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back to article Apple girds loins for 'obscene iPad sales surge'

If you need any further proof that the iPad will continue to dominate the tablet market, here's a bit of news that should remove all doubt: Foxconn, the Chinese supplier of Apple's fabulously successful fondleslab, will ship 20 million iPad 2s this quarter. So says DigiTimes when reporting Foxconn's earnings – $945.9m – for …

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    1. Tringle
      Reply Icon

      I beg to differ a little

      I don't want a tablet, and I certainly don't want an overpriced one with an Apple logo.

      I live a sheltered life and have only recently actually seen a iPad outside of a shop.

      I was distinctly unimpressed. No flash was made it virtually useless as a web browser. Basically it's just an overgrown PSP. Nice screen, until someone touched it then YUK. Naff all connectivity. Seemed like a seriously expensive way of playing childish games. Nothing wrong with that if it floats your boat - just doesn't float mine.

      They'll sell millions more, they are a fashion accessory pure and simple. Look how many trainers Nike sell.

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  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    please report, reporter

    Do not use ur employers resources to promote ur fav brand

    Thank you

    RG

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  3. Alistair MacRae

    Worlds gone crazy.

    I was sure the iPad was going to be a fad. I don't understand people anymore clearly. It can't be just because it's a status symbol. The whole idea of tablets seems strange to me. Why they're outselling laptops when price and function are in favour of laptos I don't know.

    Is the world going to wake up in 3 years time and see the devices they bought weren't worth it?

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      @Alistair MacRae

      Your mistake is in comparing a tablet to a laptop. It may not be the same as comparing apples with oranges it is certainly similar to comparing, say, a pushbike to a motorbike.

      People who want tablets want a tablet - they want instant on, long battery life, easy to use, simple update processes (no patch Tuesday, no AV updates all the time) and app-based functionality. They want to browse the web, play games, read eBooks & eNewspapers, watch films, play music and the like.

      Although you can do these on a laptop, you can't do them as easily or as elegantly. laptops are comparatively heavy, more awkward to move around due to the folding screen and tendency to go to sleep if the screen is shut and take a non-trivial amount of time to become available before they can be used. If they are waiting for software updates it can slow things down dramatically.

      I agree you would be less than sage-like if you bought an iPad as a direct laptop replacement and then tried to do all the things you did on a lappy on your pad, but people buy these things because they [the tabs] do what they want much better than their old laptop used to, for a similar kind of cost of a new laptop.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Thumb Up

        @Lee

        "People who want tablets want a tablet - they want instant on, long battery life, easy to use, simple update processes (no patch Tuesday, no AV updates all the time) and app-based functionality. They want to browse the web, play games, read eBooks & eNewspapers, watch films, play music and the like."

        Sorry, you're trying to give a rational explanation to a lot of people that complain that the iPad is not a "proper computer" (I want ports! Linux! User-serviceable parts! 27-inch screens! Keyboards! Whaaaaa!)

        I totally agree with you, but you're wasting your time.

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  4. b-a-r-k-i-n-g-m-a-d
    FAIL

    Pointless.

    "but they'll also show you there is a market for $99 versions from HP."

    What a pointless comment when HP were selling them below cost - you may as well say there is a market for £50 notes at £20.

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    1. Gordon 10
      Reply Icon

      Not quite

      There is such a thing as a loss leader.

      Just that no-one in the tablet industry has the balls to use their first gen tablets to gain Market share.

      Although I would guess that Asus are coming close with the transformer - fair play to them.

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  5. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Quaint.

    "I was sure the iPad was going to be a fad. I don't understand people anymore clearly. It can't be just because it's a status symbol. The whole idea of tablets seems strange to me. Why they're outselling laptops when price and function are in favour of laptos I don't know."

    You not seen Star Trek or most 'future' films - they are using 'pads' not laptops - a keyboard - how quaint!

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  6. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Bah humbug...

    "Personally I find the whole exchange of goods at Xmas a nonsense but fully understand why the vast majority buy into it (literally). But still, $600 for one gift for one person?"

    Bah humbug to you all. Have a lump of coal and think yourself lucky.

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  7. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Netbook no thanks.

    "Is the world going to wake up in 3 years time and see the devices they bought weren't worth it?"

    Doubt it - probably wake up and wonder why they are still using a netbook / notebook?

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  8. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    Flash = Flush.

    "I was distinctly unimpressed. No flash was made it virtually useless as a web browser."

    Not my experience - sure a few web sites use Flash but the vast majority look just fine without it or have even done iPad or HTML 5 versions for mobiles devices like the iPad.

    I have no love of Flash.

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Mais non.

    "There's one question the Android-based manufacturers need to ask themselves when they design a tablet. Will this be 90% as good as an iPad, for 80% of the retail price?"

    Like a VW but not?

    More like 75% as good as an iPad but 90-100% the cost - compare like for like - for instance the Morotola or RIM tablets with the Apple iPad.

    With the iPhone a SIM free Samsung Galaxy S II is near enough he same cost as an iPhone 4 and you get better support from Apple. Do Samsung have shops you can go to and get decent assistance from someone familiar with the product = no.

    Go buy your tablet from Tesco / PC World etc. and see what support you get = near enough none.

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  10. Maty

    both are too expensive, but ...

    Without getting into the tablet v laptop debate, I'll suggest one reason why the iPad is beating the competition.

    I have an iPad. My wife was using it more than 50% of the time (try mounting a laptop on a music stand to show sheet music) so we went to get her one of her own.

    She's no Apple fan, so asked to see some Android devices at the shop. The first app she tried on the store demo model crashed. So did the second, though it lasted longer. The iPad apps just worked and were faster and smoother. Add a bigger screen and both devices at the same price point, and guess what we went home with?

    Here's a hint for the haters. If you want to criticise Apple's iPad, ignore the device and go for the iTunes interface on the PC. This is a user-hating (forget 'unfriendly') counter-intuitive pile of steaming weasel turds.

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  11. asdf

    denile is wide and thick

    I love listening to Acer saying and praying its all a fad. Sorry guys the netbooks is dead and it isn't coming back, at least with Intel chips. Nobody likes a hot blowing fan when doing couch computing.

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  12. zb
    Joke

    'obscene iPad sales surge'

    For a moment i thought that Apple had relaxed their anti-porn policy and were going to allow smutty apps.

    I might buy one if it really was a a slab to fondle with.

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  13. ZenCoder

    Everyone I know who has one is a very happy customer.

    I initially thought the iPad was stupid, so did my friends. They they started buying iPad2's and seemed very happy with the purchase even months latter. So I bought one and I'm still using mine on a daily basis.

    Apple's selling them as fast as they can make them, surveys indicate that customer satisfaction is both high and doesn't diminish much over time.

    Hopefully by the time I'm ready for my next tablet purchase there will be some compelling and highly successful alternatives.

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  14. Dan Paul
    Mushroom

    Did anyone bother to read any part of my comment beyond Crapple? Read this for a full explanation.

    I absolutely love how easy it is to see who the thin skinned Apple fabois are. The ones that can't get past "Crapple" and read what I was commenting on. The ones that favor slick marketing over usable form and substance, like me wanting a "tablet" that runs programs that are actually productive instead of time wasting?

    BTW, Rob Dobbs and nine other rational people get my point. The other 51 are apparently employed by Crapple and several appear to have been hatched from pods with absolutely no sense of humor.

    "Tablet" is a broad general description (Sorry Crapple), one that could certainly include something bigger than the ipad but hopefully smaller than the Ten Commandments. There are plenty of "inexpensive" laptops in the $398 to $598 range that have most of the features I'm looking for. All I am asking for is something similar but in "tablet" form. For those unable to fathom what I mean, touchscreen surface mounted display, no keyboard or trackpad. Rounded corners are just common sense not a patentable feature.

    Windows or Linux - Really what was so difficult to understand? I'm not looking for a frikkin phone or fondleslab, I want one to use for work. I trust that some OS manufacturer has the brains to provide a shell that allows touchscreen operation of the OS and business productivity software such as Word, Excel and Outlook (or a reasonable, fully compatible, facsimile)

    Next, 8 to 12 hours "reasonable operation" - This battery life corresponds with the time I have to spend in the field, working. Notice the last word, it may be foreign to some of you slab fondling wankers. If a Li-Po cordless drill works for 4 hours, they can make a tablet battery work for at least 8 hours.

    AMD will have Fusion out very soon and others have similar one chip combo GPU/CPU products that are already able to support 1080P. Some of these may not need a fan if they are clocked low enough. Windows 8 running on ARM could be the answer but I won't hold my breath. Hell, Windows CE wasn't that bad to work with (in my business anyway) When beancounters tried to push it out as a replacement for the "real thing" was when it was useless.

    As far as running productivity software, I distinctly remember running the old versions of Word, Excel & Outlook on an 800 megahertz processor with a whopping 1 gig of ram and Windows 98. If you take the useless bullcrap out of software (Hear me Marketing Mavens?) and code it like you only have 64k of memory (figuratively for the excessively literal ones out there), it will run just fine.

    I proudly admit I am an "oddball engineer that doesn't fit into your focus group".

    I'm a building automation and control instrumentation engineer. Oddball for sure, not many of us out here. Ever hear of Programmable Logic Controllers? No, I guessed as much. That's where all of these ARM chips got their start, running your industrial plants and buildings in hot humid locations, no fans, no AC, high reliability, critical control, and none of you have the faintest idea of our business.

    I want the tablet I speccd so our people have a tool to communicate with and setup industrial equipment, cameras, airhandlers, chillers, security systems etc, etc, etc as well as do time sheets, get email, read tech manuals, access internet and various industrial communication protocols.

    Now would all you hypercritical OCD fanbois all find a cliff and follow the rest of the lemmings over it? Please?

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      @Dan paul

      OK I read your post, it was actually worse horseshit than I thought it would be. But to answer your points / rants:

      "like me wanting a "tablet" that runs programs that are actually productive instead of time wasting?"

      They pretty much all are capable of this. Just because you can't find the app you want doesn't mean the hardware is rubbish.

      ""Tablet" is a broad general description (Sorry Crapple), "

      Apple prefer "iPad" derivatives as that is their brandname, however the product is a tablet so not sure what your point was there, other than another chance to show us how clever you are by using "Crapple" instead of "Apple".

      "There are plenty of "inexpensive" laptops in the $398 to $598 range that have most of the features I'm looking for. All I am asking for is something similar but in "tablet" form."

      Try an iPad - it fits the description you gave almost perfectly.

      "Windows or Linux - Really what was so difficult to understand? I'm not looking for a frikkin phone or fondleslab, I want one to use for work."

      And here is the crux - you arbitrarily want something Apple don't make and then complain that Apple don't make it. Like me whining that Ford don't make Ferraris.

      "I trust that some OS manufacturer has the brains to provide a shell that allows touchscreen operation of the OS and business productivity software such as Word, Excel and Outlook (or a reasonable, fully compatible, facsimile)"

      Try an iPad - it does this.

      "Next, 8 to 12 hours "reasonable operation""

      Again, try an iPad.

      "As far as running productivity software, I distinctly remember running the old versions of Word, Excel & Outlook on an 800 megahertz processor with a whopping 1 gig of ram and Windows 98."

      Some of us remember running WordPerfect under DOS, what is your point?

      "code it like you only have 64k of memory (figuratively for the excessively literal ones out there), it will run just fine."

      Try an iPad - runs just fine with whatever program you using.

      "Ever hear of Programmable Logic Controllers? No, I guessed as much. "

      I was programming PLCs back in the 90s - but on a more rational point, just because you are using dated solutions to old problems it doesn't mean you get to be the sage voice when it comes to modern technology. I humbly suggest the opposite is the case.

      "Now would all you hypercritical OCD fanbois all find a cliff and follow the rest of the lemmings over it? Please?"

      I think you are the one being hypercritical, a simple criticism would have worked plenty to get the point across but instead you fit it into two of the longest rants posted on El Reg in a long time. In fact us "fanbois" are not actually being critical at all.

      Time for your medication I fear.

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