“Let’s face it,” Brent Schlender commands for BNET. “There are enough valid quibbles about the iPad that it seems as if the product might have been rushed out the door, much like the company’s last big dud, AppleTV.”
MacDailyNews Take: Piper Jaffray estimates that Apple has sold 6.6 million Apple TV units through the end of 2009. For some perspective on this “big dud,” Amazon is estimated to have sold 2.5 million Kindles to date. If Apple TV is a “big dud,” then what’s Kindle? Oh, right, never mind comparing sales numbers, let’s just go with empty, meaningless press release hyperbole: “Kindle is a raging success!” Puleeze. We prefer dealing in facts.
Schlender continues, “I wasn’t sure what to expect when I asked Jobs’ longtime rival, Bill Gates, what he thought of the iPad. After all, Gates has been a proponent of tablet computers for years… Gates told me he isn’t sold.”
You know, I’m a big believer in touch and digital reading, but I still think that some mixture of voice, the pen and a real keyboard – in other words a netbook – will be the mainstream on that… It’s a nice reader, but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.’ – Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman
MacDailyNews Take: Translation: “There’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, we could get away with stealing that, too.'”
This is what Microsoft has done instead, after a decade of “work” so far: AP reviews Archos 9 Windows tablet: Sluggish and lethargic, the Windows tablet experience is poor – February 10, 2010
Schlender continues, “So I can’t help but wonder: Does the iPad unveiling mark a pivotal point after which Apple is perceived as too cocksure for its own good? Could it indicate that Jobs’ pitch-perfect sense of the consumer technology marketplace might be getting a little…tinny? Or, to give Apple a credit, is this simply another example of being so far ahead of the curve that most of us just don’t get it?”
MacDailyNews Take: No, no, and BINGO!
Schlender continues, “Isn’t all this noise and iPad disbelief the way it always is when a new class of computing device is introduced? Fight off your ADD for a moment, and think back to early 2007, when the now ubiquitous iPhone was ‘pre-introduced’ after months of feverish speculation based upon misinformation that Apple did little or nothing to squelch. When Apple unveiled it six months later, there was a lot of initial grumbling about what the shiny little puck couldn’t do… But now, after selling more than 42 million iPhones plus some 33 million iPod Touches, and creating a vast new target for which software developers can make mobile applications that people have downloaded by the billions, those qualms are all but forgotten.”
MacDailyNews Take: After quite the rocky start, it’s plain to see that Schlender gets it – and Gates, unsurprisingly, doesn’t (during Jobs iPad presentation, Bill “The Visionary” Gates was probably staring at his SPOT watch for the umpteenth time wondering why it doesn’t work).
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Mr. Originality strikes again. From 2004: “There’s nothing that the iPod does that I say, ‘Oh, wow, I don’t think we can do that.'” – Bill Gates, September 02, 2004
Guess what Zune Boy, you couldn’t. Now you’re stooping to paraphrasing your own stupid disproven quotes, you serial copier. When Gates doesn’t grasp something or feigns disinterest, it bodes quite well for Apple products.
Your act is tired, Bill. And it’s evidently stuck in an infinite loop. The Dark Ages of Personal Computing that you ushered in through blind dumb luck and despicable deceit is ending, Billy Boy. Do yourself a favor: From now on, just shut up and fade away, you conniving weasel.
That explains a lot.
Instead Bill can brag about his BAT that cost 18K and 3K to develop. Weight a ton and just plain stupid…. LOL
Imagine that, Bill Gates playing ignorant.
Sounds exactly like Steve Balmer don’t it!
Conniving weasel – lol
Hear, Hear!
“…but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.’ – Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman”
That is why you fail.
Once again, the Kiss of Success from Microsoft! Seeing as Gates and Ballmer haven’t come up with any new idea since realizing that software is what is the money maker for PCs rather than cheap, ubiquitous hardware parts, I’m very confident that the iPad will be a roaring hit!
Thanks Mr. Bill!
I quote the last sentence of the article: “Judging from the trajectories of the iPod and the iPhone, Apple and its developer partners will mend the iPad’s flaws sooner than we might expect. Love Apple or loathe it, I’d bet that eventually the combination of flexibility, programmability, connectivity, finger-power, and brute force in the marketplace will make the iPad the first genuine, interactive, high-definition Personal Universal Media Player. Hmmm. Maybe Apple should’ve called it the iPump?” Me thinks this guy gets it!
Bill Gates : but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it’.
And that is why you fail.
In otherwords a netbook?
But Netbooks don’t come with styluses. Or real keyboards. And how many of them come with a built in mic let alone an audio-in jack?
I don’t think “netbook” means what Bill Gates thinks it means…
Let’s be clear: Microsoft COULDN’T do an iPad if it wanted to! It’s the software baby!!!
but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.’ – Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman
————————
It doesn’t matter, because even if Microsoft had done it, there would not be the Apple media integration and and iTunes ecosystem which are the two catalysts which will propel the iPad into the mainstream..
At this current point in time, Apple is the ONLY company on the planet who can make the iPad a success.. The others are just too far behind with the above points.
Think about it, on launch day there will be thousands of custom iPad apps, at least 150,000 iPhone apps, and at least 10 million iTunes accounts ready to make purchases from the brand new shiny iPad.
To use MDN’s take: Bloodbath.
Do, or do not. There is no try. MS tries and does not!
I think he just answered MDN’s earlier question,
“Can Microsoft catch up and counter the threat exemplified by Apple’s revolutionary iPad?”
BTW – Once the iPad gets in people’s hands, AppleTV will be seen as a natural extension to iPad’s movie & TV content purchased from the iTunes store.
Also BTW – Didn’t Bill say something similar about the iPod?
Ballmer and Gates are programmed to poop on anything a competitor does. Mind you, they already have their R&D;department (you know the photo copier department) working on a competitor to the iPad so they can really Zune Apple.
just my $0.02
I F’ing LOVE my AppleTV! My wife and I have movie night every Friday!
Bill: I’m glade you didn’t do it!
RE: MDN take:
So say we all!
Cocksure? I thought this was a family forum!
“Or, to give Apple a credit, is this simply another example of being so far ahead of the curve that most of us just don’t get it?”
No, not most of us, just you.
Ya baby!
Now this is the MDN we know and love! Some good ol’ fashion Gates ‘n Ballmer bashin!
Magic Word: full
As in – Gates is full of shit. Him and the engineers will be whackin off to the iPad as soon as Jobs sells them one. Here ya go Bill – is this what you were dreaming of TEN YEARS AGO?!
This coming from the boob who “starred” in the MS commercial with Jerry Seinfeld. My dog’s steaming piles of poop know more about the tech world than Mr. Gates.
Da Quote: It’s a nice reader, but there’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.’ – Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman.
Da MacDailyNews Take: Translation: “There’s nothing on the iPad I look at and say, ‘Oh, we could get away with stealing that, too.'”
Da Ballmer meeting: Leave nothing on the iPad, steal everything.
Da Managers at Microsoft: Employees start your photocopiers.
He said that about the iPod, the iPhone and almost every other Apple product.
It is pure marketing BS. They will never admit that they are wrong.
Too easy…
“…but there’s nothing in the Microsoft product line I look at and say, there is anything I would buy…”