“Let’s face it,” Brent Schlender commands for BNET. “There are enough valid quibbles about the iPad that it seems as if the product might have been rushed out the door, much like the company’s last big dud, AppleTV.”
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.
I’ll say one thing for Bill Gates – whatever dirty dealings he used to gain his wealth, he has used at least some of it for good purposes, in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is doing a lot to alleviate debilitating diseases in the third world. So, even though I want an iPad ASAP, and I wish Microsoft only the worst, IMHO the ad hominem anti-Bill-Gates triumphalism is just a wee bit over the top.
“I’m not afraid”
yoda: “you will be…you will be…
I believe the caption for that picture is “I’ll have another martooni, pleash.”
@JayCee,
Much agreed. MDN’s “buying his way into heaven” takes are unfair. Gates might be lame when he talks up Microsoft (or belittles those kicking their butts) but his foundation has made considerable progress working with other organizations to help bridge the poverty gap…He might be trying to just increase M$’s market, but one day everyone will be able to aspire to be a Mac owner. Thanks, Bill!
After reading Gate’s comments, we now have firm confirmation of the coming iPad’s phenomenal success! Thanks Bill!! Go back to making commercials with Seinfeld. They were as good as anything that came out of MS R&D;…
There’s nothing about the iPad that makes me wish Microsoft HAD done it. So, Bill, we’re even.
This rich guy truly lives in a cave. Too bad he retired from Microsoft. He and Ballmer were quite the one-two (ahem) punch. Miss you Bill.
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Conniving weasel. Didn’t I call him that here recently?
@MDN “Your act is tired, Bill. And it’s evidently stuck in an infinite loop.” Need to add at the end of…
‘stuck in an infinite loop, “1 Infinite Loop”!’
not that it needs saying, but…
Steve Jobs: ‘There’s nothing on *Windows 7 tablets* I look at and say, ‘Oh, I wish Apple had done it’’
*if you prefer, substitute <anything from Microsoft>
take that, Bill!
Steve said it years ago: Microsoft have no taste!
=:~)
“I’m not afraid”
You will be…You will be…
Lord, that creature that wrote “dosent” in his tirade against Steve Jobs!
What a wanker. (This is an English word meaning “Tosser” – a self abuser.)
For me, the Seal of Disapproval from Mr Windows is just the cherry on top of the cake. Another reason to buy a Pad just as soon as it gets into the Apple shop in Regents Street.
Each purchase of an iPad is another nail in the well-deserved coffin of the Windows Empire. Die you evil bitches!
On the bright side, Billy could probably get a job as an “analyst”.
Good, Mr. Gates. Now, go save the children. Please.
The Force is with us all today.
Does mummy know you write such naughty words?
I love my appletv
This guys is the biggest evil basterd after Rockfeller…. ther MOs are the same…
What really makes me sick is when he claims to be “interested” in getting all the poor children of the world educated .. soo noble suddenly for many reasons…
1] to rewrite his pathetic legacy
2] to make sure there are more future windows users.
unfortunately you MS idiots cant even copy well…. AKA Windows Vista… Ha ha ha.
Now, now, be gentle, I like weasels.
“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”
Is he still shilling “voice” as a means to control the OS? It’s got to be over a decade since he started saying that.
And, when will they admit that their approach is old? I mean, who is going to use a “pen”? Do the use a “pen” on their BAT? And, a netbook has a “real keyboard”? It sure isn’t full-size, unless it’s a 12″ netbook. And, what netbook is controlled by voice and pen? Has he gone senile?
Well said MDN:-) I agree!!
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I’m tired of all the BS and non factual articles out there.
Apple has proven itself time and again. They have pick themselves up and I have supported them in many ways.
The future is Apple
@Yoda
.. and Yoda’s words wise are, powerful the Force in he is.
Hah…nothing Gates wish MS had except the OS!
In contrast, Steve Jobs looks at all the Win tablets and says, “I’m sure glad we DIDN’T do that!”