Slashdot Mirror
iPad Fever Is Officially Cooling
Hugh Pickens DOT Com (2995471) writes "Christina Bonnington reports that the public is not gobbling up iPads like they used to. Analysts had projected iPad sales would reach 19.7 million but Apple sold 16.35 million iPads, a drop of roughly 16.4 percent since last year. 'For many, the iPad they have is good enough–unlike a phone, with significant new features like Touch ID, or a better camera, the iPad's improvements over the past few years have been more subtle,' writes Bonnington. 'The latest iterations feature a better Retina display, a slimmer design, and faster processing. Improvements, yes, but enough to justify a near thousand dollar purchase? Others seem to be finding that their smartphone can do the job that their tablet used to do just as well, especially on those larger screened phablets.'
While the continued success of the iPad may be up in the air, another formerly popular member of Apple's product line is definitely on its way to the grave. The iPod, once Apple's crown jewel, posted a sales drop of 51 percent since last year. Only 2.76 million units were sold, a far cry from its heyday of almost 23 million back in 2008. 'Apple's past growth has been driven mostly by entering entirely new product categories, like it did when it introduced the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, and the iPad in 2010,' says Andrew Cunningham. 'The most persistent rumors involve TV (whether a new Apple TV set-top box or an entire television set) and wearable computing devices (the perennially imminent "iWatch"), but calls for larger and cheaper iPhones also continue.'"
While the continued success of the iPad may be up in the air, another formerly popular member of Apple's product line is definitely on its way to the grave. The iPod, once Apple's crown jewel, posted a sales drop of 51 percent since last year. Only 2.76 million units were sold, a far cry from its heyday of almost 23 million back in 2008. 'Apple's past growth has been driven mostly by entering entirely new product categories, like it did when it introduced the iPod in 2001, the iPhone in 2007, and the iPad in 2010,' says Andrew Cunningham. 'The most persistent rumors involve TV (whether a new Apple TV set-top box or an entire television set) and wearable computing devices (the perennially imminent "iWatch"), but calls for larger and cheaper iPhones also continue.'"
...when the public is calling for larger cell phones.
Cook cited one reason for the decline: He said that last year the company started the second quarter with a backlog of iPad mini orders; fulfilling those goosed the quarter's sales. This year, he said, the company has been able to keep supply and demand in better balance.
http://www.macworld.com/articl...
Overall sales were excellent though.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
I suppose someone has to mention obvious things, so you have this article. I had an iPad 2 and it was great and lasted me several iterations. I only just got a new one for Christmas this year. So... yes. People who have one already aren't going to run out and just get a new one because it's new. And there are some decent Android ones out there for people who don't want an iPad.
Same with the iPod, everything can play music now. My iPad and phone included, so sure. The idea of an iPod that ONLY plays music is sort of a dated concept. My wife loves her nano and small iPods for the gym, which makes sense for working out and instances where you only need music. But in general, things like browsing the web or running apps is basically expected now, regardless of the ecosystem or OS. Now, I don't want to _have_ to buy a phone to play music, but when I can store it all on a device that I'm already carrying around, why would I bother with an extra device like an iPod (or any music player).
I will shred my adversaries. Pull their eyes out just enough to turn them towards their mewing, mutilated faces. Illyria
So why would I want to use a new one yet? Apple has set a new standard in lifespan & reliability.
Apps are becoming progressively worse, not better, over time. In the early days there were a lot of cool apps written by people who just wanted to write cool apps for a cool new tool.
Now with the preverse incentives of the app market, the app store is saturated by apps trying to squeeze a maximum amount of money for a dwindling amount of useful application.
In app purchases, in particular, are well on their way to completely destroying gaming at all levels.
Every free app you download any more is ususally worthless until you shell out significant amounts of money in IAP to make it usable, and then its still usually still not good
I'm all for paying software and content developers for their efforts but the methodologies for achieving this in app stores and on the Internet in general has completely failed.
Increasingly the only thing I use my tablets for is an ereader. They excel at that, but for just about everything else the app comcept has failed.
@de_machina
I hope they keep making shuffles - great for wearing when you exercise. I can see losing the classic iPods - the cell phone makes them redundant, but until they make phones small enough to clip to your workout gear, there's a place for the shuffle.
The changes from iPad 1 to iPad 2 were enough to go go out and buy one.
The changes from iPad 2 to iPad 3 were enough to go out and buy one.
The changes from iPad 3 to iPad 4... Were just barely enough to go out and buy one, we were on the fence.
As it stands now, we own a 3 and a 4, the kids use the 3, the adults use the 4.
I have not bought an iPad Air and I likely won't for another year or two, it is indeed lighter than the 4, but overall it isn't enough of a change to make it worth the bother.
The primary issue is that the price for storage has come way, way down, apps are MUCH larger than they were in 2010, 16GB as a base size needs to go away.
Make it $499 and include 64GB of memory and I'll upgrade.
Once technology becomes "good enough" for a substantial chunk of the market and a substantial chunk of the market already owns such a "good enough" device, people are no longer so eager to spend globs of cash on incrementally better devices. The threshold for "good enough" is now starting to move down the price point ladder so interest in premium-priced models will likely fade in the near-future - it becomes difficult to justify spending over $500 on a tablet when you can get most of the same features on $150-250 models.
Discolsure: I am not an apple fan and do not own any apple gear.
Apple's entire business is based on breaking new ground with an innovative new product, exploiting that products uniqueness before the rest start copying them and flood the market with "me too" devices. Then Apple has to move on to something else.
This "running to stand still" existence cannot go on indefinitely. When they fall it will be spectacular and kind of sad to be honest as, love them or hate them, they are a huge catalyst for change in the tech industry.
'good enough' and 'still useful' are poisonous concepts in consumer capitalism and should be viewed with immediate concern for Apple. A lack of tangible innovation combined with a loss of the cult of personality that defined the brand has concluded inevitably with stagnation. That people, apple users, stop to question their purchase now is something profound I think. Certainly some credit to google is due in that its managed to create a competent, fast alternative that in some instances is actually more attractive than the iphone and ipad (not to mention presented at a fraction of the cost.)
Good people go to bed earlier.
There are much better tablets out there for your money. The iPad doesn't have a (Micro)SD card slot, so they only way to get more storage is to pay $100 at each increment. by the time you get to 128 GB, you're paying $800, which is pretty close to the price of a Surface Pro, which already comes with 128 GB, and let's you use MicroSD cards, USB Sticks, or even a USB hard drive for additional storage. Plus you don't have to buy apps for the Surface Pro just to play videos from a network share. At lot of stuff that comes standard on Windows requires additional apps on the iPad.
If you don't upgrade the storage and just go with the 16 GB version, you'll spend $500 and run out of space pretty fast. There's Android tablets that are just as capable, cost less, and have expandable storage. If you don't need a big screen, there's plenty of quality 7 inch tablets for around $200
Personally, I bought the Surface 2 (not pro) last Christmas, and I like it a lot more than my wife's iPad. The expandable storage, plus again, not having to buy apps for things that should be standard, like playing videos from a network share, make it a good choice. I also like the UI a lot better than iPad or Android, and like the fact that I can open a command prompt or run a powershell script if I want to. The lack of apps is probably the only downfall, but I find that I'm still able to do everything I want to do on a tablet. There are many games I can't play, but there's enough games to keep me entertained.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Is they have to say something and generally follow the herd because that way they are either right or can say everyone else was wrong too. The tablet market has matured a bit and it is true Apple has made mostly incremental changes to the iPad recently. If you consider that expensive tech has a longer replacement cycle and new buyers have more options it isn't surprising sales slowed. At some point, Apple will need to come up with some killer features to boost replacement and new sales. They could make the iPad really useful for note taking by building APIS to support stylus and HWR, for example.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
Is iPad fever worse than Pac Man Fever? https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Long article about poor iPad sales and no single word about Android.
Hmm. iPad sales:
Q2 2014 - 16.35 million.
Q2 2013 - 19.5 million.
Yes, that's a drop in sales.
But, it's after the following:
Q1 2014 (includes holiday shopping) - 26.0 million.
That's the all-time high sales volume for iPads in a quarter. 2nd best is Q1 2013 at 22.9, significantly less.
In my mind, the way to interpret these recent iPad sales numbers is that there was a huge buying spree for the holidays that somewhat satiated demand. (Only somewhat - Q2 2014 is still the 4th best quarter for sales.) These numbers don't suggest to me that the "fever is officially cooling." Maybe it is, but more than just one quarter of numbers is needed to show that.
The iPad - and tablets in general - fill an odd niche that is likely close to capacity. Despite claims about how tablets would replace computers, it quickly becomes obvious to any who have to work on a computer that the tablet form-factor is not sufficient for the task. For the average computer user, the tablet falls into an strange zone where it is both too large and too small. On the one hand, after using a tablet for a while, you will very quickly realize that a larger monitor, a keyboard and a pointer that doesn't involve touching the screen are all very desirable things to have. Sure, you can add these peripherals to a tablet, but if you are going down that route - essentially chaining yourself to a desk again - the limited processor and storage of the tablet and it's higher price means it makes more sense just to buy a proper PC. Meanwhile, if all you want is a portable data-access device - something you can carry around with you at all times to check out the scores or look up some random fact on Wikipedia - then the tablet is suddenly /too/ large; it cannot be conveniently stuck in a pocket like a smart phone.
Tablets are wonderful little machines for two sorts of people. First, those who aren't heavy computer computer users; the grandmothers of the world who check their email once a day. The tiny screen and on-board keyboard are no major inconvenience because they don't use either enough for it to become a significant problem. The small form factor means the tablet is easy to tuck away when not in use (unlike the big bulky computer which dominates whatever corner it sits in) and its uncomplicated OS makes it easy to use. The other group are people who want it solely for media consumption, whether that takes the form of watching a movie, listening to music, reading articles on the web or playing uncomplicated games. Some of this latter group will also have a proper computer and use the tablet as a supplementary device.
But the idea that the tablet was going to supplant the computer - and all its sales - is patently false. Its niche are users who either didn't really need a computer, (or needed it so rarely that they saw no need to upgrade regularly), or people who considered it an entertainment device that they expected - like a TV or game console - to last far longer than Apple's usual product cycle. These groups just don't see the importance of getting a new tablet every two years, even if it does have an Apple logo on it.
I like tablets; I own several and have found uses for all, but they are not the revolutionary industry-changing machines that some people thought them to be. They are useful and - like desktops - will probably remain with us until we all finally get cyber-brain implants but they are still just a small part of the overall computer ecosystem. If Apple - or any other major computer company - thought they could depend on tablets alone to maintain them, they should rethink that strategy.
>Apple has yet to really make massive pushes into literally billions of potential customers.
Yeah sub saharan africa is crying out for premium priced ipads and iphones. As is rural China etc.
Seriously though, Apple gains market share because of uniqueness, but then loses market share because of price. Always. Always. Always.
> They won't fail in any way shape or form.
So then you've obviously invested your lifes savings in Apple stock right? No? Why not.
>They have enough cash on hand to buy any new market or company they want.
Same could be said of Yahoo! at one time. Success isn't about writing big checks.
>Apple is actually the opposite of what you are claiming, they aren't a "running to stand still" company at all, they are a marathon runner
whoah let me stop you there.
From what I see, iPads are following a Star Trek movie pattern, with the even-numbered versions being the desirable ones. iPad 2 is one of Apple's all-time greatest products ever, and the recent 4th-gen is (iPad Air) is quite good as well. The odd-numbered versions generally have significant issues.
You can fill in the rest.
Obligatory Oatmeal
The cost of an iphone is cheaper than the cost of an ipod PLUS a second device to make phone calls and surf the web.
If you're willing to drop the requirement to surf the web while outside of Wi-Fi range, an iPod touch plus a dumbphone supporting only voice and SMS costs less than an iPhone, and its service costs less per month than iPhone service.
There is a rumor that iTunes will soon offer 24-bit sampled, higher bit-rate tracks. I don't know number of channels, etc, or how well these tracks would compare to SACD versions, but there is something that might interest audiophile niche market anyways. Apple is concerned with declining music sales, and they seem to be trying to spark it in several ways.
If you're listening to music on a portable device, you're likely listening in a noisy environment where you don't need the highest of bitrates. You could probably transcode your collection to a slightly lower bitrate and fit it in 120 GB, which should fit in any phone supporting microSDXC cards.
Or are you watching mostly DRM video on your iPod?
... you can comfortably read a PDF on a 6" phone.
If you're really in love with Windows, then buy a Surface.
Maybe you missed this part of his post? "Personally, I bought the Surface 2 (not pro) last Christmas"
For everyone else there's the iPad, the only device that actually holds its value over time.
If by "holds its value" you mean "can be sold to suckers for a high price" then yeah, I agree with you. I sold my first generation iPad two and a half years after I bought it for $300. I only paid $500 for it.
But the reason I sold it in the first place is because it was a piece of shit. Absolutely did not hold its "value" for me as a computing device. After successive updates it became increasingly slower, core apps like safari and Youtube crashed all the time, third party apps like Netflix and MLB At Bat crashed all the time, games were completely unplayable. My wife has an iPad 2 and she would make fun of my iPad 1. But now hers is suffering the same fate as mine, just around the same point in its lifecycle.
Are there minimum requirements to connect to facebook/twitter or read e-mails?
No, but other applications may have minimum requirements. For example, the minimum requirement to use an external joystick when playing games on your device is iOS 7. This completely excludes any iPod touch before the fifth generation and, I'm told, is impractically slow on any iPhone before a 4S.
Does facebook still load on my windows XP machine with an old Athlon?
It had better be behind a good firewall because Microsoft no longer issues security updates for that operating system. On most PCs that aren't dedicated to controlling a peripheral incompatible with Linux, I'd recommend replacing Windows XP with Xubuntu.
If you have a working iPad 1 why would you need to race out and buy a newer generation?
That depends on to what extent Apple and application developers continue to provide the software updates that keep it working. These updates correct newly discovered software defects and conform to changes to APIs offered by application service providers.
I have a few tablets. But they serve specific purposes. They're not general purpose machines. One operates as a Plex remote in the livingroom. One lives in the kitchen to display recipes, or check out the days weather at breakfast; or maybe reference a wikipedia article while chatting at breakfast. These are specific tasks for which a $150 ASUS Memo Pad 7 suffices perfectly. These are not tasks that need a $1000 phondleslab.
My iPad 1 got slower and slower with each update, until IOS 5, when the updates cease.
We've deliberately kept our gen 3 iPad on its original iOS 5, despite all Apple's attempts to trick us into upgrading. As far as I can see from on-line feedback, iOS 6 was basically a Vista-scale train wreck with poor performance to match, while iOS 7 turns the device into looking like a kindergarten toy. Apple just seem very proud that the performance on "old" devices -- you know, the ones we were buying a whole two years ago -- doesn't suck quite as much in iOS 7 as it does with iOS 6.
For us, Apple have blown it at this point. Their entire iDevice set-up is consumer-hostile: create a walled garden app ecosystem, then try to use app developers to force device owners to upgrade their OS just so artificially nerfed updates of apps will work again, resulting in a device that doesn't perform as well as it did when purchased but can't be "downgraded" back to its original OS, and so causing completely unnecessary obsolescence in a very expensive device that would otherwise have lasted several more years. We quite like our iPad, but we have no interest in buying anything similar from Apple again in the current environment.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
That being said, we use our iPads for two main reasons. The kids watch Amazon Videos on theirs
That's fine so long as Amazon continues to provide an application for your old iPad. Changes to Amazon's DRM protocol or introduction of new bandwidth-saving video codecs may require a change to the client.
and we check email and surf the web on ours.
That's fine so long as your email provider continues to use a protocol that an application compatible with your older iPad supports.
If MS really are giving me the option of sticking with my old workflow in a Windows 8 update, then I'll be looking to make the switch back soon.
Microsoft has given you the option of installing third-party Classic Shell for a long time.
Key words: "starts at". To be practical, your can be often looking at double that amount
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
But what if you do it regardless on the phone, will the carrier know it and terminate your contract?, or will no one ever know.
Early on, Android Market (now Google Play Store) didn't support priced apps in a lot of countries where carriers launched Android phones. So to reach users in those countries, developers had to mark the apps free and recover costs through advertising. Apple, by contrast, wouldn't launch its iProducts in a country before having a music store in that country, which gave it a payment infrastructure. This initially led to the App Store having a larger fraction of priced apps and Android app developers experimenting with other revenue strategies. This search for revenue strategies cross-pollinated with the same search among developers of "free" Facebook games. One of the results was widespread use of an "energy" mechanic that adds consumable (pay-per-use) items required to progress faster than a snail's pace.
I agree that games are being ruined. I wouldn't mind paying $7 for a game, if the app was actually up-front about the cost, rather than being $2 up-front and $5 to unlock a pack of levels.
I don't see what's wrong with paying for expansions, so long as it's spelled out clearly in the description. Case in point: Doom for PC came with one free episode. One purchase (Ultimate Doom) unlocked three more episodes, and another purchase (Doom II) unlocked an additional game's worth of missions.
BTW the only things left to them in my opinion are:
There are plenty of potential big products out there. That's not the problem. The problem for Apple is the law of big numbers. There are a relatively small number of products with enough market to move the needle once you are Apple's size.
1.) Live Television
Tough nut to crack like you said but I would have said the same thing about music a few years ago. I'd give Apple as good a chance as anyone. The market is big enough but it's unclear where the business opportunity lies. Lots of entrenched players and a byzantine market structure.
2.) Replacing the iPod Mini with a watch that syncs to your iPhone.
I think you are on the right track but the opportunity is bigger if you think of it more broadly. Think device and sensor integration. Right now devices do a rather poor job of talking to each other, even Apple devices. For instance I should have access to all my files, data, music, settings, preferences, video, address book, etc on each and every Apple device I own. It should be completely seamless. Right now it's still too spotty and device dependent. The market opportunity for that is huge for Apple and it keeps people in their ecosystem.
3.) Pull a M$ and try to merge there desktop class and tablet class together.
This is already happening to some degree and logically it makes some sense. I think MS did a hack job of it but they did establish that the concept is feasible. Apple has already started to make iOS and MacOS overlap and Google is doing the same thing with Android. It doesn't necessarily have to be a single code base but the code bases should work smoothly together if they can't be merged. Frankly I think laptops and tablets are going to converge much like PDAs and cell phones over the next few years. Right now they are separated due to the state of the art in technology but those barriers will disappear largely in a few years. Not sure how it will play out but it will be interesting to watch.
4.) Virtual Reality
I presume you are thinking of something like Occulus. I've worked in my day job with immersive VR tech and I just don't see a big enough business opportunity there to get super excited if I were a company the size of Apple. Games has some market potential (overestimated I think but some) but what else? Most uses are pretty niche. However I do see a huge opportunity in augmented reality and geolocation which isn't all that far removed in a lot of ways.
Other potential big opportunities?
1) Automotive systems are a big opportunity and car companies aren't very good at the sorts of products Apple makes.
2) Payment systems are a huge opportunity. I could see smartphones making inroads into some of what we use credit cards for now.
3) Location based services - a lot of the money in smartphones is probably going to be here. Big fight with Google on the horizon here.
4) Buying other companies - Apple has a TON of cash. They could easily buy their way into markets.
I have a 1st Gen iPad and see no reason to replace it
Once websites start using HTML5 features not included in the most recent version of Safari for the first-generation iPad, mail providers start using protocols not available in an app for the first-generation iPad, and games continue to be updated to versions no longer compatible with the first-generation iPad, your first-generation iPad won't remain so useful.
but not PvZ2 since it requires an iPad 2
And you're already starting to see this effect. Let me make a video game console analogy: There are some gamers who cling to the original Nintendo Entertainment System and its games, and hobbyists continue to produce a trickle of NES games, but the vast majority of gamers and game developers do not.
I can only presume the reason for not supporting mice [in iOS] is they don't want the touch UI contaminated by mouse based GUIs.
It might be time to switch to Android, which works fine with external keyboards and mice. It comes in handy for Chrome's remote desktop feature.
Clearly, you don't understand the use case of the iPod Classic: an order of magnitude more storage than a 32GB cell phone is hardly made redundant.
As the capacity of smartphones gets larger the number of users of the iPod Classic is going to drop. My smartphone has 64GB and that is more than adequate to store my entire music collection. If I need more space to store something then I have a 2TB portable hard drive. There are some people for whom the iPod Classic makes sense but the number is steadily shrinking.
The shuffle is more redundant, even if you can personally find a case where you like to use it.
The use case for the shuffle is primarily exercising. Running with anything much larger is pretty annoying and one doesn't need an entire music library or a screen for a 30-60 minute workout.
I'm still amazed that Apple, of all companies, is the one that's still actually catering to that segment. I haven't seen another HDD-based music player in years.
Not really that shocking. Most of that market segment has gone the way of the dodo and unsurprisingly the dominant product in that market (the ipod classic) is the last player standing. It doesn't cost Apple much to keep making them so it remains a smallish but profitable business for them. I expect at some point they'll pull the plug but the margins are good, the unit volume is adequate and it doesn't require a lot of management attention.
they do not go and create new markets on their own like Apple used to (at least they don't do it any more)
"Don't do it anymore"? Dude, the iPad was introduced in 2010. While others introduced tablets before that, nobody took the market seriously until Apple jumped in. Apple introduced the iPhone in 2004, and the iPod in 2001. How frequently do they have to create multi-billion dollar businesses from nothing for you? Apple has started or at least popularized at least 7 major businesses that I can think of (personal computers, graphical operating systems, desktop laser printers, mp3 players, smartphones, tablets, app/music stores) plus a number of smaller spinoff businesses. There aren't a lot of other companies with a comparable track record of hit products. If they go another few years before without a hit product then sure, let's wonder what's going on. But Apple has a track record of making big new products about every 5 years or so. Let's postpone the funeral for a least a few more years.
(For the pedants out there I'm fully aware that others usually created the technologies Apple works with - that's why I said they've started/popularized the business rather than the technology)
Replace names like smartphone and tablet with touch computer.
This is why they don't let engineers name products. As the old saying goes, if an engineer were asked to come up with a name sushi they would call it "cold dead fish".
Do you know of an alternative to capacitive that still supports multitouch?
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Am I the only person in the USA with kids under 10 who has not bought an iPad (or any pad?). I know they're great pacifiers but I tend to avoid pacifiers. No cell phone that can play games either. When I take my family to dinner, we talk, joke, and draw with crayons and pencils. When we're at home, the kids play inside or outside. They don't sit and stare at iPads or cell phones in either context.
I'm trying really hard not to be judgemental because I know that everyone has their own way of doing things and there is no single right way. And certainly a moderate amount of pad/phone use is fine, similarly to how just about everything in moderation is fine.
But when I go to restaurants and I see 90% of the kids just sitting there watching or playing on a pad and not interacting with anyone, I just can't help but feel like there is something wrong. And when my kids go over other kids houses and I see how much of those other kids lives revolves around playing games or watching things on handheld devices like pads and phones, I conclude that for some kids, being pacified with these devices is a regular part of the daily routine.
And so to avoid ever even being able to get into that rut, I haven't bought any such device and do not intend to do so.
Once again, trying hard not to be judgemental, but as everyone who has kids probably knows already, child rearing decisions are some of the hardest things *not* to be judgemental about, as they are so personal and the stakes feel so high.
YMMV.
from a hardware perspective, I wouldn't mind going the $250 route when upgrading my iPad. Problem is I want to stay in the ecosystem. I have all my apps and all my cloud storage and iTunes integration setup already. The $250 premium is worth it to me at the moment.
My God can beat up your God. Just kidding...don't take offense. I know there's no God.
Sales in this quarter only dropped around 3%, and frankly it's a big NOP. The production numbers you are quoting are including inventory effects.
-Matt
For around 2 years I've been using an iPad 2. The experience has been great, it does it's job pretty well, it's a great way to consume content (web surfing, youtubing, social media, light gaming), etc, etc. Yes, it's a walled garden, yes, I can't "drop to the command line and get under the hood". But the fact is that my "tableting needs" are rather basic, and haven't changed much, the apps are inherited limited, and I don't use it for heavy graphic or gaming, so I don't see the need to "upgrade" to a newer version, not now and not on the next couple of years, or even swap it for a Android tablet (my smartphone is a low-cost asian THL W100, btw).
The only gripe that would make me switch my iPad 2 is the internal storage (only 16 GB without expansion). But it would be most likely and cost efective for me to replace it with an iPad 2 without 3G and with 64 GB of storage, than to get a newer, more expensive iPad "4" or "5" or whatever.
I think that the iPad "matured" so rapidly that the need to keep churning new models and for the people to upgrade every 1 or 2 years is pretty much gone.
"A sysadmin is a cross between a detective, a police officer, a gardener, a doctor and a fireman"
Disclaimer: I have an iPad Air, and the Zagg keyboard case for it.
So, if you look at my comment history from way back when the original iPad was released (which I also owned) I was wildly disappointed, as I felt it was just a 10" iPod Touch with limited usefulness.
My opinion remains largely unchanged.
Had Blizzard not released Hearthstone for the iPad - with me being a Hearthstone addict - I would have eBayed it by now. Yep. Stood in line Black Friday to buy it, and already bored of it / barely using it.
I told myself I would use it to read eBooks from my Kindle / Google Play Books / iBooks library. Nope. Even with its reduced weight, it's still too heavy and awkward to hold comfortably for hours. It's a much poorer experience than a Kindle Paperwhite.
I told myself I would use it to work on. I bought the $100 Zagg keyboard case for it. What a wretched experience. Poor quality keyboard meets the horrible user experience of stretching your arm for constant tap-tap cut/copy/paste editing. Do you use Excel at work? Let me introduce you to Numbers, a tool made for fourth graders. Getting files on or out of the device to work with is a nightmare due to Apple's ecosystem lock in. The closest glimpse of freedom comes from installing DropBox to move files out, open them on computer. Or vice-versa.
"But Wait! iOS 7 has 'AirDrop' " , you say. Sure it does, and it *STILL* won't allow you to copy files between iOS and OSX devices. Only iOS iOS, and then only certain file types. Because Apple knows you want to copy mp3s, video files, and other stuff between your phone and your Mac, and Apple wants to keep your ass locked firmly into iTunes.
So yeah, I have buyers remorse. I spent $500 on something I sometimes use to read Slashdot in the bathroom.
Do you remember those rumors a couple months ago that Apple was making a 12" iPad? They aren't. Those are probably the new panels being made for the new MacBook Air that will be announced this summer. But what would really intrigue me would be if the new MacBook Air was running iOS 8, with the new A8 processor, came with a full keyboard and trackpad ala existing form factor MacBook Airs, & came with full iWork suite free. Apple has been watching people for the past several years buying clunky third-party keyboard cases for their iPads in a desperate bid to turn them into light, portable cheap laptops. Why not just make one?
THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.
Take this for what it's worth, but I find it relevant. I, too, laughed at Microsoft's Surface tablet, and it's dismal sales figures. I was the happy owner of a personal iPad and a work iPad, and I figured that was what the tablet experience was, and what it needed to be.
I was wrong. At least for me, I was wrong.
I have the strange situation of working at a Microsoft shop, as a manager of a development team (though I am an open source guy, by background). The local Microsoft sales office invited several of us to an Azure educational session. Part sales, part hands-on training. I am a big user of Amazon Web Services, and my team uses it as well. So I figured instead of just being an Azure hater, I would come along and do the hands-on walk-through, because it's some dedicated time for some busy people to really dive in and see what all the fuss is about.
But this comment is not about Azure. Azure was fine. I'm still AWS fan, and Azure was just similar enough, and just different enough, that I'm not chomping at the bit to start using lots of Azure.
But here's the thing: They had a door prize. And I won it. It was a Surface with Windows RT. And I love it.
Would I love it as much if it had not been free? We will never know. But all I can tell you is my story.
One might argue that it's stupid for this thing to have a "Desktop mode." But it also has a USB port (shocker!) and supports Bluetooth. I already have a Bluetooth keyboard for my iPad (which I never use), and a USB mouse that I use for my laptop. I put my Surface on it's kickstand, pair the keyboard, and plug in the mouse tongle, and the dang thing is transformed. It's a little laptop. It has Office installed. It has the full Windows version of IE. Yes, I hate IE, and it sucks that there's no Chrome or Firefox for this platform. But the point is that, in a jam, this makes a damn fine little PC.
And then it's NOT a PC. You pick it back up and it's a tablet. And a NICE tablet. The apps are nice. The Reddit app is my favorite Reddit experience, in fact. Netflix, Facebook, etc.
Oh, and the best part... the Surface team designed it to be used with mouse, or a finger. It behaves differently in each case. And it behaves generally the way you expect (want) it to.
So, call me a fanboy. I did not expect to really like it. But I do. I really like it. Anybody slamming Windows 8, and particularly Windows 8 on a table, isn't really giving it a chance. It's really nice.
Once websites start using HTML5 features not included in the most recent version of Safari for the first-generation iPad [...] your first-generation iPad won't remain so useful.
When I get to that point, I'll look into upgrading.
The last version of iOS for the first-generation iPad was iOS 5. The first version of iOS whose included Safari web browser supports <input type="file"> without needing to jailbreak was iOS 6. Without <input type="file">, you can't upload pictures or videos through a form. So yes, websites are already "using HTML5 features not included in the most recent version of Safari for the first-generation iPad".
Well the first difference is that he's complaining about $2 up front, + $5 for levels. vs free + pay for rest of game.
Now it's starting to sound like Warcraft II and Beyond the Dark Portal, or StarCraft and Brood War, or DDRMAX and its mission pack sequels (DDRMAX2, Extreme, Extreme II, and SuperNOVA).
As for the real-time "sessioning" design mentality, where the player has to check in every day to collect things, I'm starting to think it's intended to drive people who want less-frequent yet longer play sessions off phones and tablets, where the expected price of a game is lower, and onto consoles and desktop PCs, where the expected price of a game is higher. True, some games for traditional console and handheld platforms also have this sort of repetitive sessioned gameplay. Except harvesting fruit from trees is only one way to make money in Animal Crossing, others being fishing or catching bugs. And everything is on the same cycle that resets at 0600 in the morning. Fruit trees take 3 cycles to replenish, but one commonly divides a town into thirds using the river and either the cliffs or a paved path through the center. And it's balanced not to need paid consumables.
If it was sooooooo important for consumers to have SD expansion, the iPod would have been pushed out the market a couple years after it was introduced - not dominate the mp3 player market until the present. It's also telling that nobody complains about products from Apple's competitors that offer neither SD expansion nor swappable batteries.
neither Amazon nor e-mail are going to go out of sync with the iPad 3 any time soon.
I guess my comment was more directed toward people still making do with a first-generation iPad.
the upgrade I'm tempted to make is to a Microsoft Surface Pro 2.
It looks like you're choosing a 10" Windows 8.1 (x86) tablet. Among these tablets, what does the Surface Pro do that the less expensive Transformer Book doesn't?
Well, nobody gives a fuck that you don't give a fuck.
It was a question, iFanboi.
Ooooh, MrKaos doesn't give a fuck ... quick, stop the world, he wants to get off.
Obviously I'm so concerned with Apples iSales that iLobby the UN to purchase them by their millions to supply to starving third world iChildren, who really need them. I'm off to buy 10 that iWill give to my iFriends to support all of the needy Apple iEmployees.
Seriously, who gives a fuck about the fact that you're a fucking whiny bitch?
Obviously, you do enough to reply. Did iOffended you?
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
its more like buying star craft, and finding the protoss and zerg campaigns are greyed out with $ next to them
Do you really need to bring StarCraft II into this, or any of the several pay-per-episode games developed by Telltale?
My point is that there's a right and wrong way to do a lot of these game design tropes and business methods. And just as with storytelling tropes in general, just because certain mobile game developers are doing them ineffectively doesn't mean the tropes themselves are bad.
iOS 7 looks like it was designed by Fisher Price for infant seeing eye dogs.
It's not a professional tool anymore. It's ugly and puts fluff, useless animation and a harder to use and see OS before function and usability.
- Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
Especially analysts that analyze Apple. These are the guys that say that Apple needs to release a razor thin margined cheap iPhone, and that they are going to die if they don't. Then, when Apple doesn't do that, they proclaim that they're doing it wrong, and that they are going to die. Then Apple continues to beat sales expectations.
Not to mention that the same analysts will point to falling margins as proof of doom.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
Well, nobody gives a fuck that you don't give a fuck.
It was a question, iFanboi.
So you not only cared enough to post to a discussion you said nobody cared about, you even cared enough to reply to somebody pointing that out. What a sorry little iHateboy.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
Of course I cared enough to ask, how the hell else would I get an answer. Nowhere in "Does anyone, really, give a fuck?" does it say what you accuse me of.
Yes, I'm interested in just how rabid this consumerism is. All they pointed out was that their comprehension was colored by those opinions, as did you.
Wow, I knew that the science compared the brain scans of iFanbois quite simarly to religious fanatics but actually encountering the effect Apples marketing has on iCustomers is really interesting. I'm equally ambivalent about Microsoft product sales and, Android sales however, I was curious if any iFanbois would react with iZealotry to the point of it being a iReligion, and you have.
Because I dared to ask the question, iOffended you, like the other iFanboi enough for you to label me with your iStereotypes from the standard iCreativity of an iClone.
Just one more thing: "If you don't like the way iInsult you, you prove you also lack humor, you iMoron." +5 iInsightful
iFixed your sig for ya!
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
No, fucktard, you didn't offend me, you amused me with your stupidity. You can tell how stupid you are by not being able to tell. Thanks for the laugh.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
No, fucktard, you didn't offend me, you amused me with your stupidity. You can tell how stupid you are by not being able to tell. Thanks for the laugh.
I actually read through your iComments all touting apple products, you are the king of apple iFanbois, your expertise in USB cables is...pointless!
I can tell how iOffended you are by the empty ad-hominem attacks, that's how iKnow iOffended iYou. In tech parlance - iPwnd you. See what I did there - that's called wit. If you work and study very very hard you may work up to half, one day. ooops, iOffended you again, tomorrow, when you work that comment out.
You are welcome, iLook forward to not iOffending you again, meanwhile iLaugh at iYou.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
No need to look at any further of your comments, the ones in this thread proof you a fucktard with no knowledge at all.
Of course news about a fake are Fake News.
No need to look at any further of your comments, the ones in this thread proof you a fucktard with no knowledge at all.
Really. iKnow you are an apple iFanboi who is an iExpert in iUSB cables.
But I notice both halves of your iWit are using the word 'fucktard', so I know that's progress. If you combine them you'll be a 'fuckwit' then you can walk around the apple shop with a badge that says iFuckwit. I'm sure that's what people are thinking you are when they iTalk to iYou, iI iKnow iI iAm.
iHope iYou iComment more so iOffend iYou again.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.