Larger iPad could target big biz, save Apple from low-end scrum

'Apple intends to counter the recent slowdown in iPad sales by releasing a 12.9-inch model early next year and an updated 9.7-inch model and a new iPad mini'

But the likes of Samsung are already throwing affordable devices into this sector with the TabPRO and Tab S 8.4, 10.1 and 12.2 sporting expandable memory, octa core cpu's and higher resolution screens than Apples current range all round.

Apple are gonna be relying once again on the deep pocketed 'faithful' to stop the slide, but that may not be any help in avoiding a scrum further up the model range.

Apple can only sell so much before they have to start dipping into their cash reserves. Even the 37 billion cash they have in the bank won't last forever.

Doomed!

Apple is doomed if it doesn't follow the advice of the analysts! Phablet, massive iPad, TV set ... now! Cmon Apple - you're almost on the ropes after not releasing a netbook!

Or, perhaps the analysts are full of crap ...

Oh to be an "industry analyst"

"It does appear, from most sources, that Microsoft will not abandon ARM, but that it may drop the attempt to create a unified experience across both architectures."

So big fail, didn't work, oh look Apple have OSX for desktop and iOS for phones and tablets, let's do the same. Wonder how many meetings of highly paid executives it took for that insight to develop?

Talking about Apple and Samsung "falling behind" on specs

So if someone offers more resolution than what is already a very high resolution, or a bigger screen than what is already a very big screen, Apple and Samsung are falling behind? If a Chinese company introduced a tablet with a "type cover" that has a numeric keypad, he'd probably say Microsoft is falling behind!

I'm still not convinced Apple is going to make a larger iPad, and that the screen isn't for a new iPad Air. Maybe the business world is looking for larger tablets, but I don't really see the need. Once you're that big, you might as well just get a laptop - the addition of the keyboard half of the clamshell adds only a small percentage to the weight.

Windows 9

I went over to Apple devices (iPad Air, iPhone 5s and mac Mini) when I couldn't find any compelling Windows devices when ti was time to upgrade my aging laptop, but with the Surface Pro 3 looking like something I, and it would seem quite a few others, could actually use, and the prospect of a Windows that could be a worthy successor to the excellent Windows 7, I may be tempted to go back.

I really think there is too much rumour-mongering going on, especially where Apple is concerned, and you just know all this speculation is going to go out of the window on launch day when the lineup is that bit different to what all these overpaid analysts have been saying.

Larger Screen iPad means nothing to the visually impaired

It is all well and good to release a larger screen for the iPad, but what eventually happens too is that the resolution gets raised to match that larger screen, so the print stays just as tiny.

I bought an iPad Air despite being an absolute Apple product hater. I am legally blind and my Samsung 8" device wasn't cutting it for me. (End of that story is that reading glasses did the trick) So I wanted to get a larger screened tablet to compensate for screen size and thus text size. However, I have a huge gripe with Samsung devices as they come preloaded with so much garbage and TouchWiz is so bloated that it feels like I only get HALF of a tablet in storage capacity than what I was told I was buying. Research showed that Apple devices tended to be the leanest as far as an OS install base.

So, after examining as many 'Droid options as I could find available locally, I bit the bullet and started investigating the iPad. A coworker showed me his, and we even found an eReader app that would suit my purposes. So off I went and bought one. (And returned it less than 22 hours later!)

The resolution is so high that everything on the screen is microscopic to read! I went into the settings and turned on as much accessibility assistance as I could that would bold the text, increase contrast, increase TEXT size for that matter! And yet, to my utter disgust and dismay, these text increases barely applied anywhere in any app! And that even included the App Store app! Apple's attention to accessibility for the visually impaired is appalling at best. Yes, there are options like Voice Over and so on, but I don't want my tablet talking to me in a quiet room full of people to tell me what I'm looking at. I need to just be able to SEE it. And yes, there is the triple tap option to enable, but I do not want to have to do a minimum of SIX taps just to be able to see what I want to do next, nor do I want to have a device that requires me to have tunnel vision to operate.

Exchanged that tablet for a Microsoft based one, and the experience was exactly the same in the Modern UI side of things. That one only lasted about 20 hours in my possession.

Meanwhile, Android's text setting takes effect everywhere! Why? Because right from the start, Google's recommendations are to not use absolute font sizes, but to rather build out in percentages so that it scales well.

I know this may sound like such a ridiculous gripe to have about this massively successful product. But despite all of that, if I can't see what is on screen without needing a bloody microscope, then your product, for all of its features, "amazingly innovative design", and app availability blah blah blah....is an utter failure to me as your customer. Now iOS 8 is coming out, and I'm willing to bet there are no improvements there for screen readability.

Anyway....that's my rant. Still an Apple product hater.... The universe is back to normal now that my house has no iThings in it.

When the market moves, you have to move with it

Most Apple fans will repeat the same mantra: do not compete on price, stay in the high price, high margin segments. The problem is that the market is evolving so that that niche is shrinking. Apple's problem has been years in the making, but it is becoming clearer and clearer, and it the exact same problem they faced with computers in the last century. Its the same problem the British motorcycle industry had when Honda and Suzuki showed up with their ridiculous little 50cc mopeds.

Of course you cannot compete on price at that sort of level. What you can do is carry on making Bonnevilles, give up the low end segment which is just commodities, and you will be fine. Pretty soon they are offering not 50cc mopeds but 250cc fast two strokes, and then 500cc twins that are reliable and last for ever.

Not too long after that you are a specialist niche selling a few hundred a year to nostalgic enthusiasts and asking for government handouts.

This is what all the Apple mavens who decry the race to the bottom and commoditisation and want Apple to stay out of that do not see. We are seeing the PC market and the triumph of Windows all over again, in phones and tablets. The market is moving to one in which their culture will not allow them to compete. So they will either come up with a new market segment, which is going to be very tough, or they will shrink, possibly dramatically, to the accompaniment of inventory write downs never previously seen in history.

While it's possible that a 12.9" screened iPad might sell, if the price point comes too close to the Surface 3, then Apple could find itself not as the chosen one in the large screen Tablet market. Bean counters in Enterprise firms will be asking why they need to authorize purchases for 12.9" screen sized iPads when the iPad Air and Mini do the same thing at lower price points and are more portable. I can see top executives getting the largest screened iPads while others lower on the chain receive the iPad Air and iPad Mini, but Executives are fewer in number than middle managers. As for Microsoft and WRT, that failed twice already. I can't see a reason for them to try and fail at it again. Clearly, few are interested in WRT. Surface Pro needs to come down in price to gain any real momentum.

Abandonment issues

What with the way Windows Phone 7 was abandoned, and with a major Windows on the way, it might be best to avoid getting committed to any new Microsoft based hardware this holiday season. No way to tell if the relationship is reciprocal or desirable.

Oooooooooh!

Want one!

Chrome crap

I'm still really miffed as to why someone would buy a chromebook. Whilst WiFi is starting to border on the ubiquitous, it's not entirely there.

Why would you buy a laptop that becomes a ChromeBRICK as soon as you're away from a reliable interent connection. The concept has always baffled me.