MacDailyNews Take: Because, as always, Apple leads and the followers follow, often at a great distance.
Crothers continues, “And Intel’s view of the tablet is still relatively indifferent. In a CNET interview, Executive Vice President David Perlmutter called the tablet “a wonderful companion device” then added, ‘but we’re not talking specifically (about tablets) because we want to be talking when something is shipping.’ In other words, there’s nothing really to speak of yet.”
Crothers reports, “And Intel Chief Executive Paul Otellini has downplayed tablets consistently. Speaking at the company’s investor meeting in May, Otellini said: ‘On the scale of the PC industry, they’re relatively insignificant.’ I don’t think Apple would agree with that assessment.”
MacDailyNews Take: Fear. Intel’s processors cannot compete with Apple’s A4. How are those netbook and other Windows PC sales going, Paulie? ‘Tis a good thing you got into the Mac when you did.
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This time, to the innovator goes the spoils. As it should be.
@ MacTony
“Backward Compatibility” says a lot, even though Apple showed everyone an elegant and effective way to deal with the problem. But then, Apple has dictatorial leadership, and MS, as a developer friend of mine so succinctly put it, is ‘a collection of warring fiefdoms’. If you’re going to upend the whole system, you’re going to break everyone’s compatibility, and without strong leadership it just won’t happen. Maybe Allchin could have done it in his time, but no one executive has the power to take on a project like that now.
This truly is a funny situation to observe, speaking strictly as a non-participant in the computer industry. First with the iPhone, and now with the iPad, Apple is proving what superb products can be created by a single company melding a first-class OS to well-designed hardware. No other company can do this, because the hardware manufacturers don’t have a first-class OS, and the software manufacturers don’t have well-designed hardware. Thus, each participant must merge its own product with that belonging to another entity, with often predictably mediocre results.
I almost feel sorry for these multi-billion dollar computer companies, rich in resources and talent, yet caught flat-footed yet again trying to ramp up their tablets to match the functionality of the iPad. When they match iPad version 1.0 (a dubious proposition to begin with) APple will have long since moved on with version 2.0. THey will be perpetually looking at APple’s dust cloud.
The stars have aligned for Jobs and Co., thanks to some very patient planning and carefully thought-out moves.
Amazing the difference now in value from the first $499 5Gb iPod to now the most inexpensive $499 WiFi iPad!
Ditto on the thought that Microsoft should gave developed a new OS from the ground up after XP. I’ve said that for years, and now, time has ran out and MS cannot use such a move to their advantage like Apple has. So now they are severely behind because I think of their fear that a new OS requiring new apps would put them on a equal footing with Apple with PC buyers. But they can’t stay with more Windows craptastic permutations forever!
The main problem for the competition is that Android (in its current form) is a PDA-class OS that can’t be scaled up effectively to a tablet-sized device, and Windows 7 (in any form) is too bloated to be scaled down to run efficiently on a tablet-sized device. So most of Apple’s competition have no choices, except to try competing with ugly stylus-wielding “convertible” monster tablets or mini tablets that are just smart phones with oversized screens, and keep relying on Microsoft and Google. Only HP and RIM have control of their own success, but their offerings are unlikely to be available any time soon.
So Apple stands alone with iPad, a product that they worked on for many years (even longer than iPhone), that leverages the technical foundation of Mac OS X and the commercial success of iPhone and iPod. By the time there is reasonably competent competition, Apple’s dominance in tablets will be like iPod’s dominance in media players.
That would-be iPad rivals are missing in action should surprise no one considering that they haven’t managed to catch up to the iPhone yet! The CEO’s of all these companies should resign and get jobs at something they’re qualified for, like selling shoes!
@alansky:
Not so fast, I like my shoes to fit!.
Did Mr Jobs not reveal in an interview once that the iPhone was a by product of their efforts to create the iPad? They were working on the iPad and the screen was cost prohibitive so they said hey what if we slap a phone chip in and then make it into a phone. It was like a double rainbow moment. Wow we can make millions of these hand held ipads and then eventually screen prices will be reasonably priced, based on the success of the iphone. By the time we get to iPad 5 which they probably are working on already, there will be competition. I really don’t see that happening for quite some time though.
What about the Samsung Galaxy S Tablet? 7 inch screen, 1 ghz Cortex A8 processor, and it’s launching soon on all major cell phone carriers in the USA. Has a 3 megapixel rear-facing camera, and a front facing camera for video calls.
My hope is that the imminent competition from Android tablet devices will spur Apple to update the iPad sooner than this April. I want a better display, at least 512 mb RAM, and front and rear cameras at least as good as iPhone 4, preferably with an LED flash.