reports of death of apple too soon?

I'm not sure apple is doing too badly?

My sister has just got an iPad mini, thrilled with it. Wife loves her iPhone 5, kids facetime and minecraft on iPod touch with friends including overseas. iMessage stops us paying extra for SMS.

The only bad tech purchases were my nephew who was bought a windows 8 laptop for school work (disaster). Primary school has 28 iPads for lessons, with airplay to appleTV plugging into the projectors for teaching.

Apple may be a bit too consumer focused for esteemed El Reg readers, but its doing very well with all the ordinary folks I know.

I think Apples line up of iMacs / Macbooks / iPads / iPhones is still the best in class, with room to grow market share. I dont see consumers gladly choosing microsoft (except maybe xbox), so most PC makers are in trouble.

The Galaxy phones look nice enough, but the rest of android is not making money.

Apple is not perfect, but they are pretty damn good.

relevant?

This is not including direct sales?

These figures reflect the crumbs falling from the table, rather than the tablet market as a whole.

The problem for the PC industry is apple has effectively disintermediated the retail channel, as well as the software resellers and for music / video with sales of CDs and DVDs falling.

Cant stand microsoft, because...

I have long suspected the only people who like microsoft are people who profit from them. If my job depended on the success of microsoft, I would be getting behind microsoft too.

Sorry to those of you are invested in microsoft to support your family and pay your mortgage: a slow decline awaits.

As an end user, I cant stand microsoft. As a monopolist, they have spent years copying then destroying any threats. They did well in Office software, Browsers, Games consoles and of course Windows itself, but they have never failed to abuse their position, by charging huge amounts for what they delivered.

They have failed in Search, MP3 players and along into mobile. And worst of all, they failed by teaching their customers to hate them by their sharp operating.

Apple didn't want to do mobile (they were planning the iPad) but when they just realised the iPod would be destroyed by the next generations of mobile phones they switched attention to the iPhone. They destroyed iPod, along with nokia, RIM and others. They sucked away most of the profits in mobile, by making a device consumers enjoyed.

Next came the iPad.

Microsoft realised that its OS would lose relevance, as people innovated with tablets and mobiles. It has tried to take the same idea of truly innovating, but its too late. Windows 8 on a normal laptop is a mess, though I can see it might work with touch. If I wanted it.

But i'm very happy with apple and ubuntu now.

Microsoft could still earn a fortune in the coming decade by doing a competent job with Office, Windows and XBOX, I suspect they will blow most of their billions in trying to stay relevant and making bad purchases.

I wonder if developers out there are more excited by an ubuntu phone, than what windows phone bring next year? Maybe its just me...

early adopters

The problem is microsoft has burned their early adopters with windows phone. Apple has slowly upgraded ipad and iphone, so that consumers are not stuffed when the newer version comes out.

There are a few people who are keen to jump in, but I think a lot more people will happily sit with their popcorn and wait to see if another disaster movie like palm / HP is going to unfold.

If developers are waiting too, then microsoft has a big problem.

no hope

I'm sorry, but any microsoft software is doomed for me. The better it is, the less I want to be tied into it. I cant see any way back for them, just a steady decline now. Maybe a rapid one if PC business goes the way RIM and nokia did. Perhaps android could grow into a desktop linux in the next 5 years. Imagine the terror at redmond?

Apple annoys me at times, but they havent got me looking for the exit yet.

Lockin avoidance

Sounds like companies have a choice to avoid 12 months of unnecessary upgrades. I dont think Nokia realised when they jumped into bed with windows phone how much end consumers hate microsoft. There is no way back for them, because the people at the end of the chain want out. I want to get the NHS on open source software and kickstart the UK IT economy.

hating apple is believing in santa

I had a thought this christmas. Being a person who hates apple products is like being the last person in class to realise Santa not real. Apple make nicely designed stuff, better than most PC's or phones, but they can cost more too. Were not morons for liking their stuff. The iMac, iPad, iPhone, macbook air and mac mini are all just lovely products, best in class to my eyes. Thats all. Good work jon and all the team.

iPad zombie

OK, when I bought the iPad I wasn't quite sure what I would use it for. I thought it would be like my iPhone, but bigger. For the first couple of months I didnt use it much and thought I had wasted my money. For proper internet or general use, sit at a computer. To look something up, glance at twitter, then the phone is always in my pocket. Where did the iPad fit in?

Then I had an exam to prepare for, with loads of PDF guidelines to navigate, and the need to read things up on the internet. I met in a study group at different places (using 3G).

Suddenly the iPad became fantastic. I can carry a huge library of PDF resources (goodreader is worth the money) and have the biggest book - the internet - to hand. Switching on, opening a browser and sending a query to google is just so quick. I have not seen a PDF reading device half as good as an iPad.

Most of this would be possible on the competitor tablets I agree, but now all my photos pop up on the iPad via the auto sync. It has turned my camera on my phone to a great document archiving system.

And now I have a USB MIDI interface connecting my MIDI keyboard to garageband. Now that is really clever.

I cant go back.

Its a shame, as the competition is hotting up: The Galaxy S2 looks great, the quad core acer tablet looks nice. But I'm all in with apple. Hopefully the competition will keep them on their toes...

Sam

**sigh** (reads another miserable comment)

"The author's name says it all"

Oh cheer up Anon, "Mr. Asay" DOES talk rubbish of course, but not half as much as I would if I were writing his column. Always worth a read.

Keep up the good work Matt, and don't worry about the pedants.

Waste of money

The most secure system is one which no-one can access. Great. Job done.

Chocolate teapot NHS IT.

linux FTW

I am a GP. If it is now my choice as to how we spend money then we are going ubuntu all the way. About time for some switched on thinking

No GPS for touch

Based in the iPad, I think the GPS chipset is built into the phone radio. Unlikely to appear in the touch.

The camera is a more likely option. I certainly didn't buy an ipod touch last year because I was waiting for the camera to appear. With camera it will be an awesome computer for kids... I hope

Open Source Time

Microsoft is not worthwhile for a basic OS and Office software. I dont know of a compelling reason why a large government organization (like the NHS here in the UK) could not run largely on open source.

Linux also tends to run better on old computers, extending the wasteful upgrade cycle.

Clearly this open source solution will hit the pocket of microsoft and those who install and support it, but it will save money for us as taxpayers.

Its time to start the switch. Internet explorer>firefox. Office>OpenOffice. By the time people are comfortable with these, they will switch to linux OS underneath without too many problems.

Lets do it!

Fed up with "privacy concerns"

Have you noticed how bad the NHS is at embracing simple technology?

Mobile phones anyone? (they were soooo dangerous)

SMS?

Email?

The "privacy concerns" brigade has been killing innovation for years.

We all know that using the telephone and post is far less secure than any email system, yet electronic communication has effectively been shut down for years in the NHS.

We need to embrace a cheap, simple ideas and stop being bullied into perfection.

We may leak a few confidential disasters, but save £15 billion, or whatever this rubbish is costing.

The NHS should be aspiring to be ALDI, not M&S. (If you want M&S you go private).

p.s. In Australia the patients keep their X-rays under their bed, it is the most effective system I have ever seen.

another tedious apple fan

On behalf of the ipod touch (which of course is a fair bit more expensive), the ability to use the BBC iplayer over my wifi network at home is brilliant. I use this extended functionality more than playing music.

This Sony player may be a better out and out audio player, but my needs have moved on...

I now really do want the web browser, iplayer, Nike+, guitar tuner, bloomberg app, maps etc

This looks like Sony is winning last years battle again.

yippeeeee!

Got the essential mix coming through right now in excellent quality, and radio 3 lunchtime concert was great too. I was starting to think about setting up my own media server to achieve the same thing - so this saved me the bother.

iplayer on the iphone / touch is such an impressive feature. Now I all of bbc radio available for easy bedtime listening, not just the podcasts.

Just brilliant.

This might just delay my exile from the UK.

plagiarism

The problem here is that he has dishonestly claimed these comments were his own work. Clearly he is plagiarising these words from the wider community of doctors who have been saying this for years.