckets).
Very interesting to read Dick...sounds like a Dr. Zeus story!
"Push down." Hmm. That sounds so superior to "hand-me-down!"
Used to do the same with my daughter with iPods, etc., when she was younger...now at 26 and in her 3rd year of Med School, I suggested that I would give her my iPhone 3Gs so I could get an iPhone 4.
Wow! If looks could maim, I'd have been carried out in a basket!
She looked at me like I was the cheapest bastard in the world....
Needless to say, I got her an iPhone 4! She has the latest and greatest MBP and I have the MB. WTF? Oh well....enjoyed your post immensely!
Best
PS. Still can't believe I created another woman to "boss" me around!
Sorry if I did not go into detail but you are spot on in regards to what you stated. I was talking about the main consumer items, i.e. camera, HDMI out, USB to go features, etc.... On the internals, processors, GPU, etc... Apple is leading the pack. Could it be that we were both right?
I think we both are right and the camera is a primary example of how Apple differs from other handset vendors. I think the difference is Apple, for better or for worse, is choosing not to put in a 12Mpx camera with huge lens that takes really great images into their slim iPhones, while other vendors may feel they have no choice but to compete on spec sheet features because they can?t compete well in the other areas.
That said, I think I have more hope for Nokia than you do.
No they didn't. Especially not for the HP Stale, er, Slate running Windows.
Reminds me of a quote by Henry Ford (and no, it's not the "any color as long as it's black" quote):
"If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said 'a faster horse'."
Brilliant, SockRolid...I'd never heard that one about the "faster Horse" before!
Did you know that Henry asked a supplier to ship their parts in a wooden box with certain holes cut in the sides? The supplier was perplexed but did so. Henry had the wooden boxes dismantled and used the sides for part of the floor boards and the holes were for the pedals to fit through! I think I have that right.
I think we both are right and the camera is a primary example of how Apple differs from other handset vendors. I think the difference is Apple, for better or for worse, is choosing not to put in a 12Mpx camera with huge lens that takes really great images into their slim iPhones, while other vendors may feel they have no choice but to compete on spec sheet features because they can’t compete well in the other areas. ...
I haven't looked at smartphone camera comparisons recently (not in the last few months), but which phones now have cameras that are ranked as taking better pictures than the iPhone 4?
Not based on (possibly irrelevant) specs like Mpx, but based on an actual comparison of image quality, of course.
I haven't looked at smartphone camera comparisons recently (not in the last few months), but which phones now have cameras that are ranked as taking better pictures than the iPhone 4?
Not based on (possibly irrelevant) specs like Mpx, but based on an actual comparison of image quality, of course.
That would be very interesting to know...not that it would make me give up my iphone 4.
I recently sold my Casio EXLIM camera because I thought the iPhone 4 was pretty similar as far as picture quality (HDR, etc.) and now that it has a flash too.
One less thing to forget (camera) as I'm going out the door!
I have to agree with the article...I upgraded my iPod shuffles and nano's giving the older ones to my daughter and niece.
I was an original adopter of the 1st gen. iPhone, the first intel iMac and the first intel MacBook. (I have sold my MacBook for $300)
I've sold 2 generations of iPhones (1st gen., and a 3Gs) to now have the iPhone 4 and if ATT lets me, I will sell it and upgrade to the iPhone 5 when it comes out sometime this year.
If my business was doing better, I definitely would have bought an iPad, an MBA and a 27" iMac.
And I would upgrade by selling my older models...for example, let's say I did buy the first gen iPad for $500, used it for 10 months and then sold it for $250 and bought a new one. Essentially, I've "rented" the first one for $25/mo...pretty good deal!
Anyway, perhaps I'm stating the obvious...but I like to have the latest and greatest Apple stuff...but only been able to really accomplish it lately with the iPhones. Next purchase will be a 2nd gen. iPad, though. And an "N" Express!
Best
Here's what I have been using to help pay for my Apple toys since 2003:
"the top features consumers say they want in a PC are a complete mismatch with the features of the iPad."
But the iPad never was about features and specs.
What I love about the iPad success story is that tons of pros/geeks simply did not get. But wife/girl friend/daughter immediately did. I barely manged to keep our house free of iPadS in 2010 (Initial un-availability helped a lot).
So I will order one iPad2 the moment it is available for "testing". The next steps are easy to predict ....
"What I love about the iPad success story is that tons of pros/geeks simply did not get. But wife/girl friend/daughter immediately did."
Everybody seems to agree that the new iPad competitors are gonna be giving Apple a run for its money. Sure thing, what with new Chips, Cameras, Flash, more Memory, ability to Print, etc.
Everybody seems to be ignoring the Bigger Story that will Come soon after.
Apple has shown that it can make some money of their device. But more importantly, they have shown that they can continue making money of their Macs, Notebooks, Airs, and all the other stuff they sell.
Whats gonna happen to the other mice that are blindly following the Piper. They are forgetting that if people are buying their new and improved iPad clones. Why should they continue to buy their bigger offerings.
I am thinking Dell, HP, and all the other guys are gonna start loosing more and more money.
Microsoft also will not be making as much money on these smaller devices.
How much more separation is this gonna result between Apple and the rest.
I think this is the Bigger Story that is Yet to Come.
"What I love about the iPad success story is that tons of pros/geeks simply did not get. But wife/girl friend/daughter immediately did."
That says it all.
Right on. I remember when it was introduced at the Keynote but not yet released, Jason Snell of MacWorld "got it" but the PCWorld Editor was more reticent. Actually reticent is too charitable...He just did not get it, at all.
PS. Good for you Dick, I'm not allowed to have any "friends" that have vaginas...I guess my GF is a little uptight about that!
Everybody seems to agree that the new iPad competitors are gonna be giving Apple a run for its money. Sure thing, what with new Chips, Cameras, Flash, more Memory, ability to Print, etc.
The beauty of Apple's lead in the tablet market:
Here, we are almost 1 Year after the iPad announcement and almost 9 months after the first release.
There have been no significant (believable) announcements or releases within that time (Galaxy Tab sales to users is an unknown, and a few others too small to matter).
Beginning at CES and on into 2-3 quarter 2011, others will announce and release somethings.
The others are doing this because they need to -- to have some skin in the game... before it's over.
At some point Apple will announce/release the gen 2 iPad.
Apple can do this whenever it wants to -- to maintain the lead over the competition,
If the competition has a long lead time.... announce/release later!
If the competition has competitive solutions to the iPad 1... announce/release earlier.
It's as if Apple hired the band -- and everyone dances to Apple's tunes.
Apple can change bands, when they tire of the music!
I agree that Apple is way ahead, but I think it's more like 10 years. In terms of hardware, yes, even iPad 1.0 is ahead of all competition. Apple doesn't cut corners, even if it means that their hardware component and manufacturing costs are slightly higher than their competitors'.
But hardware is easy. It's just the first baby step. That's why the HPs, Dells, Samsungs, and Cobys of the world think they can compete against iPad. And since Apple only updates its hardware once a year, a few of the best iPad clones will start to catch up to iPad's specs each year. Just before the new iPad is released, which starts the race all over again.
It's the software that's hard. Because it's the major component of the user experience. Especially now that you can literally touch it. There's nothing between you and your apps any more because iOS gets out of the way, and that's one of the reasons why Apple's iDevices are so successful.
But it's the infrastructure that's the hardest to get right. iTunes for example. It's been around since 2001, before the first iPod was released. It is the reason why iPod took over the portable music player market. And now there's the App Store, which has contributed hugely to iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad popularity.
The infrastructure needs to support multiple hardware devices, multiple OS platforms, and function across many generations of hardware and software. iTunes has done that. Nobody else's music store or app market has done anywhere near as well, and that has badly hurt the competition. They may realize this, but it hasn't stopped them from dumping hopeless wannabe products onto the market.
Here's what I have been using to help pay for my Apple toys since 2003:
I haven't sold a single share in the same period, in fact I've continually added at opportune moments. I just can't part with them ... I maybe need therapy!
I haven't sold a single share in the same period, in fact I've continually added at opportune moments. I just can't part with them ... I maybe need therapy!
Good for you D.
You know you need "therapy," when you are actually looking fwd to your therapy sessions!
I haven't looked at smartphone camera comparisons recently (not in the last few months), but which phones now have cameras that are ranked as taking better pictures than the iPhone 4?
Not based on (possibly irrelevant) specs like Mpx, but based on an actual comparison of image quality, of course.
The Nokia N8’s 12Mpx camera does individual image sensors are the same size as the iPhone 4 at 1.75µm. Since it has 12 million v. 5 million individual image sensors its image sensor covers 2.4x the area. Even if it was using the smaller size sensors, like the 1.4µm found in the 3GS it would still be a larger image sensor.
I can’t remark on the software’s ability as I’ve never used it and pulling up photos would be suggestive, as would be the conclusion as to whether it’s worth that one feature, but a quick Google search should yield some comparisons of what I consider to be impressive pics from a phone… or is a camera with a phone.
Comments
Sorry for being vague. I meant to iterate that that consumers are much more aware of the "iPad" name and product, just like folks know of "iPod".
I think consumer awareness, especially when they are considering purchasing a product, is better defined as "mindshare". "Relative public awareness of a phenomenon" is how the Mac OS X dictionary defines mindshare. (Just hold the cursor over a word and press <ctrl><cmd>D.)
iPad has certainly gained a lot of mindshare since last January. At first, only the techno-geeks knew about it because they surf AppleInsider, Engadget, etc. But by the end of the year, the all-important holiday buying season, even the mainstream public knew all about iPad. And all the clones just made iPad look better.
My 10-year-old grandson was the last to get a push-down iPhone:
iP4--> me iP 3GS --> My Daughter --> iP 3G --> grandson (SIMless)
His sister and brother each have a pushed-down iP 1s (SIMLess).
Then, my granddaughter was fooling around and flung her Mom's 3GS against the floor smashing it.
My daughter traded her WiFi iPad to the 10-year old in exchange for his (her previous) iP 3G.
So my grandson is the envy of his bro & sis and all his playmates. He takes the iPad everywhere and is very protective of it.
His sister, soon to be 15 is saving for an iPad -- she should have most of the money when the 2 G is announced.
So, we'll push down the iPads as follows:
iPad Gen 2 --> me iPad Wifi + 3G --> my daughter
This approach seems to work quite well. I will buy the iP5 and push it down to my daughter and she will push the iP 3G back to the grandson.
We are trying to teach the middle child to save money, & he will be the only one in the family w/o an iPad. If we can get him to show good saving habits, we will, likely, help him buy an iPad for himself.
They have all had gameboys, peps,etc, and they have lost or broken these.
iDevices have a longer life, are (usually) better taken care of, and have a wide variety of uses: games, movies, apps -- that are purchased once and run on all devices.
It's a pretty good bang for the bucks (and buckets).
Very interesting to read Dick...sounds like a Dr. Zeus story!
"Push down." Hmm. That sounds so superior to "hand-me-down!"
Used to do the same with my daughter with iPods, etc., when she was younger...now at 26 and in her 3rd year of Med School, I suggested that I would give her my iPhone 3Gs so I could get an iPhone 4.
Wow! If looks could maim, I'd have been carried out in a basket!
She looked at me like I was the cheapest bastard in the world....
Needless to say, I got her an iPhone 4! She has the latest and greatest MBP and I have the MB. WTF? Oh well....enjoyed your post immensely!
Best
PS. Still can't believe I created another woman to "boss" me around!
Sorry if I did not go into detail but you are spot on in regards to what you stated. I was talking about the main consumer items, i.e. camera, HDMI out, USB to go features, etc.... On the internals, processors, GPU, etc... Apple is leading the pack. Could it be that we were both right?
I think we both are right and the camera is a primary example of how Apple differs from other handset vendors. I think the difference is Apple, for better or for worse, is choosing not to put in a 12Mpx camera with huge lens that takes really great images into their slim iPhones, while other vendors may feel they have no choice but to compete on spec sheet features because they can?t compete well in the other areas.
That said, I think I have more hope for Nokia than you do.
No they didn't. Especially not for the HP Stale, er, Slate running Windows.
Reminds me of a quote by Henry Ford (and no, it's not the "any color as long as it's black" quote):
"If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said 'a faster horse'."
Re: "Consumers didn't ask for tablets"
No they didn't. Especially not for the HP Stale, er, Slate running Windows.
Reminds me of a quote by Henry Ford (and no, it's not the "any color as long as it's black" quote):
"If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said 'a faster horse'."
Brilliant, SockRolid...I'd never heard that one about the "faster Horse" before!
Did you know that Henry asked a supplier to ship their parts in a wooden box with certain holes cut in the sides? The supplier was perplexed but did so. Henry had the wooden boxes dismantled and used the sides for part of the floor boards and the holes were for the pedals to fit through! I think I have that right.
Best
I think we both are right and the camera is a primary example of how Apple differs from other handset vendors. I think the difference is Apple, for better or for worse, is choosing not to put in a 12Mpx camera with huge lens that takes really great images into their slim iPhones, while other vendors may feel they have no choice but to compete on spec sheet features because they can’t compete well in the other areas. ...
I haven't looked at smartphone camera comparisons recently (not in the last few months), but which phones now have cameras that are ranked as taking better pictures than the iPhone 4?
Not based on (possibly irrelevant) specs like Mpx, but based on an actual comparison of image quality, of course.
I haven't looked at smartphone camera comparisons recently (not in the last few months), but which phones now have cameras that are ranked as taking better pictures than the iPhone 4?
Not based on (possibly irrelevant) specs like Mpx, but based on an actual comparison of image quality, of course.
That would be very interesting to know...not that it would make me give up my iphone 4.
I recently sold my Casio EXLIM camera because I thought the iPhone 4 was pretty similar as far as picture quality (HDR, etc.) and now that it has a flash too.
One less thing to forget (camera) as I'm going out the door!
Good eye! I missed that. Seems so obvious now!
I have to agree with the article...I upgraded my iPod shuffles and nano's giving the older ones to my daughter and niece.
I was an original adopter of the 1st gen. iPhone, the first intel iMac and the first intel MacBook. (I have sold my MacBook for $300)
I've sold 2 generations of iPhones (1st gen., and a 3Gs) to now have the iPhone 4 and if ATT lets me, I will sell it and upgrade to the iPhone 5 when it comes out sometime this year.
If my business was doing better, I definitely would have bought an iPad, an MBA and a 27" iMac.
And I would upgrade by selling my older models...for example, let's say I did buy the first gen iPad for $500, used it for 10 months and then sold it for $250 and bought a new one. Essentially, I've "rented" the first one for $25/mo...pretty good deal!
Anyway, perhaps I'm stating the obvious...but I like to have the latest and greatest Apple stuff...but only been able to really accomplish it lately with the iPhones.
Best
Here's what I have been using to help pay for my Apple toys since 2003:
Here's what I have been using to help pay for my Apple toys since 2003:
Now that certainly does "not" look like a Dr. Zeus story...good job and continued success!
"the top features consumers say they want in a PC are a complete mismatch with the features of the iPad."
But the iPad never was about features and specs.
What I love about the iPad success story is that tons of pros/geeks simply did not get. But wife/girl friend/daughter immediately did. I barely manged to keep our house free of iPadS in 2010 (Initial un-availability helped a lot).
So I will order one iPad2 the moment it is available for "testing". The next steps are easy to predict ....
"What I love about the iPad success story is that tons of pros/geeks simply did not get. But wife/girl friend/daughter immediately did."
That says it all.
"What I love about the iPad success story is that tons of pros/geeks simply did not get. But wife/girl friend/daughter immediately did."
That says it all.
And may they never meet.
Everybody seems to be ignoring the Bigger Story that will Come soon after.
Apple has shown that it can make some money of their device. But more importantly, they have shown that they can continue making money of their Macs, Notebooks, Airs, and all the other stuff they sell.
Whats gonna happen to the other mice that are blindly following the Piper. They are forgetting that if people are buying their new and improved iPad clones. Why should they continue to buy their bigger offerings.
I am thinking Dell, HP, and all the other guys are gonna start loosing more and more money.
Microsoft also will not be making as much money on these smaller devices.
How much more separation is this gonna result between Apple and the rest.
I think this is the Bigger Story that is Yet to Come.
"What I love about the iPad success story is that tons of pros/geeks simply did not get. But wife/girl friend/daughter immediately did."
That says it all.
Right on. I remember when it was introduced at the Keynote but not yet released, Jason Snell of MacWorld "got it" but the PCWorld Editor was more reticent. Actually reticent is too charitable...He just did not get it, at all.
PS. Good for you Dick, I'm not allowed to have any "friends" that have vaginas...I guess my GF is a little uptight about that!
Everybody seems to agree that the new iPad competitors are gonna be giving Apple a run for its money. Sure thing, what with new Chips, Cameras, Flash, more Memory, ability to Print, etc.
The beauty of Apple's lead in the tablet market:
Here, we are almost 1 Year after the iPad announcement and almost 9 months after the first release.
There have been no significant (believable) announcements or releases within that time (Galaxy Tab sales to users is an unknown, and a few others too small to matter).
Beginning at CES and on into 2-3 quarter 2011, others will announce and release somethings.
The others are doing this because they need to -- to have some skin in the game... before it's over.
At some point Apple will announce/release the gen 2 iPad.
Apple can do this whenever it wants to -- to maintain the lead over the competition,
If the competition has a long lead time.... announce/release later!
If the competition has competitive solutions to the iPad 1... announce/release earlier.
It's as if Apple hired the band -- and everyone dances to Apple's tunes.
Apple can change bands, when they tire of the music!
PS. Good for you Dick, I'm not allowed to have any "friends" that have vaginas...I guess my GF is a little uptight about that!
That's OK -- as long as all of hers do!
I agree that Apple is way ahead, but I think it's more like 10 years. In terms of hardware, yes, even iPad 1.0 is ahead of all competition. Apple doesn't cut corners, even if it means that their hardware component and manufacturing costs are slightly higher than their competitors'.
But hardware is easy. It's just the first baby step. That's why the HPs, Dells, Samsungs, and Cobys of the world think they can compete against iPad. And since Apple only updates its hardware once a year, a few of the best iPad clones will start to catch up to iPad's specs each year. Just before the new iPad is released, which starts the race all over again.
It's the software that's hard. Because it's the major component of the user experience. Especially now that you can literally touch it. There's nothing between you and your apps any more because iOS gets out of the way, and that's one of the reasons why Apple's iDevices are so successful.
But it's the infrastructure that's the hardest to get right. iTunes for example. It's been around since 2001, before the first iPod was released. It is the reason why iPod took over the portable music player market. And now there's the App Store, which has contributed hugely to iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad popularity.
The infrastructure needs to support multiple hardware devices, multiple OS platforms, and function across many generations of hardware and software. iTunes has done that. Nobody else's music store or app market has done anywhere near as well, and that has badly hurt the competition. They may realize this, but it hasn't stopped them from dumping hopeless wannabe products onto the market.
I couldn't agree more.
Here's what I have been using to help pay for my Apple toys since 2003:
I haven't sold a single share in the same period, in fact I've continually added at opportune moments. I just can't part with them ... I maybe need therapy!
That's OK -- as long as all of hers do!
Now that's funny, DA! Made me laugh out loud!
Actually, she's out with her "best friend.' I never did like that guy!
I haven't sold a single share in the same period, in fact I've continually added at opportune moments. I just can't part with them ... I maybe need therapy!
Good for you D.
You know you need "therapy," when you are actually looking fwd to your therapy sessions!
All the best!
I haven't looked at smartphone camera comparisons recently (not in the last few months), but which phones now have cameras that are ranked as taking better pictures than the iPhone 4?
Not based on (possibly irrelevant) specs like Mpx, but based on an actual comparison of image quality, of course.
The Nokia N8’s 12Mpx camera does individual image sensors are the same size as the iPhone 4 at 1.75µm. Since it has 12 million v. 5 million individual image sensors its image sensor covers 2.4x the area. Even if it was using the smaller size sensors, like the 1.4µm found in the 3GS it would still be a larger image sensor.
I can’t remark on the software’s ability as I’ve never used it and pulling up photos would be suggestive, as would be the conclusion as to whether it’s worth that one feature, but a quick Google search should yield some comparisons of what I consider to be impressive pics from a phone… or is a camera with a phone.