Apple CEO Likens Surface To Car That Flies, Floats

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Apple CEO Likens Surface To Car That Flies, Floats

Posted by Unknown on Friday October 26, 2012 @12:03AM from the ceos-are-so-cute-when-they-fight dept.

theodp writes "Conceding that he hadn't actually played with one, Apple CEO Tim Cook told Wall Street that Microsoft's Surface tablet is 'a fairly compromised, confusing product' in the company's 4Q earnings call. Cook joked, 'I supposed you could design a car that flies and floats, but it wouldn't do those things very well.' In Apple's 2Q earnings call, Cook also mocked the idea of touch on a laptop or desktop, quipping, 'You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those things are probably not going be pleasing to the user.' Cook added, 'We've done tons of user testing on this, and it turns out it doesn't work. Touch surfaces don't want to be vertical.' So, is Cook just pulling a page from Steve Jobs' people-don't-read-anymore playbook, or is he unaware that children happily used vertical touch screens forty years ago on UIUC's PLATO System (more PLATO History)?"

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DOA.. by VMaN · 2012-10-26 00:06 · Score: 4, Insightful

Sounds almost as DOA as a 7" tablet to me....
1. Re:DOA.. by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-26 00:33 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Children are our future, after all.
2. Re:DOA.. by rolfwind · 2012-10-26 00:41 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Apple/Jobs has a history of shitting on concepts that they are simultaneously developing.
  OTOH, MS/Ballmer has a history of mocking things as well while lagging behing in the market.
  Time will tell what type of CEO Cook will be. Hopefully his hubris is just a smokescreen to mask moves and not arrogance for its own sake.
3. Re:DOA.. by jellomizer · 2012-10-26 00:53 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Yea, I will accept the authority of your biggest competitor to make your decisions. What do you expect Tim Cook to say. "It actually looks like a good product, we are now shaking in our boots."?
  I have been using Windows 8 for a few months as my primary OS at home... Overall I have been quite please with it. I expect as more Windows UI aka Metro apps are made there will be less of an issue of arm vs. Intel.
  
  --
  If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
4. Re:DOA.. by slashmydots · 2012-10-26 01:01 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  But their extensive user testing shows that people love reading tiny text that they can barely see.
  
  By the way, I hate Apple but I hate vertical touch screens for everyday PC use because it's a stupid gimmick that makes people feel all futuristic when in reality it's 1/3 the speed of a mouse. What a paradox!
5. Re:DOA.. by Dr.+Evil · 2012-10-26 01:08 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Back in the late 80's, there was some competition where people had to set up a new PC vs a new Mac. Apple and Microsoft sent representatives.
  Apple sent a 7 year old.
  It became a benchmark of usability and was used in advertisements e.g. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmjvgOAhC_4
  (Does anyone have info on the contest? it was pre-Internet boom... I can't find a reference for it.)
6. Re:DOA.. by itof500 · 2012-10-26 01:46 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Interestingly it appears that Microsoft was quite complementary about the iPad during its presentation.
  http://www.anandtech.com/show/6385/microsoft-surface-review
  A Different Perspective
  A week ago, I sat in an auditorium and listened to Steve Sinofsky talk about the tablet market. He talked about how the iPad was a great device, and a logical extension of the iPhone. Give iOS a bigger screen and all of the sudden you could do some things better on this new device. He talked about Android tablets, and Google’s learning process there, going from a phone OS on a tablet to eventually building Holo and creating a tablet-specific experience. He had nothing but good things to say about both competitors. I couldn’t tell just how sincere he was being, I don’t know Mr. Sinofsky all that well, but his thoughts were genuine, his analysis spot-on. Both Apple and Google tablets were good, in their own ways. What Steve said next didn’t really resonate with me until I had spent a few days with Surface. He called Surface and Windows RT Microsoft’s “perspective” on tablets. I don’t know if he even specifically called it a tablet, what stuck out was his emphasis on perspective.
7. Re:DOA.. by jbolden · 2012-10-26 01:50 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  That wasn't the 1980s. The iMac he was setting up is from 1998.
8. Re:DOA.. by MacGyver2210 · 2012-10-26 02:29 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  I don't know what the problem is, when I was 7 I was pretty good at setting up PCs as well. I actually made a fair bit of spare cash doing it for friends and neighbors.
  By Apple's assumptive logic, that means that Apple is against the free market and fair competition.
  
  --
  If the only way you can accept an assertion is by faith, then you are conceding that it can't be taken on its own merits
9. Re:DOA.. by Psyborgue · 2012-10-26 02:41 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  The real issue for me would be having to clean the damn display of fingerprints every 5 minutes. I like a clean screen.
Nice by MyLongNickName · 2012-10-26 00:06 · Score: 5, Insightful

So, not only do we display such stories as the shocking revleation that Apple was going to live stream its product announcement (only to Apple owners), but now we get stories about what Apple thinks about other products. Is anyone shocked that Apple is less-than-impressed with a Microsoft product? Next we'll have a story about how Mitt Romney thinks Obama has made policy mistakes.

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See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
1. Re:Nice by Savage-Rabbit · 2012-10-26 01:12 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  My thought exactly.
  Competitor bashes Microsoft product. Film at 11.
  What exactly is news worthy about this?
  Geeks/nerds are not generally considered to be terribly 'macho', at least not when compared to testicle-thinking, grunting and chest beating high-school jocks, but geeks do label some things as 'women's work' and usability research has to be near the top of that list. To be fair to Apple (unpopular as that may be at the moment) they do conduct A LOT of usability research and it has gotten them quite far in terms of product design, development and sales figures so I'm betting that Tim Cook isn't just venting hot air when he talks about what does and does not work when it comes to tablets, laptops and fusions of the two. I'll admit that I'd really like to see some sort of fusion device. There are times I wish I could comfortably do things like rotate my laptop through 90 degrees to read PDF's in landscape mode or sketch a diagram by hand with a stylus while taking notes. Typing notes is usually way more efficient but occasionally one wants to be able to sketch by hand because it's way faster. At other times though find myself wishing that iPad had an OS and apps that allows me to efficiently do sophisticated word-processing/graphics/programming work etc. Neither the iPad nor the Android tablets do that very well but from what I have seen so far Windows 8 tablets aren't terribly impressive either. In a perfect universe I'd like to see some totally new and innovative type of fusion device that makes way more radical changes that Windows 8 does and that would make both laptops and tablets obsolete (Hey... one can hope...)
  
  --
  Only to idiots, are orders laws.
  -- Henning von Tresckow
Worst of both Worlds by jkrise · 2012-10-26 00:11 · Score: 5, Insightful

Apple's walled garden has early mover advantage and gazillion apps.
Android's open nature has attracted dozens of OEMs to make the hardware, and also has gazillion apps now.
The Surface is neither open, nor are developers flocking to i since Microsoft is now screwing over developers like they have done OEMs.
So it is neither open nor low-cost; and bound to be a colossal failure. No need for Cook to break into sweat...

--
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
Compromised and Confusing by tokencode · 2012-10-26 00:14 · Score: 5, Funny

The only compromised and confusing thing is Tim Cook.
Re:They need to ignore MS by CohibaVancouver · 2012-10-26 00:15 · Score: 5, Insightful

don't talk about them, don't mention them, don't respond to reporters about them, and DONT COMPARE YOURSELVES TO THEM
Are you joking? I'm a product manager - I constantly field questions from customers, sales, the media asking how our product compares to X. WTF do you think the "I'm a Mac I'm a PC" ads were all about? Companies that refuse to acknowledge competition do so at their peril. BlackBerry, anyone?
Makes me want it by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-26 00:18 · Score: 5, Funny

A car that flies and floats? Sign me up.
Must be unbiased by hessian · 2012-10-26 00:18 · Score: 4, Insightful

After all, he has no dog in this fight.
Oh wait, he's from a competitor.
Wonder if he has incentive to twist the truth a little bit?
Apple seems desperate these days.

--
Futurist Traditionalism
PLATO by DingerX · 2012-10-26 00:21 · Score: 4, Interesting

I happily used PLATO thirty years ago. The thing had a touch screen, but very few of the programs used it. Those that did I recall as being made for kids for whom it was assumed the keyboard-screen relationship would be too complex. Outside of those programs, touch screens just didn't make sense for desktop work. They still don't.
So what he really means is... by wonkey_monkey · 2012-10-26 00:22 · Score: 5, Insightful

'I supposed you could design a car that flies and floats, but it wouldn't do those things very well
So the headline should read:

Apple CEO Likens Surface To Car That Flies, Floats And Does Neither Very Well.
A car that flew and floated, lacking other qualifiers, would be awesome.

--
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
He didn't have the time? by accessbob · 2012-10-26 00:25 · Score: 5, Funny

"Conceding that he hadn't actually played with one..." He was too busy trying to navigate from home using Apple Maps perhaps?
Stop right there by jamesl · 2012-10-26 00:41 · Score: 4, Insightful

"Conceding that he hadn't actually played with one ...
Stop right there.
Flying Car Manufacturer by Big+Hairy+Ian · 2012-10-26 00:44 · Score: 4, Funny

Sues Tim Cook for defamation. :)

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Someone upload a video of him saying this.. by Rexdude · 2012-10-26 01:00 · Score: 5, Insightful

..so that in a couple of years when Apple announces its competing product we see what he has to say. Apple has a history of dissing other products and then quietly incorporating those very features into their own ones later.
2007 - iPhone launches without the ability to install apps. According to Jobs, web apps should be more than sufficient. Same goes for cut n paste - 'Who needs it anyway?' until it appeared on the next model.
And most recently, 'Who needs a 7" tablet?' Voila - the iPad Mini.

--
"..One hosts to look them up, one DNS to find them, and in the darkness BIND them."
Re:They need to ignore MS by digitalchinky · 2012-10-26 01:15 · Score: 4, Insightful

Acknowledgement is one thing, any company that outright slags off another is walking in dangerous territory, I think Apple are doing themselves a lot more harm than good lately.
Actually... by hazydave · 2012-10-26 03:39 · Score: 4, Interesting

Nice to hear Cook pointing out the fact that vertical touchscreens really don't work. Not just in their testing -- this was a thing, pre-PC, in many of the 70s and 80s CAD workstations. There were touchscreens, light pens, and other "directly interacting with the monitor" input devices. They all failed. It wasn't expense (not in dedicated CAD, prices were so high, paying $1000+ for an interface device would have been lost in the noise), it wasn't functionality (they worked fine)... it was people. We don't like repetitive stress, but particularly on large motor functions. Reaching up, away from your normal comfortable seating position, to touch a large monitor -- just not something that's good for you.
Of course, they wouldn't be Microsoft if they didn't entirely not learn from the past, and actually do it worse. Touch-with-finger screens are inherently a compromise. You wouldn't choose to smear greasy fingers over your viewing device if you could help it.... it's a compromise some are willing to make in order to have an easy to use pocket computer. On the desktop, we use off-screen, horizontally mounted control devices.
But it's clear Microsoft didn't have any cognitive psychologists working on any part of the mess that is The-UI-Formerly-Known-As-Metro, either. This will make one hell of a cautionary tale, though -- hopefully we can stop trying these same kind of stupid ideas on mainstream Linux distros...

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-Dave Haynie