“This week, I went to the unveiling of the iPad 2 and got some hands-on time with the device afterwards,” MG Siegler reports for TechCrunch. “Meanwhile, Jason bought a Xoom and has been extensively testing it out.”
Siegler reports, “The consensus? iPad 2: Good. Xoom: Bad.”
“I haven’t extensively played with iPad 2 yet, and Google is undoubtedly going to patch the Xoom,” Siegler reports. “But still, first impressions are key.”
Both products discussed more deeply in this week’s episode of OMG/JK. Watch it here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “ryan tr” for the heads up.]
Watching the Android fanboy on this show admit that the Xoom is crap is priceless.
How can any company sell an unfinished product?
Perhaps they aren’t really copying Apple after all. It looks like they are copying Microsoft instead.
Your actually more correct than you probably think. The iPad is about stripping away the complexity. The competitors are about adding complexity (essentially their tablets are attempting to be robust computing devices similar to a laptop or desktop) and so that is exactly what they are competing against, and that is exactly why the will/are failing. When I want to read a book, magazine, webpage I go to my iPad, or when I want to play a game or use facebook….iPad. When I want to perform do complex computing I sit down infront of my 27″ iMac. The iPad competitors are trying to give you a device that is capable of performing more of the laptop/desktop complex computing but in a tablet form factor. If you consider this for a while you inevitably conclude that your getting worked up for nothing because you still aren’t even sure why you need a tablet device since you already have a capable device such as a laptop or desktop. The iPad manages to side step that conclusion because it says here is a simple device that allows you to do certain things with out having the complexity or desktop OS getting in your way and thus enriching the experience of those few tasks. Most Android proponents seem to be unable to recognize this but regardless it is why the Android tablets will fail. Not because they aren’t good, but simply because they aren’t necessary.
Spot on.
Nailed it!!!!
BINGO!!
Couldn’t of said better ….
This should be quoted for truth.
Agreed. You know what might actually get some sales? How about a tablet that runs only one program: a web browser. And that would be something a smaller company could do.
You mean like a kindle? I know people willing to pay less for the thing because ALL they want to do on it is read books. They have laptops etc. They just want a simple little device for a simple task. They like my iPad, but they don’t want to shell out $500. Just give them a specialty device with minimal features at a lower price.
you summed it for me. This is exactly why microsoft could not successfully sell the their previous tablets.
talk about finding the crux of the debate..
Ooooh ZING!
Motorola has nothing to worry about. All they have to do is license Microsoft Windows for Tablets. Imagine running Microsoft Office for Tablets, staying connected to the office with native Exchange support and when you want to let your hair down you can use your Zune points at Zune Marketplace for great music, videos and apps. MAC will never know what hit them.
Consumers want choice—especially when faced with MAC’s proprietary, overpriced shiny toys for their pretentious lemming customers. Motorola, you should seriously consider a partnership with Microsoft. You won’t be sorry. What people really want is Windows on a tablet.
You can already get Windows on a tablet. Consensus seems to be that hardly anyone actually wants it.
PS I think you mean “Mac,” not MAC.
Zune Tang is heavily into parody. Enjoy.
Is he? I can never tell… really! I’m not joking! It’s like how the Ricky Gervais Office leaves you thinking “Did he really just DO that?
The very best satire should always leave you a little uncomfortable. This allows you to question the issue with greater intensity.
Just cant believe that people still don’t get zuny. Clearly you CAN fool lots of the people lots of the time.
“Consumers want choice—especially when faced with MAC’s proprietary, overpriced shiny toys for their pretentious lemming customers.”
Last year this time you might have been able to get away with a comment like that, but by now it’s become pretty obvious that you are very very wrong. Just look at the sales #s for the iPad and all of the interest in the forthcoming version. Last year like minded individuals estimated that that “pretentious lemming customer totaled somewhere in the # of 2 million but since the iPad is clearly a run away success I suppose that means untold tens of millions now fit into that category. The device in question, the iPad has the most competitive prices out of all of the competing tablets….not overpriced.
Job’s has been quoted as saying if you don’t want it don’t buy it….why are you still here?
That’s it. Feed the fire.
Need more ZT action around here.
dude….you’ve been Zune Tanged!
Zune Tang is an Apple guy, but heavily into excellent satire – he just comes up with these brilliant M$ takes that fool everyone.
‘Let your hair down’ – love it!
Zune should write an office style Microsoft satire show.
“Imagine running Microsoft Office for Tablets, staying connected to the office with native Exchange support”
Wow. Sounds like a wet dream circa 2002. You find a magic lamp, get three wishes and you wish for something we already have. Brilliant.
Yes! To The Cloud!
Wherever that is, and yet somehow Microsoft believes it is a magical place full of perfect photos, violent housewife TV shows, and thus solving everyone’s problems. That must be what all those employees are working on in Redmond instead of Windows for Tablets (due 2012, shipping 2015).
Bravo, Mr. Tang. Your subtle irony never fails to ensnare one or more unsuspecting virgins into your elaborate web of sarcasm.
It’s not irony or sarcasm. It’s satire.
Sometimes people think they want one thing but actually need something else and don’t discover it until after they use it. Tablets are personal, more personal than a laptop. MS had tablet computers out for almost 10 years, since 2002, if people wanted windows on a tablet how come they aren’t flying off the shelf?
Over priced shiny toy? iPad cost less than the Xoom and Tab without contract.
Zune… you used to be funnier and less obvious. c’mon, you are slippin’ Your posts used to make us think you were serious.. these latest posts tip us off that you are a mac owner, just being funny. Get back to work and really fool us.
Thanks
Office for tablets? Are you serious? It doesn’t actually work well enough on a normally spec’d PC. Why would anyone want that bloated, buggy, slow, universal virus vector on a tablet? What people actually want is a world without windows; where software works, and malware doesn’t.
I agree with Dish. Apple is about stripping away all the complexity and starting with a basic foundation at a lower price. Give consumers a device that has a smaller display with lower resolution, don’t foolishly offer a 5 MP Front and 2 MP rear camera that will never be used. Steve Jobs was wise in limiting connectivity by not including a MicroSD Expansion Slot for expansion, a card reader, USB Connections, etc in the first generation model. The Xoom overwhelmed the consumer with all of these features in its first release!!! Who uses those connections anyway. I think Apples approach to introducing new features gradually in each release every few months is a much smarter approach. There are already rumors that the Ipad 3 may be released as soon as November.
Satire acknowledged
Motorola, you should seriously consider a partnership with Microsoft.
Which will be a partnership until Microsoft choose to fsck you over and all of your customers.
You won’t be sorry.
Your customers however…
What people really want is Windows on a tablet.
You got some of the right words, but in the wrong order: People who use Windows often want to take tablets – Prozac, Ambien, SSRIs.
The title of the article sounds like a line from the old SNL skit with Phil Hartman – Caveman Lawyer.
What a comic genius he was. Lionel Hutz forever!
It kinda reminded me of those old Tarzan tv shows…
“Me Tarzan! You Jane.”
I don’t know which is more entertaining – Zune Tang® – or those taken in by his shtick.
Stop!
i think the second one 🙂
Don’t tell them!
I just watched the iPad 2 Event and Steve was really sharp. I’d been really worried from those Enquirer rumors, but he looks as well as he was last year.
I know there are a lot of jaded people out there when it comes to computer devices, but I’m a tech-head and I was still impressed at how thin the iPad 2 is. Everything loaded so fast. There is no way that Microsoft is going to get Windows 8 to run on a tablet like the iPad 2. Absolutely no way at all. Pundits and tech-heads keep saying that Apple should be able to have the iPad do more and more, but for the average consumers, I would think this iPad will still blow their socks off. There’s no way any company can come out with a tablet that’s even close to the iPad 2 and cost less than $500 unless it’s completely built of plastic and has some cheap display. The average consumer is going to go bonkers for sure. 40 million iPad 2s should be a piece of cake.
Speaking of plastic and cheap displays… did you notice that the iPad 2 is now thinner than the Kindle?
I think Apple is able to sell iPad starting at $499 because Apple makes so much profit for every iPhone sale. No one else has that advantage, and they will not be able to make an acceptable profit from selling an iPad clone (even if they could somehow make one).
But, there are 16 apps. The Xoom is a winner for sure. 🙂
Ah, Zune Tang is back. Where is Ampar? Really miss Ampar.
I thought Ampar was Zune?
I love MG saying “Oh God” while JK enumerates all of his gripes.
The problem for the competition is that they can’t keep up with Apple. Apple basically had a two-year (secret) head start on iPad, and since iPad is an extension on what iPhone accomplished, Apple really had a four-year head start. On top of that advantage, Apple just works faster and more efficiently because it controls the hardware and software. So Apple is WAY ahead right now and accelerating away from the herd.
The competition struggles to release their “not ready for primetime” product before Apple casually raises the bar again. So many announced tablet products have been (or will be) canceled because Apple made (or will make) those products obsolete and embarrassing, by the time they are ready to be released. What’s the point of finishing work on a future product if it has no future by the time the work is completed? I predict that RIM’s PlayBook will be canceled (because it is lame), and HP’s WebOS tablet will be delayed (because it needs to be improved).
Meanwhile, I’ll bet Apple already has prototypes of iPad 3 operational in the secret underground lab.
Let the rumors commence 😀
That’s right, at least 2 but maybe 4 year head start …..
Brother and friend both have Android phones and I watch both struggle with their phones, just to make a note in a calendar app my buddy had to hit like five buttons ….
Apparently M$ believes in Apple “magic” (magical, revolutionary devices), and is trying to conjure up some of their own.
Didn’t Steve Jobs claim a 5-year head start?
Yes. When he first showed off the iPhone in 2007.
I thought he was over-stating things at the time. Since then he has been proven right. Look at MS, Nokia, RIM, etc. The only one who’s really in the game is Android, and they dropped everything and started copying Apple essentially the day Steve Jobs made that statement (thanks to a sweet position on the Apple board they may have started their copying even earlier).
Actually, Eric Schmidt was using (abusing?) his position for that. Apparently, the prototypes that he showed Steve Jobs shortly after announcing that Google was working on a phone OS (and thus having to excuse himself from future Board meetings related to the iPhone) were of a Blackberry-style form factor. However, he always intended it to be an iPhone-style form factor and these prototypes were intentionally misleading. Heck, they even had to steal their OS from Sun/Oracle in order to get the thing into production quickly. Hmmmm…..kinda sounds like Web M doesn’t it?
Actually, I believe it was in a D8 interview, Steve Jobs admitted that the iPad came before the iPhone. So, I’d add another 2-3 years to your head-start.
OK. If the iPad 3 is revealed to be made of “Transparent Aluminium”, I’m joining the whale-watchers club. 😉
Remember this is a Pro Apple site… nothing Apple does is wrong. It’s always perfect – like when they introduced iOS 4.x and ran it on iPhone 3G (which was EXTREMELY ssslow) and just now the engineers gave up and said we can’t support it because we can’t fix it… so now iOS 4.3 won’t work on iPhone 3G (wonderful!) Fragmentation = Applementation!
Just remember when Jobs and Ivy are gone from Apple… it will then face hard times and be like any other company… the future is near. Jobs health isn’t great. He is even thinner than before (if that was possible) and now with talks that Ivy wants to move to UK… trouble ahead for Cupertino.
If you’re going to troll, at least get people’s names right. Sheesh.
(Hint, hint….it’s Ive)
Marco, I rate you as a half-a-star (out of a maximum of five) troll.
I second that motion. Congrats, Marco, you are now a troll. Go find a bridge and maybe throw in an instructive class on how to troll properly. Have fun kiddo.
Fragmentation already exists for the FIRST GENERATION Android based products. Having said that, it is not entirely Google’s fault. It is that of network carriers and in some cases, the device manufacturers. So, with this in mind, Apple is the best of the bunch and despite the blistering product cycle the industry sets.
There are good points here, although I dont know why we should think about the future of Apple or anyone – its all NOW, baby!
Apple isnt perfect, and they face the same challenges as any co. to keep the products and OS fresh.
I think we need to see customisation of the iOS screens and icons – people like to make a product their own, and that is difficult with the current iOS.
Hopefully developers will make home screen custom apps – or do they already?
I love my Apple, but I want to see some more flexibility of how it looks and some choice for home screen setup, for example.
Seriously, besides me, who still has a 3G? I actually lost it in a bar last night, and Find My iPhone found it for me. DAMN YOU FIND MY IPHONE, DAMN YOU!
The part of the Apple demonstration that impressed me is never mentioned. iMovie and GarageBand. Being able to have sensitive instruments is a breakthrough. Now imagine what musicians will be able to do with it. I have done some quick movie editing on my iPhone and iPad; iMovie looks great. This will make people see it is not just a consumption device.
The gyroscope goes unnoticed and yet it is one of the most important pieces of hardware. Apple knows how to put it to use. The cameras may not be as “good” as the competitors, but Apple make them better with stability. It can take away one of the mane complaints about painting apps, not being able to feather the strokes. The tech heads just can’t see the art school.
Totally agree with your comments.
Check out Les Posen’s review of Xander Soren’s presentation of Garageband:
http://lesposen.wordpress.com/2011/03/07/xandersoren/
Good article, thanks.
Well said – I forgot they just hit a homer with the GarageBand thing.
I will use it for sure.
Jobs hand picks and hand fires his people. There is no reason to think that jobs has not laid out a very compelling multiple year plan for his iconic company. He moved the creative brains to the top, fine tuned them and honed their skills. There is no fear that a loss of upper brass will dramatically alter Apple’s coarse. Do you really think steve would leave Apple behind the way gates left Ms? I find this highly unlikely. I think steve is aware of his limited time and is likely using his remaining years at Apple to ensure it’s future.
As for Jony Ive, I find it hard to believe that his ability to design incredible products would flounder if he were in the UK. Granted it would be bad if he was so far from his think tank, the man could easily ‘phone in’ his job. And it should be noted that Ive doesn’t design EVERYTHING Apple makes, and he too, would likely have the best talent under him.
Apple Ipad is really good and its a Feature of good looking and beneficial for those people who uses this ipad, I would be tell that its a really Glamourous and good using.
http://ezinearticles.com/?Best-Wrinkle-Cream-Review—Tips-to-Select-Best-Wrinkle-Cream&id=5871930.