back to article Apple iPad – the 'Tickle Me Elmo' of 2010

Apple will sell 12.9 million iPads before the end of this year, according to the market watchers at iSuppli, upping their earlier estimate of 7.1 million "magical and revolutionary" devices. "The iPad is shaping up to be the 'Tickle Me Elmo' of the 2010 holiday season," said iSuppli's Rhoda Alexander in a statement, meaning …

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  1. Dick Emery
    FAIL

    Are other manu's effin' dense?

    This is why they fail. Waiting to see how Apple does before launching something half as good into the market place a year or more late and then wonder why they have lackluster sales in comparison. They already know how Apple steals key market segments (or creates them) with their products. The iPad is nothing new or innovative. It's just a big iTouch ffs! No wonder Job's is laughing all the way to the bank. I honestly believe that the people running some of these other companies need firing and replacing them with monkeys. They'd probably do a much better job!

    I wish I was head of some company like HP, Dell, Asus,Samsung or one of the other smartphone makers perhaps. I'd soon kick their design teams into shape.

    1. Goat Jam
      FAIL

      Re: Are other manu's effin' dense?

      Well, yes in fact they are.

      Most of them are under the thumb of intel and MS. They take their lead from those two. This is why HP has spent the last few years developing the slate based on promises from intel that the "low power atom" would be great and from MS that "Windows 7 will be much better at touch"

      It turns out that neither promises are true and the slate has been dumped, leaving them to finally grow a pair and develop a product in defiance of their legacy <ahem> "partnerships" with their bullying suppliers.

      Until PC manufacturers start to think for themselves and say to "hell with you intel/Microsoft" they will continue to fail when competing against the likes of apple.

      1. A Non e-mouse Silver badge

        Re: Are other manu's effin' dense?

        HP, Asus, et al are basically just assembly companies. They take software from MS, core hardware from Intel, and try and make a pretty case & box for it.

        Apple, on the other hand, "own" the entire stack. It's this ownership that allows them to come up with something different.

      2. Chika
        Grenade

        Re: Are other manu's effin' dense?

        I'd agree with most o what Goat Jam has to say with one additional point.

        Perhaps if Microsoft (and, perhaps, Apple) hadn't spent so much time and effort killing off those other companies that actually did think for themselves, perhaps Apple really wouldn't have such an easy time of it. Mind you, considering that Apple were one of these companies that M$ tried so hard to kill off at one time, I really can't blame Apple 100% for its actions.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Flame

          A title is required!! Re

          "Mind you, considering that Apple were one of these companies that M$ tried so hard to kill off at one time, I really can't blame Apple 100% for its actions."

          LOL Fanboi alert. Obvious fanboi is obvious, etc.

          No, Microsoft did not try to kill off Apple, in fact, Apple would not exist today if not for Microsoft. The antitrust laws in the United States forced Microsoft to fully fund Apple when Apple went broke for building crap products. It looks like Bill Gates did a good job reconstructing Apple, even though the two barely directly compete anymore.

          People don't buy Apple products for the operating system, and the hardware is the same (or worse) than comparable PCs. People buy Apple solely for the brand and 'look' of the case. This means that Apple competes with companies like HP and Dell. Probably their most direct competition is Sony, because both Apple and Sony place a huge markup on their products to rip off naive customers.

          1. B 9

            You need to learn your history

            Apple was not saved by Microsoft. They would not have gone bankrupt without MS' help. That's an old misconception by people who don't understand what really went on.

            You also don't understand why people by Apple products. Saying they buy them for the brand and the look of the case is utterly ridiculous. Your ignorance on topics relating to Apple seems to be fueled by your dislike of the company and thus a lack of effort to dig a little deeper to understand the facts.

    2. JaitcH
      Pint

      Waiting to see how Apple does ...

      Please note that pads/tablets - mostly using Android - were out in retail MONTHS before Jobs released his.

      He should have bought samples as most of these early units have way many features than Apples knock off. These standard features include 32 gig SD support, Android, multiple USB connectors, Flash, 3G, WiFi, GSM, touch, gestures, etc.

      Now a HongKong company is producing Android custom chips to support the Chinese pad manufacturers - no materials shortages there!

      Finally, a Vietnamese company, GM Software of Ho Chi Minh City, is about to release a pad.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Thumb Down

        Ho Ho

        "Finally, a Vietnamese company, GM Software of Ho Chi Minh City, is about to release a pad."

        Tell you what, why don't you buy one and get back to us with a full report, including information on world-wide availibility, guarantees, support and software availibility.

        Are you getting my drift, or do you want me to type more s l o w l y?

        1. JaitcH
          Pint

          The VN Pad

          GM Software already has a working pad. It has similar specs to the Chinese Apad that hit the stores very late last year.

          The major difference is the English/Vietnamese languages of the OS - UI. Facebook is not on the UI but the government sanctioned Facebook lookalike is.

          Read about the great features of the unit which preceded iScratch < http://digital8.org/reviews/moonse-e7001-apad-review-htpconvert-1229.html >.

          I have a bunch of Chinese pads/tablets and they are bulging with features that a certain California company doesn't have including a couple with 3D screens (for gaming).

    3. bluest.one

      the ipad:

      >"It's just a big iTouch ffs!"

      Except the iPod Touch is actually a mini-iPad: the iPad was Apple's vision all along.

  2. honkj

    iPad is the Item of 2010, and 2011

    iPad is the Item of 2010, and 2011, yet the iPhone 4 will outsell the iPad in both years easily, despite the hate speechers...

    money talks and BS of the hate speechers walks, and Apple can't build the iPhone 4 fast enough to satisfy demand. that is money talking.

    1. Ian K
      WTF?

      "hate speechers"?

      Over-playing the victimhood much?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Stop

        RE: "hate speechers"?

        Considering the last iPhone 4 article I read on here had about 40 or 50 comments saying how shit it was - all from people who had never even seen one or used one, then he's not over playing it at all.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          FAIL

          Re: RE: "hate speechers"?

          "...all from people who had never even seen one or used one, then he's not over playing it at all."

          Really? You know that for a FACT, do you?

          Overplaying *your* argument much?

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Boffin

          RE: "hate speechers"?

          Hardly suprising on an IT site when a broken product is so hyped, but no worse than Vista's reception here. Industry wide however there is definitely a move towards Apple becoming a new pariah - if MS would just get rid of Balmer we'd enter a completely new era.

          I don't hate Apple, they're just exploiting their position and consumer fickelty same as Microsoft and many others have done before. What I hate is the media empowering Apple, doing their marketing gratis and raising the status of a technically illiterate marketing guy to some kind of IT guru. Bill Gates was hardly a bright light, but at least he was a mediocre developer.

          I guess Elias et al are probably insipidly rich and don't lose too much sleep, but it must irk a little that iPhone is portrayed as Ives and Jobs' baby despite neither having the slightest clue how it actually works...and with iPhone4 I'm pretty sure both had far too much of a hand (pardon the pun) in why it doesn't .

          1. Giles Jones Gold badge

            Used one?

            Have you used one?

            Where did the reports of problems come from? an Apple support forum. What are user support forums for? they are for people asking questions when they are having problems with something. They aren't full of people saying "I just had to write that my phone is working great".

            If you went and sat in a hospital waiting room you would also conclude that the human body is no good as well as they are people there having problems with their health.

    2. gfs
      Headmaster

      What?

      What are "hate speechers" exactly?

      1. Ian K

        Re: What

        @gfs

        In reality they're people that don't like something about Apple, or an Apple product. The "not liking" can include mild dissatisfaction with features, derisive mocking of flaws, not agreeing with licensing policy or thinking they're on the pricey side, amongst other things.

        Real Fans of Apple, though, regard any sort of disapproval of Jobs and His Works as tantamount to heresy, so dive straight in at the emotional deep end and accuse any dissenters of "hatred".

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Coat

        re: "What?"

        It's a perfectly cromulent phrase!

  3. uhuznaa

    @Dick Emery:

    So what would be the Next Big Product you would create, design and sell in millions and millions of copies to eager customers if you'd be running HP, Dell, Asus, or Samsung? I'm curious, really.

    They are all aping Apple because the whole PC industry has ever only been an industry that produced what someone else already sold well. And then tried to make it cheaper and faster and with more megapixels, more buttons and larger screens. While at the same time never ever leave out any feature that has been in the previous model. It's no surprise that the last smartphones creep to 4 and 5" screens, two flash lights on the back and ever more Ghz. Next year we will probably see the first smartphones with cameras on the sides and *two* USB ports. And some buttons on the back, maybe.

    1. JaitcH
      Jobs Horns

      ICrap 4 changed product enhancement

      Uhuznaa said:

      "While at the same time never ever leave out any feature that has been in the previous model. ..."

      iCrap 4 is different, versions 1,2 and 3 could make calls even if held with the Grip of Death ... version 4 can't.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        RE: ICrap 4 changed product enhancement

        Have you noticed that the iPhone and iPad are different things?

        Crawl back to where you came from and bash some rocks together instead of typing, it's more suited to your IQ

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Have you noticed

          that the comment was a response to the previous one which generalizes about products made by the PC industry and not about iPads?

          I'm sure you are intelligent enough to know what you've made yourself look like with your rocks/IQ flame, so I won't spell it out.

        2. JaitcH
          Jobs Horns

          iCrap 4 and iScratch share common features

          The common features are the inability to make decent phone calls (iScratch can be modded to make calls) as well as sharing other crippled features.

          I always like Anonymous Coward posts as they usually reflect the value of the comment.

    2. DZ-Jay

      @uhuznaa

      That's freaking hilarious! And so true.

      I tip my hat to you, sir!

      -dZ.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      new next big product?

      If I was in charge of a company like HP, this is what I would be working toward:

      Monitor-over-wireless-network technology.

      Monitor-over-web technology.

      These two functions would eliminate the entire laptop, netbook and tablet market at once. You could carry a screen with you, that would remotely sync back to your desktop, giving you the full processing power of a desktop on a simple screen/input device. There would be no need for much of any processing power, since it would be a display, which would allow it to be much smaller or flexible in design. It would essentially be cloud ready, just using the concept in a more micro way, rather than the macro cloud vision we have now.

      They have already solved printing over the web, but the media doesn't fanboi for them.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Put that way

    We all know how irritating a Tickle Me Elmo is.

    1. Wallyb132
      Jobs Horns

      Why yes we do...

      And Lie to me Steve! is shaping up to be just as annoying... History is doomed to repeat itself yet again, in just the same way it has every time a larger than life figure has come along and dazzled the great unwashed. soon these devout worshiper will find themselves standing there holding useless junk and feeling familiar burning feeling in the pit of their stomach that follows after realized they've just been conned by their holier than thou cult leader...

      1. g e

        I move

        that El Reg refers to Jobs as 'Honest Steve' with a mandatory link on the text to a bullshitography of that mendacious megalomaniac.

        When people 'copy' Apple products they tend to get carried away and add features they should have been released with like cameras, sd slot, etc... but Apple's genius is the slavish pavlovian response their customers have to every new release, hence why the monkey brained users will ditch their ipad1 for an ipad2 just cos they added the camera they deliberately omitted from #1 cos they knew they would spend again for #2. That, in any universe, is a damned clever revenue stream.

        It's also why Honest Steve is probably starting to become bad for the company with his insane ranting, too.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        FAIL

        RE: Why yes we do...

        WTF? You do realise that the problems at the moment are with the iPhone4. Not the iPad.

        Any confusion between something that's small enough to fit in your pocket and something that's the size of a medium book indicates a high level of stupiditiy on your part.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          The point...

          ...was elaborating on a comment about 'Apple products'. Have you not slept much lately?

      3. DZ-Jay

        Re: Why yes we do...

        One can only hope, right? It must be surreal, to lust so passionately for the downfall of others.

        In other news, imminent demise of Apple announced, movie at 11.

        -dZ.

  5. Herby

    Buy more, please

    I have Apple stock. More sales please. I need the $$$$$

    1. serviceWithASmile
      Megaphone

      yes

      BYE MOAR!!

      shun the non beleivers

      sssshhhhhuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnneh!

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5im0Ssyyus

  6. JaitcH
    Pint

    With iScratch there is a cost ...

    No freebie OS upgrades with Apple for the scribe devices. These owners will be getting their first chargeable upgrade soon.

    On the other hand ANDROID is FREE, in many ways.

    Given the massive adoption of Android by CN (China) cell manufacturers, as well as by the slate/pad crew and now by device manufactures, such as refrigerator and other domestic appliance producers, it is unlikely Apple will be the dominant software OS in the worlds biggest market..

    Android also lets the CN government continue it's suppression as the Android OS is so malleable that 'offending' features can be omitted. WiFi in CN is practically non-existent in most cities and therefore ir is often omitted on hand-held devices sold in CN.

    1. Adrian Bool
      FAIL

      ...is there?

      JaitcH, just how do you know that iOS4 will be chargeable for iPad? Given that iOS4 wasn't a chargeable update for the iTouch; I'd be willing to bet you're wrong.

      Anyway, in your nice 'free' Android world the problem is not with billable updates; but with the likely lack of any update for your device once the manufacturer has moved onto their next model - leaving your hardware behind. Look at the Android phone world for a multitude of examples...

      1. g e

        free upgrades

        Heard of them? I've not paid for a new phone in ten years or so. I don't have a need to slavishly have the newest shiny thing every month. 18 months is fine for me.

        Looking forward to my next free (Android) phone in November when the upgrade is due.

      2. JaitcH
        Jobs Horns

        Apple: More money, please

        I get to read Internet articles ahead of The Register posting daily updates.

        However, read: < http://www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/ipad-os-licensing-agreement-unveils-hidden-cost-of-ownership/7852 >, < http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1723477/apple-charge-ipad-users-software-updates>

        There were others but as I am about to go home for the night ...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      next update is free

      The next ipad ios update will be free

      Froyo is out but only on one (discontinued) device. You've got to play version envy and wait for your carrier to implement and push it out.

    3. richard 69
      FAIL

      how is webster phreaky?

      or amanfrommars?

      how long before you come up with another name?

      still holding onto your apple memories aren't you....remember that powermac that you used to have?

    4. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      RE: With iScratch there is a cost ...

      "No freebie OS upgrades with Apple for the scribe devices. These owners will be getting their first chargeable upgrade soon."

      Apple OS upgrades have always been free. (Except from one major revision to another)

      Then again, my iPhone3GS now runs iOS4 and that was a free upgrade...

  7. Lottie
    Go

    Android Fridge?

    " device manufactures, such as refrigerator and other domestic appliance producers"

    Please, please link me to the Android fridge. I'd love to be able to play peggle on the door!

    1. DZ-Jay

      Re: Android Fridge?

      It's more like AdMob on your eggs drawer.

      -dZ.

  8. Jim Coleman
    Thumb Up

    HP?

    HP are already in the 'Pad market, I have one of their excellent Touchsmart TM2 convertible laptops. Use it as a normal laptop for work, flip the screen into tablet mode for content consumption (movies etc), pop that into Portrait for reading ebooks (9 hour battery life) or for taking handwritten notes in meetings (yes! it has a digitizer and pen! Yes if you turn the pen over you can erase stuff with the other end! Wooo!)

    It's a truly limitless device. Oh did I mention it has an HDMI socket and supports both a TV (at 1920 x 1080 true HD) and its LCD screen simultaneously? Card reader? 3 USB slots? VGA output? Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, 320GB hard drive? External DVD burner?

    The screen is capacitive and supports all the usual multitouch gestures. Oh and it switches on from standby in about 3 seconds.

    We have an iPad user in the office and my colleagues all want HP Touchsmarts because the iPad in comparison does....nothing.

    1. richard 69
      WTF?

      jim, time to retire

      it has a pen, 3 USB slots and external DVD burner?! welcome to 2003 jim...

      "the ipad does nothing" - you have actually switched it on haven't you? go and read the apple site and you might be surprised and happy with what it can actually do for today's consumers - those in 2010.

    2. It'sa Mea... Mario

      @Jim

      And that HP costs how much?

      1. SteveK

        Touchsmart

        "And that HP costs how much?"

        About £700 inc VAT at public online prices as far as I can see. So the same as the top end iPad.

        Not that I have either, I'm just answering the question...

        Steve.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Stop

      RE: HP?

      "Oh did I mention it has an HDMI socket and supports both a TV (at 1920 x 1080 true HD) and its LCD screen simultaneously? Card reader? 3 USB slots? VGA output? Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, 320GB hard drive? External DVD burner?"

      You fail to understand what the iPad is for.

      It's not for burning things to DVD or for connecting USB devices. It's a simple device, designed to do simple tasks very well indeed. In that area it excels.

      As an added bonus, you won't find yourself downloading malware to it accidentally...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        what the iPad is for

        "You fail to understand what the iPad is for.

        It's not for burning things to DVD or for connecting USB devices. It's a simple device, designed to do simple tasks."

        Simple device, for simple people, with simple minds. Sounds about right to me.

        Note that simple is neither revolutionary nor magical. I think anyone would be extremely hard pressed to find anything that the iPad does that is new.

        1. Rolf Howarth
          Alert

          Simple?

          "Note that simple is neither revolutionary nor magical."

          Revolutionary and magical is PRECISELY what simple is. "Simple" means taking something overcomplicated and bloated and reducing it to its core essence. Doing so takes a lot of skill and hard work.

          It's very easy just to throw together every feature you can imagine. The difficult part is understanding the underlying requirements and having the insight (and courage of your convictions) to disregard what everyone else is doing to come up with a new and simple way to achieve your goals.

          Good design and aesthetics has nothing specifically to do with Apple or iPad, by the way. The same principles apply to any product, whether hardware or software, mass market or niche.

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