“CES hasn’t even started, but after sitting through various pre-show press conferences and meetings, one thing is clear: Apple is casting a very long shadow on this show,” Tim Bajarin writes for Tech.pinions. “And many of the products I have seen have been various implementations of something Apple has already brought to market.”
“This is especially true in two categories,” Bajarin writes. “First is the iPad. Pretty much every tablet vendor here hopes they can develop a tablet that is at least competitive with Apple… And when talking to all of these “clone” vendors, they don’t even pretend they are doing something new or unique. Rather, many point out that they hope to tag along on Apple’s success and tap into new users Apple may not get because of their higher prices. But make no mistake; all of these are iPad wannabes.”
Bajarin writes, “The second product they are all chasing is Apple’s MacBook Air. If you look at Intel’s Ultrabook program, you can see that this is a blatant attempt by the Windows crowd to ride Apple’s successful coattails in design and give their audience something that Apple has had on the market for their customers for five years… When talking to these vendors who are hopefully bullish about any of their offerings in either of these categories, I sense something else. While they know what Apple already has, the fact that they don’t know what Apple will have in the future really weighs heavily on them. Or in other words, they keep waiting for another shoe to drop.”
Read more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Years behind Apple. Why anybody would waste their money on Apple wannabe crap is beyond us.
And the other shoe turns out to be another seven-league boot…
Who has a “seven-league boot”? Paul Bunyan?
Apple, Kennie. They own a pair.
Fun with metaphors! Apple’s competitors look over their shoulders as they chase a company two years ahead of them.
(i)One of Apple’s core strategies is to keep ahead of the competition by at least two years. And their competitors have finally realized this truth.
That is why no matter how happy they are about their new offerings at CES this year, they are looking over their shoulders … … play(ing) catch up.(/i)
They only metric by which they’re ahead is in terms of unit sales (not even that for shipments in most cases) and that’s only if you group them all together.
A bit catty, comin’ from a classy lady
Lenovo is showing a “smart TV” at CES to get a “jump on Apple.”
The people that generally settle for Apple wannabe be products are often ones that cannot afford the initial ‘higher’ price of Apple products (not taking into account TCO). This should be a red flag (as I’m sure it is to most) to: developers that want to sell apps, telecoms that want the lucrative monthly data plan subscribers, and to accessory makers that want to move products before they become obsolete and discounted at a loss.
The More Informed and Affluent Buyers tend to buy Apple Products when given the choice/ opportunity. Just look at any college campus.
True, but there is a substantial portion of the PC and techie crowd that choose more because of political reasons, if you will.
Or they’ll couch it in political terms, but they’re really just not going to go into the Apple camp. I was that way for a long time, until I got overwhelmed with the unrelenting, end-to-end crap that is the PC universe. I can relate to these people a bit by recalling where I was 7, 10, and 15 years ago.
Almost every day I think to myself, “I wish Steve could see this.” Not that it would change his thinking or actions, but I just want him to keep enjoying the success of the company he built, and then rebuilt.
“Why anybody would waste their money on Apple wannabe crap is beyond us.”
Really? Look at the owners: their taste is in their mouth!
The theme of CES 20xx: Trying to catch up with Apple
Ranks right up there with “This will be the year of Linux on the desktop!”