“If one of your company’s goals for 2011 was to introduce a tablet to complete with the iPad, you can expect to struggle,” Andy Ihnatko reports for The Chicago Sun-Times. “The second most powerful evidence of this happened just a minute ago, as I pulled out my iPad and keyboard here in my San Francisco hotel lobby to write this very same column. ‘Looks like you’re going to have to buy a new one of those,’ said an electrician as he passed by me on the way to his truck. ‘The new one’s coming out on the 11th.'”
“I didn’t tell him that I had attended the Apple iPad 2 press event that morning,” Ihnatko reports. “No, sometime in the previous hour or two, this random stranger had heard about the new version of the iPad … and he remembered the ship date. That’s how successful Apple’s been. Consumers aren’t just aware of the iPad … they’re actually excited about it.”
Ihnatko reports, “And if you are indeed one of those makers of an upcoming competing tablet, Apple used their time at the Yerba Buena Center to deliver a clear message to you: Just go home. From nearly the moment that Steve Jobs took the stage to the end, he seemed to be saying ‘We’d be concerned about competition if anybody were actually prepared to compete with us.’ … You kind of have to hold the iPad 2 to really get the redesign. It’s thinner by a third, plus its edges taper to a thin line of metal. It’s almost inconceivable that this thing you’re holding is a multicore tablet computer. The Xoom tablet is trim, light, and very pretty, but when you place it next to the iPad 2, it looks as though it was designed and built by angry Soviet prison labor…”
Read more in the enjoyable full article – recommended – here.
Soviet prison labor. Naz Drovnia!
Dosvedonya would be more appropriate.
TKO !!!
“The Xoom tablet is trim, light, and very pretty, but when you place it next to the iPad 2, it looks as though it was designed and built by angry Soviet prison labor.”
This had me laughing for good couple of minutes. And this is were apple having retail stores is a huge benefit. There are a lot of products that look good and well made until you put them up next to an Apple product.
“Designed and built by angry Soviet prison labor”. Love that phrase almost as much as “bloodbath” and “I like our strategy, I like it a lot”. The fact that a random person already knew what and when just puts iPad over the top. Does that same electrician know when the Xoom will be released? Hell no. The other day I actually went to Best Buy to scope out the “competition”. Was STUNNED how cheap they looked. They could have been stamped Fisher Price or Hasbro for all that mattered, but that would be insulting Fisher Price and Hasbro. DOA Xoom.
Hey G Ray! I went to Best Buy last week to compare the Xoom to the iPad. The sales guy said they were flying off the shelf and they only had 5 left. I went back last night and there were still 2 left. It was a regular stampede….
Hey G Ray! I went to Best Buy last Saturday and the sales guy told me the Xoom was flying off the shelf. There were 5 Xooms in stock. I went back last night and there were still 2 boxes. It was a regular stampede….
Go back to the store again this week and you see 5, 2 new and 3 opened box. It’s a “return” stampede.
Darn Apple …. Cause of the new software, i.e. GarageBand and iMovie, I’ve gotta buy kids and grandkids – one in each family a new iPad 2 and plus the two wife and I are giving up – one to each family, we will buy four total new iPads ….
Three will be minimum 16G wireless and fourth will be minimum 16G 3G – probably go Version on 3G as the AT&T 3G seems slow at times compared to wireless …. but we will wait for a few reviews before getting 3G guy …..
I’m up for adoption… lol
Me too 😀
Top end wifi and 3G model for me!
i have always loved andy’s writing, back from the macweek and macworld days. a great read anytime.
“The Xoom tablet is trim, light, and very pretty, but when you place it next to the iPad 2, it looks as though it was designed and built by angry Soviet prison labor…”
The funniest thing I’ve heard in a long while!
I interpret that as he likes female Soviet prisoners.
The comments on Andy’s article from the BB and Android lovers are really really funny.
MDN, that headline is going to look pretty ridiculous in about a year after the next generation of Windows Tablets are announced at CES 2012. Tablets that run Office and take advantage of Zune points. Buh-bye MAC. I can see it now…
Microsoft Windows Tablet further dims future for MAC
ZT, How about a review of the Microsoft Courier or us?
ZT, How about a review of the Microsoft Courier for us?