Because with XBOX, XBOX 360 and Zune, Microsoft have shown they can hit it right out the park first time when it comes to top selling, reliable hardware. They are a hardware company after all: Ballmer told us.

Meanwhile "crapple" (cringe) have only had 30+ years experience of hardware, so they are basically amateurs compared to Microsoft, who've been making Mice for years. Remember: hardware company, Ballmer told us.

That isn't to say Microsoft shouldn't be applauded for rolling the dice with surface. But to underestimate Apple's head start and expertise is very foolish.

Re: Other platforms?

It probably wouldn't change that much because Microsoft have only sold 67million XBOX 360 consoles worldwide since its launch in 2005.

Whilst good it is not massive by consumer electronics standards. It is only 3 million ahed of Playstation 3, which has been on sale for a year less.

By comparison, Apple has sold 365 million iOS devices since 2007, including 55 million sales of iPad.

Re: Eviscerated?

1. Regardless of whether iPad is used for "real work", remember that not every PC sale is goes to a business. Plenty of PCs are sold to consumers as well. Consumers generally use their computers for play (games, video catchup, music, shopping, social networks etc.). While there may always be traditional desktop, the amount of time most people spend using the desktop PCs may well decrease as users prefer mobile devices (arguably it already is). This is not good if you are Microsoft and your mobile solution has something like 3% market share.

2. The problem isn't that Microsoft is selling 24x more "units" than their nearest competitor. That is not the problem at all - as you point out in most circumstance it is great. The problem is that just eight years ago they were selling 54x more "units".

At the end of the day that in itself is the wrong way to think about it.

Microsoft (currently) sells 0 computers. Apple sells 0 Operating System licences. For every PC sold, Microsoft gets ~£30 in license fees for every copy of Windows sold, whilst for every Mac, iPhone and iPad sold Apple makes considerably more profit. Which is probably why Microsoft is making its own hardware now.

Re: WTF?

> I camera is only as good as its glass - the sony has what 8 lenses available for it? 8?

Nothing like that, it will take hundreds of lenses.

All the A mounts will work with auto focus.

Manual focus is a doodle with peeking.

Re: You want to keep digging there?

Exactly, Apple aren't the company who refuses to report official sales data for "competitive reasons".

Re: Why would you carry around a one grand laptop?

Whenever I travel I often see with Thinkpads (X200 seems popular) and MacBook Pro/Airs. These are nearly all priced around the £1000. People carry them because they are thin, light, provide good battery life and powerful performance.

On to netbooks:

No one wants to use desktop Linux on a tiny screen with a cramped keyboard and even worse trackpad. They just provide and poor overall experience. They're not "good old" anything. They are and always were a bad idea. Just a way for OEMs to keep volume up during a recession.

You are completely out of touch with the market. Not everyone else. The key to the ultra book is that the screen is usable, the keyboards are comfortable and the performance good.

PS: No one buys netbooks anymore.

Re: Overpriced

Your £700 cheaper notebook won't have a SSD, which provides a big performance boost. It probably won't have great battery life either.

If you are actually carting a laptop around then solid construction and strong battery life are very important.

Re: Freeware?

Good call. It is based on KDirStat algorithm. There is a Mac version called Disk Inventory X as well.

All of these are free:

Windirstat (PC):

http://windirstat.info/

Disk Inventory X (Mac)

http://www.derlien.com/index.html

KDirStat (Linux)

http://kdirstat.sourceforge.net/

Re: Can Google do it?

It's about software as well as hardware.

Tim already has the Archos beat all ends up.

Re: Still has not got the memo

Why is it everyone forgets that tablets accept an external keyboard of your choice.

It can be perfectly productive.

Re: Why do they still bother with bitmaps

Maybe because Apple aren't gunning for the ugly, amateur-hour look and feel of the Linux desktop?

Re: Apple Watching?

Whenever any says anything positive about Apple it gets down votes without any explanation as well. You are paranoid.

Re: Where do we go from here?

HINT: Investigate responsive web design and media queries.

Two downvotes, not counterpoints. Does anyone want to make a counter point?

Apple's WebKit and Safari team have put in a huge amount of time and effort to making a very fast, efficient rendering engine with excellent standards support.

Re: Since

Since when is a MagSafe essential technology for making a Notebook computer?

Re: I see the Android Fans and Apple haters are out in force lol...

There doesn't seem to be much acknowledgement of the "non discriminatory" part.

If the headline was: "EC: Motorola claimed Apple demanded ALL ITS PATENTS" the comments would be completely different and everyone knows it.

Re: If I was Microsoft I'd be worried

Had El Reg existed at the time, I have no doubt a number of El Reg readers would have had reservations about the funny GUI and mouse fad as well.

Although you will never get Microsoft to admit it, version 1 of the Metrofication of Windows is aimed at consumers buying tablets. Businesses can coast by on the excellent Windows 7 until Microsoft have something better for them later.

And there will be improvements and refinements later, that much is certain.

Apple's contributions to WebKit are large part of the reason mobile devices (including Android ones) have browsers with strong standards support (including html 5).

Education

The iPad 2 is targeted largely at education.

"Quite irrelevant in a few years time"

You're getting it muddled up with the netbook.

Oh no maybe not, because the netbook is already irrelevant, in spite of forecasts to the contrary.

Re: consensus

Software isn't something you fix with "a bit of editing". Sure a simple application can be made quickly (helped largely by frameworks), but something as complex as iOS is seriously hard work.

Good software takes hours and hours to write. Even longer to refine and optimise. And then you have to hope that someone else actually wants to use it.

As hard as this might be for you to stomach, Apple is excellent at software. Apple have clear ideas about how software should work which might not agree with yours, but to say you can get to iOS style product with a "bit of editing" is maddeningly naïve.

Any hope of someone bringing out a laptop any time soon

Yes. Apple MacBooks will have retina displays this year.

Re: "still clearly a joke article"

> The only flaw Apple perceive with tablets is that other companies are allowed to make them

People were making tablets years (over a decade) before iPad.

Apple watched, waited and then rewrote the segment with iPad and now dominate the market.

This despite the fact nearly everyone here said the iPad was just a big iPod and going to be a massive flop.

Apple don't mind people making other tablets, they do mind people making iPad knock offs.

Re: There is still no intuitive, easy-to-use desktop OS.

“for the most part, OS should be "hidden" to the users, and the majority of the inner-workings of the OS should be completely "automated". Most people don't even know what a file system”

These are core philosophies behind iOS, not Android. You are giving credit to the wrong thing.

Do tell what the various Linux vendors and the community done to help us towards an intuitive, easy-to-use desktop. Because from where I am sitting they pretty much copy whatever Apple and Microsoft do.

Re: Computing for 2 year-olds

You can look at it two ways:

[1] It's a computer so simple a 2 year old can use it – boring.

[2] It's a computer so simple a 2 year old can use it – that's great, it makes computing accessible to a far larger audience than was possible before.

And Apple haven't been doing too badly with a tablet that children of 2 years old (or younger) can pick up and use.

Re: Just the kick everyone needs

The comments far too often fall into the negative, cynical or "things were better in my day" camp. Unfortunately those views are consistent with the tone of some the opinion pieces on the site.

As such I feel a lot of the comments miss the wood for the trees. There are a lot of exciting, interesting changes happening right now and Microsoft are making some very important and significant contributions.

You are not alone in being embarrassed by the quality of some of the comments. It's exactly the same with Apple stories as well. Rationality and considered debate goes out the window.

Good for you

It is great to have choices.

Apple of course providing a choice to people who want to run something other than Windows or Linux.

A choice. That's all people. No need any down votes on this comment.

Yes, but I might be biased…

Yes I belive you are missing the point. By the time you've added a sensible lens you are still not even close to the size (or weight) of a DSLR.

Of course the lens size is dictated to a large degree by the sensor size. With the NEX, Sony has tried to cram the APS-C sensor into the smallest bodies possible. Of course you can shrink the sensor size and shrink the lens sizes, but then you lose out on low light performance, depth of field and general image quality. So there is a trade off. Some people won't see it as a trade of worth making - for others DSLR performance in a compact body is definitely appealing.

The other thing (not so important if you don't care about it) is the video performance on a NEX is better than almost any entry level DSLR. And E-Mount lenses are able to continually autofocus (silently) whilst recording.

The big drawback for the moment is the range and choice of lenses. But there is no reason why that won't come over time.

Re: Included software

Pointless, boring comment.

The Sony camera group is producing excellent, innovative products.

Sony PMB is included, it's crap, but everyone will use Photoshop Lightroom or Apple Aperture anyway. So it doesn't matter.

Linux netbooks

Linux netbooks gained significantly less traction than an iPad.

Return rates where higher than their Windows equivalents as well.

Ever wonder why that was?

Google should be working with OEMs during development

You've almost underlined my point by replying and pointing the finger at one OEM, whilst giving Google pass.

> "Giving the manufacturers a head start would actually mean delaying the vanilla release to everyone else."

But who exactly falls into this "everyone else". I would have though the vast majority of Android users brought their phone from HTC, Motorola, Samsung or Sony. Surely manufacturers are the main group who need to be aware of future Android releases. As "open" Android is developed in secret, surely Google should be working with OEMs during development?

> "The fact Cyanogen manage to get builds out faster than manufacturers speaks volumes in my book."

It just means they don't have to go through carrier approval and testing. It doesn't speak volumes at all.

To say Microsoft is not allowing any OEM/carrier customisation of Windows Phone is incorrect, although they are being a bit more selective about what can and can't be altered.

HiDPI

Mac OS X Lion has a HiDPI mode.

So that means in applications you'll get exactly the same size icons, text and images , just with twice the detail.

You don't see any elements on the screen of a 480x320px iPhone 3GS versus a 960x640 iPhone 4. But you do see more detail.

Please explain.

I am not sure I understand.

Almost all Windows Phones would have no problem running the NT kernel.

I bet you we get Black Friday discounts in the UK as well.

They did so last year.

A lot of the best mobile apps and games for Android started life on iOS.

Like it or not, iOS was a good platform for developers to experiment with multi touch and work on some exciting ideas.

I'm far more suspicious of other sports that don't catch cheats.

Since the introduction of the biological passport it is fairly clear in my eyes the majority of cyclists are now riding clean. Power outputs (wattage) on the big climbs have fallen dramatically since the 90s/00s.

I don't understand why more sports don't adopt the biological passport scheme, other than it being expensive.

It's just good business

Same with any company, they don't give anything away unless they have something to gain.

I think it is more common than you think...

Apple apperantly did the same when working on the iPhone.

It's common to pit teams against each other internally.

P800, good for its time, but...

But would you not say... prodding a resistive touch screen with a stylus and then flipping up a flap to prod some buttons is a rather different user experience to manipulating a large capacitive display with your fingers?

Apple and Microsoft have a rich history of cross licensing patents.

I find it so amusing how so many Android enthusiasts so completely and throughly refuse to open their mind for one second to see the other side.

Apple, Oracle, Microsoft etc. don't hate Android of religious reasons. They don't like it because it rips off their IP.

It's not Windows Mobile.

It's Windows Phone, not Windows Mobile.