Slashdot Mirror
Acer CEO Declares a Tablets Bubble
retroworks writes "According to a story in Digitimes, Acer chairman JT Wang is predicting the end of 'tablet fever.' 'Commenting on tablet PC's impact on the notebook industry, [Acer chairman JT Wang] pointed out that tablet PC fever is already starting to cool down and consumers are also being attracted by notebooks again with Intel's Ultrabooks and Microsoft's Windows 8 the major attractions.' Back to the old model then... PC and laptop sales, driven by Windows upgrades?"
Is he talking about iPad fever or lame tablet/netbook fever?
If the former, he can wait until Apple's next quarterly results. If the latter, well, he's probably right. Maybe he's talking from his own sales numbers?
The continued popularity of the iPad (and decent success enjoyed by Asus and Samsung with their respective Android tablets) would tend to put the lie to this claim. Acer's own entry into the tablet race was by all accounts a bit crap, so this sounds like some serious sour grapes to me. Also, I haven't heard from anybody in the real world who's excited about these 'ultrabooks' ; they sound like a sad marketing scheme from Intel, along the lines of their old 'Viiv' branding.
--- Bwah?
Just because you haven't found a personal need/use for a tablet, doesn't mean the millions who've bought them (iPads and the dozen or so Xooms and Galaxy's out there) haven't. The CEO of Acer sounds like he's trying to make noise because Acer isn't in the competitive tablet business. In fact, nobody is in the competitive tablet business at this point, except Apple. And all signs point to it not slowing down anytime soon.
The misunderstanding here is that people have to choose one or the other. I prefer a desktop for programming, a laptop for browsing leisurely about the apartment, and a tablet for reading in bed. Once the price bubble on tablets bursts, I am sure more people will buy them as a handy tertiary device, between a phone and a laptop.
ketchup!
(see, that has no relevance to the article either)
While manufacturers that have failed to grow a userbase that lets them compete with Apple may wish for tablets to be a bubble, I feel they're ignoring a new segment.
I have never purchased an apple device, bar an old 5G ipod in the past. When I saw Jobs present the iPad I could immediately see the utility. It doesn't compete with my laptop or my desktop. I use it in places my laptop doesn't work well. Say on the sofa, or in the kitchen. I can grab it and look something up while walking around. I can take it when traveling and use it to read news, watch video and still get emails or even remote desktop / ssh if needed.
When HP liquidated their touchpad stock I grabbed one of those too. The iPad's app store is certainly a huge draw, but $100 is easily worthwhile for the web browser, video player and email. The trouble for the manufacturers who aren't Apple is that while $100-$200 is easily justifiable for that device, at the $400-500 price point folk want an iPad, mostly because of the Apps.
The touchpad doesn't have a Netflix client. I can't fathom why HP didn't just pay Netflix to develop it, as it would easily have helped drive sales. I'm pretty sure they could have partnered with Amazon too for video and music services. At the moment, every non-apple brand of tablet is a compromise, yet there's no discount on price to reflect this. As a result, their userbase remains small and the apps remain undeveloped.
Unless someone really tries to compete with Apple, either by offering a better product at the same price point, or a similar product at a discount, tablet sales will continue and only one manufacturer will benefit.
One company just had the highest quarterly sales in their entire history.
The other company just lost a few million dollars.
Which company do you think has a better clue about what consumers want?
I don't think it has anything to do with that, plenty of people have found uses for tablets. I think it has more to do with the fact that they're reaching market saturation at their current price points. They're still just a little too expensive for the mainstream to really start getting into them. Wait until they're priced like the HP fire sale tablet and you will see them exploding into use, and as more people have them there will be more development, functionality added in....just like with any platform, whether hardware or software.
Once it gets to the point where people are throwing old tablets in drawers like they do with their old MP3 players and cell phones, I'll say yeah, the fever has passed.
Were I a significant shareholder of Acer, I would be calling for the replacement of JT Wang. His comments have consistently shown a disconnect from reality and that is not the sort of person one should want directing a corporation. Closing your eyes and pretending things are the way you want them to be rather than how they are isn't a sound business strategy.
I realize that he shouldn't be a cheerleader for the competition but he's gone beyond that and is well into the realm of ignoring facts that are clear to anyone paying even a cursory attention to the market.
To end a fever aren't you supposed to *take* two tablets?
In its most recent quarter, Acer lost $234 million. Acer has no competitive tablet offering among the dozens of competing Android tablets. And of course the iPad is selling like mad with an expectation of 22 million units sold during the upcoming holiday quarter.
The Acer CEO is a dimwit who's talking smack because there's nothing else he can do to stem the tide of abject failure coming out of his factories. He is basically berating the customers for buying "hot" tablets, particularly the iPad, instead of buying the tried-and-true plastic Wintel units that Acer vomits up. His company bet big on low-margin netbooks and lost, and now he's betting on Intel "ultrabooks".
HP just bailed out of the entire PC business (echoing IBM's decision in 2004), and among the reasons was that the tablet effect is real.
The Acer CEO's effort is better focused on coming up with better products, not whining.
Always the same ridiculous assertions from people who don't understand how useful tablets are and can be. The idea that there's no reason to buy a tablet except because I want to be trendy is just absurd. I've completely replaced my laptop for all mobile computing with an iPad. I write emails, read books, do work, make money, travel and consume entertainment on it. My laptop has left my desk maybe twice in the last year and a bit (since the iPad 1 was released). There's no Apple fever. There's a desire to get away from devices that aren't suited to the task at hand (which the laptop is for most of my mobile computing needs). If I want or need a keyboard I can keep a bluetooth keyboard around or get an eePad Transformer which is a rather nice device because it's the best of both worlds (though I still find Android to be a very confusing and clunky OS). For 9%% of my mobile computing needs I don't need an attached keyboard. In fact a keyboard is an active hindrance. Have you ever tried to read something in portrait mode on a laptop? Have you ever tried to scrub through a quicktime movie while holding a laptop with one hand on a busy film set? Yeah. No thanks. I'll take the tablet.
Nobody's been able to compete with Apple in this domain yet (though I'm certain in a few years they will manage it) so they're crying sour grapes and declaring the market dead. Uh huh. Riiiight.
How are you able to breathe with your head stuck in the sand like that?
Before last weekend, I would say it's a fad and will eventually die out within a few years. Then I saw my grandfather using a iPad, that was eye opening. He's 90, been partial paralyzed for 15 years after a stroke so he can only use his left hand. He's never really use a computer and doesn't understand the concept of the Internet. My uncle had brought the iPad to show my cousin's white coat ceremony photos. After showing my grandfather how to open the Photo App (it's the sunflower icon), selecting which album he wanted to see (Graduation, Family Photos, etc.), moving the next picture by swiping your finger, and zooming in and out with pinching, under 5 minutes he was able to do all that and had a blast. I haven't seen him amazed by technology, ever. We've try to get him to use a computer, that didn't work.
There's something here in tablets, not as a computing platform. It's a communication medium for the other 5 billion unconnected humans. It should be a seamless experience with the absolutely the lowest learning curve possible.
I just want one in the kitchen for recipes.
Tablets were never going to sell like they were forever. We're approaching the point where most people who want them, already have them. That doesn't mean they were a fad or a bubble. Without looking at sales figures, I would guess that all major inventions, from the Model T to the microwave oven to the MP3 player have gone through a similar cycle. They will continue to sell as people upgrade or replace aging units, but not at the rate they once did. It's a huge win for Apple that they got in at the ground floor. All the "me too!" companies now have an uphill fight on their hands. The Acer CEO likely knows this, and so is declaring the grapes to be sour.
I know a CEO like this. He had to have a Macbook Pro and a Macbook Air and now he wants all the sales people to have iPad's because nothing else is acceptable except the device with the most elit image even if it is significantly harder to manage and for the users to operate for there tasks.
Sure, and we all have stories about Stupid CEO tricks. In fact, I believe there is a long running comic with that as it's primary gag line. But that isn't the only reason that iPads are popular. They are popular primarily because THEY ARE NOT LIKE THE COMPUTER YOU FIRST PROGRAMMED IN 6TH GRADE BY CANDLELIGHT WHILE HIKING BAREFOOT UPHILL IN THE DARK. I'm constantly amazed at the angst this device has created amongst the Slashdoterati. You all sound very threatened about a 1 pound device that, according to the hive mind here, can't process it's way out of a recycled paper bag.
Calm down, switch to decaf or something. Take a walk. It's something different, an 'uncomputer', an appliance. It doesn't fortell the end of the universe, it isn't George Orwell's worst nightmare.
Jesus, you'd think there was an earthquake or something recently.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
An Apple a day keeps the doctor away!
Says the bitter, bitter man who has never touched a iPad....
Stop being a grumpy old turd and go TRY ONE for a while. Honestly, I am 30X more productive than the guys at work that dont have one. I carry autocad files with me to review and show. I annotate pdf files etc...
It's a tool, just because you cant figure out how to use a wrench does not make wrenches stupid.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
I guess it hasn't been proven scientifically that wishing doesn't work... Good luck with that, Mr. Wang!
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
My Xoom is nearly indispensable now that I have come to rely on it. I work in the medical industry and to be able to carry 90% of the functionality of a laptop with better battery life and a smaller form factor is just incredibly useful.
Exactly, no scope for the imagination.
The medical field has needed this type of tech for eons and now it is here in a form that is quite functional.
It is fantastic for entertainment functions.
It is fantastic for educational functions.
Each day I hear of people using these devices in new ways... ways a computer simply can't do.
Sand? it looks more like his ass.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Count me as one of the people who has an Android 3.1 tablet and who occasionally uses it for Web browsing, but not much more. The Android browser renders a lot of pages in funky ways, the keyboard is pretty slow and so is the processing a lot of times, especially on JavaScript-heavy pages like Slashdot or Facebook. The keyboard layout is annoying, too, and I have to toggle in and out of various modes to type numbers, basic punctuation symbols, etc. So while it's basically OK for reading, it's annoying if I'm on a site where I actually want to participate.
Other than that, what's it good for? Streaming movies? You really want to watch movies on that? Plus, Netflix isn't supported (officially anyway). I can read The Economist on my phone, but oops! No app for that for Honeycomb tablets. Really, I encounter more things that I'm apparently not going to be doing on my tablet that actual uses for it. So it sits around, most of the time.
Other people might get more use out of theirs, but I've never seen anybody with one to ask. I see a fair amount of iPads.
Breakfast served all day!
Kindle is a ripoff?
I don't think so for what it does.
Ever buy about 10-12 books.... = the price of a kindle.
Ever carry 10-12 books= 100 times the weight of a kindle.
I might be biased a bit, but everything you've pointed out that doesn't work on your tablet works fine on my iPad. Even movie streaming, which I can do with it propped up on the treadmill's magazine stand at the gym (try to get a netbook to do that). If you're comfortable buying an Apple product, you might try switching and see if it makes you happier.
Disclaimer: I'm an Apple shareholder and I want you to fall in love with Apple products so I can retire earlier.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
I didn't know "prays" was spelled "d-e-c-l-a-r-e-s"
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
They're a hell of a lot cheaper than in-car entertainment systems, that's for sure. Plus you can bring them into the restaurant and keep the kids quiet inside, too.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
The thing is convertaibles have been around for a decade.
it took apple to show the world that tablets had to have a different GUI from desktop computer. MSFT has been making tablet based OS's for a decade directly, however only a couple of dedicated touch applications where ever created for it, with Office being one of the big one.
when apple shipped the ipad it included a stripped down(and broken depending on your view) version of their office applications. straight out of the box. The email client gui was re written to take advantage of touch interfaces, unlike outlook which is still the same(with a shiny new ribbon)
tablets may become more powerful, but the interface requires them to have simplier UI's. Just like cars engines might get more powerful but you still control it with pedals and a wheel.
We are entering computation age where raw power isn't needed. directed computation power is. for those like you stuck in the past you will struggle with this change.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Sad but true.
Citation needed.
Metallica - The Black Album
I'm a grizzled old neck-bearded software and science guy who is so old he actually used punch cards in a production environment (until we switched to 8-inch floppies!) and I think the iPad is a peach of a device.
There are only two reasons I don't have one:
1. I think they're cool as hell, but I don't think they're 500 dollars cool. And for the model I'd really want (with 3G+Wifi), I REALLY don't think they're 630 dollars cool.
2. I was part of the Apple faithful for years, but got screwed over royally on a Pismo laptop that I paid $2,200 for back in 2000 that Apple refused to fix/replace. Apart from a couple 2nd gen iPod Nanos I bought my wife and son 5 years ago, I've been very leery of purchasing from them again. Maybe that's unfair, but hell, it's my money.
I have an iPad and I get real work done on it every day. For example just today, I gave a 50 page presentation using my iPad. And a few weeks ago, I was giving a presentation to about 100 people. and right before I went on, I was still editing my presentation, right on my iPad.
you are giving presentations on an ipad. the very thing you could do on a projection. or a laptop.
and
I am also able to get my work email and calendar, so, I have the ability to do most communication tasks I would do on my desktop. Plus, in a pinch, I can turn on VPN in to the work network, and run VNC, and do some tasks there.
ooooh !! you ALSO write emails !! and see a calendar !! thats great !!! except that if this is what you call 'mobile computing', and the 'work' related to that, please next time spare us the bullshit. a decent screen size half-smartphone can do all of those things, with the exception of the obscure 'tasks' you speak of doing with vpn. i assume instant messenger talk or other shit.
so this is the idea of apple fanbois' 'mobile computing'. giving presentations, presentations, more presentations, reading emails, a calendar, and, some obscure and inexplicable 'tasks'.
am i generalizing ? yes. someone else precisely told similar things on how he was doing 'mobile computing' on his ipad, and how great ipad and apple was. it apparently is a general naivete among you apple fanbois to take giving presentations and reading emails as 'mobile computing'. you dont need the word 'compute' there. its just 'mobile'. and a phone is sufficient for those.
Read radical news here
I'm pretty happy with my Viewsonic G-Tablet running VeGAN Tab 7.0.0rc1 or something (still based on Android 2.3.3 Gingerbread). The custom ROMs are indispensible, but it's quite functional now, and they're down to under $300. Essential apps:
Plus you can also plug in and use a USB keyboard or storage in addition to a microSD slot... pretty much everything people complain about other tablets works on the G-Tablet. Too bad their stock ROM was crap.
I mostly use it to play with high-end Android apps, so I don't have to dink with my Android phone (also a relatively inexpensive midrange HTC 3G Slide).
I've never actually played with anything that runs iOS, but that's fine with me since I always found the Apple Straightjacket-in-a-walled-garden experience incredibly frustrating since the MacOS9 days.
Buy something that exists just now and allows me to do what I want
OR
Wait until an unreleased OS turns up on a platform that doesn't actually exist yet.
Microsoft/Intel vapourware FUD yet again ?
definitely. ALL the stuff these people say they are doing on their tablets, people were doing on their blackberries with even less amenities for a decade now. bar the presentation.
Read radical news here
Why do people think this is a good insult. It isn't. The first thing I thought when I saw the iPod touch was, "This is neat, but it would be really cool if it was way bigger."
The iPad IS a large iPod Touch, and that is a good thing. Your complaint makes about as much sense as complaining that the 50" TV is just an over sized 13" TV.
Assuming you can afford to buy both a notebook and a tablet, you're right, they aren't competitors. But once you have to decide to buy one or the other, for most people the notebook is winner. If tablets can come down to netbook prices (I saw one for $179 today) then maybe the question of affording both will disappear. However, the decent tablets aren't anywhere close to that price yet. Most of them are $400+. For that you could buy a very capable notebook. For the cost of a tablet and a minimal notebook, you could buy a really nice notebook, even something like the MacBook air if you want something ultra-portable like a tablet.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Right, and your Xoom isn't a "tablet PC", it's a tablet.
If your Xoom was double the thickness, double the weight, and double the price, would it compare favourably to the current Xoom? The Acer CEO's remarks are amusing because the tablet PC never had a bubble to burst. They were always a tiny niche market that never went anywhere, until real tablets like the iPad, Xoom, Galaxy Tab, etc. came along.
I'm no fan of Apple, but to compare the very small tablet computing market that existed prior to the iPad with the market that exists now is absurd.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
My Xoom is nearly indispensable now that I have come to rely on it. I work in the medical industry and to be able to carry 90% of the functionality of a laptop with better battery life and a smaller form factor is just incredibly useful.
Lawyers are another demographic I have seen tablets gaining massive ground in. Phones have to be shut off in the courtroom, and have a nasty habit of blaring noise at random moments if they're still on... whereas a tablet with a data-only cellular connection doesn't have this issue, and is usually excused from the "no cellphones" rule because it doesn't look like a phone.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Let's look at why the Apple product can do those things while the Android product can't. There is an app to access The Economist. There is an app to access Netflix. WHY are there apps for this crap? Why can't you access The Economist through a specially formatted web page? Why can't you access it through a generic eBook format? Why can't you access Netflix through HTML5?
When the iPhone came out, there were to be no applications. Applications were bad. Applications were evil. Everyone must write webapps to use with the mandated data plan. Then Apple comes out with the SDK and everyone must write glorious applications. Rather than use standardized formats to implement these features so anyone can access it, we have to use Apps, so we can sell it, and get use it as a marketing gimmick. Support Apple if you want, but they ruined it for the rest of us.
I have an iPad, and I use mine almost every day. In the past week I've been streaming Merlin episodes off Netflix, reading Sherlock Holmes off iBooks/Kindle, I use it to check my calendar/email before going to bed. I plug a noise-canceling headset in and watch movies on it on the plane (I've had to travel a dozen times this year, so >25 flights), which is nice in coach because laptops are too bulky really (especially if the guy in front leans back). Plus it's a really convenient way to check/offline read documents, which I can drop in dropbox, sync over to the ipad without a wire, and then read (on the plane, in the hotel bed, etc). (Also, Angry Birds HD, go.)
Honestly, I called it a gimmick when it first came out. A week or two after launch, I happened to swing by an Apple store, we played with one, we decided to get it. Now we have 3 in the family (one each), and all 3 of us use it regularly.
Granted, to me, about 50% of the utility is the video - Netflix + iTunes shows/movies (I don't pirate, but I also don't pay for cable, so I supplement netflix with an occasional itunes purchase).
There is another tablet market and that is of course the eReader http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-book_reader market. Basically the tablet is a content consumption device, with a teensy bit of interactivity and form filling thrown in.
Acer doesn't want to get into the content distribution market, and Amazon's Kindle is just crap in comparison.
So Acer is likely right, the tablet PC market has passed it fad moment and the big fight will be on for a more functional and colourful table eReader, subsidised by content distribution. Now the real question is will the major content distribution empires jump into the fray, a free fully featured tablet with a two year subscription contract to their whole media empire, including archived content. They have got the content and they can tell Apple et al to go jump and basically distribute direct.
Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
As long as everyone else is 60 X less productive to compensate for what the Ipad cant do.
Richard Boss [rboss@work.com.au]
RE:Schedule for Job XYZ-221
Jesus Rollerblading Christ Bob, just use your laptop.
Bob Wanker [bwanker@work.com.au]
RE: Schedule for Job XYZ-221
But I want to use my iPad.
John Worker [jworker@work.com.au]
RE:Schedule for Job XYZ-221
No Bob, it's a 12 MB document, use your laptop.
Bob Wanker [bwanker@work.com.au]
RE: Schedule for Job XYZ-221
Can you PDF this and email it to me, I cant access the network on my iPad
John Worker [jworker@work.com.au] //server/share/clientfiles/xyz-221/costing-jw-xyz221.xls
Schedule for Job XYZ-221
Initial costing for this job is complete, the xls is on
And about 2 days later.
Bob Wanker [bwanker@work.com.au]
RE: Schedule for Job XYZ-221
I havent been able to open the file on my iPad.
Can you PDF it and email it to me.
John Worker [jworker@work.com.au]
RE: Schedule for Job XYZ-221
Bob,
I'm waiting for you to complete your part of the project costing. I can't send it to the client until you've entered your estimates.
RAGE (and loss of productivity)
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
My wife uses Netflix on an iPad, even though a TV is right there, because she is moving around while sewing between machine and sewing board and elsewhere... the device just stays with her.
Since she has it on the the background while she does other things, she watches a few hundred TV shows a month. We've never gone over our bandwidth cap (Comcast cable modem).
The tablet is a device you can easily move while doing stuff all over the place, not just where you happened to put a TV. You know how lots of people bought three or four TV's for a home (not me mind you, but I know others that have)? No need when you can just have one really nice one for movies and a tablet to watch shows while getting stuff done around the house or sitting outside enjoying nice weather.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The CEO of Acer sounds like he's trying to make noise because Acer isn't in the competitive tablet business.
Actually, Acer has sold tablets than any other Android tablet maker, and they had features that Xoom STILL can't get working (MicroSD card writing). Everything on the acer worked out of the box, and they had sold a million of them before the other Android Tablet guys got to market.
Sure, the year's head start that Apple had means they are still at the top of the total sales chart.
Acer also sells ChromeBooks and regular laptops, and I suggest the CEO is probably in a pretty good position to measure sales trends.
The trend isn't surprising. Every new device a huge run-up in sales when first released, and then people find out the limitations, the warts, and the unmet needs, and decide they really do need a laptop after all. Everyone who wanted one badly already has one. It was iPad users that first discovered that tablets ultimately proved to hold way less appeal than they originally believed, and they were using them less than they thought.
There will be a lot of tablets of all flavors under the Christmas tree this year.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
I have an Acer Iconia 500 and this is not the case. Same on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1v.
If you think Android is bad, you should see how IOS chokes on ./ and FB. Lets not get to media heavy sites like AFL.com.au. There's a reasons people create new sites for IOS yet dont for Android. My bank has had to produce an IOS application for IOS users yet the mobile and normal sites are lightning fast on my Iconia and the mobile site is lightning fast on my Desire Z.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
In very short order we'll have 10hour batteries and 1.5 pound weight in an x86 machine just like we have with tablets. And then everyone will just go back to using full computers again.
I guess in the meantime, ARM et al are just going to sit still and wait?
I agree that tablets cannot replace computers. But ask yourself two questions:
Are people expecting them to replace computers?
How many people actually need computers?
Computers were wonderful for a while since they enabled rapid technological innovations and people wanted access to those innovations, but I think we're eventually going to see people ditch computers for devices that are more suited to their needs.
(Yes, I know that tablets are computers. But I would also suggest that a lot of people don't see them as computers.)
If you think Android is bad, you should see how IOS chokes on ./ and FB.
I haven't tried FB, but /. is far slower on all Android 3.x tablets I've tried than it is on iPad. Especially typing text when posting comments.
Do you really want to know why? It's because HTML sucks for a user interface. It always has.
No, really. Back in the day, we had fat clients that did specific things; they did them fast, and the did them well. Then came the web as user interface ... and quite frankly, it has sucked donkey balls for most of it.
Oh, sure, it's gotten better. But, really, the difference between a native app and a web application has always been miles. A native app is faster, cleaner, and generally does things you can't really do in a web page.
And, yes, I'm sure HTML 5 is wonderful and likely even makes toast for me. But, it's largely a moving target: and a well designed, native application will pretty much always give you a better piece of software to interact with simply because the GUI works differently. It also has the added benefit of being something I can run when I am disconnected from the network.
An app isn't a marketing gimmick ... back in the day, we used to call it 'software'. The world as a web page? Now there's something which has made for more crappy (and slow) software than you can think of.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
We have been pretty close for a while now. Latest Eee PC 10 inch netbook I bought as a gift for my mother runs for slightly less then 8 hours on a single charge (battery can be replaced in ~10 seconds), while running all x86 applications (atom n550). My only qualm with it is lack of XP (it had w7 starter), but after I upgraded the RAM size to 2GB it seemed to work really well. It's about the same size as 10 inch tablets in all dimensions but thickness (thin on the user's side, but thickens toward the screen where battery is) and about twice as heavy (1.25kg).
Of course it comes with actual x86 native compatibility, standard laptop connectivity, keyboard, touchpad, etc. It even has built in bluetooth so it can be used as a smartphone remote or to connect wireless speakers/headset.
It also costs about half of what ipad does. I honestly have no idea who would pick a tablet over netbook if ultraportable is what they need, unless it's a public image issue (which is what most people I've seen with tablets seem to be getting them for).
whereas a tablet with a data-only cellular connection doesn't have this issue, and is usually excused from the "no cellphones" rule because it doesn't look like a phone.
Not only does it not look like a phone, it... isn't a phone! lol
laptop, notebook, netbook, tablet, those are just marketing terms for... portable personal computers.
It's hilarious how many idiots like you just don't get it.
A tablet is not a competitor to a laptop/desktop. Just like my electric toothbrush isn't.
I get this...
I use a tablet for reading books/PDFs/newspapers, playing games and as a souped up todo list.
For 600 fucking bucks, plus data plan?! Guess I'm an idiot, because I don't get it. That seems like paint-eating level of stupid to me.
I think it's silly to compare your PC with a tablet. It's a little like me saying your pickup truck will smoke my Miata. They have a lot of similarities and can do a lot of the same kinds of things, but they were built for entirely different uses in mind. Your truck is what you need and I couldn't be happier in my Miata. It turns out though, that not many people need a truck.
I think a lot of computer people don't understand the iPad and are worried about what it is doing to the PC industry. It really is disrupting the PC business in unbelievable ways (and is a big part of what has HP looking to dump their PC business). There are a lot of people out there who got a computer to get on the internet and they really aren't all that happy with it. Those people are being attracted in droves to the iPad. For these people, the iPad isn't the accessory, the PC is. They only need it for iTunes right now and soon that won't be an issue any more.
As a programmer, I see the iPad as a huge opportunity. For whatever reason, people who have them are purchasing software for them. Much more than they ever did with their PC. People use these things all the time online and off. It's the best thing to happen to this industry in a long time.
I'm so impressed at how well Apple is executing lately that I've reversed my opinion on their stock price. When the stories about them becoming the most valuable company by market cap started surfacing I thought that was a great signal for people to dump Apple stock. It's ridiculous, right? Now I'm not so sure. They own the market for desktop and laptop computers that cost more than $1k. Now they are totally screwing up the low end of the computer market for everybody with the iPad. What they've done to the music and phone business, I believe they are about to repeat with other home electronics (like an Apple television). There's a very real chance that Apple is just getting started.
I think you will find that when the time comes to stop spending money, people will be more willing to give up television and cable service than their iPads and Netflix.
There are apps for magazine and newspapers because they give the publisher absolute control over what you see on the screen. If they want you to see an ad, then you're going to see it. No AdBlock or proxies or anything else to get in the way. An earlier poster cited interface improvements as the reason... I look at the Netflix app for iOS and can only laugh. It isn't about a better interface, it's all about control.
The perfect vector for piracy is DVDs and Bluray, which are fantastic quality, and have been cracked for years. Meanwhile HTML5 streaming is inherently low bitrate and low quality, plus depending on the source, the quality may auto-scale based off network throughput. Besides, PlayOn has already breached whatever security Netflix has, and retransmits the video over DRM-free UPNP.
DRM was never intended to prevent piracy. If it were, it's clearly an abysmal failure, and they would have given up on it a decade ago. No, DRM only exists to maintain control over the honest user who doesn't know how to get around it.
I got a $100 dock for my ipad. It's an okayish $800 alarm clock now. But since the app can't run with the screen off and such, I have to leave the screen and dock on the whole night. If either go to sleep, the alarm doesn't go off. So I have my regular alarm clock as my "it's REALLY time to get up" set about half an hour after my ipad is due to start my wakeup playlist.
Totally worth the money..
I know exactly what you're saying. I bought a BMW 750li a couple weeks ago. It's sitting in the garage right now. I don't drive it at all but I do hang my clothes to dry on the grab rails. The rails are not that large so I can't hang too many clothes. I just don't understand why doesn't BMW make the rails larger so I hang more clothes and make better use of the car.
So Acer is likely right, the tablet PC market has passed it fad moment and the big fight will be on for a more functional and colourful table eReader, subsidised by content distribution.
I doubt that many people want a 'more functional ereader'; color perhaps, but I suspect what most people want in an ereader is something cheap that they can read anywhere which they only have to recharge every few weeks. The Kindle does that with its e-ink screen, while no LCD-based tablet can come close because the screens don't work well in sunlight and they require recharging after a few hours of use.
If you travel a lot, that's great... but it is just a gimmick for most people. I honestly don't see the point in watching a movie on a smartphone, pad, or even a computer without a giant monitor and great surround sound... sure, if I'm stuck on a plane it's one thing, but if I'm at home it makes no sense. I can't use it when I commute or when I'm sleeping... 90% of the rest of the time I'm either at home with access to my PC or at work. Even when I go out... honestly, as a computing professional, the last thing I need in a bar while playing pool is another computer.
So it's reasonable to see that there are certainly people who can get a lot out of them, but for most people all they get is a "wow" factor, especially if you've already got a smart phone.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
But for the money, $50 or $100 more buys you a crappy laptop that's still 10 times better than the netbook, includes an optical drive, and usually more memory and disk space, and certainly more computing power.
Many of us netbook owners bought them because they're small and light and decently powerful and have a usable keyboard and we can just throw them in a bag without worrying about the extra weight or worrying too much about the replacement cost if we lose it.
And the build quality of my EeePC is vastly superior to any cheap laptop I've used. Heck, it feels more robust than my Toshiba, which cost three times as much and it's certainly lasted better than the Acer laptop I used to have.
The problem with the netbook market is that there's no real reason to buy a 2011 netbook to replace a 2009 netbook, because it won't be significantly more powerful or lighter or less power-hungry. So there's essentially no upgrade market there.
The world as a web page? Now there's something which has made for more crappy (and slow) software than you can think of.
I used to hate trying to make interactive web pages when browser cross-compatibility was a complete nightmare, but these days it isn't so bad. I like that the in-house web apps I've made here work on any computer or device, and so do the users. Web apps are doing what Java should have been doing for us years ago - allowing people to use any OS they want. I think it's an important step for breaking free of the Windows monopoly.
There's no doubt that native apps are more efficient and capable, but I'm happy with the trade-off for now.
which is totally what she said
They have got the content and they can tell Apple et al to go jump and basically distribute direct.
At which point, the cash-rich Apple will buy out huge chunks of their industry (Apple could buy Comcast, Time Warner, Disney, or the entire music industry with the cash they have now), leaving big content with disastrously incomplete catalogues.
It any case, I think you're wrong in your assumption that tablets are or will remain content-consuption devices only. I think phones and tablets will soon be most people's main computer. They will dock them with big screens and keyboards when they want to work on something that requires it.
My Tab10.1 is just a severely under-powered laptop/tablet-pc. In very short order we'll have 10hour batteries and 1.5 pound weight in an x86 machine just like we have with tablets. And then everyone will just go back to using full computers again.
When that happens Apple will just load OSX with all the iPad-like features they are putting in there now and tell app developers to flip a switch to make their apps a universal ARM/x86 binary. That's the advantage they have from keeping tight control over how the API is used. They have explored different scenari's to cover this from a tablet that slides into a pc-like docking enclosure, to an iMac that switches between touch and normal modes. The tablet will evolve.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
There always has been a market for tablets only they used to be called pda's or pocket pc's
Smart phones have pretty much replaced the older style pda, with tablets catering for those who need a bigger screen.
I think 10" screens are a little too big to be easily portable, a 7 inch screen size is still pocketable for many people especially good for men in white coats who have a suitable sized pocket. The 7inch screen is big enough for reading slashdot where the phone screen is awful.
I'm fairly happy with my low end archos 7 with android 2.1 (120 euro)
I can carry it round with me in a pocket, i can use my android phone as an access point. (my mobile phone service provides me with unlimited data and the modem is 7.2 meg.
I would like a few (maybe even 1) physical buttons for caret browsing (not needed if i attach a keyboard)
Printing is annoying mainly since it uses the cups drivers but seems to be provided by paid apps which
are using gpl drivers. however both hp and samsung have free apps for printing.
Printing should be core functionality even if its main use would be printing photo's or email attachments.
There are a couple of little niggles which could be sorted fairly easily such as gps The Gps location information could be served via a phone with a gps unit and with my tablet as a client it would make a great sat nav.
my satellite box records and streams to vlc it would be nice to be able to tap that on my archos 7 at the moment i can login to the satellite box and change channels and record but need a pc to watch remotely.
my biggest gripe is finding a keyboard which is small enough to be pocket-able and usable. A full size usb keyboard works but is not really portable enough.
Some tablets have hdmi out which could be used for a larger screen when required. Although i would be happy for a usb screen dongle (which currently are not supported and too expensive).
Tablets are an interesting niche, they are great for consuming but weak on creating content. They can be more than they are and perhaps the ipad is better than android at providing a ready built environment.
however there is a lot that can be done with tablets and a lot more which will be done with tablets
Blarney Quality Restaurant, Plants
I'm afraid you really are stuck in your box. Take a tablet (my colleague used an iPad, but a Xoom would have worked just as well) - take a photo of a condition on a building site, then use a stylus to sketch a new assembly that needed to be added to a component, then email it back to the office for preliminary drafting.
I much (MUCH) prefer reading on my tablet to reading on a laptop. I can also scan all of my music scores (I sing in a chorus) and load them up in a PDF reader - then use the tablet to bring up any of a hundred charts in our extended repertoire to work on or polish, even when standing on the risers - not something that can be done with a laptop. Same goes for a piano - can't put most laptops on a music stand.
When I'm out of my office, I have used my tablet to hold reference material while I work on my laptop - a poor man's dual screen. (I use a 3-screen setup at work).
That said, I don't like to produce "work" on my tablet, but I consume a lot of material for "work," and often the pad is all I need. With a 10 hours useful life, it lasts about 2-4 hours longer than my Acer notebook (11.6" timeline) and is 1-1.5 lbs lighter. If I'm mixing business and pleasure, it's ideal - I can do work if I need to, but it functions better for fun things and is lighter. BTW - I have a second battery for my laptop, and it's nice to be able to swap, but it was 1/3 of the price of the laptop and weighs more than two laptop chargers or about 10 tablet chargers. Also, cell data access for my tablet costs 1/4 of what it costs for a laptop ($15 vs $60/mo) - I save the cost of the tablet in a year in just data charges.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
I never thought about the background apps draining the battery. Do you know why iOS doesn't seem to have the same problem? My wife has an iPhone and iPad and both of those devices have much better battery life than my Nexus. I always assumed it was due to hardware (ie the larger, "permanent" batteries). Never thought much about the software because I assumed they were working in similar ways.
"Then Apple comes out with the SDK and everyone must write glorious applications."
You have it somewhat backwards, everyone wanted to write glorious applications and then Apple came out with the SDK.
The no phone rule is meant to protect the privacy of the court (avoiding annoying ringtones is just a pleasant side effect). It's the same reason you're not allowed a video camera in court. A tablet might not have a phone connection but it could certainly be used as a recording device, I would have thought that sufficient to ban them. Oh, unless I guess you're in the US, in which case there is no privacy or sanctity in your televised courtrooms - in which case it's just a dick move, a rule that says all phones must be set to silent would be just as effective as one that said no phones allowed.
It doesn't say they're not allowed, it says they must be off.
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