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iPad Isn't "Killing" Netbook Sales, According To Paul Thurrott
mantis2009 writes "Paul Thurrott, the prolific technology analyst and Windows expert, reacts strongly to an article highlighted on Slashdot. Thurrott takes numbers from IDC and the Wall Street Journal, indicating that netbook sales have not in any meaningful way been affected by sales of Apple's tablet computer, the iPad. Money quote: '[N]etbooks and sub-12-inch machines will sell 45.6 million units in 2011 and 60.3 million in 2013. If I remember the numbers from 2009, they were 10 percent of all PCs, or about 30 million units. Explain again how the iPad will beat that. Please. Even the craziest iPad sales predictions are a small percentage of that.'"
Not necessarily higher quality. Or more powerful. Or better features. But Apple's goods have an air of luxury around them (smells like hipster). And a price tag to match. Sure there are regular folks who will save their pennies and buy an Apple product, but the real market is in the upper class. Which limits them to fraction of the market, admittedly with a higher margin. You're probably paying $100 just for the Apple trademark on an iPad. Virtually nobody is choosing between an iPad and a value priced Linux/Windows netbook. I'd prefer a netbook (even a cheap one), so I can have a decent keyboard. Although I haven't handled an iPad myself, I've seen reviews that were quite negative about the touchscreen keyboard.
Why do people buy laptops when they already own desktops? the answer: portability, portability and portability.
Right, which the iPad excels at even over a netbook.
Different third-party apps, all non-free (and not only in the FSF) and wholly unsupported by the device manufacturer.
I was not aware your netbook manufacturer supported Photoshop, or Office, or any other program you buy to run on Windows. Or even Linux window managers for that matter.
Also, the third party apps, while not free, are very cheap. And some are in fact Free.
And your 'adapter' solutions all fail at the single thing the iPad has for it: portability!
Even adding a few adaptors it's still far more portable. It's like 2oz of weight.
Unlike an iPad, you *can* run applications meant for PCs on a portable device.
But most of them not very well, since they were built for a desktop and you are running them at the lowest end of the scale.
And I guarantee you, every single game that runs slowly on a netbook won't run at all on an iPad,
But any game or application that runs great on an iPad (since after all software that targets an iPad will be optimized to run well) will not run at all on the netbook. These days, the iPad gaming set is larger (especially if you factor in iPhone games, ALL of which run on an iPad and NON of which run on a Netbook).
You're trying to twist "is wholly uncompatible with the software most people want to run" in an advantage of the iPad, and that's simply idiotic
It's only "idiodic" if you ignore the entire application space of the iPhone/iPad. To ignore that, seems, well, idiotic. To use your own phrase, which you apparently don't mind bringing into play for ideas you disagree with.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Great. I have little use for a netbook. So....netbook sales are dropping? Anecdata doesn't cut it.
Except that you didn't understand what I wrote. Let me explain it in simpler words: I have no little use for an iPad, I have never said sales of it are dropping or won't go up because of what I decided to buy. My statement still stands: in my opinion the majority of iPad sales are not coming out of possible Netbook sales.
Netbooks may not have a large keyboard, but it is physical, and it has keys.
He didn't say "physical", he said "real".
720p is considered HD on a smaller screen, and most netbooks have an HDMI port to spit HD in 1080p, if needed
Bullshit. Some do, and very few can do 1080p at all, and most even have difficulty with 720p.
Flash runs fine on every netbook I've tested it on. FUD.
Which letter are you thinking of? Fear? Uncertainty? Doubt?
If you don't think Flash runs like shit, load up YouTube on a netbook. Maybe you just have low standards?
Obviously every machine has limitations, but the iPad's are stupid limitations that don't serve much of a purpose other than vendor lockin or stupid pricing strategies. You can buy a $400 netbook and a $50 Sprint 4G card if you want to replace that $600 3G iPad,
Nobody wants an external USB card, PC cards are rare on netbooks, and internal 3G/4G cards are not the standard default.
As far as price goes, people have no problem spending the extra hundred or so dollars for something that's better. The netbook price issue is silly for that very reason. I mean, why buy a $400 netbook when you can buy nothing? Obviously the $400 for a netbook is for something of value. Then a little bit more something even better still? It's a no brainer.
and you can do all sorts of cool things,
You mean nerd things. Sorry, but there's pretty much nothing about the netbook that is "cool". iPad, on the other hand, has cool covered across the board.
such as type like a normal person, video chat, do things in Flash
Both of which are crap on netbooks.
listen to music in stereo, use a browser of my choice
You can do those on the iPad.
connect to my TV to watch Netflix
Talk to Netflix, the iPad supports output to TV.
and install software from anywhere on the internet without voiding my warranty.
Nobody cares.
Oh, and netbooks have more processing power than my cell phone, but the iPad doesn't. Oh.
CPU power going to waste trying to run desktop apps. x86 is an awful handheld architecture.
it would be silly to go point by point on this, suffice to say that half the things you say aren't possible on the iPad actually are.
I'm lying flat on my back in bed responding to this post on an iPad while my wife is asleep next to me, which would be very nearly impossible on a netbook, let alone anything larger.
Your use cases are not universal, and I know mine aren't. The myopia so many of my neckbearded brethren have is the inability to perceive why anyone would ever prioritize features and usability in ways different from their own. The fact that so many people still fall back on bullet point lists whenever discussing products illustrates this more clearly than any comment I could post.
A car is a car if it fulfills a car's expectations. An iPad doesn't fulfill the expectations of a PC as it can't run arbitrary and unlimited future apps, an expectation of every PC. The iPad sits between a true programmable device and a fixed function device. It is not a personal computer.
Disappointed you didn't figure out how to say the iPad was the BMW of PCs.