I was in Staples yesterday to get some toner for my printer. The Xoom, Galaxies, Playbooks were all clustered next to toner shelves. As I walked in there was a 40-ish lady discussing pros and cons of the Xoom with a sales guy. From the snippets I heard, she sounded sharp and well-informed. she was asking good questions. The sales guy was good too, he was most professional and came up with good answers. It turned out that the Xoom on display was broken and he had no authority to unbox another to demo for her. He admitted that he had no idea when a working model would be on display.
With new toner under my arm, I tiptoed past shaking my head in disbelief. This lady snagged me in the parking lot a moment later and said she'd seen me shaking my head and wanted to hear my thoughts. I responded that if she really wanted an iPad, she should go buy one. She parted by saying "Yeah, you're right. I really want an iPad but I wanted to see what the others could do."
If you don't have a strong infrastructure, you have a house of cards.
This is what the other guys don't get. It's not about a touch interface. It's not about Flash capability. It's not about how many USB ports you have, or whether or not there's an SD slot. It's the infrastructure, stupid! Apple's success with the iPad began 10 years ago with iTunes. Through iTunes, customers became familiar with a relatively easy to use music player, as well as an easy way to connect and sync with their iPods, and eventually iOS devices. Then Apple made deals with most of the record labels, and eventually film and television studios so that customers could buy movies, music and tv shows via the iTunes interface?an interface customers were already familiar with and used to by this time. This brought in millions of fans to iTunes, because they now had an easy, legal way to download their favourite songs, movies and tv shows?and load them onto their devices. With this huge customer base, it was relatively easy for Apple to coax developers to create "apps" for their new device platform?iPhone OS, eventually iOS. Once iOS became a bona fide development platform, the time was ripe for the iPad, using technologies developed for the iPhone and iPod Touch and going further.
Apple's not so much a "revolutionary" company as an "evolutionary" company. They just seem revolutionary in part because of Jobs' showmanship on stage when introducing new products, but more importantly, in contrast to other companies' lackluster, or worse, "rushed-to-market" product announcements.
Apple's success with the iPad was more than 10 years in the making. Other companies seem to think they can match or beat that with products that have been incubating for a couple of years or even less. FAIL!
You want evidence for "Intelligent Design"? Apple is it!
Something else to think about. Perhaps the current size of the buying market is only 7-10million a quarter.
I have found many of the Android generic phones, like the original G1 are junk compared to an iPhone. Yet they sold enough per manufacturer to give them some traction each.
There simply is no room for anyone else to sell volume. All the associated factors don't help. At least an android phone was a phone. A tablet without all the supporting story going on is just a crap ass computer.
That but also Android phones are subsidized and they practically cost next to nothing. Much of that market share is due to people buying in to the sales guy pitch, buying an android phone for the price, and never use it or update it. I know a lot of people lime that.
If you don't have a strong infrastructure, you have a house of cards.
This is what the other guys don't get. It's not about a touch interface. It's not about Flash capability. It's not about how many USB ports you have, or whether or not there's an SD slot. It's the infrastructure, stupid! Apple's success with the iPad began 10 years ago with iTunes. Through iTunes, customers became familiar with a relatively easy to use music player, as well as an easy way to connect and sync with their iPods, and eventually iOS devices. Then Apple made deals with most of the record labels, and eventually film and television studios so that customers could buy movies, music and tv shows via the iTunes interface?an interface customers were already familiar with and used to by this time. This brought in millions of fans to iTunes, because they now had an easy, legal way to download their favourite songs, movies and tv shows?and load them onto their devices. With this huge customer base, it was relatively easy for Apple to coax developers to create "apps" for their new device platform?iPhone OS, eventually iOS. Once iOS became a bona fide development platform, the time was ripe for the iPad, using technologies developed for the iPhone and iPod Touch and going further.
Apple's not so much a "revolutionary" company as an "evolutionary" company. They just seem revolutionary in part because of Jobs' showmanship on stage when introducing new products, but more importantly, in contrast to other companies' lackluster, or worse, "rushed-to-market" product announcements.
Apple's success with the iPad was more than 10 years in the making. Other companies seem to think they can match or beat that with products that have been incubating for a couple of years or even less. FAIL!
You want evidence for "Intelligent Design"? Apple is it!
Very well put. The competition is merely reacting to Apple and it's success and trying not to be left behind. I suspect they DO understand that Apple has been building up to the iPad all these years, but they just can't do anything about it.
And how dare they sell us a smartphone OS and pass it off as an iPad competitor? The gullible will fall for it and that's where the scraps or crumbs they've acquired from this market come from.
Also, why does the competition insist on adding all these ports and connections to their devices? I like the iPad's thin/light form factor. I don't need hdmi when at work, so providing it as an option (as an adapter) would work much better. You're still paying for it either way.
The "latest tablets" are mostly running the non-tablet Android, HP's webOS or RIMs QNX. Pre Honeycomb Android is not scaled to the tablet and all the apps are geared for smartphone use.
Hm, the "latest tablets" either run Honeycomb, or webOS, both of them use the bigger screen better than iPad, which is just oversize iPhone (not talking about the apps, but the OS itself). If you are really happy with the app springboard as the only interface and don't need or want to see data from multiple apps in the same time, so be it, good for you, but I don't see how this is "optimized for tablet"
Quote:
Originally Posted by fecklesstechguy
You can of couse download apps on the fly on an iPad, and don'r need a PC to transfer it to the iPad, although you can do it that way if you desire. And if you have MobileMe you are already syncing things without a wire to the PC. Not completely "tetherless" but enough that you don't have to think much about it.
You didn't read what I wrote, right ? Of course it is possible to buy content on the device, but I wasn't talking about this scenario. If you "create" some content off the device, i.e. getting apps externally (web store), or getting some content that you want to transfer to the tablet (documents, music, videos...) you need to use iTunes to sync. There is no such need on the other tablets, everything can be done OTA. Contacts, calendar, all that is synced. No need to pay for MobileME.
Special case is getting system updates...while other platforms allow you to do this transparently, iPad requires you to connect to iTunes on PC to get updates. It is almost impossible to use the iPad as the PC replacement, unless you want to be stuck to old system version, where security vulnerabilities are not fixed.
Apple is probably going to change this with iCloud, but as it is now, iOS is behind other platforms in that regard. I am afraid this too much to ask for you to admit this fact, isn't it ?
There is no tablet market. There is only an iPad market.
I've heard this a few times and it always makes me laugh.
Have you ever held something like a Samsung Galaxy? It feels like a plastic toy in comparison to the iPad. Combined with the Apple ecosystem that has been mentioned, what I have seen of the competitors offerings doesn't even come close.
There is no tablet market. There is only an iPad market.
Absolutely. I was thoroughly underwhelmed by the iPad and after a few months of disuse, sold it. I'm even more underwhelmed by the Android tablets. HoneyComb is very rough around the edges, although like the G1, shows tremendous promise. However, it's the hardware, cost and usability that are really keeping me away from the Android tablets.
The Asus Transformer is the only one that's got me excited and I'll most likely get it when I get a combo deal of the transformer and the keyboard dock.
The competition just seem to be copycats. Their products exist 'cause they don't want Apple to be too far ahead in this market or it'll be nearly impossible to catch up. So their solution is to rush half-assed products out (both hardware and software) so that consumers shouldn't think this is an Apple only space. The longer consumers think that way, the more irrelevant the competition becomes. It looks like they made tablets because of Apple's success and didn't put any thought into an 'ecosystem'. And that is a deal breaker for me as a consumer. Companies like that will remain 2nd rate in my eyes.
It's funny that so many companies are rushing these half-assed products to market. The only company that isn't rushing is HP. It's a shame really because I think that Palm was onto something. Sure they screwed up on the business side of things and the hardware wasn't spectacular, but WebOS is a solid product. I don't know much about HP's new CEO, but if he's smart then he should be looking into building an ecosystem for HP. The first thing I'd do is buy doubleTwist. If HP gets the hardware right this time and does a better job on marketing than Palm, then they could be the second company (after Apple) to sell tablets in volume.
On a side note, I'm really surprised that Amazon, who is trying to be the content provider and ecosystem for all platforms, hasn't snatched up doubleTwist yet.
According to a BGR report, ASUS is claiming 300K Transformer tablets will ship this month. Yet Mr. Moskowitz states that ASUS is reducing production? Methinks he knows a bit less about manufacturer plans than he want his reader's to believe.
Comments
With new toner under my arm, I tiptoed past shaking my head in disbelief. This lady snagged me in the parking lot a moment later and said she'd seen me shaking my head and wanted to hear my thoughts. I responded that if she really wanted an iPad, she should go buy one. She parted by saying "Yeah, you're right. I really want an iPad but I wanted to see what the others could do."
Great post. Short and thoughtful.
gr8 post - terse n 2 th pt.
This is what the other guys don't get. It's not about a touch interface. It's not about Flash capability. It's not about how many USB ports you have, or whether or not there's an SD slot. It's the infrastructure, stupid! Apple's success with the iPad began 10 years ago with iTunes. Through iTunes, customers became familiar with a relatively easy to use music player, as well as an easy way to connect and sync with their iPods, and eventually iOS devices. Then Apple made deals with most of the record labels, and eventually film and television studios so that customers could buy movies, music and tv shows via the iTunes interface?an interface customers were already familiar with and used to by this time. This brought in millions of fans to iTunes, because they now had an easy, legal way to download their favourite songs, movies and tv shows?and load them onto their devices. With this huge customer base, it was relatively easy for Apple to coax developers to create "apps" for their new device platform?iPhone OS, eventually iOS. Once iOS became a bona fide development platform, the time was ripe for the iPad, using technologies developed for the iPhone and iPod Touch and going further.
Apple's not so much a "revolutionary" company as an "evolutionary" company. They just seem revolutionary in part because of Jobs' showmanship on stage when introducing new products, but more importantly, in contrast to other companies' lackluster, or worse, "rushed-to-market" product announcements.
Apple's success with the iPad was more than 10 years in the making. Other companies seem to think they can match or beat that with products that have been incubating for a couple of years or even less. FAIL!
You want evidence for "Intelligent Design"? Apple is it!
There is no tablet market. There is only an iPad market.
Right-O!
You want evidence for "Intelligent Design"? Apple is it!
Oh, please don't open that can of worms!
Something else to think about. Perhaps the current size of the buying market is only 7-10million a quarter.
I have found many of the Android generic phones, like the original G1 are junk compared to an iPhone. Yet they sold enough per manufacturer to give them some traction each.
There simply is no room for anyone else to sell volume. All the associated factors don't help. At least an android phone was a phone. A tablet without all the supporting story going on is just a crap ass computer.
That but also Android phones are subsidized and they practically cost next to nothing. Much of that market share is due to people buying in to the sales guy pitch, buying an android phone for the price, and never use it or update it. I know a lot of people lime that.
If you don't have a strong infrastructure, you have a house of cards.
This is what the other guys don't get. It's not about a touch interface. It's not about Flash capability. It's not about how many USB ports you have, or whether or not there's an SD slot. It's the infrastructure, stupid! Apple's success with the iPad began 10 years ago with iTunes. Through iTunes, customers became familiar with a relatively easy to use music player, as well as an easy way to connect and sync with their iPods, and eventually iOS devices. Then Apple made deals with most of the record labels, and eventually film and television studios so that customers could buy movies, music and tv shows via the iTunes interface?an interface customers were already familiar with and used to by this time. This brought in millions of fans to iTunes, because they now had an easy, legal way to download their favourite songs, movies and tv shows?and load them onto their devices. With this huge customer base, it was relatively easy for Apple to coax developers to create "apps" for their new device platform?iPhone OS, eventually iOS. Once iOS became a bona fide development platform, the time was ripe for the iPad, using technologies developed for the iPhone and iPod Touch and going further.
Apple's not so much a "revolutionary" company as an "evolutionary" company. They just seem revolutionary in part because of Jobs' showmanship on stage when introducing new products, but more importantly, in contrast to other companies' lackluster, or worse, "rushed-to-market" product announcements.
Apple's success with the iPad was more than 10 years in the making. Other companies seem to think they can match or beat that with products that have been incubating for a couple of years or even less. FAIL!
You want evidence for "Intelligent Design"? Apple is it!
Very well put. The competition is merely reacting to Apple and it's success and trying not to be left behind. I suspect they DO understand that Apple has been building up to the iPad all these years, but they just can't do anything about it.
And how dare they sell us a smartphone OS and pass it off as an iPad competitor? The gullible will fall for it and that's where the scraps or crumbs they've acquired from this market come from.
Also, why does the competition insist on adding all these ports and connections to their devices? I like the iPad's thin/light form factor. I don't need hdmi when at work, so providing it as an option (as an adapter) would work much better. You're still paying for it either way.
The "latest tablets" are mostly running the non-tablet Android, HP's webOS or RIMs QNX. Pre Honeycomb Android is not scaled to the tablet and all the apps are geared for smartphone use.
Hm, the "latest tablets" either run Honeycomb, or webOS, both of them use the bigger screen better than iPad, which is just oversize iPhone (not talking about the apps, but the OS itself). If you are really happy with the app springboard as the only interface and don't need or want to see data from multiple apps in the same time, so be it, good for you, but I don't see how this is "optimized for tablet"
You can of couse download apps on the fly on an iPad, and don'r need a PC to transfer it to the iPad, although you can do it that way if you desire. And if you have MobileMe you are already syncing things without a wire to the PC. Not completely "tetherless" but enough that you don't have to think much about it.
You didn't read what I wrote, right ? Of course it is possible to buy content on the device, but I wasn't talking about this scenario. If you "create" some content off the device, i.e. getting apps externally (web store), or getting some content that you want to transfer to the tablet (documents, music, videos...) you need to use iTunes to sync. There is no such need on the other tablets, everything can be done OTA. Contacts, calendar, all that is synced. No need to pay for MobileME.
Special case is getting system updates...while other platforms allow you to do this transparently, iPad requires you to connect to iTunes on PC to get updates. It is almost impossible to use the iPad as the PC replacement, unless you want to be stuck to old system version, where security vulnerabilities are not fixed.
Apple is probably going to change this with iCloud, but as it is now, iOS is behind other platforms in that regard. I am afraid this too much to ask for you to admit this fact, isn't it ?
Brainless in name, Brainless in nature. The absence of a brain.
Still though, there is truth in advertising here. Give him that, at least.
You don't have any arguments, just stupid rant about the screen name ?
There is no tablet market. There is only an iPad market.
I've heard this a few times and it always makes me laugh.
Have you ever held something like a Samsung Galaxy? It feels like a plastic toy in comparison to the iPad. Combined with the Apple ecosystem that has been mentioned, what I have seen of the competitors offerings doesn't even come close.
There is no tablet market. There is only an iPad market.
Absolutely. I was thoroughly underwhelmed by the iPad and after a few months of disuse, sold it. I'm even more underwhelmed by the Android tablets. HoneyComb is very rough around the edges, although like the G1, shows tremendous promise. However, it's the hardware, cost and usability that are really keeping me away from the Android tablets.
The Asus Transformer is the only one that's got me excited and I'll most likely get it when I get a combo deal of the transformer and the keyboard dock.
As it should be.
"At that time, the report said, competing tablet companies created 81 million tablets; this year the number has fallen to 73 million."
That makes no sense to me at all. What collection of iPad competing companies has already produced 80 million tablets??
If even just half of those were actually sold, that would leave Apple with much less than 50% of the tablet market. Something wrong somewhere.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/0...omer-traction/
The competition just seem to be copycats. Their products exist 'cause they don't want Apple to be too far ahead in this market or it'll be nearly impossible to catch up. So their solution is to rush half-assed products out (both hardware and software) so that consumers shouldn't think this is an Apple only space. The longer consumers think that way, the more irrelevant the competition becomes. It looks like they made tablets because of Apple's success and didn't put any thought into an 'ecosystem'. And that is a deal breaker for me as a consumer. Companies like that will remain 2nd rate in my eyes.
It's funny that so many companies are rushing these half-assed products to market. The only company that isn't rushing is HP. It's a shame really because I think that Palm was onto something. Sure they screwed up on the business side of things and the hardware wasn't spectacular, but WebOS is a solid product. I don't know much about HP's new CEO, but if he's smart then he should be looking into building an ecosystem for HP. The first thing I'd do is buy doubleTwist. If HP gets the hardware right this time and does a better job on marketing than Palm, then they could be the second company (after Apple) to sell tablets in volume.
On a side note, I'm really surprised that Amazon, who is trying to be the content provider and ecosystem for all platforms, hasn't snatched up doubleTwist yet.
http://www.bgr.com/2011/06/10/asus-s...-besides-ipad/
Still, though. He is right about Apple having to hook iPads up to Computers.
Not for much longer!