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Vizio Plans To Undercut The Market For All-In-One PCs
TV maker Vizio is famous for undercutting competitors' prices on LCD TVs; now, the company has released word that it will introduce a new line of budget computers, and next week will be showing them off at CES. Bloomberg reports that the company won't yet disclose actual prices (the kind with numbers), but says instead only that they will be at a "price that just doesn’t seem possible." As the article mentions, the all-in-one desktop machines shown look a lot like Apple products; BetaNews has pictures, and ominously mentions Apple's tendency to sue over similar-looking products.
I sense Apple lawsuit coming, Apple owns the copyright on rounded rectangles.
a local thrift store had a compaq pentium I machine that booted up to a 98 bluescreen and wanted 100$, and some dumb shit bought it. Meanwhile across town at the habitat for humanity reuse center (and this like 5 min away, ... small town) they were selling 2ghz p4 pizza boxes for 5 bucks each, and they sat there for months.
poor people for some reason often have a skewed vision of a good buy, that 100$ computer HAD to be good, and those 5$ computers were useless shit, point being its often better to direct them away from ripoff list cause they will plop down 600 bucks for that mac G4 that some douche thinks is still the sweetest thing on the planet
There is that minimal keyboard that looks like it would be hell to type on if you have any sort of speed. That's very Apple.
If you really think that the only thing that makes it similar-looking to Apple products is "rounded rectangles," then you're intentionally being obtuse for whatever reason. There comes a point where it's obvious that other companies are liberally borrowing from Jonathan Ive's design shop at Apple.
Vizio's PC concept looks like this. The keyboard looks just like Apple's flat keyboard introduced a few years ago, the trackpad is a clone of the Apple Trackpad, and though it's less of a copy than the others, the screen is certainly reminiscent of an iMac, especially taken as a whole with the rest of the components.
I'm not surprised at all that, with all the design work Apple puts into its products, it is going to try to protect that work from knockoffs. Not only is this taking advantage of design work done at Apple, but if the products turn out to be low-quality or problematic, their resemblance to existing Apple products ends up damaging Apple's brand as well. I realize Slashdot comments tend to have an Apple slant (to put it mildly), but come on, this is completely obvious "inspiration" from Apple.
I think what really goes on here is that some people just don't want to give Apple credit for anything, and they hate when people do credit them, so when comparisons between designs are pointed out, it pisses them off and they make snarky remarks about "rounded rectangles."
I think a big chunk of that is that even a 5 year old desktop is fast enough for most consumer tasks now, no?
The market is rather saturated with fast desktops, not like the leaps between 486 -> P1 > P2/3. There's less incentive to upgrade regularly.
Sent from my PDP-11
You mean that TV shaped thing in the picture from the company thats been making TVs since 2002?
Looks like bonch needs to be more proactive in protecting his literary work. Overly Critical Guy is making a cheap knock off of his posts and selling it at a discount.
Either way, though, I'm not buying.
In my experience, Vizio's products are very robust. An angry ex-girlfriend threw my 37" vizio LED TV on the floor and stomped on the back. The front bezel cracked off, but it still works perfectly. Pretty amazing for something so thin (the tv, not the ex).
This is ultimitley why PC sales are down. Good enough old systems coupled with a broke populace = no new sales. Take it from someone who fixes computers for a living. My sales are way up as more people are getting older systems upgraded or repaired because they're still fast enough, and cheaper than a new machine. Ultrabooks aren't going to do dick to spur sales, as they are too expensive (even at price points like 649 usd) and most customers I talk to plan to spend less than 500 when they absolutely need a new machine. Apple is running out of people that can afford their product, and with food and fuel expected to surge next year I am fairly sure they have peaked. If people have to choose between an idevice or food and a non idevice I think we all know which one wins.
"Science is the power of man"
uh, yeah. It is a well known FACT that TV is just an acronym for AppleTV. Also, surprised no one has mentioned this. Ever notice how the layout on most keyboards is the same as the layout on Apple Keyboards? Rip. Off. It is an ever more well known FACT that QWERTY is Martian for Apple. There are a billion ways to design a keyboard but they all come out rectangular just like Apple. Key sizes pretty much the same as Apple. Even the SAME LANGUAGE AS APPLE!!!!!! They all use the "keystroke" which is the term that high-energy physicists at the LHC have used for centuries to describe touching the brilliance that is Apple products. Most damning is this Vizio product is made from Aluminum. How many things in your house are made from Aluminum. One thing? Two? Most tech products not made by Apple are made from Lead and use molten lava for electrical wires.
It's gotten so bad even general appliance makers are ripping off Apple. Went in my kitchen and saw that my refrigerator was not only rectangular but also made from brushed stainless (like the iPod) and used the English language!!!! And the sink was made from the same exotic Apple exclusive materials as well. And obviously Kohler ripped off Apple's trademarked ease-of-use. All I do is lift the handle and it magically knows what temperature I want my water. Probably ripped of iOS for the sinksoftware as well. Where are the GPL whiners to defend Apple? Nowhere, that's where. And my sink also, not my favorite part honestly, has the same "walled-garden" type block as iOS. Try as hard as I can, but I still can't get the thing to give me soda or beer when I want it. That's really all Android based sinks have going for them. But in the end it's OK because I need Apple, er, Kohler to protect me from evil soda and beer. Don't want to cross the streams. (Copyright Apple).
Ohh, I don't think speed is an issue. These are Apple users. Hunt and Peck is plenty of speed.
I remember the iPad launch and Steve Jobs describing the iPad keyboard as "excellent".
I'll miss Steve ... he was one of the greatest stand up comics in history.
No sig today...