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Apple's Next Hit Could Be a Microsoft Surface Pro Clone
theodp writes "Good artists copy, great artists steal," Steve Jobs used to say. Having launched a perfectly-timed attack against Samsung and phablets with its iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, Leonid Bershidsky suggests that the next big thing from Apple will be a tablet-laptop a la Microsoft's Surface Pro 3. "Before yesterday's Apple [iPad] event," writes Bershidsky, "rumors were strong of an upcoming giant iPad, to be called iPad Pro or iPad Plus. There were even leaked pictures of a device with a 12.9-inch screen, bigger than the Surface Pro's 12-inch one. It didn't come this time, but it will. I've been expecting a touch-screen Apple laptop for a few years now, and keep being wrong.
To do this, Apple would need a new OS, or do some sort of horrible blend between OS X and iOS. That's not happening. I think there will be a bigger iPad at some point, but it will just run iOS. It won't be a convertible.
Someone will have to explain how putting out a device that immediately gets eclipsed by a Note 4 counted as a perfecry timed attack against Samsung
I've been expecting a touch-screen Apple laptop for a few years now, and keep being wrong.
That's because a touch-screen laptop is a terrible idea. Today's phones are powerful enough with a docking station that includes a monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
Isn't a big iPad just a big iPad?
And also years after the original Note and after every other phone manufacturer was producing large phones? If it were not for Apple's former stubborn position on large phones Samsung would likely not become such a big player in the market.
All Apple had to do was wait for Steve to die, then release a device with a screen bigger than Jobs would approve . VoilÃ! Then some jerk can self promote his garbage on Slashdot and proclaim its brilliance.
Apple can shit in a box and people will buy it.
Seems to me that Apple is playing catch-up in the phablet arena. Apple was late to the party and lost the toehold because of its tardiness.
AC, seriously? That doesn't even address the point raised.
The original poster sounds like an Apple fanboi. The iPhone6 was perfectly timed only in the sense of 'gosh, Samsung and others have been making lots of money off bigger phones... we'd better try to get some of that FINALLY.'.
Trying to copy Surface is.... coming late to the party too.
Apple hasn't really innovated much since Steve left the scene. Now it is trying to make progress not by inventing innovative new products that control new product spaces or create them, but instead by joining the party after the fact in several already busy sub-market areas and trying to fight with the other dogs over the bones.
Honestly, I hate a lot of things they did on the iPhone that they could have done differently without losing many of its truly positive features. There's no good reason backup is the mess it is (if you don't want to use Apple's chosen method and even a bit if you do) as just one example. But I will give credit where credit is due - they created a device most people seem to find usable (I don't, but that's probably just because I've been trained in other directions) and that doesn't tend to just shut off on my randomly in mid-day to run an update I didn't ask for (I'm looking at you, Android/Google).
The one thing the iPhone 3s and 4s had right is that I want a phone that fits in my pants front pocket. I don't want to need a cargo pocket. I also want a phone I can operate one-handed. The larger iPhone 5, 6, and the Samsung monstrosities as well don't accomodate that. I'm getting concerned that when my Nexus 4 dies, I won't be able to easily replace a highly capable phone in that form factor (instead having to buy either a bloated oversize phablet or settle for an incapable smaller phone).
-- Mal: "Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."
The only difference between samsung and every other android manufacturer is the advertising/carrier kickback budget. Samsung can't compete on the low end because it destroys their profit margins. Meanwhile, the low end android manufacturers are quickly becoming mid/high end android manufacturers because that's where the money is at. It's the same story as IBM PC industry, except it took 10 years instead of 30.
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Steve Jobs may have been many things, but Pablo Picasso is not one of them.
The original surface (surface 1.0) was renamed pixelsense around the time they launched the tablets to avoid confusion. is that what you want?
If so, available on general sale eg http://www.misco.co.uk/product/Q505997/Samsung-SUR40-with-Microsoft-PixelSense-Legs-Not-Included
Otherwise, if you're saying you saw large demo versions of the surface (new) for coffee table use, I'm not sure - though HP, Lenovo etc do 'portable' large screen tablet/desktop hybrids that may fit. Though, as I say, never seen an MS version.
Call it the iiPad
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Cloning something a failure like Surface seems silly, if you're going to clone something clone something that is a success in the marketplace. If I want a table, I will buy an iPad - it works nicely as a consumption device. If I want to do a little more work, I will buy a Macbook Air. I don't really need a touch screen, in fact I find it a little annoying having fingerprints all over the screen. I also tend to sit back when using the computer and having to lean forward to touch the screen is actually more effort than just using my mouse. Call me old fashioned.... but I don't find it an improvement in usability when it comes to working on a computer. It works nicely when you are using an iPad and reading a book or watching a video.... Two different user interfaces in one machine is not useful to most.
And for a long time before Steve left the scene. Apple has been a success by letting other companies release new types of devices and then execute their own version of that type of device. Apple did not create the first portable music player, the first smartphone, the first WIMP interface, etc.. Apple's success has largely been down to executing arguably better versions of devices that already exist in the marketplace. Now, Apple is also benefitting from being perceived as a luxury brand.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
People can hate Windows 8 all they want, but the signs are clear: Microsoft wants a unified platform for mobile and desktop apps, because at some point Google will get Android apps to run on Chrome OS and Apple will get iOS apps running on OS X machines
A mainstream machine that merges the tablet with the laptop market will make it clear to those who have been distracted that tablets are the main PC for millions of people. I think that Surface Pro is more of a proof of concept while the the MacBook Air or the supposed 12" iPad can be that machine.
The touchscreen will be secondary, what will define the PC market will be app stores. One fine morning we'll look at the PC market and realise that 30% of machines are running Google Play apps, 30% are running Windows Stores and 30% are running iTunes apps.
For the most part, Samsung doesn't really compete with Apple, Samsung competes with the many other manufacturers of Android phones. It's only in the flagship products (Galaxy, Note) where there is competition with Apple, but I don't think that these represent the bulk of Samsung's sales outside the USA.
The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
These are the same analysts who said that apple needed to make a netbook or they would die (or who each quarter predicted a netbook was coming).
Apple has placed an alternative bet: that the devices can overlap capabilites and responsibilites (e.g. via handoff, or less intensely as with iwork) but have fundamentally different jobs to do, and try to make each do its job well. I don't commute to work in a tank, but some people find tanks useful. The surface, and W8, are neiher tank nor motorbike, and really do neither job well.
Apple changes their mind (and never admits it, as with phablets!) and they also make brain damaged decisions, but there is some method to their madness. Analysts generate quotable sound bites; that is the method behind their madness.
I'm on my second touchscreen computer and fifth tablet. I do not like touch screen for a laptop/desktop. For a smartphone I can think of no better way than a touchscreen given the lack of input device. For a portable TV otherwise known as iPad a touchscreen is about the same as a dial on the side. For a Microsoft surface or a laptop with touch screen removing your fingers off the keyboard to touch the screen is cumbersome. I also found myself rarely detaching the keyboard.
Samsung and others have been making lots of money off bigger phones.
You might want to review that statement, Apple appears to be cleaning house on the money side, taking 87% of the profit in the market.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
also with a heavy dose of stylizing and marketing, and though the fanboi's will come out of the woodwork to kill me on this ... even some of the stuff Jobs let out there wasnt all that great (puck mouse)
Apple hasn't really innovated much since Steve left the scene.
I see this a lot and I'm not convinced, especially since the guy has only been in the ground for around 3 years. How much does Apple have to do for you to change you mind? Where is the boundary between what you consider innovative and not. What is your evidence that their pace of innovation has slowed? I'm not saying you are right or wrong but you stated it as if it is axiomatic and I don't think I agree. I don't see any other companies really innovating meaningfully faster when you are talking time scales of 5-15 years which is what matters here.
Apple has historically introduced one or two big products per decade. The original Apple Computers came out in the late 1970s. The Macintosh was created in 1984. The iPod in 2001. The iPhone in 2007 and the iPad in 2010 which are really the same device in different form factors. Other products of note were the Apple LaserWriter (first desktop laser printer - Apple dropped the ball on that one) in 1985 and the Newton MessagePad in 1994. (The Apple Watch is too new to decide if it is noteworthy or not) Apple's most grim time financially was during the 1990s when their big bet (the MessagePad) was a flop and they mismanaged the Macintosh. I think people might be confused about their pace of innovation late in Steve Jobs life because they mistakenly consider the iPhone and iPad to be different devices when they really aren't. In fact the iPhone came out to the development for the iPad. They are the same device really.
Companies like Samsung and HTC and others are trying a lot of stuff and most of it is crap but some is good and works. Apple works really hard on a few things and doesn't release as much but their batting average is much better. Neither approach is right or wrong but you have to look at it on a time scale of more than 2-3 years to get a sense of pace of innovation. Realistically we should be having this discussion about 5-7 years in the future.
Product ideas that can move markets the way the Mac and the iDevices have are REALLY hard to come up with. I see some companies like Samsung throwing a lot of stuff out there but most of it is quite unremarkable. I think expectations that Apple would introduce some big market moving product the minute Steve Jobs died is pretty unrealistic. It may turn out that without Jobs the company will founder - they did once before. But we really should wait a few years to see if they really can or cannot come up with their next big success. I think their ApplePay service *might* turn out to be a really big deal but that remains to be seen. I think it is the most interesting new product they've done since the iPad and it certainly could be the most lucrative.
The statement was that the Note 4 hasn't eclipsed the iPhone nor is it out selling it. That statement is true.
Samsung also sells microwaves and TVs, so that means they are outselling the iPhone as well, right? No, it doesn't, thats not what the discussion about. We're not talking about throw away free phones which is what samsung excels at.
The details about the Note 4 don't mean shit when the implementation on a whole is crap. Samsung is going to have to get away from Android and the fact that everything about it screams poor experience because its purpose is to basically steal information about the user to serve the user ads.
Theres a reason Samsung is considering dumping Android. Maybe then will they be able to produce a competing product.
You're one of those guys that thinks raw specs are all that matters for comparisons ... which is why we all drive race cars to and from work and the store.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Okay, so I don't know what they'd name it, but I would kill for a Surface Pro style device running OSX with a thunderbolt port on it.
Two separate modes of operation, iOS like modes for when I'm in tablet mode, OSX like mode when I'm attached to a real keyboard, pointing device and display.
I'd kill twice if they packed it into something the size of the iPhone6 or 6s.
I would easily pay $4k or more, probably even 5k if they could some how cram 8-16G of ram, 512GB of flash, a haswell chip for docked mode, an ARM for mobile mode into something the size of a iPhone 6s if it had a thunderbolt port and could fully mutate between the two modes, hell, it wouldn't need to share apps, just storage space so that native apps for each mode could access the same data.
I've been wanting this for several years and we're rapidly approaching the point of being able to do a full on developers level of CPU power/ram in a phone sized device. I'm seriously considering a surface pro for this reason but its just not quite there yet, its damned close. If Apple took the same hardware and released it with OSX, I'd buy it and accept the early adopter penalty of having to replace it in 2 years when they get it done right.
I don't want a macbook air, I want a surface pro running OSX in desktop mode, iOS in mobile mode and nothing more than a thunderbolt port for docking.
Apple, please take my freaking money and give me this.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Microsoft's "Surface" is just the latest round of their "tablet PC" debacle, which had been a continuous failure for over a decade before the iPad was introduced. iPad succeeded because Apple didn't try to shoehorn a desktop OS into a device where it clearly didn't fit.
To suggest that Apple should abandon a successful approach for a failed approach demonstrates that the author should find a different line of work, he's obviously out of his depth writing about the computer industry.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
What next? Apple patents the large form factor phone??
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
My name-brand phone that I've had for ages -- and had Apple users asking me what it was, then telling me they were going to switch to Android -- has the exact same resolution as the iPhone 6 Plus.
And it's performance in every way is significantly less. When they had the smaller res, they lacked the CPU/GPU the modern Apple hardware has now. The modern Android hardware has the better GPU/CPU but the screen res is killing performance. Apple let them dance right over the sweet spot.
My phone looks better, it fits a pocket better, it weighs less, it's waterproof,
So it's smaller? Behind them times already I guess. Otherwise the six is pocketable for anyone.
Waterproof is something I use a case for if I need. I use the phone in the rain briefly without issue as I always have.
Your phone basically sounds like a fish-mash of things not important to anyone anymore (FM radio....)
Literally the only feature from the iPhone 6 Plus that I can find which my phone lacks is the fingerprint sensor,
Which actually works and opens a whole world you'll be left behind with as you listen to... FM radio.
no disabled NFC here
Fully operational and utterly useless.
Oh, and my smart watch is here now, not some vague date in the future
I wouldn't want what you have now either, but at least it probably also supports FM radio!
Apple are late to the party once again,
They are never late, they arrive when they feel they have something worth selling. I as a buyer appreciate not having to tolerate half-baked crap any longer, that was fine when I'm young but like Danny Glover I'm too old for that shit. Including FM radio.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I always thought the biggest iPad, should be called something like the iPad Max, or if that's too cliche, the Maxipad.
You might want to review that statement, Apple appears to be cleaning house on the money side, taking 87% of the profit in the market. [businessinsider.com]
Worse for Apple's competitors, that was in Feb. 2014. Since then Samsung is in trouble (sorry, Samsung isn't but I bet some Samsung executives are) because their profits in the mobile market have dropped by 70% from last year, and Apple can't build the iPhone 6 fast enough (about 20 million sold worldwide and 20 million pre-ordered in China alone).