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The Coming Onslaught of iPad Competitors
harrymcc writes "The iPad is selling as well as it is in part because no large manufacturer has had a direct rival out yet. But boy, is that going to change in the next few months. Over at Technologizer, I rounded up known information on 32 current and future tablet computing devices, from potentially worthy iPad competitors to wannabees to interesting specialty devices. By early 2011 these things are going to be everywhere, and it'll be fascinating to see how they fare." Related: the tablet-type device I've been watching most eagerly, Notion Ink's Adam, seems to finally have a realistic manufacturing prediction and price range (by November; up to $498 for the version with 3G and Pixel Qi screen).
What will I do with 32 tablets in the house?
Most have a question mark next to the review. Steve can sleep at night.
Yep, I bet everyone will abandon the iPad once some of the incredible competitor models are revealed.. I really can't wait for one of those awesome Windows 7 based 'tablets' ... other companies have been making 'tablet' computers since the early 2000's, but not until Apple produced one of their own has anyone
really taken interest in them.
ok but what if I took one of these, added a hard protective plastic coating, and then some ports for keyboards and such. i'd call it a 'laptop'.
Do not want. Any.
If more tablets leads to better and cheaper eReaders, then I'm all for it.
When are all those ARM-based netbooks with Linux that we were promised going to show up? I'll take one with a Tegra 2 processor, Ubuntu Netbook Remix, and a Pixel Qi display please!
I'll pay extra for one in a form factor more like a Macbook Air, with a little extra screen, decent sized trackpad, etc.
Hello? Anybody out there?
Great... but I do want.
So where does that leave us? Me happy, and you no worse off but apparently whiny.
ok but what if I took one of these, added a hard protective plastic coating, and then some ports for keyboards and such. i'd call it a 'laptop'.
I'd call it a shitty, underpowered laptop with a shitty form factor and a shitty lack of an included, attached, keyboard.
Tablets fucking suck.
tablets are great for 'consuming' content (now I feel dirty even using marketspeak like that).
but its true, its not oriented to create things. you basically tap your paw and get some goody back. for that, they work great. to expect more means a true revolution in UI design. not gonna happen with apple (they are too happy with the 'consuming pre-made content' notion) and will take a true visionary to accomplish.
we're still waiting. but hopeful.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
...when checking the one-liner review verdicts for the devices in this list:
"Engadget didn’t find it terribly satisfying."
"The Android Blog tried one and wasn’t exactly knocked out."
"UMPC Portal’s review says it’s not anywhere near as good as it looks."
"Engadget really didn’t care for it."
"Ubergizmo gave it a semi-positive review."
Does this sound anything like the reviews the iPad got? Hopefully the situation will change quickly to bring competition to benefit us customers.
...run the same programs on any of these tablets? Port some libre software from one to another without paying extra? Release libre software for these tablets?
If they are like the iPad, I guess not...
Palm trees and 8
Have you seen some of the art (and, for that matter, heard some of the music) that people have created on the ipad? It sucks for "creating content" in the "i have to type on a keyboard" sense, but it's actually pretty effective when you don't need a full keyboard to create something.
For some things, a keyboard will probably always be better. For others, the keyboard is really kind of pointless, and a tablet with no keyboard works surprisingly well.
Since when does more than 5 months count as a "few"?
MABASPLOOM!
I want a good all-in-one reader. PDFs, CBR/CBZ files, Word or Open Office documents... etc. Sure, throw in a media player, but I really just want a book replacement. Most of the ones on the market are limited in scope and frankly, TOO SMALL. Make the screen a standard paper size, make it able to read all kinds of formats, and I will be a happy, happy man.
Oh, and make it cheap.
How about the one that launched before the iPad? AlwaysInnovating Touchbook, anyone?
Alas, it's not available right now -- they stopped production (and quickly sold out) while developing the (unannounced) next model due sometime this summer. I'm greatly looking forward to it...
The iPad is selling as well as it is in part because no large manufacturer has had a direct rival out yet.
Even with a 'direct rival' they will still sell well as some people prefer one brand over another.
Nice try at an Apple bash tho..:)
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Go back about five years in the archives of most tech publications and you can find similar stories about "The coming onslaught of iPod competitors." Look how that worked out.
For some reason, the tech community believes that the commoditize-and-cannabalize cycle that typified the 1980s and 1990s is a perpetual law. It isn't, and Apple's success this decade is a resounding rejoinder to that view. Apple's products aren't, in all respects, better than the competitors; what they are is more polished, more refined, and an order of magnitude easier to pick up on and figure out on your own.
The typical screeds about how Apple's success is due to marketing prowess, reality distortion fields, media sycophancy, etc. are all a bunch of red herrings. Apple makes great products, and it's a real shame that more companies haven't picked up on how they do it and why. It's not rocket science to diligently refine your products while at the same time planning their long-term placement growth; it's just more involved than most companies want to be.
So sure, I'm sure there will be an onslaught of cheaper, different tablets that mindless consumers (Who, I might add, the tech community still believes to be largely ignorant about technology. You know, in 2010.) will buy up and the iPad will be dead. It's impossible that, say, every single one of the competitor tablets will be inferior in one or more significant ways that fails to make an appreciable dent in the iPad's adoption rate. Equally impossible that Apple would refine the iPad beyond its current iteration to entice new customers. I mean, really.
I'm not giving Apple the keys to the kingdom carte blanche, as heaven knows they've made their share of mistakes, but on the whole, I think they've been too successful, too visionary, and too aggressive to continue this endless narrative about how, just when they're about to succeed, the commodity tech market comes up aces and wins the hand.
Well, you don't have to worry about it. Most of them are pure vapour, and the rest of them appear to have been thoroughly trashed by reviewers and are unlikely ever to bother you by appearing in a store where you might accidentally purchase them.
meeGo?
Not hardware, software!
Wait now, didn't we agree there was no such thing as a market for an iPad? And now we're suddenly discussing what knock-offs will compete for a slice of the profits?
The latter is quite simple, none of the other really get out of the Catch 22. Users don't buy until there's apps and app developers don't develop until there's a market. Unless you're Steve Jobs and provably have millions of followers, then you hit critical hype and get a sufficient quantity of apps and users out there simultaneously to set the snowball rolling. Exhibit A, the iPhone. Out of the box quite satisfactory but nothing special compared to HTC and the other smart phones. But hell, given all the useful and funny and clever (and gimmicky and useless) apps Ive seen for it, even I want one by now. Not because I think Apple is that great, but because that's where the applications are.
I think next they'll make the home entertainment center common - oh they've been around forever with Windows Media Center and such but so had the Windows tablets. I don't really count the AppleTV as one either, it's more of a warmup. Not as a console replacement, but one taking a big chunk out of the "casual" gaming market Nintendo has shown is there with the Wii too. And really bringing that together has the core in your system setup, not a Mac. And possibly finally bring around the TV revolution where more people get series and movies via iTunes over the Internet than over broadcasts and cable. Well, the legal revolution anyway ;).
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
It is the quantity of the iPod killers that counts you know. I am not an apple fanboi but I think displacing the iPad is going to be a pretty difficult task.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
Well, I'm waiting for something decent to appear. What I need from such a device is Android, 7"+ screen, decent 3D hw accel, capacitive touch screen and HDMI output. Surprisingly, I couldn't find anything meeting these criteria except Viliv X10 (http://blog.laptopmag.com/viliv-x10-android-tablet-blows-our-mind-with-1366-x-768-screen-3d-graphics-hp-video) which seems to have it all but won't be available until Q4.
Lenovo IdeaPad U1 (http://netbookboards.com/2010/01/07/ces-2010-lenovo-introduces-ideapad-u1-hybrid-tabletnotebook-with-detachable-screen/) looks sweet too with detachable screen (that means read keyboard! :) ) but it's unclear when it will be released, in what form or with which hardware specs.
Curiously, none of them are mentioned in TFA.
He totally forgot the Pandigital Novel -- a 7" Android tablet that is pitched mainly as an e-reader but which has many other capabilities. Sure, it's gotten lukewarm reviews, but at least it exists, unlike most of what's on his list.
On a related note, does anyone know if the new WebKit browser on the now-$139 Kindle is any good?
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Why is there still no decent Android-based iPod Touch competitor?
I can't imagine any of the Windows 7 tablets being worth buying. Any x86 chip that can run Windows 7 will burn more battery life and dissipate more heat than an ARM chip. Do you want a heavy tablet (lots of batteries) or a tablet with super-short battery life? I don't. Do you want a tablet with a vent on one side that blows hot air out while you are using it? I don't.
Of the various ARM chips, the exciting one is the Tegra 2. 8 cores: two ARM 9 cores at 1 GHz each, plus audio DSP, video encode and decode, graphics accelerator, an image processor and an ARM 7 core used for housekeeping. All with a typical heat dissipation of 500 milliWatts, or perhaps less. (I saw a YouTube video that claimed a Tegra 2 can decode 1080P video while dissipating only 350 Watts.)
The iPad gets its long battery life and lack of a hot air vent from the A4 chip, which is an ARM core of some sort (IIRC an ARM 8) at 1 GHz. I believe the iPad also has a graphics accelerator. Presumably a Tegra 2 chip can smoke the iPad on performance, and it's already good enough.
Also, Windows 7 was designed for a mouse. Will the Windows 7 tablets come with a stylus for precision pointing? Or will Microsoft make an all-new GUI environment just for tablets? I'd rather just have Android.
So I'm waiting for a smartbook or tablet with a Tegra 2 and a Pixel Qi screen, running some sort of Linux (likely Android). I had hoped that devices like that would ship this summer but I guess they are delayed.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
What will I do with 32 tablets in the house?
Start a WLAN party and play multiplayer tablet games.
There are tablets with keyboards that slide out, or swivel out, or detach. They work very well as laptops or as tablets or whatever you want to call how you're using the device.
By early 2011 these things are going to be everywhere, and it'll be fascinating to see how they fare."
According to slashdot, they will all fail because despite Apples sales records, no one on earth would want something that isn't a notebook or laptop and falls in between!
Meanwhile out in the real world...
There are millions of them and millions that want them.
ppffft. I'll be interested when it has pressure sensitivity. Anybody who can draw something halfway decent on an ipad could make something spectacular on a wacom.
Free the Quark 3 from asymptotic confinement! Bring your charm! Don't get down! All colours and flavours welcome!
It's really sad to see how some manufacturers seem to honestly think that a Windows 7 tablet is going to work well, let alone be an "iPad killer" of any sort. Windows 7 is a great OS, but it's in no way suited for a touch UI and even if you collaborated with Microsoft to make a "for touch UI" Windows version, you would still have the problem of the entire Windows software ecosystem not conforming to the touch UI norms, so that basically won't help you at all. The only 2 potential competitors the iPad might get are Android 3.0 and Meego devices. No, current Android is not good enough.
Do not want. Any.
How self-centered and selfish of you.
No soup (tablet) for you!
The iPad and alike competitors should bet on business communication suites. One which has video conferencing, document presentation and sharing collaboration tools will be the most successful. I would like it if I could do an impromptu video conference meeting with anyone remotely as face to face interaction leads to better understanding and communication. Take the meeting collaboration space, have the pads chirp to each other forming a meeting share where they can present documents live and collaborate in the editing. Combine the video conference and meeting function together so remote operations are included just like person to person. You could make a remote desktop viewer that shares to everyone else. Give us a headphone and mic jack for privacy as well. Make a scrum board that has tasks that are passed seamlessly through the pads and updated live remote and interoffice. That is a sweet pad.
It's a great controller for DAW's, lighting rigs... It's already starting to change the workflow for film crews. Great device and I'm left looking at the android pads and scratching my head. I'd like to develop in Vala using clutter/Gtk but android is some braindead also-ran platform that requires me to jump through more hoops than the iPad. I looked at all the devices in that list and there's no serious competition for the iPad there.
The current iPad is underpowered and needs something a bit better than the USB "camera kit" for physical connectivity. If version 2 delivers, it's going to be used for more than control and become an amazingly useful device in it's own right.
Apple is first and foremost a fashion company these days, which is how they get their amazing margins. The fashion industry defies the normal pricing trend in that not only are people willing to spend more, but costing more can even be a GOOD thing.
The iPod was not the first MP3 player or anything. What it was is a fashion accessory. It was, and still is, trendy to have one. Notice that the white earbuds because a status statement, to the point that 3rd party companies had to start making them. Etymotic said they'd never before had requests for white, but when the iPod came out people wanted higher quality earphones, but only if they were white.
That is what really drives Apple business, and is why their profits are so high. Their margins are extremely high. In the tech industry, this is not tolerated. You find consumers are extremely price sensitive. However in the fashion industry it is, and to Apple's good fortune they've figured out how to sell tech as fashion.
Now as for iPad competitors, well how much that'll matter will depend on two things:
1) How technically good and cheap the competitors are. If the other tablets offer as good or better of a system for less, they'll sell well to anyone buying the tablet as a tool. After all as a tool the iPad is rather expensive since there are few tasks a tablet is truly well suited for. Most tasks, there are other devices that do a better job, other devices people usually own. So a good price will go a long way to making a niche device worth it. Likewise a good technical system (like the ability to install custom apps) will help. If the competitors have that, it'll hurt the iPad.
2) How much the buying is fashion driven. If the iPad becomes a fashion statement, then it won't really matter what competes with it. It'll sell largely on its fashion, and thus the price and utility won't be much of an issue. People will buy it to have it and show it off, and need no other reason. However if it doesn't become a fashion item, then competition will be much more of a problem, since it'll have to compete on price and that is just something Apple doesn't do.
That is really what it comes down to. So long as Apple keeps making devices that are fashionable, they are golden. They will sell lots, and they can sell them for a premium price, which equates to massive profits. If they can't do that, then they are in trouble. Not going out of business in trouble, they survived for many years not doing that, but their big profits will evaporate in a hurry and their sales will plummet unless they change.
Who knows when that'll happen, or if it ever will. Some companies can ride the fashion wave forever, others have their time in the sun and then fade out.
When the ipad was first announced, many commentators predicted that there would be a deluge of Android-based competitors with more features (Flash!) for less money. Here we are almost seven months later and frankly, this article sums up the sorry state of competition. Most of the devices are unavailable and many don't even have firm release dates (others are late). The predictions about beating Apple's pricing fell through (e.g. the JooJoo is $499, though it's a larger and significantly different device).
Eventually we will have a nice selection of tablets, just like we now have a nice selection of smartphones. But you may have to wait a year or two for them; meanwhile, Apple will sell lots and lots of ipads, establishing a solid market for which developers will make lots of apps.
Frankly, if I was waiting for one of these competitors I'd be getting pretty frustrated. The Notion Ink Adam has been hyped up all over the place, and keeps getting pushed back. The currently available devices (like the one from KMart) get pretty horrible reviews; it's clear that trying to go too cheap on the tablets leads to some huge sacrifices in quality of the screen, for example.
What's interesting to me is that the major ereaders have responded to the ipad. Amazon and BN released apps for the ipad (Amazon on launch day!), while they both substantially dropped their ereader prices (responding to each other, too). They're carving out a niche - dedicated ereaders with eink screens getting down to the price points where people can buy them as gifts for each other in this coming holiday season. BN's nook actually runs Android, though it has to be jailbroken to make use of it.
"The universe seems neither benign nor hostile, merely indifferent." --Carl Sagan
Perhaps - the point is that the iPad *can* be used for more "creation" than simply "typing stuff into a text editor." The "it's for consumption only" meme is a little ridiculous because it assumes that "creation" requires a keyboard, and in some cases, that's simply not true.
Windows 7 is a PC OS. That is what it is designed for, that is what it does well. It was designed to run on a desktop or laptop. Wonderful, doesn't mean you want to put it on a tablet. Part of the point of a device like that, the reason you'd get a system without some of the normal features you might want (like a keyboard) is the fast, appliance like boot times. You run an OS that is designed to be kind of "always on/hibernated" like a phone so when you grab the device, instant boot. Windows 7 isn't designed to do that.
Great... but I do want.
Fine, now you just have to ask yourself the question which particular brand device is more likely to get you laid.
Do not want. Any.
Oh, so YOU'RE the guy that Balmer was listing to!
The problem with the Ipad is that it's $500 These "alternatives" are also $500... they don't solve the problem. People want to surf the net, read books, and maybe do word processing on these things. There's no reason they need to be so built up that they cost $500. I can build a relatively high-end gaming computer for that much. There's no reason a pad should cost that much.
Exactly - it's not going to fill every "creation" niche out there, but there are places where it is an excellent addition to the toolkit.
I think we'll probably see some interesting updates in version 2 or 3 of the ipad, but I think you might see them pushing more for bluetooth or wifi/bonjour connectivity to other devices. Apple seems to hate putting ports on their devices... I don't think we're likely to see 4 mini-usb ports suddenly appear in the iPad 2.
Maybe this will help "create things"
http://9to5mac.com/adobe-photoshop-express-ipad-support
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
So many mediocre tablets from startups trying to cash in.
How about a quality unit from a top tier company?
BTW just read this bombshell.
Oracle is now suing Android over Java!!!
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_15762198?nclick_check=1
DRM? Like how they took all the DRM off all the iTMS downloads?
It's not called "iTunes Music Store" anymore. Just about everything in the iTunes Store except music is still DRM-laden.
I'll be interested when it has pressure sensitivity.
Ten One is making impressive strides in that regard.
The iPad is inferior to a Cintiq as a drawing device, but it will be owned by people who would never drop $1000+ on an art tool. It's also portable in ways Wacom devices really aren't. You could just as easily argue "Anybody who can draw something halfway decent with a pencil and a sketchbook could make something spectacular on a Wacom", but pencils and sketchbooks aren't going away either.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Why isn't the iPad designed for creating things, exactly? Who started this myth?
Do not want. Any.
How self-centered and selfish of you.
No soup (tablet) for you!
That was a perverse episode, I don't think it's an example worth being told in this case.
Basically, the writers of the show had a personal issue with the restaurant's owner and used the show as a mean to hurt that man's business.
But someone could create some content using a different device, that this person would like more, therefore this device is completely worthless.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
But in that case, the writers totally missed the mark : In NYC, the Soup Nazi store has queues every lunch-hour - the writers made it into an attraction...
Total number of TRS-80 Model 100 sold worldwide? Introduced in 1983 and sold over 6 million (Wikipedia) for $800. The iPad will sell many more than that in its first year and for a lower price with incomparably greater capabilities. Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
It's time for computer companies to admit they have no idea who their customer is, or what their customer wants. Most computer products try to be everything to everyone and end up disappointing all.
The secret to Apple's success is simplicity - identifying the smallest list of features that their customer base will find useful. Sure this makes some people unhappy, but the vast majority of their customers are happy with the feature set, and delighted by the ease of use that results from a device that doesn't try to do everything.
I used to want my computing devices to do everything. This usually resulted in building computers that could heat an entire house or carrying a laptop bag that weighed 50 lbs. Since converting my life to Apple's products (AppleTV, Mac Mini server, iMac, iPhones, iPods and iPads) I've been happier.
I was hesitant to get an iPad fearing that it's limited feature set would relegate it to a dust-collector in my technology scrap pile. I couldn't have been more wrong. On a recent weekend in Las Vegas, I didn't even bring my laptop bag. I was able to get remote access to my entire work network, read books and magazines, watch movies, and listen to music. Battery life was fantastic and I never once wished that I brought my laptop bag the entire weekend.
It was damn cool to walk on the plane with only an iPad and a pair of headphones in tow.
I'm not saying Apple's way is the only right way. There may be another company out there that figures their customers out as well as Apple has, but for now, I haven't seen it.
-ted
How have all of those "iPod Killers" fared over the last decade?
How have all of those "iPod Killers" fared over the last decade?
Amazing what spending money to more or less hide competitors does huh? And yes, Apple pays for those special cases since no store will ever sacrifice floor space for a single product unless they are being paid to do it.
Why isn't the iPad designed for creating things, exactly? Who started this myth?
Apple?
I've always gotten the impression that they didn't "design" it for anything in particular, but rather just gave it some features, form factor, and their trendy phone OS, and hoped it would find a niche in the trendy gadgets market. It's worked pretty well for them.
Was it not true that initially there was much head-scratching, trying to figure out what role the IPod was supposed to fill? No matter what market (that it's form and function would suggest) was considered, it seemed the IPad came up lacking in every comparison, except in the trendy effect. From what I've seen, it was designed to be a cool gadget that hopefully users would figure out how to do something useful with, despite the (often intentional) limitations.
That isn't to say that there isn't a market for trendy gadgets, because obviously there is. That also isn't to say that people haven't managed to use it for creating things, they have.
However to suggest it was "designed" for creating, rather than consuming (within their walled garden), seems quite a stretch. I don't even recall Apple pitching that.
I'm glad to see more competition in this market place. I'm not too fond of the IPad, but more competition ultimately increases the likelihood of consumers getting products in general, whether they are from Apple or a competitor. There's a lot that the competition can learn from Apple, and I believe there will be a lot that Apple can learn from the competition as well.
I needs more Linux supported ones. Seriously, it's cheap and the most diverse, it would give linux the boost introduction it needs AND it would provide the best customization options while still fitting with the model's design specs.
It's the software, stupid.
So that explains why iPods sell so well at Amazon!
But poor little companies like Sony and Microsoft can't compete with Apple?
The differences between Macs and PCs are NOT superficial. Macs run Mac OS out of the box. PCs do not. Mac OS is substantially dissimilar to Windows or Linux, which is why every time I try to use Mac OS I find that I'm totally unproductive due to radically different keyboard layouts, filesystem organization, window controls, and so on. These are not "superficial" differences unless you also consider the differences between a wrench, a CD-ROM drive, a spatula, and terrestrial seasons to be "superficial." After all, each of these is all about "turning."
And I can tell you in two words what makes Apple products highly regarded by their users: USER INTERFACE.
On Slashdot, nobody believes that user interfaces matter. Outside of Slashdot, where real people have real lives and real problems, user interfaces are the KEYS to technological competence. Good user interface = conservation of time thanks to shallow learning curve. Poor user interface = waste of time for inverse reasons. And time is money, ergo, Apple makes many people richer.
You and many other Slashdotters will now proceed to assume that I mean this facetiously or that I'm an Apple fanboi, and this explains precisely why (1) Mac OS has taken the niche that would have belonged to Linux, and (2) Slashdotters never get laid or venerated.
STOP . AMERICA . NOW
So that explains why iPods sell so well at Amazon!
But poor little companies like Sony and Microsoft can't compete with Apple?
Bluntly put, yes, and thank you for proving me right. Have you looked at the mp3 player section on Amazon? Almost all of the boxes are ads for iPod, and around 90% of the information and pictures shown are just iPod, it kinda really blocks out the competition, which gives most people the thought to only buy an iPod.
I think he explained that fairly clearly.... At least, if it is designed for 'creating things', it isn't designed very well! If it had been designed to 'create things' it would have lost much of it's appeal to those who don't want it to create things, by requiring a larger screen, keyboard, more ports, better specs (==higher power consumption) etc.
When you say "create things"... what do you mean?
Because all of the evidence shows that at least for some applications (some video applications, music - mixers, synthesizer-style instruments - and art/sketching/drawing), it's just as capable as a desktop system with a 27" screen, keyboard, mouse, quad-core processors, and 16gb of ram, and in fact, it may even be a more natural interface than the tradition mouse & keyboard for some of these applications.
This is the puzzling thing - conventional wisdom seems to have decided that "creating anything" with an ipad is impossible, or even too difficult to be worth it. In point of fact, it's quite suitable for both consumption and creation - unless you define "creation" so narrowly as to be strictly text-entry into a word processing program.
In fairness, there's a whole level of existing capability being blithely ignored by both sides: the Wacom "Penabled" (*spit*) touch/digitizer screens in some convertible tablets are less capable than a dedicated tablet, but far more than a plain capacitive, or even resistive, touchscreen. They also (the whole tablet PC, that is) are intermediate in both price and portability between a Cintiq and an iPad, and are probably a good compromise for people who actually plan to do art on a tablet.
People who don't own iPads.
Well, I put it in quotation marks because I was using it in the sense that I think the parent was using it -- I agree it's too broad a term to really be of use.
I agree with your point -- to an extent. Most of the tasks you list would be greatly helped if a keyboard and mouse could be used in conjunction with the touch screen with a suitably designed OS.
I'm not much of an Apple fanboi, but my observation is that even after 3 years of iPhone, the only semi-contender is Android. Every other imitator has been a half-assed Symbian piece of crap with the typical 4-color graphics and a processor that can barely edge out the 8086.
Sure, a shit ton of idiotic Taiwanese imitations will flood the market, and they will all have the same fundamental shortcoming: poor quality software and no 3rd party apps. Do you really expect app developers to target all these obscure, unsupported, docs-written-in-mandarin slabs of fail ?
It's quite simple: there is room for two platforms. There's Mac, and there's PC. iPhone vs Android. iPad vs ??? GooglePad ? Realistically that's the kind of clout it would take to launch a true competitor.
-Billco, Fnarg.com
The iPad is far worse than even a $50 no-name USB graphics tablet plugged into a laptop (arguably, it's worse than even an old Palm Treo). And all those electronic gadgets are far worse than pencil and paper.
I write code and use Pages and Numbers on my iPad. It actually works pretty well. I do sometimes use a Bluetooth keyboard but it's mostly because they made the virtual keyboard keys to large instead of putting all the symbols in one place. Hopefully they'll offer an alternative eventually. I actually like the key size on the iTouch better because it's less distance to move your fingers.
Drawing and other interactions where touch works well are awesome of course. I would like a clip to slide on my Apple Bluetooth keyboard and my iPad to temporarily bind them into laptop shape for those occasions where a portable stand would be nice.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
Pressure sensitive pens exist for the iPad thanks to its Bluetooth. I don't know if it really makes a difference though other than being what you are used to. Could easily make your second hand a pressure indicator by moving your finger back and forth. I like being able to see what I'm drawing right under my finger/pen which is something that many drawing tablets don't do.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
I'll say. Why, I can remember a time when nostalgia really used to be something.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
Spoken like someone who has never tried to open an 800MB Photoshop file with forty or fifty layers on an iPad.....
If Apple could add an optional "bottom half" cover to the iPad, which would consist of a keyboard, memory card reader on the side, and perhaps connect only having swing out arms that attach magnetically to the bezel of the iPad (itself having built in hidden magnets) so that it would look like a netbook, I imagine such a thing would be really popular. Especially if priced at $149 or so.
Of course, this idea is from Always Innovating Netbook, Touchpad, and only the attachment is changed to make it more in line with Apple's current style and offerings:
http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10185351-1.html
I consider the current dock connector keyboard a real klutzy solution.
Well, see, because.. the web browser works great for viewing web sites, and the photo viewer works great for viewing photos. The music player works great for listening to music, and the movie app works great for (Wait for it....) watching movies.
Authoring real web-sites would be painful at best. Doing much text entry is again painful. This, even though apple has created special versions of their iWork suite for the device. They might be the best in their class, but they still kind-of suck compared to the desktop versions. The iMovie app for iPhone is revolutionary in a sense, and yet nobody can really say it's a competitor to a real movie editor. It's cool that the quality of the camera has improved and you can take movies with it now, but it's still not quite up there with real cameras (and anyway the current generation of iPad doesn't have these anyway).
Yes, there ARE some applications that DO let you "create", but the consumption is what's convenient.
Creation is not solely defined by format or size of your file.
http://www.zombieapocalypse.tv/
(Disclaimer: I am not an Apple fan, I don't have a Mac or iPhone or iPad or iPod; I have programmed on Macs though and I've seen projects for the iPad and the iPhone)
I know only one company that makes computer products for the average consumer, and that is Apple. It's strange, but there is no other company that is in the same category as Apple. All other companies are in a different segment of the computer market, and they occasionally see what Apple does and want a piece of the pie, but they have no idea how to achieve it. Microsoft is in the operating system/office/development/tools/video game market; Google is in the internet apps market; Linux vendors are mostly in the server market; Sony and Nintendo is in the video game market. None of the markets mentioned above has to do 100% with the market Apple is into. There are overlaps between what the others do and what Apple does, but they are different markets.
Apple caught everyone by surprise when they released the iPhone. Did the consumers want an easy to use phone with a multimedia/internet flavor around it? you bet. But no other company has really understood that, because they were busy hyping themselves and their products. Now Apple caught everyone by surprise for a second time! and the others have still not learned the lesson, i.e. that they have no idea about what the consumer really wants. The reviewed tablets of this topic is testament to that: they are either vaporware or inferior to iPad, and I just don't see any iPad alternatives in the future.
Which companies could offer Apple some competition?
Microsoft could not do it because they are a geek programmers' company, they don't have the consumer product mentality in sufficient amounts; their product line is testament to that.
Nintendo knows how to make game consoles, but I really doubt they can do anything else; even internet browsing on their consoles is always a 2nd rate feature for them.
Google doesn't really have the resources to do it, because consumer level products require different operating systems and user interfaces, something that Google doesn't seem to be able to do. There is a lot of fine open source code out there for desktop systems, but pads and phones require a different approach.
Sony is a great big mystery, because they are into mass-market electronic products for many decades, but they have totally missed the point for the last decade.
Smaller companies have some interesting approaches but they always fail to produce a product which is so polished like Apple's products.
Where does that leave us? there is Apple and then there are all the rest companies. This means that if there is not a good tablet out there from another company in the next year, I'll give in and buy an iPad instead. How long can we wait for an alternative anyway?
i think the ipad [form-factor] idea is mostly right, it only needs to weigh and cost three times less to fit the criteria of a somewhat redundant gadget suitable for "*shrug* dunno, i use it when i just don't feel like reading stuff on my pc or hassling with my laptop".
;)
i hope the coming no-name tablets will bring us there eventually and it'll become just a common gadget always tossed somewhere in your house, like today's newspaper.
(let's hope they won't make the backside so stylishly rounded, so it can actually be controlled it while lying on a table
Both those manufacturers and the larger part of the /. crew don't get it.
The iPad isn't successful because it is the only tablet device. In fact, it already isn't. Competing on CPU speed, graphics, hardware of any kind, is not competing.
Look, you're essentially saying that the BMW M5 is doomed because Crysler is coming out with a new model as is Ford, Honda and Toyota. But the world doesn't work like that. People who bought a BMW would probably not buy a Honda, even if it "beats" the BMW in all the hard values like fuel consumption, type of engine, crispiness of headlights, whatever.
The iPad is a seamless consumer experience, and that's what people like and want in it. You pick it up and you start browsing the web or reading your e-books. There is almost no explanation required, everything just works, and you are limited in what you can do. For people who are not computer geeks, that is actually a good thing, it makes the device easier to understand.
Put windows 7 on a notebook without keyboard isn't even in the same league. It's not even the Honda, it's a bike. Nothing against bikes, but how many people who were about to buy a BMW do you know that didn't, because some new bike just came to market?
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Their business model of selling expensive devices to hipsters (basically the same model they used in the 1970s and 1980s)
Huh?
but soon market forces bring in competitors who appeal to the other 98%.
If only that were true for every annoying niche in IT. Unfortunately, we are stuck with 800 lb gorillas in almost every corner, and in many areas everything sucks equally bad.
Viable competition doesn't just appear out of thin air either.
EX: "Competition" didn't happen to KMart; Walmart did.
It doesn't have to be a keyboard, but you need some better mode of input than jabbing at it with your fingers. For example, a tablet with a stylus and decent handwriting recognition is absolutely great for taking notes with. What I lose in having to write longhand (I'm a semi-decent typist), I gain in having something I can hold in one hand and write on whether standing, sitting or lying on the sofa. Saying that the iPad is more about consumption is fair, but the same is not true of tablets in general. If you're writing a novel, you're going to want a keyboard, desk and chair. If you want to scrawl down notes, quick diagrams or annotate a PDF, then a tablet with a stylus can be excellent.
Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
Ipad is another short-running, indoor-only battery hog.
Huh? The thing can play video for something like 8 hours straight without a recharge. It's the antithesis of a "battery hog".
> By early 2011
For months now, we've been hearing about how iPad was going to get its ass kicked in the holiday season of 2010. Look out Apple! Now that's changed to early 2011, not just here but also in HP's recent leak. I'm looking forward to hearing the iPad competitors are coming mid-2011, and then holiday season 2011, and so on. Such a familiar story. iPod touch is 3 years old and no competitor except Zune HD for 1 year and it did not even sell 1 million.
So you don't want a tablet. That's allowed but it doesn't mean they are useless or that everyone else feels the same way you do. I'm not blown away by the iPad but if this drives down the price for tablets that I can use for drawing and multi-touch music making then I'm all for it.
Brain surgery - it's not rocket science!
All this silly talk about iOs, about Android and Windows 7... useless in my opinion. I don't know what OS runs my fridge and what programming is behind the knob in my dishwasher. I'll do the computing on a computer, and for a portable dumb terminal I don't want to care about what OS is there. All I want on my portable touchscreen thingy is a calendar and to-do list application, permanent storage on a SD card and Firefox for everything else. Build it like the Siemens ME45 mobile phone and I'm all set.
The resaon i belive 32 extra tablets will not make any differance is that they are too late apple R&D seem to be able to think and get product that is wanted out in the hands of people.
Most other companies are either to slow or to lazy to make good innovative products for the market. Apple have the balls to try make something differant and then tell everyone how great there life is with the new shinny shinny stuff.
HTC. Blackberry, Microsoft, Dell, HP, IBM and Toshiba, and Intel are all massive companies with massive research budgets but they keep pushing out the same old stuff, i mean the laptop nothing has really changed in 20years (ok lighter faster - but to me that just normal progress) no one is saying what can we do that takes the format to the 'true' next level, the 'true' next generation - or lets skip a generation and give us the product of the future now.
Big companies listen - look at yout dev cycle. is what you are planing on giving to us in 4yrs, really a big step forward in tech, or is the same old stuff. if its the same old stuff - go back to the drawing board and start again. if you want a competative adventage then get your cool tech out first and take the market, dont wait 18months till you bring out an iKiller which everyone know will not be an iKiller it will just have missed the boat...
P.S. iKiller, i will have that copywrited - thanks..
Add bluetooth to it and and you have all the ports you want. but what you going to add to it. proper keyboard. if so you have bought the wrong device.
As far as i can work out it not ment to be a laptop. so the on scrren keyboard is enough to do the job it is designed for.
its designed to do a job and it does it very very well in a market that is too lazy to try and be competative!
Will we able to install any type on linux we want on these devices? I don't care for Apple control, or the linux bastardisation that is Android. I want to be able to use Arch, Slackware or Gentoo etc. Or even MeeGo at a push.
So really the question is why are these things being sold as closed devices, like mobile phones, rather than more general computing devices like netbooks/laptops?
Are there any tablets/pads/slates for the likes of me?
Complaining about the lack of a physical keyboard on the iPad is like complaining about the lack of a keyboard on a desktop PC. All you need to do is plug one in or pair one via Bluetooth.
There is a legitimate issue with the iPad's support for hardware accessories - it can be done but (as far as I understand it) you have to design your accessories specifically for iOS devices and get accreditation from Apple, which is why there are so few accessories available even though this has been possible since iPhone OS 3.0.
I also heard a legitimate complaint from an application developer (can't remember which one - if anyone can find the blog post please link it) who ruled out bringing their photo management app to the App Store because they didn't have direct access to the Camera Kit. Photos had to be imported through Apple's photos app, which modified the images.
That said, a lot of the issues are being overblown. A couple of other posters here have complained that the iPad screen isn't pressure-sensitive like a Wacom, and that it wouldn't be capable of opening huge Photoshop files. The iPad is competing against netbooks, not professional desktop workstations - netbooks can't (or would struggle to) do these things.
I've always gotten the impression that they didn't "design" it for anything in particular, but rather just gave it some features, form factor, and their trendy phone OS, and hoped it would find a niche in the trendy gadgets market. It's worked pretty well for them.
I agree with you in part, here. I think Apple knew it would be the developers (and the users, too) who would end up creating uses for the iPad. I don't think they were hoping to only fill a niche or saw it as a trend, though. They knew it was a new way of computing and that people would find practical uses for it. It's as much of a trend as laptops are.
Why do I need a large screen, a keyboard, and a mouse for sketching an idea I come up with while going for a walk?
Obviously, the hardware will, to an extent, dictate the kind of things people are going to want to create with a device. But that is different to the device being designed more for consumption than creation.
At least in Safari. All these stupid dialog boxes pop up. Like "Are you sure do you want to turn on private browsing?" "You have typed in text, are you sure you want to go back/forward?" The latter doesn't evenshow up consistently. Just now I pressed back and the box didn't pop up.
I went to OS X to escape that stupid Windows trait. "Are you sure?" OMFG why don't I just use the POS that's called Windows. IF the action isn't going to harm anything, hard to undo, or slow the computer down, etc., then yes fucking do it.
The computer illiterate hate computers because of this stupid shit.
No, creative had the first MP3 to use. It was large because hard drives were large. But it was still a notebook HDD and therefore about the same size as a tape walkman when they came out. Nobody seemed to care at the time about not being able to use it.
And iRiver had HDD devices with 1.8" drives with digital optical in and digital optical out, Mass Storage availability, Ogg Vorbis and a handy little remote at about the same time as the iPod was using 1.8" drives. The iRiver flash players were smaller but used standard AA batteries and also had Ogg Vorbis. Being AA batteries, the 40 hour play time was really indefinite.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pp8h97oCrX4
And check out his other videos.
They failed. I can get his cookbook in Alabama. I've known several people who, upon making first trips into New York, made a point of visiting his place. Anyone, anyone who think that making real world establishment into a major fixture on an immensely popular TV show will hurt its business has to be smoking something.
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
I'm not an Apple fan, so this isn't one of those responses. However, I do understand that the iPad is a very niche product that has appealed to a segment of the population that is willing to buy yet another Apple product. That same demographic isn't really waiting with baited breath for another brand of tablet. They either bought the Apple one, or they're not going to buy one. Right now, a tablet really doesn't do anything that anyone else needs or desires. If you didn't buy an iPad, chances are pretty good that you're not going to buy someone else's tablet computer because you probably already have your needs met with a laptop. Sure, a few people will buy them as vanity products, but unless they make them so that they do something so awesome, there's really no need. An ereader can be found in anyone of the ones already available, and tablets are already out with the iPad. I almost bought one until I realized I didn't really need one and then bought a new laptop instead.
Sarbonn's blog: http://www.sarbonn.com/blog
There are a ton of Kindle competitors. I just waded through 5 or 6 of them before deciding on the Kindle. If what you really want is a general purpose computing device with a small form factor and eink display, I have to warn you that the technology is just not there yet. I have the newer model Kindle with the now painfully slow refresh instead of the old woefully slow refresh or the even older Biblically-woefully slow refresh. The best eink display I ran across was the Sony with it's only-somewhat-less-painfully slow refresh. That's fine if you want to read static text, but for anything else it sort of sucks. That's ok that it sort of sucks for other things because it's amazing at what it does and in the Kindle's case, Amazon just throws in a rudimentary browser with free 3G access. Given how much faster the Sony and Kindle 3 refresh compared to the Kindle 1, I am optimistic that we'll have a viable eink general purpose display in the near future, but not right now.
Indeed. The other issue is capacative screens you're stuck with fingerpainting - I'd say a resistive touchscreen at least is more suitable, where you have a choice of stylus.
Then there's software. Sure, someone's made a simple Paint program for the Ipad, but artists tend to be fussy about their tools, even to the extent of accepting nothing less than Photoshop. Fact is, if you were going to consider a portable touch device for art, a Windows based resistive touchscreen netbook running Photoshop (or at least, Linux if they're okay with GIMP) is far more relevant. But no, we never hear about that - instead the coverage is just "look, I can create finger paint art with my very expensive etcha-sketch!" as if the Ipad was the only touchscreen portable device in existence...
Any table that doesn't drop its wifi connection every 5 minutes is bound to do better than the iPad.
But if Microsoft is the IBM of now, than its attempts to make the PC of now are flailing blindly. I think you're comparing Apples to oranges here. (Yes, that was terrible, thank you) PC's of 20 years ago were expensive items and IBM (and especially the clones) were able to position themselves as the "Maybe not as good, but cheaper" option. When you were talking $1.5-2K vs 2.5-3K that was a huge deal (especially in 1980's money). You could save a lot of money and go with a very respected brand, practically synonymous with "computer".
By comparison, tablets are fairly cheap. ~$500 for a good one. Apple's gotten a big early lead and the competition is releasing inferior competitive products that save you what? $100 bucks? $50 bucks? The competition is also releasing roughly equivalent competitive products... but for roughly the same price, and much cheaper, but clearly MUCH inferior products for larger savings.
This isn't to say that I think Apple is going to rule the tablet PC market forever and always, amen. More that I don't think they'll crash and burn spectacularly like they did in the 80s. This isn't the same market, and the room to differentiate is there. When the difference between the "best of the best" (and most expensive of the expensive) and the cheapest or the cheap is only a few hundred dollars, people are willing to splurge for the "best", whatever that means to them.
As to your point about the iPod... I don't see it. Sony and Microsoft both have (or have had in the past) much more money than Apple. Acting like Apple somehow used it's vast warchest and influence to "cheat" in the MP3 player battles is patently silly. Their opponents had the same resources they did, if not more.
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
I don't worry about audio or video on Linux. Please, the 80's called and they want their anti-Linux screed back.
PS you DO know that Apple are using the Linux-system CUPS for printing, didn't you? If their stuff "just works" why did they dump it?
iPad is to big, iPod Touch is to small. I want my device to be no bigger than paper back novel ( 4X6 or 5X7) with the largest most impressive screen possible. Everything else is would be just icing on the icake.
Don't tell this guy or this woman.
Kiteboarding Gear Mention slashdot and get 10% off!
I've been wanting to update my N800 with newer hardware for a while now, and if I were to go by that list, there's really only one option: the Archos 5. The Augen may also take second, but it's not 5 inches.
That, to me, is sad.
Let's wheel out Apple's one hit wonder, and extrapolate to assume that everything Apple will do will be the market leader. It's yet to happen, though.
Though personally I'm happy with my Sansa - 8GB for around half the price of the Ipod's 2GB, plus it takes an additional microSD card, allowing easy upgrading. Plus it actually has UI (I thought that was what Apple were supposed to be good at?) Never would have heard about it by reading so-called tech sites like Slashdot, I had to go and visit my mainstream shop.
I already am seeing more cellphones with headphones used on CTA in Chicago.
Do you remember the history of the PC?
Apple was the first major player in this market. Sure, there were a few other companies that achieved some level of success, but Apple was by far the first to be really successful with their Apple II. They dominated the last few years of the 1970s, and into the 1980s.
Then IBM released their PC, which itself was followed by various PC clones. Then Apple fired Steve Jobs, stopped developing new products, and started milking its existing ones for everything they were worth. By the late 1980s, Apple was nearly destroyed. They went from the top of the industry to near the bottom, in around a decade.
Fixed your history.
However to suggest it was "designed" for creating, rather than consuming (within their walled garden), seems quite a stretch. I don't even recall Apple pitching that
Really? Because I do. The announcement of the device featured longish demos of a painting program (Brushes) and the 3 office apps (Pages, Numbers, Keynote). The iOS4 announcement included a video editing program. I'll be extremely surprised if that doesn't end up on the iPad too.
I have a lot of opinions about Cyborgs and Architects
Because that's the only kind of creation you can do, obviously.
Have you ever tried opening an 800 MB Photoshop file on a computer from the late nineties? I guess nobody did any creating until 2000 though, right?
I see the anti-Apple mods have been through here. Too bad they weren't a little slower - a +5 Flamebait is always entertaining.
I think you have it wrong on several accounts. They did not sell to hipsters in the 70's and 80's, they sold to professionals. Not all professionals, but rather the graphics and printing professionals (as well as academia) that the Macintosh was built to support. They pretty much did anything with graphics, if you walked into a radiology department in the 90's, everything would probably be Mac. Where they went wrong and started to crash was when they tried to compete with the PCs and Dell in the low margin section of the market to try and gain market share. Between lots of confusing and underpowered models and being undersold by the clones, Apple was not doing well. Sell premium products with decent margins and they may only have a small share of the market, but that's where the majority of the profits are. The top 2% of the market is probably worth the bottom 50% and not a bad place to be.
When I close the lid on my MacBook, it goes to sleep right away. When I open the lid, it wakes up right away. It works exactly as well 6 months later. The only time I reboot my laptop is when a software update requires it. This is something that my Thinkpad, Dell, and HP laptops have all had problems with in the past. To the end user, it's a hardware function...close or open the lid.
And the multitouch trackpad on my laptop is so good that I ended up buying a used Fingerworks trackpad so I could get similar functionality on my Dell.
The OS X UI has all sorts of wonky inconsistencies. Which is why (speaking of the iPad), Apple designed an entirely new UI for their touch products. To get rid of some of that crap.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Same way the iPod prices dropped after several models and ebook readers fell. Competitors might accelerate a price trend.
Once again, I can't disagree that *that* use case would be more suited to a tablet or a keyboard.
But there are lots of things where input is not text-based (drawing apps, music/mixer apps, especially) that are perfectly well-suited for a touchscreen device like the ipad.
I'm not disputing that some other devices may be just as good (or even better) for some purposes. I'm disputing the "it's only for consumption" meme, because it's a fallacy.
you can get a stylus for the ipad. several of the artists I work with have them for their ipads.
True, I wasn't actually complaining about the lack of a built-in keyboard - I was acknowledging that if your idea of "creation" requires a keyboard for heavy text entry, you have to basically make your ipad into a small laptop by bringing a keyboard along.
Rumors are that it will be based on the iOS operating system. This implies it will have access to the App Store.
The new iPhone has a display resolution of 960 x 640 pixels. New games are being written for that resolution, and old games being updated for it.
Turn it sideways...640p is not that far from 720p. Since it's a dedicated TV device, Apple could handle the up-res from 640 to 720 in hardware. You'd have a $99 device not much bigger than an iPhone that could store and play hundreds of video games...games that already exist. The device would launch with a huge game library from day one.
You could use your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad as the controller (or buy a dedicated controller if you don't have any of those). The coup de grace would be wireless or cloud syncing so that you could pause a game on the TV and continue it on your mobile device later (and vice versa).
If Apple can get this thing out the door fast enough, it could be the big video game system for the holidays.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
its not oriented to create things
I would have to disagree. The only person I know with one is a writer, and he has started using it in preference to his laptop for writing his articles. He has a bluetooth keyboard which he hasn't even tried to use with it yet, because he's perfectly happy typing onscreen. They're not for everyone, but they can be used as a real computer in a lot of cases.
One hit wonder? The Apple II was a hit and a market leader long before the iPod. And the iPad is a hit and market leader in it's field after the iPod.
That's 3 hits at least.
Oh, and don't try to claim the tablet market is new and as yet untested. Microsoft's been trying to sell them as Tablet PCs since 2001. And before that various manufacturers tried to sell tablets in the early 90s using Penpoint OS. Apple is the company that's manages to make tablets a hit, exactly as it made MP3 players a hit with the iPod.
Still, you've never let the facts get in the way of your Apple hatred before now.
The Apple II was bought by businessmen for Visicalc. By schools for education. And by geeks for home tinkering. All extremely unhip. "Hipsters" weren't buying computers in the late 1970s. They were buying Hi-Fi.
Well, David Hockney is a pretty significant artist. And he describes his iPad as "a wonderful new drawing medium" albeit he is "at a loss as to how to make it pay"
see eg
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/may/11/david-hockney-ipad-drawings
Do you remember the history of the PC? Based on your post, you don't. Apple never dominated any computer market. The Apple II was a great machine, but more expensive than many of it's competitors. In the late seventies, no one really dominated the market. Apple was in the top three or four, but they were competing with the TRS-80, Commodore, Atari, and others. In the early 80s it was all Commodore at home and IBM in the office. The only area were Apple was far in the lead was education. The Apple II+ and IIe were great computers, but they cost about $1000 when the Commodore 64 cost about $400. Visicalc did give Apple a small window of time when they lead the business market, but IBM erased that lead pretty fast. When the Mac was released it was a game changing system, but it was also expensive. Most people checked their purses and went for the cheap PC clone. Apple could never compete on price, but until the early nineties they did carve out a market based on quality and an unmatched GUI. Once Windows became 'good enough' and the Intel chips caught up to PowerPC there weren't many reasons to buy a Mac anymore and their sales tanked.
This is obviously a very superficial and incomplete history but the point is that Apple has never, until the iPod anyway, had a lead in market share in any market. They've always been high-end, high-quality products that have been at least close to the best in their markets, but only actually purchased by a minority group.
Much like the iPhone, the iPad is a leader in design, UI, and usability. The iPhone led out of the gate because no one was doing anything remotely liked it and it stood out. Some negative folks said it wouldn't sell, sat on their laurels, and then when it did they COPIED it (Android, BB, etc.). Same thing with iPad. No one had the balls, or innovative DNA to do it themselves, Apple came out, it's a big seller, and now the Android and BB copies are starting to roll out.
Nothing wrong with copying success, but it would be nice if they had an idea on their own lately instead of photocopying Apple.
Even though their first attempt (Newtons) wasn't a great business success. Still, you look at Apple post Steve and then after Steve returned and it's evident where things went wrong. I don't think you can say that all of Apple's ups and downs are based solely on their products but also on their business strategy.
I drank what? -- Socrates
Still have a SoundDesign receiver with built in 8 track player. Got it when I bought a house that had a built in headboard/shelving system with the receiver and speakers. The headboard was also covered in red shag and the ceiling had mirror tiles on it. Total 70's hipster pad.
I drank what? -- Socrates
Its hard to see anyone putting a serious dent in the I-pad. Everyone comes up with a few items in their device that they can market against Apple's "whatever" device but they just can't bring the same user experience as a whole. Heap on top of that Apples cult like brand loyalty and I'm just not convinced that they have much to worry about.
Uhm. Okay. I though it was designed to be a coffee table internet machine that could be used to browse the web, write emails, show photo's to friends and to play solitaire. I.e., a replacement for 90% of a PC for 90% of the people.
My MacBook pro would struggle to cope with a file like that. Any decent portable tablet with decent battery life isn't going to match a laptop's capabilities let alone a desktop setup for dealing with such files with ease.
Anyway, not all graphic artists and designers only ever deal with 800MB Photoshop files.
Perhaps the Wi-fi only version is meant for coffee tables...
Most of the tasks you list would be greatly helped if a keyboard and mouse could be used in conjunction with the touch screen with a suitably designed OS.
Why do you say that?
Because the mouse offers a precise input method, useful (essential in a lot of cases) when drawing, and a real keyboard is easier to type on than a software one -- even drawings often have text in them. Unless you need to do your art while walking your dog, there is no downside to having additional input tools -- having a mouse and keyboard doesn't stop you from having a touch screen.
When you can zoom with such ease, high resolution tracking isn't necessarily important for drawing. Not to mention that drawing is not always about pixel precision to begin with. And when talking about vector graphics with a zooming GUI, pixel precision is irrelevant.
And do you still not see the benefit of being able to slip a single, small device in a backpack rather than a larger device or the same device including accessories? And what about people who want the ability to sit on a park bench and sketch what they see? You think they're going to carry a portable table with them so they can use their mouse and keyboard?
Yes, I've always seen the benefit. Do you not see the benefit of the said device having the ability to accept other input devices? All it requires is a couple of USB plugs, it wouldn't hurt the portability of the device at all. When you don't want/need a mouse or keyboard, leave them behind!