“What have Microsoft, Intel, HP, and others been offering in the interim years when they had every opportunity to come out with a blockbuster tablet? Unattractive, bulky, half-baked convertible laptops that, let’s put it this way, have not taken the PC market by storm,” Crothers reports.
“So, here’s the $64,000 question, uh, make that the $64 billion question,” Crothers writes. “Why can’t the combined R&D smarts, market clout, and overall technological resources of Microsoft-Intel-HP-Dell come up with a thin, sexy compelling tablet and/or media pad that will turn heads and convince the unbelievers (the average why-would-I-need-something-like-that consumer) that a tablet is a must-have product?”
Crothers writes, “Answer: Because Apple will.”
“Here’s a not unlikely scenario. Apple brings out the tablet/media pad, wows U.S. (and world?) consumers, sells a ton of units, Microsoft-Intel-HP-Dell follow suit with slavishly copied devices that don’t sell very well comparatively,” Crothers reports. “That’s how the market for successful newfangled devices works these days. Apple creates the market and everyone else follows in a panic.”
Read more in the full article here.
Wow, calling Apple the victor in a market that barely exists with a product that hasn’t been officially acknowledges, much less released is a bit premature isn’t it?
The curse of Apple is that they have to be right every time. The rest only have to be right once.
Wow. TONS of assumptions for a product that Apple has not even announced it will make.
That said, the writer gets it. Apple is THE innovator. The rest of the industry simply copies.
This article is pure rubbish. Another market MAC will enter in another failed attempt to duplicate the success and innovations from market leading Microsoft and its partners. They’ve been there, done that with wonderful tablet computers, MAC.
This is what I know is going to happen: MAC will fall on their face with their toy, doesn’t connect to Exchange, or run Office apps tablet.
Your potential. Our passion.™
@me
not at all.
It’s called forward thinking. It isn’t a great leap when you live in the historical context that is Apple.
For the last couple of years, Apple has been living between the Touch and the Mac Book and after updating their laptop line-up and all but ignoring the Touch, it’s easy to see what’s taking shape.
The 80/20 rule is so appropriate.
Just look at Kindle, eBook and the others. They even look like junk — and not very readable either.
Amos said:>Just look at Kindle, eBook and the others. They even look like junk — and not very readable either.
I dunno….the new Kindle is pretty slick. And that “digital paper” screen consumes zero energy between page turns.
Move over, Lord Obama, Jobs is now The One!
Apple has so psyched out the competition, it’s almost tragic to watch.
It’s the OS, stupid!
It’s only in part about the device…
it’s in part about the OS that runs on it…ease of use, intuitive controls but more about the ecosystem around it.
This is why Apple is setting up deals with Disney, CBS, New York Times, Sports Illustrated and others. The Kindle the HP Nook, and other e-readers are just that..e-readers…not information appliances (except as defined by their narrow scope).
The data center Apple is building is an essential component of this strategic vision since they understand that information consumption can be seen as a application…yeah..you read that right. New features, means of control, display and interaction can be introduced as the creators choose. Very quickly.
If you look at the Sports Illustrated tablet demo on YouTube you will see a bit of what is coming. I’d pay $600 for that kind of capability…
I have a Mac Pro (less than a year old) and a MacBook Pro (17″) and frankly it’s bulky to carry around and tied to a web browser style information structure that is feeling old and creaky. The system can’t support the information being fed into it…I mean monetarily. The tablet will enable information companies (formerly called magazines and newspapers) to charge for the high quality information they produce.
The next wave is almost here.
Answer:… WINDOWS
The others are all stuck with using Microsoft’s vision (?) of an operation system and UI. Yuck!
I think the real reason why Microsoft-Intel-HP-Dell haven’t come up with a thin, sexy compelling tablet and/or media pad that will turn heads and convince the unbelievers is because, with the possible exception of Intel, they don’t HAVE R&D;smarts.
They have a raging case of the R&D;stupids which leaves a big void for somebody with a clue to walk in and fill. Like Apple.
Yeah, the answer is the UI. Apple won that battle years ago- the iPhone is a cathedral erected in the center of the conquered city. Apple controls the ports, the roads, and the infrastructure of this city now.
“Why can’t the combined R&D;smarts, market clout, and overall technological resources of Microsoft-Intel-HP-Dell come up with a thin, sexy compelling tablet and/or media pad that will turn heads and convince the unbelievers (the average why-would-I-need-something-like-that consumer) that a tablet is a must-have product?”
Because Microsoft don’t really understand hardware, although I understand they have put their label on some interesting mouse products if your imagination stopped at the end of the last of the century.
Because Intel are hamstrung. Windows CE or Windows Mobile is rubbish. And a fully capable version of Windows (a phrase that should be written more as a warning than an advert) requires too much computing horsepower to run on a truly power-efficient modern SoC processor.
Because Dell, HP, Toshiba and Lenovo are in reality assemblers and distribution partners of both Microsoft and Intel/AMD. They don’t do R&D;, they just buy system chipsets or boards from Intel/AMD and then fabricate them into marketable (?) products using aesthetics and ergonomics which have to be the result of mixing psychotropic drugs with quantities of alcohol that would kill Keith Richards.
Just my opinion.
Does anyone know how the M$ Stores are doing?
I didn’t know Obama was in the tablet business, and am amazed Bang Zune hasn’t looked in the mirror yet.
A lot of pressure on Apple. It’s true- they’re not allowed to fail, now- while in the case of everyone else- all they have to do is be somewhat decent and they’re branded “a killer.”
My comments to a Cnet poster:
“”The IPAQ is a great example, with a bit more work and enough confidence to take a loss on price for a few years, they would have had something”
enough confidence to take a loss on price for a few years? That is the problem. Let me ask you this: Can you operate your car without gas? No.
Profit is the gas that runs the car. Not just in business, but in our personal finances. The marketing “college boys” in the last 50 years have led us down that garden path.
Government buys into it. Umpteen trillion dollars in debt added in the last 10 months, added to the amount we already had.
Now we are saying we are going to run our cars, not on gas, but on unicorn dust.
It is so strange. Apple, a company whose owners are identified with left politics, are one of the few companies actually turning a profit, which seems to be an evidence of crime to the current administration. Who would have thunk it?
If more companies DON’T find a way to make a profit, there will be NO taxes, NONE of us will have a job, and we will not have to be worrying about having a discussion like this.
Go Apple, make products that people like and are willing to pay for, and let the rest go with that “college boy” economic law: We lose money on every one we sell, but we make up for it in volume.
Good God, there are people who actually believe that and act upon it. Heaven forbid that I should actually be allowed to make a judgement call to spend $100 more for my MacBook, than a “comparable” Windows laptop. Which wasn’t even close to comparable except in “specs” , not even close in actual usage and what I can do with it easily, all day. I have owned it for 3 years, will have to buy a battery soon, other than that; up times as long as 55 days.
I walk into my school, flip the lid open and automatically connect to the school system grading entry program, enter 20 students grades in the same time that my friends XP laptop boots up and connects to the same program.(not automatically either, usually 15 to 20 key entries and mouse clicks later)
Our school system, 6,000 computers, was going to go all Windows, then they found out that they were going to have to replace ALL of their existing computers in order to move past XP.
Uhh…………………….some people are VERY afraid that they will lose their IT manager jobs over this. They told administration that Windows would be cheaper. Meanwhile the 1000 or so 4 year old Mac Minis just keep chugging away with their $29 Leopard upgrades.
Of course, there can be individual problems with the Macs and if they need individual repairs they are a bit more expensive to repair, but they can go back into service for 3-4 more years, and …….they will have to. By budget policy, if there are more than 20 XP machines in a lab, then if a machine has more than $50 of repairs, they will just shut it down, remove it and not replace it. So we are losing computers every day. They just sort of disappear.
Say what you want. A company that makes a profit can survive long enough to make new products.
Funny how that works.
Please name it iPad or something! Anything but iSlate!!!
@tomL
Dell, HP, Toshiba, etc aren’t forced to use Windows. It is not like there is some law.
Sure, they can’t use OS X, but that doesn’t prevent them getting off their own asses and building their own operating systems. Apple has done it a few times now, so it is obviously possible.
In my opinion iPad sounds like something women wear once a month, bad name, like nova.
There’ll be two sizes, iPad and MaxiPad
@connor macbook
MaxiPad ?
Sounds like a tampon
Kneecapping!
That new technical expression MDN introduced me to last week and I’ve been chuckling about ever since. It is in effect what Apple did to the music industry, mobile phone handset and carriers and yes, even did to Michael Dell and his stupid remark about handing the investment back to Apple’s shareholders.
It comes from the MDN headline: Apple getting ready to kneecap the cable industry?
MaxiPad – once you’ve bought one – you will be able to do all sorts of things you previously couldn’t.
When has the rest of the industry ever been “right”? When have they not cranked out the same old crap year after year, decade after decade? The word “innovation” isn’t even in their vocabulary! It took Amazon—an online retailer, not an electronics company at all—to come up with the Kindle.
@Media XYZ
Easier said than done, first of all these companies are no longer focused on just PC’s. HP is still in the instrumentation business and is heavily vested in printers as is Dell with printers TV’s and other things. These companies are not interested in developing an OS when most of the hardware and software design are already done for them. Intel does most of the board lay out design for the industry PC’s and I suppose at a cost so cheap that I suppose it make it very unattractive for a for even Toshiba to resist.
If you look at HP and DELL’s income statement R&D;expenditures have gone down as a function of cost cutting where as Apple’s R&D;budget has continually risen, even in it’s bad times. DELL has sold Linux on it’s enterprise server line for years now, how has that worked out for it? These companies sell primarily to businesses with big IT budget and the consumer market is just the low end parts laying around the factory with a layer of marketing software, ready to explode after the initial 30 day warranty.
As long as these companies are tuned to the corporate customer base and not the consumer base they will always chunk out cheap consumer PC’s and laptops that are just enough to keep you compatible with with work. M$ provided some tough licensing restrictions in the past that they got they got their hands slapped for. IT managers want to justify their jobs and Consumers want reliable ease of use. These don’t have to be incompatible goals but it requires less short term and short sighted thinking from your customers.
Handsome Smitty has a point; it’s all about the operating system.
The iPhone/iPod touch proved that someone could make a non-clunky touchscreen OS. Heck, I’m posting this from my iPhone now (through the MDN App). Sure, you’re not going to edit
movies or touchup photos on a tablet PC, but that’s not what it’s designed for; think of it as an iPod touch on steroids. Key is going to be HD storage, and ability to backup when away from home.