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Bill Gates: iPad Users Are Frustrated They Can't Type Or Create Documents

Posted by samzenpus on from the words-for-word dept.

An anonymous reader writes "While Apple views the tablet and PC markets as two separate entities, Microsoft takes the opposing view. During a CNBC interview this morning, Gates continued to toe the party line insofar as he praised the benefits of Microsoft's tablets and Windows 8 while explaining that iPad users are frustrated because they have trouble typing and creating documents. 'With Windows 8, Microsoft is trying to gain share in what has been dominated by the iPad-type device. But a lot of those users are frustrated, they can't type, they can't create documents. They don't have Office there. So we're providing them something with the benefits they've seen that have made that a big category, but without giving up what they expect in a PC.'"

11 of 618 comments (clear)

  1. And... by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And Microsoft keeps demonstrating that they just don't get it, that no one seriously expect a tablet to be a PC, and that no one wants their PC to be a tablet.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    1. Re:And... by Nadaka · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I like physical keyboards.
      My Samsung galaxy S Relay has one good enough for texting and light email/browsing.
      My Asus Transformer Infinity has one good enough for modest writing, it also attaches to a usb mouse.
      My desktop has a really nice one with real mechanical keys.

      There is literally no reason an Iphone or Ipad couldn't use a bluetooth keyboard or mouse.

    2. Re:And... by rudy_wayne · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Perhaps you are the one who doesn't get it. Why should a fully capable PC and a tablet be two different experiences?

      Because a fully functional PC is for content creation while a tablet is for content consumption. And many people don't understand the difference.

      People who use their PC for nothing but browsing the web, occassionaly sending email and posting to Facebook or Twitter are perfect candidates for a tablet. People who do real work use a "fully functional PC". Last year, the two largest PC companies, HP and Lenovo, sold a combined total of 110 Million PCs. Regardless of how that compares to tablet sales or previous year's PC sales, that's a lot of computers.

      While tablets have certainly become popular, due to the fact that there are a lot of content consumers out there. the rumors of the death of the PC are greatly exaggerated.

    3. Re:And... by Proteus · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Where are you getting the idea that Apple... or any of Apple's fans... think that tablets will completely replace PCs? Apple's "post-PC era" commentary has almost entirely been focused on the idea that most people neither need nor want a "Home PC", and that a combination of tablet and phone will suit most people's needs (read: consuming media, writing the occasional letter or email message, etc.) admirably.

      Most commentary I've seen points out that a more traditional PC is well-suited to creation-heavy tasks, but that the convenience, relatively low cost, portability, and low learning-curve of touch-based computing will tend to relegate PC's to a niche market -- certain classes of business users and the "high-power" users (developers, scientists, etc.).

      FWIW, I think Apple is probably right. And the general idea -- most people need an "appliance", not a PC -- is a pretty good one that brings to life the dream of truly accessible computing. What scares me about it is that the major player in the space (Apple) is choosing to lock the general-purposeness of their devices away; and that others entering the market are following suit to some extent (Android manufacturers ship locked to their own app store in many cases, MS is pushing the App Store model for Metro [I refuse to stop calling it that], etc.).

      I think that path will make it a lot harder for the sort of serendipitous discovery of computing, development, and related things to occur. If I'd only had an iPad as a kid, instead of an 8088 with a compiler, I'm not sure I'd be a developer today.

      --
      We may not imagine how our lives could be more frustrating and complex—but Congress can. – Cullen Hightower
    4. Re:And... by Zeio · · Score: 5, Insightful

      And Windows 8 is so terrible between the Ribbon and the Windows 8 interface this has happened:

      - All the secretaries, etc, need to be retrained. Yes they may be "more productive" after the retrain, but they must be retrained. The Ribbon has been accepted by now, but the new Win8 UI is a horrorshow.

      - For the computer mavens, gurus and hobbyists and IT guys - I really think the latest crop of Windows garbage is like another windows ME. Lets ignore it, maybe it will go away. I think Windows 7 GUI + Office 2010 is just about the final version that works. Office 2013 is crap, horrible GUI, horrible look, and Windows 8 is so bad that everyone I know who is using it has at least Start8 installed and paid for. Its laughable.

      As for me, I'm tired. Ubuntu, RHEL, CentOS, FreeBSD, Solaris, Windows XP, 7, OS X. Whatever. Its a mess that keeps getting messier and crappier mostly. Boring. People reinventing the wheel, resolving old solved problems, etc. Stupid. The industry is kind of in a bad state. Nobody has the discipline to stop changing stuff and hone in on stability anymore. Rugs have to been ripped out from underneath with ever increasing frequency. Things feel horribly unarchitected.

      My current favorite OS is actually android. Take the bazaar and productize it. Not bad. Getting better by the day.

      --
      Legalize the constitution. Think for yourself question authority.
  2. Microsoft is fustrated tooo. by davydagger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Microsoft is fustrated that still, no one gives a shit about windows 8, and no one wants windows rt, and they were all DOA.

    As much as I despise apple products, no cult-of-crapple iPad users would ever think twice about anything else, and if they did, it would more likely be android.

  3. I don't get Microsoft's strategy here by dingen · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So according to Bill it boils down to MS Office (because you can simply get a keyboard for an iPad, just as you can for a Surface tablet).

    The thing is however:

    a) there's no native Office for Surface either (Office 2013 has no Metro-interface and isn't particularly suited for touch screens, even in touch-mode)
    b) they are woking on a version of Office for iOS and Android
    c) you can use Office 365 on whatever device that has a browser, which includes Surface, but also the iPad and all of the Android devices out there

    How does that make the Surface any more attractive than the competition?

    --
    Pretty good is actually pretty bad.
  4. I know everyone is going to hate on Bill but... by Loco3KGT · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I 100% agree with him. I can't type /at all/ on my iPad 2. Because I'm not the disciplined type that raises their fingers 100% before hitting the next key I find the iPad trippng up a lot. It also doesn't keep up when I'm typing quickly and I'm not patient enough to slow down to wait for it. I've even tried two third party keyboards and wasn't impressed with them (1 because it was small and travel sized, the other is that new fangled overlay .. I can't remember the name but I was a part of the kickstarter). Anyway, when it comes to typing anything of substance I always put down the iPad and go to my desktop computer.

    In the end my iPad 2 has become the samething my X-Box has become, a bad, over-priced Netflix player.

    --
    Blessed be he who reads this post, Cursed be he who tells my boss.
  5. Re:Yeah by LordLimecat · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Are you seriously implying that touchscreen is the new, better method of input?

    What exactly do you do on a computer? Im gonna guess its not

    • Writing proposals
    • Writing code
    • Doing financial work
    • Doing systems administration

    Or anything, really, that involves rapidly moving data from your brain onto a computer. Or does the new Lightning connector have that capability built into it?

  6. Re:We Already Tried This. by couchslug · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Netbooks didn't "die" on their own.

    They were designed with crippling "birth defects" (weak CPU, limited RAM) so as not to eat notebook market share. It worked and after the initial surge, sales dropped off.

    Many people still like them, but when I can get a used Thinkpad X2whatever for cheap it makes no sense for me to buy one.

    --
    "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
  7. Re:Yeah by PCM2 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    One thing I've noticed since switching to a Windows tablet is how lousy the onscreen keyboard is. On most platforms, touchscreen keyboards try to incorporate things like predictive text, auto-capitalization, etc to help you type, because they realize that a touchscreen with no tactile feedback is a less-than-idea way to type. The Windows onscreen keyboards have none of that. What's more, they seem wildly inaccurate ... the visual feedback seems to be telling me that I'm hitting the right keys, but when I look up at what I entered, half of the letters are keys right next to the ones I thought I was hitting (and although I can touch type on a physical keyboard, I do have to look at the keys on a tablet).

    What exactly do you do on a computer? Im gonna guess its not

    Writing proposals
    Writing code
    Doing financial work
    Doing systems administration

    Screw all of that. Before you can do any of that, you have to enter your password to login to the system first. Try that when you have a strong password and you can't be totally sure what keys you're pressing.

    --
    Breakfast served all day!