Under what definition has that ever been a factor beside the one you've drummed up for yourself?
Wtf are you talking about? When have you ever purchased a PC (whatever that means) and been told at the store, "Make sure you already own one of these, so you can turn it on"
????
Furthermore, it's not a definition, but it's certainly a BARRIER, to which you offer no response.
Thank you. Only those who can't think, are strictly voyeurs with an occasional limited tinkering on specially hindered Apps would think a Mac-dependent iPad is a computer.
This is why I can get worked up over this.
This is an example of a totally ludicrous and false definition of what a computer is.
I mean it literally is incorrect in every way.
That ipad is more capable than the majority of computers to have ever been in existence.
"While they do not appeal to first-time buyers or low-income households, they are proving extremely popular as additional computing devices."
When Apple ships the iPad with an iOS reinstall drive:
And a combined Charger/Airport Express:
and comes with MobileMe Backup/Sync/Mobile Extensions tied into iTunes stores
Then the iPad will be a superior solution to first-time buyers and the iPad will be the Apple of the masses.
I think you just mapped out iPad 3 or 4. I can also see a situation on later iPads whereby you get a free membership to sign up for mobileme and start using it immediately, no Mac or PC required. This would enable someone buying an iPad to set it up and start using it immediately in the wild, say in an airport or at an Apple Store. Syncing to iTunes would then become an option obviously needed for those with TBs of music and photos!
And yet that is totally inapplicable to what a PC actually is.
No, that's pretty much the point. A "PC" is an amalgam of plastic, metal, and glass if you can't use it. And you can't use an iPad without another computer. No other "computer" ever made has been like that.
Maybe the DuoDock if you count the dock as a "computer".
Calm yourself down. Why on earth you need to act like this such a big deal, I can't even begin to imagine.
As far as I'm concerned, until the iPad and iPod touch do not rely on a PC for activation, backup, etc. it's still an accessory device. It's not a host machine, despite being fully capable of replacing some people's needs for a host machine.
I think that your ideas about a "host machine" are interesting. But I don't think that relying on a host disqualifies any device from being a personal computer.
For example, right now I am tethered to a host computer using hunks of copper wire in order to get the words from my fingertips onto the screen in their posted format. Without the connected host, there ain't no way to accomplish my computing task, that being to see these words on the AI Forum webpage.
But given that I am using a quad-core machine with gigs of ram and terrabytes of connected storage, I doubt that the necessity of my using a host machine disqualifies my local device from being a personal computer.
This tether thing is, IMO, a false criteria for defining a PC.
Wtf are you talking about? When have you ever purchased a PC (whatever that means) and been told at the store, "Make sure you already own one of these, so you can turn it on"
????
Gosh, because I know every time the computer has evolved it grows into a brand new category?
How many times could you have said something like that about a computers characteristics over the course of the last 40 years?
You are drawing arbitrary lines is what I'm saying. You could have had 1000 names for a computer if you wanted a new category every time something was different.
k, now I'm definitely done. You're not worth talking to.
Really? You take all the computers from the very start, every model ever produced, and you think that the Ipads capabilities would NOT be in the top half?
Really? You take all the computers from the very start, every model ever produced, and you think that the Ipads capabilities would NOT be in the top half?
If it wasn't it would be close.
Not wanting to get between you two, but my iPad would blow away every consumer computer made prior to about ten years ago- maybe even 5? But remember the caveat though that they can't yet stand alone. But in the end don't worry, categories and titles matter not, just sales Apple will create new categories as they always have done, who wants to be in the same one as a crappy PC anyway?
Actually no I'd not agree. None of that is relevant. You need to be able to turn it on and use it, without owning a box that's running windows xxxx or Mac OS X.
Says who?? I haven't seen anywhere that that is a pre-requisite to be considered a computer either.. *technically* if it has a Display, a CPU, RAM and runs an OS and apps, it is by definition a *computer.*
Still I would not lump an iPad in with a traditional PC.
And just because an iPad benefits from an occasional linking to a 'mother' computer does not make its use or capabilities any less. My work laptop needs to be connected to my work servers more often than my iPad needs hooking up to iTunes. Does that make it 'not a proper computer'?
Truly excellent point. You said it better than I did up above: this whole "no connections to the outside world" thing makes no sense to me as a disqualification for being a personal computer.
Many personal computers are used in a way that they NEED a host to connect to, especially with today's cloud computing. I'll even go out on a limb and claim that most personal computers are used in a way that requires routine tethering to a mother ship in order to operate as the user expects. Indeed, if most personal computers were not not semi-permanently "connected" or "tethered" or "logged in" to the "host", to the "mother ship", to the "full fledged computer", then the user would consider them little better than a boat anchor.
I think you just mapped out iPad 3 or 4. I can also see a situation on later iPads whereby you get a free membership to sign up for mobileme and start using it immediately, no Mac or PC required. This would enable someone buying an iPad to set it up and start using it immediately in the wild, say in an airport or at an Apple Store. Syncing to iTunes would then become an option obviously needed for those with TBs of music and photos!
Why couldn't Apple do this starting today -- why wait for iPad3 or even iPad2?
The reinstall drive already exists,
The AirPort Express already exists.
MobileMe already exists.
iTunes Music Store and App store already know everything you've bought from them.
The North Carolina Data Center already exists.
The Airport Express (package, as described) is the digital hub between all the services in the home to all the services in the cloud.
Bottom line for including them in the sales figures is this: If they didn't buy the iPad, what would they have bought? In most cases the answer is a netbook/budget laptop, so the iPad does belong in this category. In 5 years this won't even be an argument.
Comments
I doubt Apple care what columnists categorize their products as other than mind blowingly successful.
This!!!!
Explain to me how a netbook or laptop is a personal computer (which by actual definition is a programmable machine), and an iPad is not
Neither netbook nor laptop needs a host.
An iPad is like the Alien that need a host to feed on in order to come alive.
You don't need 21,000 + posts to figure this one out.
Under what definition has that ever been a factor beside the one you've drummed up for yourself?
Wtf are you talking about? When have you ever purchased a PC (whatever that means) and been told at the store, "Make sure you already own one of these, so you can turn it on"
????
Furthermore, it's not a definition, but it's certainly a BARRIER, to which you offer no response.
Thank you. Only those who can't think, are strictly voyeurs with an occasional limited tinkering on specially hindered Apps would think a Mac-dependent iPad is a computer.
This is why I can get worked up over this.
This is an example of a totally ludicrous and false definition of what a computer is.
I mean it literally is incorrect in every way.
That ipad is more capable than the majority of computers to have ever been in existence.
Emphasis mine.
"While they do not appeal to first-time buyers or low-income households, they are proving extremely popular as additional computing devices."
When Apple ships the iPad with an iOS reinstall drive:
And a combined Charger/Airport Express:
and comes with MobileMe Backup/Sync/Mobile Extensions tied into iTunes stores
Then the iPad will be a superior solution to first-time buyers and the iPad will be the Apple of the masses.
I think you just mapped out iPad 3 or 4. I can also see a situation on later iPads whereby you get a free membership to sign up for mobileme and start using it immediately, no Mac or PC required. This would enable someone buying an iPad to set it up and start using it immediately in the wild, say in an airport or at an Apple Store. Syncing to iTunes would then become an option obviously needed for those with TBs of music and photos!
And yet that is totally inapplicable to what a PC actually is.
No, that's pretty much the point. A "PC" is an amalgam of plastic, metal, and glass if you can't use it. And you can't use an iPad without another computer. No other "computer" ever made has been like that.
Maybe the DuoDock if you count the dock as a "computer".
This is why I can get worked up over this.
This is an example of a totally ludicrous and false definition of what a computer is.
I mean it literally is incorrect in every way.
That ipad is more capable than the majority of computers to have ever been in existence.
An iPad is a PC accessory- end of story.
I?m betting on them making a separate category for this new device type.
"IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker Makes Its Debut"
http://www.idc.com/about/viewpressre...d=prUS22660011
You win!
Calm yourself down. Why on earth you need to act like this such a big deal, I can't even begin to imagine.
As far as I'm concerned, until the iPad and iPod touch do not rely on a PC for activation, backup, etc. it's still an accessory device. It's not a host machine, despite being fully capable of replacing some people's needs for a host machine.
I think that your ideas about a "host machine" are interesting. But I don't think that relying on a host disqualifies any device from being a personal computer.
For example, right now I am tethered to a host computer using hunks of copper wire in order to get the words from my fingertips onto the screen in their posted format. Without the connected host, there ain't no way to accomplish my computing task, that being to see these words on the AI Forum webpage.
But given that I am using a quad-core machine with gigs of ram and terrabytes of connected storage, I doubt that the necessity of my using a host machine disqualifies my local device from being a personal computer.
This tether thing is, IMO, a false criteria for defining a PC.
This is why I can get worked up over this.
This is an example of a totally ludicrous and false definition of what a computer is.
I mean it literally is incorrect in every way.
That ipad is more capable than the majority of computers to have ever been in existence.
k, now I'm definitely done. You're not worth talking to.
Wtf are you talking about? When have you ever purchased a PC (whatever that means) and been told at the store, "Make sure you already own one of these, so you can turn it on"
????
Gosh, because I know every time the computer has evolved it grows into a brand new category?
How many times could you have said something like that about a computers characteristics over the course of the last 40 years?
You are drawing arbitrary lines is what I'm saying. You could have had 1000 names for a computer if you wanted a new category every time something was different.
k, now I'm definitely done. You're not worth talking to.
Really? You take all the computers from the very start, every model ever produced, and you think that the Ipads capabilities would NOT be in the top half?
If it wasn't it would be close.
"IDC's Worldwide Quarterly Media Tablet and eReader Tracker Makes Its Debut"
http://www.idc.com/about/viewpressre...d=prUS22660011
You win!
Apple at 80-90% isn't too shabby in the catagory that will soon be the largest.
Really? You take all the computers from the very start, every model ever produced, and you think that the Ipads capabilities would NOT be in the top half?
If it wasn't it would be close.
Not wanting to get between you two, but my iPad would blow away every consumer computer made prior to about ten years ago- maybe even 5? But remember the caveat though that they can't yet stand alone. But in the end don't worry, categories and titles matter not, just sales Apple will create new categories as they always have done, who wants to be in the same one as a crappy PC anyway?
p.s. I see AAPL back on track ... Phew!
Actually no I'd not agree. None of that is relevant. You need to be able to turn it on and use it, without owning a box that's running windows xxxx or Mac OS X.
Says who?? I haven't seen anywhere that that is a pre-requisite to be considered a computer either.. *technically* if it has a Display, a CPU, RAM and runs an OS and apps, it is by definition a *computer.*
Still I would not lump an iPad in with a traditional PC.
And just because an iPad benefits from an occasional linking to a 'mother' computer does not make its use or capabilities any less. My work laptop needs to be connected to my work servers more often than my iPad needs hooking up to iTunes. Does that make it 'not a proper computer'?
Truly excellent point. You said it better than I did up above: this whole "no connections to the outside world" thing makes no sense to me as a disqualification for being a personal computer.
Many personal computers are used in a way that they NEED a host to connect to, especially with today's cloud computing. I'll even go out on a limb and claim that most personal computers are used in a way that requires routine tethering to a mother ship in order to operate as the user expects. Indeed, if most personal computers were not not semi-permanently "connected" or "tethered" or "logged in" to the "host", to the "mother ship", to the "full fledged computer", then the user would consider them little better than a boat anchor.
I think you just mapped out iPad 3 or 4. I can also see a situation on later iPads whereby you get a free membership to sign up for mobileme and start using it immediately, no Mac or PC required. This would enable someone buying an iPad to set it up and start using it immediately in the wild, say in an airport or at an Apple Store. Syncing to iTunes would then become an option obviously needed for those with TBs of music and photos!
Why couldn't Apple do this starting today -- why wait for iPad3 or even iPad2?
The reinstall drive already exists,
The AirPort Express already exists.
MobileMe already exists.
iTunes Music Store and App store already know everything you've bought from them.
The North Carolina Data Center already exists.
The Airport Express (package, as described) is the digital hub between all the services in the home to all the services in the cloud.
Another interesting PC question: are there any PCs on the market that have to be plugged into another PC to receive software updates?
Another interesting PC question - Do PC's NEED software updates at all?