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iPad Is Destroying Netbook Sales
Hugh Pickens writes "Fortune magazine reports that sales growth of low-cost, low-powered netbooks peaked last summer at an astonishing 641% year-over-year growth rate but netbook sales fell off a cliff in January and shrank again in April — collateral damage, according to Morgan Stanley's Katy Huberty, from the January introduction and April launch of the iPad. In support of Huberty's theory, she offers a Morgan Stanley/Alphawise survey conducted in March which found that 44% of US consumers who were planning to buy an iPad said they were buying it instead of a netbook or notebook computer. In related news, Apple announced that it sold its one millionth iPad last week, just 28 days after its introduction on April 3. 'One million iPads in 28 days — that's less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone,' says Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. 'Demand continues to exceed supply and we're working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers.'"
says Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. 'Demand continues to exceed supply and we're working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers.' Steve -- have you tried using Pixie Dust?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
...I find the iPad to be a perfect web surfing device. Great for e-mail and watching video. I am actually considering selling my Macbook Pro, as it is starting to get dusty. That said, I wouldn't want to write a novel on it.
Netbooks just suck. I have a nice one (HP2140) and I hate using it.
Every decent guy needs a one-handed tablet they can bring to bed with themselves.
Geesh... "destroyed"? "fell off a cliff"?
no bias in this article
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Lots of people buy the Sun/Mirror newspapers in the UK or watch Fox News in the USA. So some people decide they want an iPad too, big deal.
in fact, a dell mini10v JUST so that I could run hackintosh sw on it. 100% compat (once you have a mac to sysgen your new mac, that is).
it has a keyboard. it can run any os. I can upgrade things. it has ports!
do I want an ipad? no. not at the current price, features and, well, its almost all that is WRONG with apple these days.
only apple guys are buying the ipad. that's still a very tiny minority. netbooks are still firmly in the sales channels and will be even though apple tries to change our view of reality with their paid-for ads and fake grass-roots posts.
a walled garden can never replace a notebook. we all know that!
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Or maybe netbook sales are cratering because instead of delivering quality models with high performance and low power packed into a lightweight enclosure, companies like Dell have axed all but the most profitable models, and replaced SSDs with magnetic disks and raised prices to the maximum they can squeeze out of customers. Netbook selection is terrible now compared to what it was a year ago. Last year there were many models and there was a price war, now there are a few models and they're just crappy low-end notebooks.
the /. "it'll never sell, it's just a giant itouch' crowd really knocked this one outta the park.
what can i say? when you're right 48 of the time, you're wrong 52 percent of the time.
---
Is this the MPAA? Is this the RIAA? Is this the DMCA? I thought it was the USA!
Demand continues to exceed supply and we're working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers.
I can't imagine why some people regard Apple as a cult...
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
I think it has to do more with market saturation than the iPad. All of the Soccer Moms and folks who wanted the small portable cheap computer picked them up over last year and the holidays. These aren't people on a 3 year HW replacement cycle and don't care about power so they're not going to go out and jump for another machine.
Enough iPad sensationalism.
I'm going to feel just a little bit sad for the owners of those million iPads when they drop the price and kick out the next version in 6 months. They'll be outraged, but Jobs will just say "hey, at least it wasn't 2 months this time!"
An iPad is a big iPod Touch. It's a toy. Fun for the whole family, and even geeks love them... but it is still a toy.
A Netbook is another name for a cheap laptop. You can do real work on a netbook, and by work I mean Microsoft Office and Quickbooks work.
So if people were buying netbooks just for fun, then maybe those who think they could have more fun with an iPad are opting for those instead, but it seems like the iPad is selling to a whole new audience that wouldn't have bought a Netbook to begin with like...
Apple users who wanted a Netbook (Apple only has expensive laptops)
NetBooks were always strange devices. Marginally more portable than a laptop (although not portable enough to fit in a pocket), and a lot less powerful. Their only real advantage was their cost. They were very cheap, but since the original EeeeeeeeeeeeeePC they've gradually crept up in price and now they're just too expensive for what they are.
The iPad, in contrast, is not just a cheap laptop. It fills a distinctly different need to a laptop. I've not entirely worked out what that need is - it seems to target a market that doesn't contain me - but it's clearly not the same set of uses as a laptop.
The iPad isn't killing Netbooks, they're doing that all by themselves. The iPad is just giving people who might have bought one and never used it after the first couple of months something different to waste their money on.
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I'm saying they two are only slightly related. Many people bought netbooks last year as they were the must have item. But slow performance and the limited usability for "Joe Sixpack" might have caught up with the market.
is this where I come to complain about there being to many goddamned Apple stories on /. ?!
For the vast majority of end users, especially those who don't care what's running their devices, the iPad is a good enough substitute for a full laptop PC. The screen is big enough to do serious browsing (unless you use Flash...) and it doubles as a book reader/media player. The major problems I've always had with netbooks is the desktop OS (Linux or Windows) crammed onto a too-small screen, the speed and the tiny keyboards. I've tried to like them - I really have. But that form factor really stinks if you have bad eyes and big fingers.
(And no, I don't own an iPad. I'm the old fogey in the corner with a 14" laptop.)
Even with the lack of Flash,a keyboard and a mainstream OS, the iPad as a netbook replacement is not totally out to lunch. There are some situations where netbooks work well, usually they involve field workers in non-harsh environments who have to run full desktop apps but want a 2 pound laptop instead of a 5 pound one.
Growth in netbook sales is slowed down to "only" 6% YOY as of April. This means that they're just as strong as last year, just not going up at an insane exponential rate which is, by definition unsustainable for many generations. They are not *cratering* as the summary implies.
I can't get past the fingerprints all over the screen. Who can enjoy a movie/web experience having to look past all the smudges?
I will keep my Netbook, thank you.
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Oh, I'd take an iPad over a netbook anyday. That's not a hard task as I have want for a netbook. I also have zero want for an iPad, not because it's a bad product but because I have zero want to play in Steve Jobs playground with quarter slots on all the preapproved swings and slides. I really hope someone can manage to make a slider tablet where the keyboard slides out and configures the tablet into netbook factor, for when that 3rd mocha breve inspires you to pound out Shakespeare. Preferably in WebOS or Android flavors. They might not be as sweet, but they won't give you diabetes.
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While it's true iPad cannot doesn't allow me to do everything my laptop does, I find that for most of the things I do with a laptop the iPad excels. Especially consuming content. Creating content is getting better (I'm more used to the keyboard and use an external BT keyboard for long writing sessions), iSSH makes it bearable to manage my servers remotely (the only servers I use anymore are "remote"), and when off work the iPad is a fantastic movie and gaming platform.
So, I am finding myself using my iPad more and my laptop less. (Ironically, I'm writing this from my MacBookPro :)
-- @rjamestaylor on Ello
People buy toys. . .
'One million iPads in 28 days -- that's less than half of the 74 days it took to achieve this milestone with iPhone,'
Isn't it crazy how fast people will belly up to throw cash at you when you're not also forcing them into a two year cellphone plan with AT&T with high monthly payments? I know you need a service plan to use the iPad's 3G but there's also a model with no 3G. I wonder what the breakdown of that million sales looks like (yes, I know the 3G just came out). I'd wager the faster adoption of the iPad is mostly due to the consumer's ability to make their own choices. Consumer options are a good thing. I know that's not the way Jobs likes to do things but that's just my analysis.
My work here is dung.
i like netbooks my little aspire one has traveled thousands of miles with me and have been nice to have
the problem is it is two years old and for the most part a brand new netbook wouldn't necessarily be compellingly better than my 2yr old A110.
I'd have to think that a big part of the sales drop is that all the people that see the benefit of a little netbook have one now and also don't have any hugely compelling reason to buy a shinny new one to replace the one they have.
actually I am happy to see you, however that is in fact a banana in my pocket.
641% wow man.. thats a lot of growth, if they could keep that up the number of netbooks in the market doubles roughly every month, it would only take just under 3 years for the entire population of the world to have a net-book (starting with 1 net-book at the 1st month) isn't it more likely that the net book market has saturated itself. I find it hard to understand how people can compare these two different product types, these tablets don't even have keyboards, and cost at least 2wice as much. enough already with this apple out to conquer the world hogwash don't believe the hype
Slashdotters are never wrong... the universe is.
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Being wrong about what? They have the exact same specs and operate in exactly the same way they were projected when everyone decided they were crap.
You can sell a billion turds and they're still turds.
An iPad is really a "new class" of device: a "content access" tool rather than a "content creation" tool. A notebook is really good for creating stuff. But for viewing stuff, its actually decidedly second-class.
And netbooks are just small notebooks: with all the limitations that a notebook has.
An iPad is different: it actually sucks for creating content for the most part: the keyboard just is a steaming pile of "not good" compared with even the keyboard on the XO laptop. But for data access it is brilliant: Light weight, long lived, easy to use.
And with the app ecology, apps are just more "data to access", and its really good at that. I'd expect to see, eg, a lot of interesting industrial/business applications as well start to develop. Its not just a "for fun" device really, its just a reflection that there are different roles for devices, and apple built a specialist-in-a-different direction device.
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Hmmm. I wonder if there's some connection there?
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Its also entirely possible that people have begun to realize that netbooks are just annoying.
Too small for long term use, too large for stuffing in your pocket or a small purse, battery life no better than my MBP for the same tasks and utterly incapable of doing the same things. Not useful as a phone.
Netbooks were a cute fad but lets face it, they aren't really useful to most people and it took people a little bit to realize it.
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Who out there has got a dual core tegra tablet for $600 or less? Anyone? Bueller? How about one of those ARM tablets for $100? Hello? *taptap* Is this thing on? Something I can buy with US currency and have shipped to the continental US, please.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
First there was no such device as a netbook. Then the geeks saw the OLPC and then they ran around, screaming "I want one of these!!!!" After some screaming, Asus thought it might be nice to sell some of these devices to geeks. Hey its about money. And then more people saw that netbooks are nice devices so they bought one. As the demand for netbooks was high the sales jumped up (because the industry suddenly provided a portable product which was very much needed by many people). Now most of those people who want a netbook have a netbook and so the sales are going back. Also there was/is a financial crisis going on. And while the crisis more or less hit the public in the US very quickly it took some time to have an affect countries with "social backup systems".
So in short: It is not a falling of a cliff it is just the end of a peak. And yes, as already mentioned, there are no really cheap netbooks anymore.
In related news...
The phenomenon in our universe known as "time" is causing an explosion of iPad sales. Scientists found that, as time increases from the release of the iPad, more iPads are sold. Therefore, time is causing iPad sales to explode. Steve Jobs couldn't be contacted for comment, however his secretary is on record as saying "Time is a pretty cool dude. It increases our sales and isn't afraid of anything!"
Or maybe netbook sales are cratering because instead of delivering quality models with high performance and low power packed into a lightweight enclosure, companies like Dell have axed all but the most profitable models, and replaced SSDs with magnetic disks and raised prices to the maximum they can squeeze out of customers. Netbook selection is terrible now compared to what it was a year ago. Last year there were many models and there was a price war, now there are a few models and they're just crappy low-end notebooks.
Indeed, at least one study in late 2009 predicted that Netbooks would fall off of their own accord
http://www.internetnews.com/stats/article.php/3855261/Netbook-Sales-to-Cool-Off-in-2010.htm
That was a month before the iPad was announced.
Not particularly an iPad fan here, but still... every technology product has this issue. I think most people understand the tradeoff between having something now and having something slightly more whiz-bang later.
Magic? When did we go from cool technology to magic?
Everyone is going to be disappointed in a year when the market is full of better devices.
like this one:
http://wepad.mobi/en
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Well, I just bought a Samsung netbook.
I needed a lightweight, long battery life device mainly for better browsing than a smartphone while travelling. I like to be able to type emails on a proper(ish) keyboard, same for web forums.
I do a lot of photography and the 250GB harddrive is ideal to back up my compact flash cards and quick preview my shots - I used to use a dedicated Epson view for that.
It has HyperSpace, which is a boot option that takes you into a cut down linux system - it boots faster, uses less battery and is therefore a handy option when all you want is to browse.
Initial thoughts are that it's not that quick, but I also ordered a 1GB upgrade and when that arrives it should improve the Windows 7 performance (yes, Windows. Suits me. Sorry). Battery life seems good - I reckon the 11hrs quoted might be ambitious, but my experience so far says I should get 8 or 9 from normal use, including WiFi. Sticking a 3G USB dongle on will probably drain it quite a bit quicker...
It was also under £300.
Absolutely no reason I'd want an iPad.
Sigs are so 1990s. No way would I be seen dead with one.
In support of Huberty's theory, she offers a Morgan Stanley/Alphawise survey conducted in March which found that 44% of US consumers who were planning to buy an iPad said they were buying it instead of a netbook or notebook computer.
The real question is, what are the other 56% buying it instead of?
"Well, I was on my way to buy a giraffe, but then I walked past the Apple store..."
Desktop computers and laptops are designed to be workstations. The iPad was designed to be a toy, and that's how most people use it. That's how Apple markets it, and that's why people buy it.
What Apple and Steve Jobs realised very early in the game is that Americans have a lot of money to spend on toys that look good. Even though most Americans spend their day using computers for work or entertainment, that doesn't make them geeks. They don't need significant computing power, create very little content and only use a very small set of hardware and software resources that are available to them.
The remarkable thing is that most Americans are wealthy enough to spend $500 to buy an iPad. And even though most people could save that money and use it to buy something more useful later, they will spend it on discretionary purchases if the product is considered fashionable enough.
They sold 750,000 in pre orders prior to launch, in 28 days they sold 250,000 not so impressive really.
Naw I have been wrong so many times it just isn't funny,
Apple would never go to Intel!
The iPhone will flop because it doesn't have a removable battery or an SDK.
But if you are never wrong you don't try hard enough.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Netbooks just suck. That's why no one's buying them anymore. It's not because of the iPad.
We have a hard time justifying buying an inferior tiny product that you can barely see, which can't really do that much, especially when almost everyone already has a laptop or desktop which works just fine.
The iPad is successful with people because it provides a big huge screen which is great for lying in bed or sitting out on the patio relaxing with. While this is possible with a laptop, the iPad is much more conducive to a more relaxed environment (the ads for the thing were spot on in my opinion).
Also it does have a longer battery life than a standard laptop. Laptops tend to chew through batteries way too fast these days.
...with help from notebooks.
When netbooks came on the scene, they were dirt cheap. Sure, they could do less than a notebook, but, again, they were dirt cheap, they were small, and battery life was good. Just what you needed for Web browsing and light productivity work. Oh yeah, and they were dirt cheap, easily several hundred less than most notebooks except that once-in-a-blue-moon sale you might run across.
However, this didn't last. Companies started cramming more and more into these things, which drove the price up. In and of itself, that might have been OK, but notebook prices started coming down, and they offered more features. They were bigger, but you could do more with them, and I really believe that a significantly lower price is what drove netbook sales, not merely their size. So, people could spend maybe $250-$300 for a netbook, or, if they caught a sale, they could spend $350 for a basic notebook, which offered much more bang for the buck. That's what killed netbook sales, IMHO.
I am a computer scientist (software engineer degree). I need a computer everywhere I go (work + hobbies + tech addiction). The iPad seems like the worst of every world. It is a terrible laptop replacement in terms of work or school and a bad ebook reader. It is completely useless at home except to do the same basic stuff an iPhone (which I love) can do. The University I work for tried to spout the iPad as a full laptop replacement perfect for taking notes in class... Uh... Right...
Someone please enlighten me as to why this things sells so good. Is it the "it is not a PC and different so it has to be better" paradigm? It is a sexy device but I wouldn't want to date one.
Why would somebody pay *more* for a device that can do *less*? Is it just because it has the Apple name on it and is the fad of the month? My $260 netbook can run Windows, Linux, Flash, older games, and just about anything else. What can the Ipad do?
A friend of mine has one that I got a chance to try out. It's an interesting little device - I'm not going to get one, but then, it's not meant for me.
The iPad does notably excel in one simple thing that I have been missing for the past few years. It has no interface lag. My phone? When I'm switching screens, it lags for a couple seconds. My two year old laptop I got fed up with and threw out because the power jack kept breaking? Opening a directory took a noticable amount of time. Even my streamlined, power-user, performance gaming desktop has moments where its trying to access things and it chugs along before giving me any feedback.
The iPad's interface is responsive. It does what you want it to, when you want it to. When you drag an icon around, it responds immediately. When you poke at a link, it responds instantly with feedback - the webpage might take a moment to load, but it lets you know it's heard you immediately. And everything else in the environment remains responsive. You access the dropdowns, they come right down. You hit the 'menu' button, and you don't get 'the application is waiting to close' hourglass or anything like that, you get MENU.
I can see how that would appeal to many consumers in a world of stuttering, jerky computers.
They show a chart that lists declines in Netbook YoY growth from July of 2009, and cite the iPad as being the reason why. The iPad wasn't even ANNOUNCED until January of 2010.
The chart doesn't list netbook sales, but rather the rate of growth over the last year. You'll note that netbook sales still have positive growth.
So despite the fact there was this sudden MASSIVE surge to buy netbooks in the past two years, netbook sales continue to grow. But the growth rate of that surge did not continue upward. And even though the decline started six months before anyone had heard of an iPad, clearly this is all about the iPad.
Bull-fucking-shit. But nice try.
That being said, I'd buy an iPad at $200. For $300 or more, I expect more PC-like functioanlity and would prefer a netbook. In fact, Asus makes a nice convertible netbook/tablet that is cheaper than the iPad, has 10 times the storage, a faster processer, a webcam, I can install whatever software I want, it runs Flash, has more RAM, has a full keyboard built-in when I want it, etc. etc. etc.
If I can get that at $450, why would I want to spend so much more for far less functionality?
Oh, the i-before the name!
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Back when netbooks where priced as low as possible, the choice simply would have been a no-brainer.
The problem is that the various Netbooks producers, instead of trying to build even cheaper device with reasonable characteristics, are going the other way around :
the current market looks like a big shoot-out of who is going to pack as much features as possible (including, ironically, the biggest screen possible) into their Netbook.
Thus their devices start looking even less like cheap Web-surfing/Chatting/E-Mailing machines and even more like diminutive notebooks, and the price suffers.
So now, the biggest target crowd, people who just want to Surf and E-Mail (but not chat. Sorry no true 3rd-party multitasking sanctioned by Saint-Jobs) have the choice between either a diminutive notebook which is too expensive and packs a lot of useless (for them) functions, or another, also too expensive device, but strongly marketed with a really "cool image" associated with it.
The only difference - that matters to the target crowd and that is immediately visible - between the two is the shiny factor, so they'll go for the iPad.
What the Netbook constructors should have done is stick to the magic Lower power + Linux + Really Cheap formula.
Thankfully, with the arrival of newer non-Intel netbook platforms (OMAP4, Nvidia Tegra, etc...) the winds might change again, with a new crop of machines which do everything the basic users want (Surf+Email) and even more (background chat, other background tasks, advanced usage possible for advanced users who care), and cost a fraction of what the iPad cost.
a walled garden can never replace a notebook. we all know that!
The problem is that this is an argument that the random "surf-only" user doesn't understand. At least not until much later, when she/he would like to have MSN, Skype, and a couple of other chats running into the background while reading e-books. And by then it's too late, money has shift into Apple's pocket since very long.
"Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
I'd thought that Netbooks had a rather limited appeal, but that they'd continue to sell to the customers who fit that niche. I was expecting the iPad to sell to a much wider group of users, though.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Discussing this one in the office, the esteemed Kevin Thompson said,
"It could be good for the netbook market when all of those people buy an iPad and realize they can't do [expletive] go and buy a netbook to replace it."
Apple's training users to appreciate a convenience size... yet almost completely failing to provide for content production as well as content consumption.
The quoted Morgan Stanley figures say 44% are buying an iPad instead of. That's 56% who aren't, who wouldn't be buying anything else. Many users will stay with Apple... but how many users have Apple converted to the size of ultra portables yet let down enough on content production that they'll move back in to, and enlarge, the general netbook market?
My wife goes through some pads every 28 days, but never a million of them.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Hey lookit! I was right :O
While the iPad may have been a nail in the coffin, the death of netbooks has been obviously on the horizon since MS changed its tune and began to "support" them (MS support == embrace, extend, and extinguish). When the first EEEPC came out, it was a cool device: SSD storage, lightweight, better than average (for laptops) battery life, and it could fit in a fashionable woman's purse. These devices were extremely useful for science, diagnostic testing, playing, reading, etcetera -- in fact, these were the first real instance of mobile computing. Laptops were bulky, expensive, ran hot, and had terrible batteries. The first year of netbooks was somewhat of a golden age.
Enter M$. Now, what do netbooks look like? I checked last week, and it is now impossible to buy a netbook without a spinning platter hard drive. Linux netbooks are almost completely unavailable. I checked Amazon and Newegg. Both listed Linux netbooks that were "no longer available". The available netbooks are no longer much lighter or more convenient than traditonal laptops. In fact, battery life is about the only selling point they have left.
I figure it was just a matter of time before the public came to realize that netbooks are just about the same as laptops now, so they have to go somewhere else to search for convenient mobile devices. The fact that so many people are rushing to the iPad is just more proof that Steve Jobs -- bastard that he is -- is a genius at predicting the right time and climate to release a product. Just as people are fed up with MS ruining the very concept of the netbook, we have the iPad: long battery life, nice screen, hardware accelerated video, light and portable, all the things that MS has taken away from the netbook.
While anyone who buys Apple products is still a jerk, I think MS owes the hardware manufacturers and the public an apology for destroying a lucrative sector of the market and a useful product for people to use. Unfortunately, running to Apple is not an unreasonable choice. This just proves the harm that comes from monopolies being allowed to exist.
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It is rather sad that there have already been over 1,000,000 people who either: a) will buy whatever apple puts in their stores or have to have the latest trendy product or b) apparently don't do anything of value with a computer I really can't think of any reason to have a computer without a keyboard other than a POS terminal, especially one that can't do Flash. I have an older Acer netbook. Its great for some things: like traveling, using at on-site jobs, for music on my patio, in the kitchen, etc. Its great for web browsing and checking e-mail. And I could install iTunes on it... Oh yeah: I paid $230 for mine over a year ago. I have used it for work and pleasure. Ipad is just a toy for a while..... but I can see useful applications for it if Apple allows it.
Well, since iPads don't use IBM hard drives, pixie dust won't help.
Unless you think Jobs is actually growing iPads, in which case pixie dust might work there, too. Or not...
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
I'm wondering how many consumers are like me, in that I wanted a netbook a heck of a lot worse, before I got a really good smartphone. I may still buy a netbook down the road, but I feel a lot less of an urge now.
no they do different things. it's really ok to not find one thing useful and another thing useful, but still acknowledge were others my feel the reverse.
i have no interest in an iPad for entertainment and "relaxing" as you do, but my eeepc900 has been in my mini man-bag since i bought it, and i love it.
when at work i use a massive linux desktop with two giant monitor, when i am home, same setup. should i be in the living room and want to skype or look something up, leaning over
grabbing the eeepc is great. and i bought it for less than 300.00
see? different needs? different preferences? see how that works?
No, I just thought pixie dust might aid in the delivery of "magical" products...
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Netbook sales have both eaten into notebook/laptop sales, and propped up low-end notebook prices. Actually, netbooks are horribly overpriced, but enough of that heresy for now...
So hopefully, as the iPad settles in and assumes its long-term share of the market, the toybois will get off of the netbooks, which will drop to a rational share, and low-end notebooks will drop in price as well.
This is good for me. I need more than a 10 inch screen. Actually, I need more than a 12 inch screen usually, but my X41 Tablet has its purposes. Get these baby-screen things off the market, so some manufacturing capacity is free for what *I* want, which is a new cheap notebook for my wife so she stops breaking my current one in half. I'm tired of soldering this thing back together.
And no, I'm not selfish at all. Thank you.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Smells like B***S***
Nah... It's more like "Slashdotters are ostriches".
Or maybe the vast majority of people who wanted a netbook now have one and that's why sales have slowed down. Were people expecting month on month rise in sales of 641% for ever? sounds like a new market plateauing to me.
Early adopters might change their laptop eevery six months but most people will hang on to the same one for 2, 3 or more years. They've bought them and now the market has shrunk to a more mature marketplace shape?
If I choose to buy a netbook DESPITE its limited hardware capabilities, it's probably because I like the price tag. I don't see how the iPad is the cause of the fall in sales of netbooks. It's an expensive device that caters to an entiredly different crowd. Most likely the fall in sales of the netbook probably has to do with it's very sharp growth. It has reached a large percentage of its target audience (who really were waiting for something like that for a while) and now the pool of users can only grow more slowly. when you have an astonishingly high growth rate, it cannot be maintained forever.
This kind of analysis suffers the same problem as assuming unlimited growth of the economy. If you ahve a limited resource (here potential clients) the faster and more succesffully this resource is tapped into at the beginning, the faster you will run out of it.
Somebody is paid to sell the iPad line. Because they don't share the same niche. It's a non-story.
Woosh...
I'm about to buy an iPad, my first Apple product.
I'm going to give it to my sister. She's in bed most of the time. 18 heart surgeries, losing a lung, various other things over the last 10 years have left her bedridden for 20 hours a day or so. She has an occasional desire to look up content such as the identity of an actor on TV or the definition of a word. A PC would be fine and I got her a simple setup a while back but using a laptop in bed or using the desktop that's 10 feet away is either awkward or too much physical effort.
We're going to try the iPad.
Frankly, if my disabled sister didn't live with me I think I'd have a hard time envisioning a use for the device.
but netbook sales fell off a cliff in January
Um yeah, popular devices do that right after Xmas.
several vendors sell them
I'll tell you exactly what I want an iPad for - no matter how much money I spend on a laptop, I can't draw on the screen. Okay, HP makes one that looks decent for that, but Windows tablets are well proven to be awful for usability. With an iPad, I could hit one icon and then draw a picture, scratch out a small map, take handwritten notes with, say, a small map or maybe an equation. NONE of this is possible with any previous product with any real level of real-world usability. It's something that the old Palm Pilots hit on, but the iPad has a really usable size and the best screen around. You can get a stylus that works with it for $15, or make your own with conductive foam apparently. You can probably put something together pretty easily that would be more accurate.
It has that functionality plus most of the common functionality of a laptop, and maybe even better for web/video/books - that's a winner. No company has ever delivered on the promise to put something like this in our hands - we've seen it on Star Trek, in movies. It has to be simple and just work, or it fails to deliver on the promise. You get a device like this that a three year old can use to color a picture or watch a movie, and an adult can use to read, communicate, jot notes, and even produce at least some things - who wouldn't want that? It's got all bases covered. Maybe I'll be able to get one by the next version and maybe it will come with a webcam. Yes, I might wish for it to be a full linux device, or have the full BSD subsystem, but in a very big way that might actually break my idea of what I want it to be.
If someone sold a capacitive overlay on my Macbook screen for $100 or less, I'd take that as an acceptable but still not ideal substitute.
Fox trying to report on science is just... too cute for words. Like watching a very stupid dog trying to bash its way through a glass sliding door.
Yet Another Tech Blog
(but so much more, including game and movie reviews)
http://yanteb.peasantoid.org
I'm not trying to take away the fact that they sold 1 million units very quickly, but technically they were "selling" them longer than 28 days via pre-orders. Did Apple take pre-orders for the iPhone that the article compares sales rate to? I can't remember. Most of their new products are not available to buy until they are actually available.
People who say "money does not buy happiness" are just people without money trying to make themselves feel better.
i own a macbook. I work at an apple authorized reseller. I'm not planning on buying an iPad. But they aren't a worthless device, as people seem to be desperate to convince themselves. They're a very good choice for the demographic of (mostly elderly) people who have never owned a computer. For these people, even a Mac is unnecessarily complicated. These are people who double click on URLs because hey, they want it to open, and you double click to open, right? iPads are perfect for these people. All they want to do is read the news online, read email their grandkids, and watch youtube videos that make fun of Obama. The fact that it's so simplified is a virtue for them.
No. No one's buying Netbooks anymore because they already have one. Performance didn't really go up in the last couple of years so owners of early netbooks don't feel the need to upgrade.
I find the smaller 9" and less netbooks really comfy on my lap or in other ways the iPad could be used for and offer many more options than the iPad (multitasking, flash, hi-def video, usb peripherals...) and cost half the price.
Power conserving netbooks get to 8 hrs of intensive work on 4 to 6 cell batteries.
^_^
says Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. 'Demand continues to exceed supply and we're working hard to get this magical product into the hands of even more customers.'
You heard it here first folks...he finally admits it...Steve Jobs...is a witch. And what do we do with witches?
If you look at the chart, it shows netbook sales GROWTH fell. So sales are still rising, but at a much reduced rate.
It's the difference between x and dx.
Learn how to read a graph, guys!
Correlation != Causation.
Correlation is not the same thing as causation.
When two things are happening at the same time, it doesn't mean that they have a relationship with one another.
This coffee is hot, and netbook sales are down.
You're an idiot, and iPads are selling like hotcakes.
We have a hard time justifying buying an inferior tiny product that you can barely see.
The iPad is successful with people because it provides a big huge screen
Although I don't care to defend netbooks as a whole, my netbook has a 10.1" screen, compared to the iPad's 9.7" screen..
This is just a bad article in general. They're reporting year over year growth of Netbooks, which was going to plateau eventually. They're still on track to sell more than 20 million netbooks this year. 1 million iPads displacing 1 million units of netbooks isn't an enormous drop - it's about 5% of sales. Tops. I know a lot of engineers who weren't considering a netbook at all, but wanted a new shiny apple toy, so they bought the iPad.
All the graph in the article does is illustrate a decline in growth of an established product. iPod sales growth has been declining too, but that's simply because literally everyone and their mother owns one now, and people are simply replacing them or buying their child their first iPod. Nobody's making splashy headlines about that. All products plateau eventually, and it happens sooner than later when their adoption rates skyrocket at launch.
moox. for a new generation.
I'll have to admit Apple has one hell of a marketing machine. Only a company with a marketing muscle liike this can make people want to buy a product that costs more and yet offers less than most netbooks in the same price range
They are not alone...
The BBC has this problem.
As does CNN.
Even Engadget has their finger on this pulse...
And the odd TV station.
And just plain odd sites.
The U.S. Army got in on this one.
And Rutgers University chimed in. Well, someone at Rutgers.
If your point was that Fox News got snookered, well, they are in good company. If your point was that this is jsut another example of Fox News incompetence, well, you can use the same brush to tar CNN and the BBC. Though what the threee have in common escapes me. Oh, wait, I know.
They all purport to deliver the truth.
Right.
Nice try though. Keep swinging. In baseball, succeeding once in 4 at bats will get you a decent job. In politics and Slashdot, you need much less. Way much less.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Shouldn't the title be "iPad turning Netbooks into zombies"?
I know that this goes against the trend here but I'll chime in here as an actual iPad owner
Is it a replacement for my pc or my laptop? of course not. Is that even a valid question? of course not.
iPads are not about replacing your existing systems, it is about a new category of systems.
people building an argument against the iPad based on it not being able to compete with their desktop/laptop are building a false argument. It is not mean to do those things.
For what the device is designed for (holdable web browsing/gaming/books/misc apps) it is a delightful product.
Stop trying to attack the device on grounds that are irrelevent.
the only device that can be reasonably said to compete with the ipad is netbooks. And the two devices use dramatically different approaches and metaphors, so even that comparison is flawed. Keyboard versus touch. Ease of use versus flexibility. There are many variables, and saying that any one factor defines one device as better than the other is a foolish attempt to bolster an uninformed viewpoint.
Now, that being said, i should clarify that the flash thing irks me. I'm no rabid apple fan. But at least give credit where credit is due.
demand cant be met... odd that I can go to bestbuy right now and purchase one.
1 million sold to brick and mortar/catalog stores does not equate to 1 million sold to consumers. Why no one calls them on this number is beyond me. Must be the magic they have in them.
....................
Hey, look what someone got from the kid that lost that protype iPhone. It's the next iPad. http://redvsblue.com/archive/?id=1233
Hahaha I was modded troll here. And my parent post. Thanks Apple haters :) You sure are proving you are capable of cohesive arguments!
Netbooks died when the switched to Windows 7 from linux. IPAD had nothing to do with - put Windows 7 on them, boost the specs on netbooks to support Window7 and suddenly they are not as cheap as they were and they were popular because of the cost difference. Now a low end laptop is actually cheaper than some Windows7 "Netbooks"
And, the screen is way smaller, but, OTOH, I keep the iPad much closer than my laptop. Don't get me wrong, I use my laptop for real work, but the iPad is great for casual browsing, especially on the couch (that is, if I can take it away from my kids :)
and rolled my eyes at the ipad hysteria
here's my amazing 2 word rebuttal to the esteemed professional analyst's smoke and mirrors:
1. keyboard
2. price
end of discussion, advantange: netbook
hey, professional analysts: the crowd that spends 6 dollars on a cup of coffee is a small upper middle class niche that lives and works in midtown manhattan. maybe you should, in your vast analytical powers, stop to notice the wider, poorer world outside your little bubble
and i live and work in midtown manhattan! if i can do it, why can't you?
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
sad that so many Slashdot readers are so financially strapped that they can't conceive of the possibility of owning a device that doesn't fit 100% of their computing needs, even though it may be an ideal fit for many of them.
Personally, I own both a netbook AND an iPad. I've been using the netbook as my primary computing device for over two months now while traveling on business and it's been great. I use the iPad for sitting on the couch websurfing, and ebook reading...tasks that any laptop format device sucks at.
So I guess my response to the question of "why would I want a device that doesn't do everything" is twofold:
1. No device does everything well, so I'm using devices that are best suited for the tasks at hand. 2. I can afford it. Seriously, are you people so strapped for cash that $399 is a completely outrageous sum of money? Get a job hippie!
iPad is the first Apple product in the last ten years (that I can think of) that has generated a visible rift in those who were previously supporting Apple. From the poor naming of the device to almost everything about it, some people that are big into Macs think it sucks. Now even Ellen DeGeneres is bashing it. I think Apple needs to really think about how it is going to bring the community back together.
400lbs is on the light side for a gorilla.
Um, no. He wasn't talking about that specific story, just the idea of a "news" organization so ignorantly backwards as Fox News reporting on science, is like McDonald's putting out a healthy recipes cookbook. In a word, ironic.
The funniest thing about defense of Fox News (or Bush or whatever) is almost always to point out a way in which, superficially, some non-conservative agency has done the same thing. "Bush lied about war? Clinton lied about sex!" or in this case, "Fox used the term 'pixie dust'? So did CNN!"
The iPad intentionally does not support Adobe's flash and now, looks like it will be a runaway best seller. I wouldn't want to be Youtube with millions of people wanting to know why they can't watch those youtube flash videos on the same super video-capable iPad that they are watching tv shows and movies on. The pressure on Youtube to support non-flash video alternatives is building fast and they are probably going to cave soon. That will REALLY put the hurt on Flash.
The feminine computing product that Aqqle released is not destroying netbook sales, notebook sales are destroying netbook sales. Heck, I was going to buy my wife a netbook last Christmas when I found a notebook by the same manufacturer for the same price with better processor, more RAM, DVD drive, larger display and full size keyboard. Netbooks looked like a good deal and were something new a few years ago but they're outdated now. Aqqle's iPad will fair the same, until the iTampon comes out...
if you can sell it 12 months in a year
that 1 million in iPad sales occurred in a single country.
I'll eat my hat if Apple sells 12 million iPads in 2010. 6-8 million is very likely however. At the end of the year though, 3 million of those units are likely to have been bought simply due to Apple marketing and not because it was a better option to the customer than a netbook. Perhaps 3-5 million units will be "cannibalized" from Netbook sales by the end of the year.
moox. for a new generation.
Disclosure: I don't own an iPad and have no intention of buying one anytime soon.
You are aware of the iPad's poor ergonomics for longer term use, right?
That depends on exactly what the use is. If the use is watching movies or reading while traveling, it's better than a laptop. For any meaningful spreadsheet work I wouldn't touch the iPad with a ten foot cattle prod. The iPad is better for some uses and worse for others. Use what suits your particular needs best at the time.
No they aren't, and apps are censored by Apple meaning there will be fewer than there otherwise would be.
So what? More does not equal better. 10,000 crappy applications are worth less than one really good one. I don't care how many total applications there are. I do care how many good applications there are for my needs. I don't really care if those applications don't suit your needs.
He uses Pixar Dust, duh!
[UID-HeinzIntel]
Most of the people on slashdot are not truly ignorant; instead they primarily fall into the "brilliant but really annoying" category.
I disput how many years you can be dead-wrong on the same topic and still be called brilliant.
To me, a "brilliant" person would seek to learn from error. Something I'm not sure I've ever seen an Apple Hater here do.
Basically that just leaves you with "really annoying". No argument here.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
1) Never admit that you're trolling
2) Post anonymously to avoid Karma damage
3) Write something that people might suspect, at least for a few seconds, actually makes some sense
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
... no Flash support
We are still fracking talking about this? Please.
They still haven't fixed it, and they're clearly not going to.
As the saying goes, don't fix what ain't broke.
Enjoy browsing with Flash on and unblockable from comparable devices. The iPad will still be waiting for you.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'd agree that netbooks are barely content creation devices, they are convenient to carry, read some e-mails, surf the web, maybe do a little writing but they really aren't that great at any of it.
I'm typing this on a netbook (an Asus Eee 1000HE) and you are greatly underestimating netbooks. It's true that their screen size/resolution is limiting at times BUT not nearly as much as you might think. I use mine for email, web surfing, word processing, spreadsheets, dreamweaver, gimp, quickbooks (I'm an accountant), quicken, and most everything else I use my desktop for except games. When I need more screen real estate I plug it into my 20 inch monitor and viola, I have 1280x1024 resolution. In fact I probably use it plugged into a monitor between 25%-50% of the time since I'm not always traveling. When I travel it's compact and I'm generally unlikely to do much work that requires large screen real estate anyway. I DO however need a keyboard most of the time for MY work and an iPad would be an inconvenient choice for me. A netbook suits me fine at the moment.
The iPad is much more portable and easy to handle than a netbook...
That depends very much on what your are doing with it. I guarantee the iPad is not more portable or easier to handle than my netbook for what I use my netbook for. Your mileage may vary of course for your particular needs.
performs better on content consumption and almost as well on content creation
Again, depends on what you are doing. I wouldn't touch an iPad for serious spreadsheet work and it would need a keyboard for any serious writing at which point you might as well at least consider a netbook. If I'm reading something on the go or wanting to watch a movie though the iPad could be a superior choice. I think if they came out with an optional stylus the iPad could be awesome for note taking at schools but I doubt that will happen.
The iPad is cool but it's not better than a netbook (or any other pc) for all purposes. The superiority of one over the other depends on the particular application and your particular usage habits/needs.
"collateral damage"? isn't the ipad's existence a direct attack on netbooks?
<quote><p>I'll eat my hat if Apple sells 12 million iPads in 2010</p></quote>
I don't expect it either but looking at the iPhone figures, they might.
<quote><p>Perhaps 3-5 million units will be "cannibalized" from Netbook sales by the end of the year.</p></quote>
Yes but that's a 3-5 million dent in a period equivalent of 15 million netbooks sales. It's more than "about 5% of sales"
I want to be able to install whatever I want, whenever I want, from whoever I want without Jobs policing me.
Jailbreak it then.
Or become a developer, I can compile and run anything I like for the device.
Next lame argument please. Now serving number 348302389034859043850.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
... but I'm waiting for the iMat!
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/iPad-iMat-iBoard-Joke,news-5968.html
I gave one as a gift based on a comparison with available ebook-readers (Kindle and Sony).
Given the price (for the base iPad) it was better all the way around--particularly as the person I was giving it to already had a Mac to sync with--b/c of everything else it offered (including techno-fetishism) beyond books.
Looks like total netbook sales for 2009 was 32 million units, not 20 million as had been predicted at the beginning of 2009. 10% is a fair chunk, but I'm sure HP, Asus and Acer each have in the ballpark of 10% of the netbook market.
Also stalled growth is largely due to both consumers and manufacturers waiting to see what Apple had in store. Preliminary data is one thing, but it's the back to school numbers leading up to August that seal the deal.
moox. for a new generation.
Netbook a content creation device? Please...
Absolutely netbooks are fine for content creation. Use mine for that all the time - I'm typing this post on one. Not for every kind of content of course but for word processing, email, spreadsheets, accounting, low end photo editing, web page creation and more it works great. Yes you can edit video on a netbook. No you wouldn't do high end work (wouldn't use an iPad either) but for casual/occasional use it is fine. Plus I can plug it into a larger monitor if for some reason I need more screen real estate.
Mix music? How many DSP plugins do you think a Netbook can handle when editing audio?
As many as I'm ever going to use it for. Your mileage may vary. If you have serious hardware needs for a specific purpose, neither an iPad or a netbooks is likely to suit you. Different tools for different jobs.
RAM cost 2x now what it did one year ago, the increase far offsets the lower cost of hard disk drives. Also, LCD panels are up over 10%.
Yeah. And I was just pointing out that virtually identical reporting is done by several allegedly reputable and competent news organizations also. So the distinction was that when Fox did it, it was an ignorantly backwards news organization, but when, for example, CNN did it, it was at worst an honest mistake?
Um, no, because using the words "Pixie Dust" isn't a problem.
I can't believe people pay what they do for the iPad, talk about overpriced.
No one will buy them.. they are DRM encrusted.. bla bla bla
Hate to break it to you, but those of us that tried to explain that WE are not the target market were right.. The 'masses' love the things and are buying them like hotcakes.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
How do you upload your pictures from your camera to the net?
How do you watch a DVD.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
the ipads nice but its no netbook. netbook sales have drooped not due to the ipad but there prices have risen over the years. you can pretty much get a low end laptop for the netbook prices these days and have alot more power. netbooks started out as cheap laptops and wile there prices rose laptop prices fell. when netbook makers go back to making them cheaper then laptops there sales will go up again. same goes for the ipad its priced around the same as a netbook. so what is the custmer going to go with. when auses makes another 199$ eee with a atom dule core i bet it will couse another surge in sales..
(1) I know how to patch a Linux kernel and I own/want an iPad
(2) I know how to patch a Linux kernel and I don't want an iPad
(3) I don't know how to patch a Linux kernel and I own/want an iPad
(4) I don't know how to patch a Linux kernel and I don't want an iPad
(5) I'll buy one right after Cowboy Neal
I'm pretty sure some people here would be surprised...
So, 44 percent of people that were intending to buy a portable computing device purchased an Apple portable computing device instead? I don't think that says anything except that a lot of the people that have/are considering buying an iPad were considering buying an equivalent device (netbook) prior to discovering the iPad.
The drop in netbook sales momentum has been relatively consistent and this implies that there are other factors at play. What about how powerful smart phones are now? The Nexus One could provide all of the needs a netbook would.
What day is it? Could you please tell me?
It appears that many on /. simply have no imagination. They cannot see that form-factor can be a feature or a drawback. They imagine all computing tasks as desktop or pseudo-desktop (laptop/netbook) tasks and do not even notice that laptops/netbooks have a poor form factor for many tasks, and the iPad has an incredible form factor. So they perceive no gain, only loss, but that's a failure of imagination that many non-/.-ers do not suffer from.
Many of us can use a laptop for extended editing, for compiling, for video editing, for running statistics with R, but can also see the benefit of browsing the web, or working with our calendar, doing email, adding some data to a spreadsheet, or reading a book with a different (superior) interface and form factor -- even a different posture.
Fuck, get it right will you!
The article says, and the graph shows, that sales GROWTH fell off a cliff.
Total sales are still increasing every month.
Stephen Hawking and Allan Greenspan have both admitted they fucked up, and both are still considered brilliant.
That is correct. They are brilliant because (just as I stated), they learn from mistakes, and (as you said) are willing to admit they were wrong.
You'll only see Apple Haters issues excuses, not apologies. You'll never see one admit they were wrong about Apple. despite repeated errors.
Thus, they exhibit only a distinct lack of brilliance.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
the iPad isn't destroying netbook sales. netbooks are destroying netbook sales. have you ever used a netbook? No? Well if you did, you'd know why they stink.
Despite the fact netbooks are slow, you can't replace a netbook with an iPad unless all you do is read mail and browse the web. It's silly to think a device with no input or output can match a device with much more.
there are a million apple fanboys out there and those are the people buying the ipads. everyone else who isn't part of the apple cult and realizes that steve jobs is just another man who puts his pants on one leg at a time, isn't impressed with the ipad in the least.
Or everyone who wants a netbook already has one?
Don't most netbooks now come with the crappy Windows 7 Starter? It also seems they are more expensive then ever. You can just buy a low end regular laptop for just a bit more money. There are far more reasons than simply just the iPad.
and when the ipad horde realise that their ipads are _not_ netbooks, netbook sales will rise once again.
Wow some mac zealot really has an agenda. Not only did he mark my previous comment a troll, but this one too! Thanks anonymous mac guy! :)
moox. for a new generation.
Do yourself a favor and buy Atomic Web browser for iPad. It's only $0.99 and it does all of the things you want to do. Tap and hold on a link and choose "open in a background tab". Supports ad-block, private browsing (porn mode), full screen browsing, user agent switching, etc.
Sorry, that app's been banned from the App Store. Steve Jobs could not be reached for comment.
(Well, it hasn't happened yet, but I wouldn't risk $800 on a device with a browsing experience the grandparent described, on the gamble it won't happen any time soon.)
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
So uncanny is the iPad's ability to destroy Netbook sales, it reached into the future and began causing their decline before its release and even before its announcement. That's amazing!
Incorrect - the Ipad was hyped and advertised for several months. The 30 days was simply the final shipping time.
Not to mention that's been with vast amounts of coverage and advertising from the media, including Slashdot.
Compared to any given Netbook product
Can you tell me which specific netbook product gets three stories on Slashdot a day? Thanks. Hell, we don't even get that much for netbooks as a whole.
Nokia ship hundreds of millions of mobile computing devices a year - do we get stories about them, or how they're "destroying netbook sales" (or indeed, how they're "destroying Ipad sales")?
I got my iPad the day they came out. I knew it would be an amazing technology experience because I had used an iPhone for 3 years before that. The iPad is responsive and light. It's instant-on. It's not designed to replace a full-size computer; its design includes the premise that you already have a full computer of some sort to sync it with. It's not designed to replace a netbook for a hard-core techie. I have a netbook for when I need to go into a server closet somewhere and physically interface with a machine, whether via ethernet cable or USB to serial adapter. Honestly, I wouldn't want to risk my iPad in that environment. It's made of glass and a nearly-disposable 9 inch netbook is a much safer bet. So what's the iPad for? The iPad is for instant, trouble-free interaction with the web (minus flash of course). The iPad is for checking your email, reading an ebook, checking a PDF manual, listening to a podcast, listening to streaming radio, watching Weather radar, or watching a film or tv show via netflix. It's also good for games. I've ordered pizza with it, made skype phone calls with it, banked with it, filed my state sales tax reports with it. Any time I have both my iPhone and my iPad within reach I invariably reach for the iPad to do something online, because it's much easier than squinting at a tiny screen and constantly having to zoom in. When I'm out and about, I use my iPhone and don't bring my iPad, because the big advantage of the iPhone is portability (well, that and cellular calls). I've downloaded the iWork productivity suite, and it's cool, but I don't see myself using it too much, as I have other full-size computers. But if somebody sent me a document and I needed to make a quick change or I needed to make a presentation it could be quite handy to use the iPad for that with the appropriate cable. I've used it to SSH into my servers, and it works for that, but if I were going to be in for a long session, I'd want to move to a physical keyboard. Which I could do if I bought the keyboard dock or a bluetooth keyboard. Or, if I used one of my full computers. So, in summary, the iPad is not your only computer, it's not intended to be, it's an adjunct. It makes your life easier. It's lightweight net connectivity, somewhat like those Internet Appliances that were touted at the turn of the century, but with excellent multimedia capabilities, more portability and a much much better interface. In some ways, the touch interface for using the web is faster than a mouse, since there's not the lag time of moving the pointer and having to aim it precisely. It feels totally responsive thanks to all the animationw which mask loading times and lags which are so apparent on other smartphones and portable platforms. As the inventors of the progress bar realized, people are willing to wait for the computer if it seems like it is actually doing something. Now, as for the common complaints of the slashdot crowd: No flash : Not a big deal since I have Netflix, which is mostly better than Hulu anyway. Also, the ABC player is good for their content. Youtube HTML5 works well as does CNN's video. Non-removable battery: Also not a big deal, the battery charges fully in about 2 hours, and I've been getting more than the advertised 10 hours out of a single charge routinely. Also the standby time is excellent. Not completely free: I have linux boxes for when I want to maximize freedom. But even so, this concern is overblown with the iPad. A member of the development program can write whatever app he wants for his own iPad and Apple doesn't get to decide whether or not he syncs it onto his device and runs it. Apple's role as gatekeeper only happens when the App store is involved and in that particular case they are deciding on whether or not they want to use their infrastructure to distribute your application to others. I don't think that's unreasonable for a software distributor to be able to decide what software they want to distribute. If there's an issue there, go develop for another platform, we hav
Your suggestion for getting $300 device functionality out of a $500 device is to buy a $600 computer and a $100 dev license?
Anyone technical enough to want the stuff you claim you want is going to need a more powerful computer anyway, so the extra costs you list are irrelevant.
And you only have to pay $99 if you don't jailbreak, so it's a totally optional charge,
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley