“Apple’s iPad was the first post-PC device that people took seriously. Microsoft, Nokia and countless manufacturers have tried to find the right balance between a tablet and a computer for the last 10 years, but the iPad was the first device to get it right and now Apple owns the space,” Jonathan S. Geller reports for BGR.
“The iPad 2 takes Apple’s seemingly insurmountable lead and pushes it even further. The combination of beautiful and powerful hardware with gorgeous and thoughtful software that responds to your touch almost before you act delivers the best tablet experience on the planet,” Geller reports. “There are many competitors and there will be many more, yet in my mind, the iPad 2 is the slate device that 95% of the world wants and will buy. Sure, some people might prefer an Android 3.0 tablet so they can tweak it all they want, use it to view Flash content online, and have some more flexibility in terms of what they can install on their devices. I believe that those people, however, are very few and far between.”
“The iPad 2 isn’t a radical change from the original iPad. It’s not. But the original iPad is still the only game in town — even being a year old — and the improvements and advancements in the iPad 2 only emphasize how far along Apple is while its competitors keep playing in the sandbox with their shovels and pails,” Geller reports. “Apple hasn’t just basically created the entire mobile tablet category, and Apple hasn’t just been leading the entire post-PC category. Apple is winning, and it’s winning by a long shot as far as the average consumer is concerned.”
Much more in the full review here.
MacDailyNews Take: Winning!
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Apple is really winning, not like this:
Hilarious, Sheen is coming to Canada. No clue how he is allow to cross the border with his checker past. Tough choice line for the iPad 2 or line for Charlie Sheen tickets?
Ten years in the making, and it shows. ‘Flummoxed’ doesn’t begin to describe how the others feel, but it sure begins with an F.
Might be a good timento remind them that Apple has development of iPad 3 underway on all fronts with more trailblazing features than they can even begin to think of.
Frustrated? Foolish? Feeble? Foiled? Finished? Failed? Hmm… what word could it be that describes how the others feel? I think I’ll call my mom and ask her. 😉
Duh… Winning!
Well duh.
“while its competitors keep playing in the sandbox with their shovels and pails”
Classic. Not to mention the sandbox the competition is playing is full of cat turd because that’s what they’re putting on the market. As for RIM, they’re not even playing with a shovel and pail. They’re playing make believe and their two-headed CEO is playing footsies.
That’s the line that got me too. A visual of Balmer, Dell, the RIM and Google guys etc etc …. all wearing soiled and dripping napkins, crying and pushing each other around in the sand box. Priceless.
“…the sandbox the competition is playing is full of cat turd..
LOL!!
“The combination of beautiful and powerful hardware with gorgeous and thoughtful software that responds to your touch almost before you act…”
That’s a great description of GarageBand on the iPad. Incredible, almost unbelievable software.
Now, all I need to jam is my iPad, iRig, earphones and my guitar.
Heaven.
Good opinions.
Wait until Apple REALLY changes TV.
It is already hinted and started a bit.
I wish they would stop saying Xoom, or anything else that has Android 3.0 has Flash, it does not.
There was a lot of whining about iOS tide to iTunes on their comments I do not see that as a problem. Android people have told me that they can’t get their apps, contacts, songs or whatever else they have stored on their phone if it is lost, stolen, or destroyed. This is not a problem for me. I like having my apps songs, contacts, calendars etc. being the same and several devices.
Flash: Even when it is universal for Android, what exactly is there to brag about? The stuttering quality? The battery drain? The security holes?
iOS bragging rights: NO FLASH ALLOWED.
Apple’s lead is only so gigantic because the competition absolutely sucks and is years behind.
Everybody in the industry had to tried to create a tablet in the last 10 or 15 years – and failed miserably.
Netbooks sort-of worked, so companies shifted all their resources into that.
Apple even began siphoning-off all the profit (that anybody could actually hope to make) in that market, too, with the introduction of the latest MacBookAir.
I wouldn’t be surprised if by 2012, more of the small manufacturers sold their PC-business completely to their Asian OEM/ODM partners a la Lenovo.
You can say about IBM what you want – but at least they saw the writing on the wall.
Apple broke the dysfunctional tablet mould and created the real market. The wannabes copy and paste into their own hardware. That is NOT competition. It is the SOS we’ve seen from Microsoft for decades, with the exception that Google actually know how to write code and be creative. You have to give them that.
I hope that with time Google Android will distinguish itself from being a wannabe. But we are clearly going to have to wait. Google also has a lower incentive than Apple due to Android being Open Source versus directly profitable. That slows it’s progress.
What we really need is a direct head to head competitor with iOS. But where is that going to come from? In our business as biznizz age where marketing runs the show, serious creativity is hard to find.
@Currie:
“…, with the exception that Google actually knows how to steal code and copy the creatives. You have to give them squat .”
There- fixed it…
“What we really need is a direct head to headbcompetitor with iOS.”
Apple has already proven that it is its own competition. We have the best competition for iOS 4.3 in development as we speak: it’s either iOS 4.4 or iOS 5.
With little to no real competition from without, Apple has continued to prove itself capable of incredible innovation and progress. Another company, should it have taken the lead, might get complacent and rest on its laurels, but Apple has shown that not to be their style.
I have always been amazed at the consistent level of suckage that Micro$loth has been able to achieve with their tablets for the last 10 years.
WIll you f***ing quit with this “winning” shite?
I’m sorry. I just don’t get it.
Here’s the dirty little secret that I haven’t seen addressed anywhere:
The iPad REQUIRES ANOTHER COMPUTER TO WORK.
RTFM people:
IPad 2 User Guide-Section 2, Getting Started, page 23: “Connect iPad to your computer…”
IPad 2 User Guide-Section 2, Getting Started/Setting Up iPad, page 24: “Before you can use iPad, you must use iTunes to set it up…”
Many of my Mac clients have asked me about the iPad. When I explain to them that it must be connected to a computer to work, they ask me why they should buy an iPad when the computer it connects to can do anything an Ipad can do. I don’t really have a good answer to this question. Do any of you?
JB
Don’t Confuse “Work” with “Set Up”. You need iTunes to set it up and sync it once in a while. Some view this as a weakness, and others as a strength. At any rate, If you are telling your “clients” that the iPad needs a constant computer connection, then you are either intentionally misleading them (probably because the iPad would most likely cause them to be less dependent on you, hurting your bottom line) Or, as you said yourself, you just “don’t get it”. Which leads me to question your technical savvy…..
I’ve re-read my post several times and still don’t see any reference to a “constant connection.” And for most non-technical folks the distinction between “work” and “set up” or between “once” or “once in a while” is irrelevant. The fact remains that another computer is required and this requirement is seldom mentioned in any of the press coverage. Now there’s something else I don’t get. How did I get cast as the villan here? Why are my ethics and “technical savvy” being questioned for merely pointing out this one simple truth?
You do know that apple WILL setup the ipad for you when you buy it. All it needs is to be connected to ANY computer running iTunes.
After that, NO connection to a computer is ever needed beyond an update. ALL it needs to do is to verify the software with apple and register the iPad. Which can be done with any iTunes account.
You can walk into an apple store, buy the iPad and walk out all setup.