For the mod who thought that was funny - wake me up when the Iphone hits above 5% market share. Thanks. Meanwhile I'll get back to my phone made by a real major player, Nokia, at 40%. Similarly for Mac on the desktop - if you think that Macs are popular in general as they are here on Slashdot, that is indeed funny. The Ipod is Apple's sole mainstream product.
We've had devices of sizes between phones and laptops for years, be they other tablets or netbooks. That still doesn't support the absurd amount of hype the Istale, or whatever the vaporware is being called this week, is getting.
And there we have it confirmed - daring to talk about non-Apple products, even in comments, is now off-topic?
Why is it that the Apple fans get all the mod points (I haven't had any in years)? Not only do they think that non-Apple alternatives exist, but they even have to mod down anyone who points this out. It's sad to see this level of self-reinforcing delusion. "No, there aren't any non-Apple tablets *mods down* No, there aren't!" Come out and have the decency to debate, rather than hiding behind your mod points.
Prediction: In five years' time, Apple will release a "smaller Ipad" that fits into a coat pocket. Perhaps it will also make phone calls.
Slashdot, the media, and Apple fans the world over will be in an ecstasy of self-wank at how amazing Apple are at releasing such a revolutionary product, that no other company had thought of before.
Which alternative reality are you from, if you think the Iphone was anything like the Ipod in terms of success?
Okay, it's not a failure - that's a straw man, the OP never claimed that. But it is nothing special. It's a niche in the market - enough to make Apple money, but it's certainly nothing special, compared to the big players of Nokia, LG, Samsung, Motorola etc.
The only reason it won't "sink into obscurity" is because of all the self-fulfilling circular free advertising hype that people like you give it. But in terms of features, the Ipad is yet another Air (remember that? Nope, thought not).
"Windows was a fucking popular OS, therefore the fucking Zune will be too".
The comparison to the fucking Ipod - Apple's sole mainstream product, their one hit wonder - is an all too common fallacy, but fuck, it's laughable if you fucking think about it.
Nope, because a smart phone is by definition the high end of the market.
But it has happened to phones - they reached dirt cheap prices about 10 years ago, and the high end of the market continually drops in price to the low end, just as has happened with computers.
And furthermore, the interesting thing is that this didn't happen with mp3 players. The first Ipod had 20GB. Can you get a 20GB Ipod for dirt cheap? Nope. You can get much larger sizes for the same price, but the low end hasn't fallen. Instead you can look at flash-based devices (which wasn't the original Ipod, and where Apple have far less of a presence - their Shuffle offering is abysmal), where most are sized at 8GB at most. The best I've found is Sandisk's Sansa Clip, which is upgradable due to taking a microSD card, as well as its 8GB of internal memory.
Nope, I love my Sansa Clip. Much cheaper than the Shuffle, far more intuitive UI (I mean, it has a UI for starters)
But if you only hear about tech news from Appledot, you obviously wouldn't have heard about it, since all that gets covered about here are daily Apple rumours, not tech stories. If you step out of your Apple RDF, you'd have known that there were perfectly good mp3 players (not running Linux, and that just work, unlike Apple products which often have to be jailbroken to get basic functionality working, btw) that aren't made by Apple, and you wouldn't have embarrassed yourself.
I'm not sure what's bad about Korea. Ipods are made in China. Big deal.
Nope, I'm using a flat screen. It's the Apple users who think that large oversized CRTs - the same functionality but taking up more space - is suddenly a good thing. But even worse, they're also willing to pay more for it.
If I want a bigger screen that a phone, I get a netbook - or indeed a tablet. What's so special about the Istale that it deserves three stories every single day, even when it hasn't even been released?
It'll be so hip for everyone to have brick sized devices again! And people can show off how cool they have, by specifically buying clothes with huge pockets just to carry them! And anyone who isn't hip enough to have big pockets filled with their brick sized Istale will feel uncool and "how contrary"!
Posts like you just show how sad your attitude is, and prove it really is about attempting to look pathetically cool, even though no one actually gives a damn about nerd products or the nerd clothes you specifcally got for it, or your Apple logo shining out your oversized coat pocket.
show us all how contrary
Me and the 95% of the non-Apple phone owning population. We prefer to Think Different, you see.
We've had devices of sizes between phones and laptops for years, be they other tablets or netbooks. That still doesn't support the absurd amount of hype the Istale, or whatever the vaporware is being called this week, is getting.
If you think that some people are going to be interested in an iBrick, that may be true. But that doesn't mean it's going to become market leader, or that it deserves to get anywhere near the absurd free advertising it's getting.
Do we see daily stories about Corvettes on Slashdot and all the media too? No.
Indeed, although I'd go so far as to say that it's only on Slashdot that people love the thing. The love of Apple here is far greater than the mainstream, where Apple are a niche.
The Ipod was market leader, therefore the Ipad will be? Please, go back to school and learn basic logic. Do you think:
"Windows and IE were market leaders, therefore the Zune will be"?
this is a big-ass iPod
Yes, because obviously making mp3 players bigger is just what people want. Let's go back to the 80s, so that people can walk around showing their Istales off, carrying them around on their shoulders blasting out music.
If they make money, it'll just be the classic Apple model of making money by selling expensive products to a niche, and getting large amounts of free hype and advertising for it. That's how it is for all other Apple products - the Macs, their PCs, the Iphones. It won't be anything remotely near the success of their one hit wonder, the Ipod.
How small are your arms, the thing is 9" wide, that's not overly large as far as a tablet is concerned. It seems that you have more issue with the tablet form as opposed to simply the iPad.
I don't do inches - can you tell me how big it is in Ipods?
Indeed. I remember 10 years ago when Slashdot was a place to embrace open systems and oppose closed platforms. Not anymore. Today Slashdot is an Apple fan site. I wish they'd at least admit it, instead of still using the "News for nerds" tag. Call it Appledot.
I must admit, I thought it'd already released, given that we've had daily stories about it for it for the last few months. But then again, if it hadn't been released, has it really been released now? Or is this yet another DNF-style vaporware announcement? It's hard to tell real news for the daily hype, rumour and advertisements, when it comes to Apple.
The sad thing is that most of those tablets you mention, that have actually been released, never even got a single Slashdot story.
[I'm going to reply to this post using the standard Apple-fan debating tactics.]
But why would I want that? I'd much rather have a real keyboard on this sized device.
See, what you geeks don't realise is that most people aren't interested in tech specs like touch, they want a product that just works. The Ipad might do better on paper, but that's just grumpy featurism! You're missing that it doesn't have the same user experience that other products have.
And in fact, don't you know that by not having 100% touch, these devices are reshaping the Internet!!!
If what you want is a big iPod Touch (and let's be honest - that's what 90% of women and 70% of men between the ages of 12 and 40 want for personal use), there is no alternative to the iPad...
Your source that 70-90% of the population want an Ipad? Or are you just making it up as you go along, again?
Seriously. With every other colour "e-reader" advertised on Slashdot, people rightly point out the lack of e-ink display which makes a Kindle etc different to any plain old LCD. But for some reason, the Ipad is immune to this. If you're happy with reading on an LCD, then netbooks and existing tablets already fill that gap, and the Ipad is still pointless and overpriced - they still do "web browsing, movie watching, e-mail,"
And it's a lot easier to haul out of your carry on than a laptop.
Why yes, if only we had devices smaller than laptops!
What does grandma want to do with her computer? Same deal: e-mail, web, look at pictures of the grandkids, maybe a little Facebook, maybe a few games. What does grandma actually do with her computer?
Right, just like any bog standard cheap netbook or tablet or indeed phone will do. Why is she going to spend vastly more on an Apple product?
It will be revolutionary because most people have never had a book reader before.
The Ipad is not a book reader.
And you're still assuming that "most people" will buy an Ipad - greater than 50% of the population?
they're competing with the Kindle and the Nook.
If they are, it's bound to fail. Higher price, and doesn't have the e-ink display that gives the paper-like high quality appearance and long battery life that distinguish products like the Kindle, from any plain old LCD like netbooks, tablets, and indeed the Ipad?
I owned a smart phone before getting the iPhone, and the iPhone blew it away
Which isn't surprising, since technology gets better with time.
My 5800 blows a 2007 original Iphone away, and the same would certainly be true of the latest phones like the N97, N900 and Droid. (Although having said that, even my 2005 dirt cheap Motorola V980 beat the original Iphone in many areas. The bottom line is the original Iphone wasn't even a smart phone - Apple fans just claim it belongs in that category to trump up its market share, or claim it's something revolutionary.)
just like most people hadn't owned a smart phone before getting the iPhone.
Hahahahahaha! No wait, that wasn't a joke - you seriously believe that, don't you?
Most people don't own an Iphone full stop. Nokia have 40% share - and Apple have not very much. Perhaps it was the first smart phone for most Iphone users, but that tells us little - it may well be true that most Nokia owners got a Nokia as their first smart phone, and same for all other makes.
But "revolutionary to most Iphone users" isn't "revolutionary to most people". Since the Iphone has less than 5% market share, this is clearly true. At least, it would be if you relied on market facts, rather than making it up as you go along.
And can you give me a definition of smart phone that included the original Iphone, but doesn't include most feature phones? Thought not.
You seriously base your logic on "Most people haven't owned a tablet PC, therefore the Ipad will be revolutionary"? That's absurd logic. The same reasoning would apply to any non-Apple tablet too. Sorry, you don't get to be revolutionary when you're not first. The popularity argument is dubious anyway (was Windows and IE revolutionary, because it was most people's first experience?), but it's laughable to claim it to a vaporware product that isn't even released, and isn't remotely near being something that most people use.
The Iphone is just a niche product. You're right it hasn't faded, but that's simply a matter of overblown hype.
Plenty of Apple products have faded - remember the Air? Thought not. In fact, the Ipod is the only product where they're the market leader. Trying to claim that was successful, therefore the Ipad will be, is an embarrassing logical fallacy for you to make. Is Zune going to be successful, because Windows was?
Slashdot Mirror
For the mod who thought that was funny - wake me up when the Iphone hits above 5% market share. Thanks. Meanwhile I'll get back to my phone made by a real major player, Nokia, at 40%. Similarly for Mac on the desktop - if you think that Macs are popular in general as they are here on Slashdot, that is indeed funny. The Ipod is Apple's sole mainstream product.
We've had devices of sizes between phones and laptops for years, be they other tablets or netbooks. That still doesn't support the absurd amount of hype the Istale, or whatever the vaporware is being called this week, is getting.
And there we have it confirmed - daring to talk about non-Apple products, even in comments, is now off-topic?
Why is it that the Apple fans get all the mod points (I haven't had any in years)? Not only do they think that non-Apple alternatives exist, but they even have to mod down anyone who points this out. It's sad to see this level of self-reinforcing delusion. "No, there aren't any non-Apple tablets *mods down* No, there aren't!" Come out and have the decency to debate, rather than hiding behind your mod points.
Prediction: In five years' time, Apple will release a "smaller Ipad" that fits into a coat pocket. Perhaps it will also make phone calls.
Slashdot, the media, and Apple fans the world over will be in an ecstasy of self-wank at how amazing Apple are at releasing such a revolutionary product, that no other company had thought of before.
Which alternative reality are you from, if you think the Iphone was anything like the Ipod in terms of success?
Okay, it's not a failure - that's a straw man, the OP never claimed that. But it is nothing special. It's a niche in the market - enough to make Apple money, but it's certainly nothing special, compared to the big players of Nokia, LG, Samsung, Motorola etc.
The only reason it won't "sink into obscurity" is because of all the self-fulfilling circular free advertising hype that people like you give it. But in terms of features, the Ipad is yet another Air (remember that? Nope, thought not).
"Windows was a fucking popular OS, therefore the fucking Zune will be too".
The comparison to the fucking Ipod - Apple's sole mainstream product, their one hit wonder - is an all too common fallacy, but fuck, it's laughable if you fucking think about it.
[edited to include more swearing]
The same thing is happening to smart phones
Nope, because a smart phone is by definition the high end of the market.
But it has happened to phones - they reached dirt cheap prices about 10 years ago, and the high end of the market continually drops in price to the low end, just as has happened with computers.
And furthermore, the interesting thing is that this didn't happen with mp3 players. The first Ipod had 20GB. Can you get a 20GB Ipod for dirt cheap? Nope. You can get much larger sizes for the same price, but the low end hasn't fallen. Instead you can look at flash-based devices (which wasn't the original Ipod, and where Apple have far less of a presence - their Shuffle offering is abysmal), where most are sized at 8GB at most. The best I've found is Sandisk's Sansa Clip, which is upgradable due to taking a microSD card, as well as its 8GB of internal memory.
Nope, I love my Sansa Clip. Much cheaper than the Shuffle, far more intuitive UI (I mean, it has a UI for starters)
But if you only hear about tech news from Appledot, you obviously wouldn't have heard about it, since all that gets covered about here are daily Apple rumours, not tech stories. If you step out of your Apple RDF, you'd have known that there were perfectly good mp3 players (not running Linux, and that just work, unlike Apple products which often have to be jailbroken to get basic functionality working, btw) that aren't made by Apple, and you wouldn't have embarrassed yourself.
I'm not sure what's bad about Korea. Ipods are made in China. Big deal.
Nope, I'm using a flat screen. It's the Apple users who think that large oversized CRTs - the same functionality but taking up more space - is suddenly a good thing. But even worse, they're also willing to pay more for it.
If I want a bigger screen that a phone, I get a netbook - or indeed a tablet. What's so special about the Istale that it deserves three stories every single day, even when it hasn't even been released?
Yeah! Let's go back to the '80s!
It'll be so hip for everyone to have brick sized devices again! And people can show off how cool they have, by specifically buying clothes with huge pockets just to carry them! And anyone who isn't hip enough to have big pockets filled with their brick sized Istale will feel uncool and "how contrary"!
Posts like you just show how sad your attitude is, and prove it really is about attempting to look pathetically cool, even though no one actually gives a damn about nerd products or the nerd clothes you specifcally got for it, or your Apple logo shining out your oversized coat pocket.
show us all how contrary
Me and the 95% of the non-Apple phone owning population. We prefer to Think Different, you see.
We've had devices of sizes between phones and laptops for years, be they other tablets or netbooks. That still doesn't support the absurd amount of hype the Istale, or whatever the vaporware is being called this week, is getting.
They keep making Amigas too. Your point?
If you think that some people are going to be interested in an iBrick, that may be true. But that doesn't mean it's going to become market leader, or that it deserves to get anywhere near the absurd free advertising it's getting.
Do we see daily stories about Corvettes on Slashdot and all the media too? No.
Indeed, although I'd go so far as to say that it's only on Slashdot that people love the thing. The love of Apple here is far greater than the mainstream, where Apple are a niche.
*snort* +5 deluded.
The Ipod was market leader, therefore the Ipad will be? Please, go back to school and learn basic logic. Do you think:
"Windows and IE were market leaders, therefore the Zune will be"?
this is a big-ass iPod
Yes, because obviously making mp3 players bigger is just what people want. Let's go back to the 80s, so that people can walk around showing their Istales off, carrying them around on their shoulders blasting out music.
If they make money, it'll just be the classic Apple model of making money by selling expensive products to a niche, and getting large amounts of free hype and advertising for it. That's how it is for all other Apple products - the Macs, their PCs, the Iphones. It won't be anything remotely near the success of their one hit wonder, the Ipod.
How small are your arms, the thing is 9" wide, that's not overly large as far as a tablet is concerned. It seems that you have more issue with the tablet form as opposed to simply the iPad.
I don't do inches - can you tell me how big it is in Ipods?
Indeed. I remember 10 years ago when Slashdot was a place to embrace open systems and oppose closed platforms. Not anymore. Today Slashdot is an Apple fan site. I wish they'd at least admit it, instead of still using the "News for nerds" tag. Call it Appledot.
The daily Apple story is old fashioned - now we're going for multiple stories everyday.
I thought they were scraping the barrel with yesterday's "Ipad is reshaping the Internet" - now we have the laughable completely irrelevant reference.
Seriously, how much is Apple paying Slashdot for the product placement?
Hear hear.
I must admit, I thought it'd already released, given that we've had daily stories about it for it for the last few months. But then again, if it hadn't been released, has it really been released now? Or is this yet another DNF-style vaporware announcement? It's hard to tell real news for the daily hype, rumour and advertisements, when it comes to Apple.
The sad thing is that most of those tablets you mention, that have actually been released, never even got a single Slashdot story.
Then it'll go well with that other vaporware device, the Istale, or whatever it's called this week.
ION, I hear that DNF is reshaping the Internet!!!
[I'm going to reply to this post using the standard Apple-fan debating tactics.]
But why would I want that? I'd much rather have a real keyboard on this sized device.
See, what you geeks don't realise is that most people aren't interested in tech specs like touch, they want a product that just works. The Ipad might do better on paper, but that's just grumpy featurism! You're missing that it doesn't have the same user experience that other products have.
And in fact, don't you know that by not having 100% touch, these devices are reshaping the Internet!!!
If what you want is a big iPod Touch (and let's be honest - that's what 90% of women and 70% of men between the ages of 12 and 40 want for personal use), there is no alternative to the iPad...
Your source that 70-90% of the population want an Ipad? Or are you just making it up as you go along, again?
This thing does everything a Kindle does
No it doesn't. How many times?
The Ipad is not an e-reader.
Seriously. With every other colour "e-reader" advertised on Slashdot, people rightly point out the lack of e-ink display which makes a Kindle etc different to any plain old LCD. But for some reason, the Ipad is immune to this. If you're happy with reading on an LCD, then netbooks and existing tablets already fill that gap, and the Ipad is still pointless and overpriced - they still do "web browsing, movie watching, e-mail,"
And it's a lot easier to haul out of your carry on than a laptop.
Why yes, if only we had devices smaller than laptops!
What does grandma want to do with her computer? Same deal: e-mail, web, look at pictures of the grandkids, maybe a little Facebook, maybe a few games. What does grandma actually do with her computer?
Right, just like any bog standard cheap netbook or tablet or indeed phone will do. Why is she going to spend vastly more on an Apple product?
It will be revolutionary because most people have never had a book reader before.
The Ipad is not a book reader.
And you're still assuming that "most people" will buy an Ipad - greater than 50% of the population?
they're competing with the Kindle and the Nook.
If they are, it's bound to fail. Higher price, and doesn't have the e-ink display that gives the paper-like high quality appearance and long battery life that distinguish products like the Kindle, from any plain old LCD like netbooks, tablets, and indeed the Ipad?
I owned a smart phone before getting the iPhone, and the iPhone blew it away
Which isn't surprising, since technology gets better with time.
My 5800 blows a 2007 original Iphone away, and the same would certainly be true of the latest phones like the N97, N900 and Droid. (Although having said that, even my 2005 dirt cheap Motorola V980 beat the original Iphone in many areas. The bottom line is the original Iphone wasn't even a smart phone - Apple fans just claim it belongs in that category to trump up its market share, or claim it's something revolutionary.)
just like most people hadn't owned a smart phone before getting the iPhone.
Hahahahahaha! No wait, that wasn't a joke - you seriously believe that, don't you?
Most people don't own an Iphone full stop. Nokia have 40% share - and Apple have not very much. Perhaps it was the first smart phone for most Iphone users, but that tells us little - it may well be true that most Nokia owners got a Nokia as their first smart phone, and same for all other makes.
But "revolutionary to most Iphone users" isn't "revolutionary to most people". Since the Iphone has less than 5% market share, this is clearly true. At least, it would be if you relied on market facts, rather than making it up as you go along.
And can you give me a definition of smart phone that included the original Iphone, but doesn't include most feature phones? Thought not.
You seriously base your logic on "Most people haven't owned a tablet PC, therefore the Ipad will be revolutionary"? That's absurd logic. The same reasoning would apply to any non-Apple tablet too. Sorry, you don't get to be revolutionary when you're not first. The popularity argument is dubious anyway (was Windows and IE revolutionary, because it was most people's first experience?), but it's laughable to claim it to a vaporware product that isn't even released, and isn't remotely near being something that most people use.
The Iphone is just a niche product. You're right it hasn't faded, but that's simply a matter of overblown hype.
Plenty of Apple products have faded - remember the Air? Thought not. In fact, the Ipod is the only product where they're the market leader. Trying to claim that was successful, therefore the Ipad will be, is an embarrassing logical fallacy for you to make. Is Zune going to be successful, because Windows was?