Apple tablet spooks world of PCs That long-awaited Apple tablet/netbook/media-pad/ebook/whatever has yet to be confirmed let alone offered for sale, and it's already scaring the bejesus out of the competition. And for good reason. As we reported earlier today, an unnamed "veteran analyst" who claims to have had the rare honor of actually laying hands on the …
If it runs on whatever gives it the best performance/battery life I think it'll do well. It's not about the desktop, it's about the applications.
The iPhone / iPod Touch SDK has revealed a whole new cottage industry of developers, and the App Store has proven itself a great delivery platform (even if iTunes isn't very good for discovery).
I'm quite fond of the iPhone's desktop and apps myself - it's nice to not have to think too deeply about where things are; a feeling shared by the majority I'll bet. I have my laptop and desktops for that.
If it is Touch based, the only thing I can see that will kill it for that reason is if they fail to allow background apps.
<..just like IBM couldn't come up with a laptop...>
Beg to differ. My ancient* IBM Thinkpad 600E's have the best lappie keyboard I've _ever_ used. Soft, tactile and precise. I used to prefer the laptop's K/B to the plugin effort from Compaq on my desk. Joy to use.
True, all the batteries I've 'acquired' are buggered, but still fine machines. And still working! (One's on Windows 95, the other one's on Redhat 7.3...).
*Not as ancient as the morse key in my bedroom. One of the three keys taken from Oban radio station, where Marconi did many experiments, it was probably used by him. And, it doesn't send .../.--./.-/--//
I REALLY REALLY hope it has GPS. I already use satnav software on the iPhone, for walking as well as a chartplotter for sailing, and all it really lacks is a bigger screeen, Stick a GPS in there, and it'd be an ideal solution for a portble satnav with a decenmt size screen. Admittedly, the sailing fraternity is a small market, but I can hope.
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"But hey, if the iCrap iPad kicks off a decent windows version (like the iPhone did for mobile touch screens - I love my Samsung Tocco), then I'm all for it."
1) If you are talking about the OS-The Tocco runs Samsung's own OS, with a (poor) version of TouchWiz running over the top.
2) If you are talking about the touchscreen- the Tocco has a resistive single-touch touchscreen, not the iPhone's capacitive multitouch one. Also, the Tocco has some flimsy, cloudy plastic over the top of the screen, not a crystal clear slab of glass.
Hang on, I've just had a horrid thought: Could you seriously be stating that you prefer WinMo to the iPhone's OSX distro? Or have I fallen for a (very obvious) troll?
Why pluck figures out of the air? It just makes you look bitter, rather than the actual intent of your post. The article states an guesstimated price point of £475, so I reckon that the actual retail price that we'll see is going to be around £479 - £499 mark, pricey, yes. Overpriced? We'll see. The app store 'evil genius route to milk cash out of their customers' has never done so. It's wildly publicised and reported that both the iTunes and App stores are loss-leaders. They exist solely to sell iPods/iPhones.
I find it highly amusing to see all the opinions spouted about what it is and what it will do - without a single FACT available.
I tell you what I'll do:
1 - I 'll wait until I know what it is
2 - I'll wait some more while the "must have it now" people buy it and debug it
3 - I will see if it's something I actually NEED. I know, it's a unique criteria in IT, but that's the way I am.
I'm not for or against anything, Apple, Windows, Linux, iPhone, whatever - I buy what works for me and doesn't give me too much hassle getting it to work. At the moment that is Windows XP, and I'm about to buy an iPhone 3GS - the version the iPhone should have been. Ergo - the wait was worth it.
As for the new iWhatsit - if it is a larger Kindle with input and European comms capabilities I may be interested, especially if it's half an Airbook (keyboard removed), or half that size.
However, the above process will be followed - it served me well over the years. It neatly offsets marketing hype with hard reality..
It's all been done before ( the list is long ), but maybe Apple ( or its hype machine and 'me want' customers ) will succeed where others haven't in the wider consumer market.
I looked at the Elonex One - basically a digital picture frame with detachable keyboard for sub £100 - but it was so proprietary and locked down while the hardware and cost fitted my bill the system did not. I cannot see Apple doing better, not for $600-$800, but each to their own.
One thing I want is a completely wireless system - and that includes charging. I want to be able to pick a tablet up, put it down, and not have to connect any wires at all, ever. It needs to have batteries which last a full 10 hours between charges ( working day plus commute ) and be always on. It needs to be lightweight and thin, ideally A4 sized.
If Apple can achieve that, maybe I'll become a fanboi for this particular product :-)
Being a monopoly (or whatever the US government decides is a monopoly) is not in and of itself illegal. It is abusing that monopoly, ie leveraging it via unethical business practices to extend the monopoly into other areas, that is illegal.
Case in point: iPod and iTunes. This is not an illegal monopoly. For one thing, there are alternatives that exist. Second, iTunes and the iPod allow the use of open (or open-ish) formats: mp3, mp4, etc. Third, the DRM was not Apple's idea, but the labels'. Fourth, Apple hasn't tried to use the iPod to strong-arm into other areas. Influence, maybe ("You do know that we are by far the biggest market for personal media player peripherals, right? Maybe you could make those cases for the iPhone.") ; but not force ("Make cases for us exclusively or your puppy gets it.").
And remember, it's all how you spin things. MS is a software company. Some argue that Apple is a software company, a hardware company, whatever. In truth, they are a *solutions* company. They sell you the whole widget. Don't like that? Okay, that's fine, there are other solutions out there.
"The Newton? I owned one, nice little gadget for about 5 mins of play but absolutely useless for anything serious though. Palm came along and buried Apple in the dust for years. Palm didn't try to be too clever, they didn't bother with handwriting rubbish, just click the icons and use the on-screen keyboard, K.I.S.S.!"
Graffiti entirely passed you by, then? As a Newton (2100) and Palm (Titanium 2) user I can honestly state that the Newton was generation ahead.
Love the idea of an iPhone that's bigger. Will be great for browsing, watching films, iPodding and hopefully running iPhone applications in a bigger space. Need to be able to attach a Bluetooth keyboard and maybe a mouse; sit it on a stand. It'll be a brilliant bit of kit.
The point is that it shouldn't be a fully-functional general purpose lappie. Just stick to the basics.
Can't wait.
Isn't 'ubiquity' awfully less clumsy?
- - - -
I have resisted a Netbook so far, claiming that I can browse/email/tweet etc on my iPhone, a device that does fit inside a pocket and does almost all I need when I'm on the move. I'm in the office the rest of the time with a proper PC so I really can see no point in a midget laptop for my usage pattern. There are, however, a zillion Netbook users who have been suckered into a low-spec machine that tries hard to do what its elder brother does. I strongly suspect that these are the ones who will be overjoyed that Apple are selling a similar device that is a little quicker, much sexier, and a little more expensive (assumptions, I know, but Apple does have a history of doing all that).
That said, I know I'll probably shell out for one if they sell the iPad Pro with a glossy, white, plastic back ;)
No, I'm not saying the Tocco is an iPhone beater, just that the iPhone forced the other mobiles to follow suit and offer touch screen phones, even if it's not as good, they will get better, it does everything I want a mobile phone to do (I don't need to zoom in on pictures on a 3in screen or edit documents on the go). As for my preference (I love my Tocco), that's simply because I wouldn't buy an Apple product (religious wars yea, logic out the window).
If the iPad (or whatever), becomes popular, then the market should follow suit, offering Win7 (+ software I'm comfortable using, ie not iTunes or slowtime) versions at lower prices - will they be better than the Apple version? IMHO yes, because they're not made by Apple (see religious wars above).
So, if I was trolling... yay, my first troll on t'internet.
Expensive, No Java, No Flash, No Windows/Linux compatibility, Crap camera, Insecure, Unsafe, Horid support, Restricted potential, Poor value, Closed source, Developer hostile tools, etc. etc. etc.
These are a few reasons why no matter how many TRILLIONS (even) in sales they do, me and others who are not easily swayed by marketing hype and buying something for the sake o' coolness, will NEVER do the mistake of forking out cash to crApple just so they continue to produce crappy products with nicely animating graphics...
Just because A LOT of people are keen to buy 2 year(!) exclusive/premium iphone contracts and lame ipods doesn't mean much, only that there are lots of muppets out there who would buy anything that starts with a lowercase i.
I'm betting it's *NOT* a computer. I'm betting it's a Kindle-competitor, one that can also play movies and music. :)
After all, Steve has always said they'll never build another Newton. But he never said they wouldn't build an eBook reader.
Popularize the ebook reader and Apple could have another one-trick pony in the stable. Both the iPod and the iPhone are getting a bit long in the tooth.
Lord knows their computers aren't going anywhere fast...
If this mac tablet is essentially a bigger iPhone, who would buy it? (other than the usual fanbois)
Something the size of a netbook that lacks the ability to run any useful software just seems like a waste of money. If it's too big to fit in your pocket then it should, at a minimum, be able to run the basic software you get on a real computer (regardless of the OS). I'm not expecting it to be able to do massive 3d renders, or run fast 3d games, but the ability to run Photoshop, Dreamweaver etc. is a must.
No software = no sale.
"me and others who are not easily swayed by marketing hype and buying something for the sake o' coolness, will NEVER do the mistake of forking out cash to crapple..."
You sure? Loads of people said exactly the same thing when the iPhone first came out and there's no doubt that a lot of them finally succumbed to the blasted thing, or as TheRegister said eventually had their misgivings worn away.
No doubt you will have the opportunity to eat your words in about 18 months time or more likely stay extremely silent on the subject...
"no software, premium support prices and lock-in. no thanks. been there and sold it."
Bull! Tons of software for the Mac, industry leading AppleCare support with your product purchase price (you have the OPTION to purchase more after your first year is up) and there is NO lock in. If you actually sold it then you are the world most ignorant salesman because you didn't know your own product. Personally I don't think you sold it at all because the rest of your post was so full of lies. I'm assuming you lied about the salesman part too.
Yea. The entire PC world is shaking in her boots waiting to see a giant iPod Touch/ Apple Tablet that will cost $699 to $799. The rich people are salivating all over this. The rest of the world is thinking, who gives a darn. Ask yourself this- Why would anyone pay $699 to $799 for a crippled giant iPod when they can have a full PC, Laptop, or even Netbook that does MUCH MORE for MUCH LESS? I suppose the idol rich who simply loved fruit themed gear no matter what it is, will buy it. Microsoft couldn't sell the concept of the Tablet PC to anyone because no one saw the value in paying more for something that does less. Make a convertible netbook and they may have something. Simply growing a larger iPod Touch and calling it a "Tablet" or something else that sounds cool just isn't going to cut it.......
If Apple produced products that did more for the same money or less, that would be one thing, but Apple products tend to be hobbled (iPhone, iTouch) and cost more to do less. There will always be people who rationalize this and are willing to accept less and pay more. They are idiots with more money than sense. They can have their exclusive Apple iJunk. The rest of us are over it.
People like you just don't get it. People buy Apple products for the user experience, not the feature list. If features were the most important thing about a product then we'd all be eating our dinner with Swiss army knives. I'd rather have something that does a few things well than something that does a lot of things badly.
People like you can buy Apple kit for the "user experience". The rest of us are more interested in what we can DO with technology, not how "warm and fuzzy" the "user experience' makes us feel. I'm an information technologist. The "USER EXPERIENCE" for me is "WHAT CAN I DO WITH THIS", not "how cool does it look that I have an Apple product". If the so called "user experience" was important to the majority of consumers, Apple would have more than it's 10% market share. More businesses would be purchasing and using Apple gear. Apparently they aren't, because businesses seek value for the money they spend, not the "user experience". Have fun with your Apple "User experience". I'm having a great USER EXPERIENCE with UBUNTU. I can do everything in it that I can do in Windows, and I can do all of that FOR FREE. Can you? Don't think so.
Actually, I did buy an Apple for the feature list. A supported UNIX with supported drivers, a full development system out-of-the-box [remove from box, install Developer Tools package from OS CD], nicely designed laptop hardware with decent screens & keyboards, and you get a pretty OS with a quick & convenient backup solution, great typography/color/printing, standard tools & formats support for e.g. mail, it sleeps as soon as I open the lid when I get to to the train, and it runs Photoshop.
Oh and I can buy one at a shop after trying it out, locally.
So who else is offering that?
" More businesses would be purchasing and using Apple gear. Apparently they aren't, because businesses seek value for the money they spend, not the "user experience"."
Apparently they are. I'm visiting more places with macs in them than ever before.
I'm glad you're an information technologist - it sounds like a wonderful thing to be, I wish I could be one.
But no I don't have the time for that, I'm getting on with my work on my mac without having to worry about it crashing. freezing or getting in the way of what I want to do. The sort of user experience I like.
...what these damn things will be used for. Anyone who's ever used a "smartphone" will know that finger/stylus input is probably the most useless concept that anyone's ever thought of. On a phone, there's little option - but imagining that anyone bar a few highly specialised industrial users would ever want a tablet device is dreaming or hallucinating. Sadly,a keyboard is still mandatory for any useful work.
Paris, because I *can* imagine what she'd be used for.
Mr Ubuntu and Mr information technologist, I bought a Mac after years of Windows crashes and failed Linux builds, I have happily compiled GNU software straight of the source sites using the freely supplied developer kits. Hell, DarwinPorts even allows me to install a package manager like apt-get and simply drag down and compile in one motion.
I want it all, with a Mac I get that. Some days I want slick and fuzzy apps with a classy feel, other days I will sit with several terminal windows open banging away at my C++ driver code. Sure I pay a premium for the privilege of having it all, but it's my money and where I wish to waste it is my choice. I don't smoke or drink ( I am married with kids, I am not allowed a life! ), my family are tech-heads like me and we love messing about with interesting tech appliances. One genuine O/S crash in 9 months while hacking and outdated library, not bad going!
Your choice, but you just don't what your missing until you sign your soul over to the devil-incarnate Mr Jobs!
Ubuntu lets you do everything for free huh? I guess you don't value your time then. I've been running Linux desktops since FVWM was the window manager of choice. I started using Macs because I got sick of having to mess about with the machines to get them to work. My time is far too valuable to waste on such things. The fact that they look good is a bonus but not as important to me as having something that requires very little maintenance.
Clearly you can't understand that user experience reaches far beyond looks and "warm and fuzzy feelings". So, you see, you still don't get it.
Apologies if this has been brought up already, but I don't have the time nor incling to wade through roughly 100 comments.
It has been suggested that Apple's tablet will fail because businesses won't buy it, and consumers won't buy it. The reasoning seems to hinge on the - possibly accurate - view that a physical keyboard is needed to make the thing useable as an everyday computer.
Well, here's the thing. I don't believe the tablet is designed to replace people's existing computers, but rather to compliment them. Therefore, it only needs to do a sufficient subset of things well. All well and good you may say, but who's going to buy it? Consumers don't need a crippled laptop in their house (no Windows jokes please...), and businesses won't buy their staff two computers.
Ah, but there's another market that Apple already does quite well in: Education.
How many students out there do you think have Apple laptops? How many get frustrated at having to carry around their new computer and all their textbooks/notepads at college/university every day. An Apple tablet seems like the perfect solution. It is lighter and can function as a note-taking device (via a stylus, since we're all taught to use a pen when writing as opposed to our index finger).
This last point is *very* important in my view. The tablet must be able to act as a digital notepad. Think of the benefits to students: all their notes can be backed up (God help those who forget this!) and also can be searched. At revision time, imagine being able to locate that obscure note you scribbled down about Winston Churchill's mindset (for example) without having to scour every last crumpled piece of tatty paper that you can find in your filthy little flat.
Plus, what student wouldn't buy a device with the following features:
less than 1kg (2lbs in 'merkan); 10" touch screen; wireless; Web browser; mail client; music player; video player; photo viewer; iPhone-style games; handwriting recognition (including math stuff); editing/viewing/annotating support for PDFs, spreadsheets, presentations, etc; auto-syncing with regular Macs/PCs.
Only one thing though, and this is aimed at Apple itself: please don't make the syncronisation require iTunes....
Doc Spock, agree with the requirements you list in your post (as above, I would add Photoshop and Dreamweaver as well). But how (practically) would Apple do this at anything like a practical cost?
If they want compatibility with all those functions, and want it to be tailored to use as a tablet, then they are going to have to blow massive amounts of money on developing a whole new OS for the thing (and then they'll have no compatible apps to run on the thing - in any case, standard iPhone apps either won't run on it, or will look terribly pixelated on a 10 inch screen).
On the other hand, if they put a full version of OSX on there, then they are going to struggle for the same reason the various MS OEMs have struggled with tablets - the market for tablets is too small to profitably compete with the laptop/netbook market. Seems like a lose/lose.
As for your point about students, I am right there with you. I took all my notes on an HP tc1100 tablet using handwriting recognition. But then, since you can get one of those on ebay for around £300, and since the Apple tablet will cost a lot more than that, you have the price problem again...
I mean, really. How many people apart from office-workers, professional writers and programmers can touch-type to any usable degree? How many of all those people having read this article bothered to write a comment? (I've read not long ago that about 7% of all internet users are "active" users actually doing things instead of just consuming). How much do "normal" people actually *write* on their netbooks? At least 90% of computer time is *consuming* stuff or doing things which involve moving a tiny arrow around on a screen and clicking the mouse. A touchscreen in a tablet is not only totally fine here, it's even vastly better. And getting rid of the lid and the nasty form-factor of the classic opened laptop will be a relief for most people, even if they don't know it yet.
One gets the impression that Apple is the only one actually bothering with looking at the statistics while others just don't care and do as they always did, even if it has long ago stopped to make any sense. How else could even the latest and most modern netbooks still come with the inmortal SysRq key? There was a time when computer users where office clerks or scientists or programmers. These times are long over now, but the manufacturers just haven't noticed. Or if they have noticed they think offering a model with a pink lid is all that's needed. It isn't.
Do you know about the indian monkey trap? You hollow out a coconut, cut a small hole into it, put some food into it and fasten the device to a tree. The monkey will wriggle in its hand, grab the food -- and can't get its hand out anymore. The more it panics, the less it sees the obvious thing to do. The PC-manufacturers are like this monkey. They always need someone to show them the obvious thing to do. If Apple comes with a tablet, six months later netbooks with a keyboard won't be the rule anymore, they will be the exception.
I'm not a fanboi and Apple surely is not a company of holy men. But they seem to have the expertise and confidence to sit back and stare hard and long at a problem and try to come up with well done products even if they take years to develop. This is so rare nowadays that you just have to admire them a bit. Everyone else just looks at what the others do and tries to do more of the same as quick as possible.
I do not know which OS will run on that tablet, if that tablet will come. But Apple has always warned developers to *not* rely on the iPhone screen resolution and in fact the SDK is quite agnostic in this regard. There's no reason to assume that iPhone apps will look "pixelated". Many will have to be adapted to make use of more pixels, but basically they should just offer more room for documents and lists and so on with less room occupied by UI elements. They won't be the same apps, but it should be rather easy to port existing iPhone apps to a larger screen with more pixels if the OS and SDK is basically the same.
Good old OS X isn't really suited for a touch screen. There's too much going on, UI elements are too small to be used with fingers and it is quite deeply married to keyboard shortcuts and a mouse. I would rather expect an OS very like the iPhone OS, with many things borrowed from Snow Leopard and adapted to a touchscreen. I wouldn't even be surprised if the whole Snow Leopard thing is part of a larger and long-term plan involving portable touchscreen devices. And while I don't know if MS has such a thing as a long-term plan, I'm pretty bloody sure that Apple has one.
I'm convinced since years that the future of personal computing will be in pads or tablets with a touchscreen and that in not too many years the physical keyboard will be something that only clerks and writers and programmers will use. Apple seems to look at this in very much the same way. We will see. If the tablet indeed will come next month, Apple will have a clean headstart here and all the others will eat the dust...
Has anyone noticed that (at the moment) there is only 1 'consumer' Mac laptop (as opposed to the 'Pro' models?
This is a highly unusual state of affairs for Apple. What's the betting that the new whatever it is will come in 2 consumer versions (at the same end of the price scale) in order to restore the usual 3 consumer 3 pro line-up?
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