To sum it up, the tablet PC as a form factor is less portable and/or flexible than other media consumers, and less productive than other media creators.
It’s for that reason that I’ve got to wonder whether the mass market really wants tablet PCs at all, that both the iPad and the new Windows 7 tablets are both doomed to fight over the tiny existing market for tablet PCs without really expanding the market much. Maybe it’s just the idea of the tablet that makes people keep trying – the devices have a futuristic vibe, and the idea of being able to replace paper with computers has its allure from a time-saving and an environmental perspective. Maybe it’s the technology available, maybe it’s the software, or maybe I’m wrong and over the next year we’ll see a tablet explosion to rival the netbook explosion that has happened over the last two years.
What I ultimately suspect, though, is that until computers can actually tap into our brains and accept input as quickly as we can think, the tablet market is going to remain unchanged by either the iPad or Windows 7.
The contention that the lack of a keyboard on a large device will be the stake in the heart of netbooks is totally absurd. For reading books the I-Pad is twice the size and weight of the Kindle that has been selling well, no only the device but downloaded books. The I-Pad reminds me of the Segway that was supposed to be a game changer. Make the I-Pad half the weight and size a min-Pad rather than maxi-pad and give it another shot. Sorry Mr. Jobs your outlandish claims will not sway me, and I rarely saw a gadget I did not like and more often than not buy.
Windows fans love the complex, the convoluted …they seem to be ‘featurists’, the more ‘features’ the better, the more ‘options’ the better, more is apparently always ‘better’.
So for them to understand something minimalist, simple, streamlined, optimized is unimaginable and incomprehensible.
If being minimalistic is your goal – you can use calculator. It’s REALLY simple, streamlined, and optimized. And, hey, you can have small solar panel and don’t need batteries.
HawkA, if I don’t have the features to do what I want to do, what’s the point?
I hope Microsoft won’t base Windows 8 on Apple’s latest product. Really. Just keep with the windows tradition, bring back the basic start menu, and make the new aero theme even more shiny for those who have modern computers.
You need to take a longer term view and think about the iPad as part of a connected whole (device, store, content). It’s already disrupted the Amazon ebook pricing model. The biggest publishers are all on board and now indebted to Apple for making the Amazon thing possible. And there are reports that hardware competitors are being forced to rethink their intended slates due to that surprisingly low $499 entry price. That’s a lot of disruption for a product that hasn’t even shipped yet.
Disruption and change are two different things. I could start a riot in the bank, but that’s wayy different than robbing the bank. What I’m trying to say is, the iPad is a great product, BUT it’s not what people need right now, it’s not what people were asking for and it’s definitely overpriced compared to a faster laptop.
Apple can cause all the disruption they can in technology, but that doesn’t matter if their product does not get the attention intended for it.
@ians55, correct, and if i wanted to do calculations, chances are i’d use a calculator, instead of a mainframe to achieve the same result. As far as battery….as an end user, the lighter/smaller the battery and the longer the life, the better.
So if i wanted to surf the web, listen to music, watch movies, view photos, check email, read a book (basically consume content, which is what this device is primarily meant to do), why would i buy a buy a more complicated, bigger/heavier, uglier, less secure, jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none machine ? that requires a beefier system, is slow to-boot, requires more ram and HDD for the underlying system, etc ?
Now dont get me wrong, im sure that there are few people out there who would love computers that did everything computers have done over the past 30-40 years, serial ports, floppy discs, DOS, wordperfect..and even the features to make toast, microwave, brew beer, and drive their car for them, but that doesnt mean such a machine should ever be built at the expense of simplicity and user-friendlynes.
@Admin_RobertCity
Well dude, you better get on the phone to Microsoft, cause if history is any indication they have already started working on their “version(*cough*copy*cough*).
What i find surprising is that Apple has managed to combine all the functionality thats actually *NEEDED* from this class of product (not a netbook and not a smartphone), executed it well(system design including all benefits and limitations) and managed to undercut the competitors in price.