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.