“Every half-baked tablet that has rolled off a manufacturer’s conveyor belt in the last year and a half has been tarred with the ‘could this be the iPad killer?’ brush, as lazy commentators ponder whether this or that product is the device that will finally put an end to Apple’s dominance,” Steve Ranger writes for Silicon.com.
“It hasn’t happened yet,” Ranger writes. “And that’s because it isn’t going to.”
Advertisement: Limited Time: Students, Parents and Faculty save up to $200 on a new Mac.
Ranger writes, “Consumers aren’t stupid, and it’s arrogant, lazy and wasteful of tech companies to continue to build products that nobody wants. But that doesn’t mean the iPad will be the only tablet in town.”
Read more in the full article here.
I am not waiting.. I have my iPad Killer already…
The iPad 2
🙂
I’m going to get the iPad 2-killer – the iPad 3 – when my iPad becomes a hand-me-down to my parents or my sister.
Me too. #1, 2 and can’t wait for 3.
Why is this MDN page refreshing itself every few minutes? Is it just me?
I’m trying to write a comment, and the refresh erases what I wrote before I can post it… 🙁
I have not experienced that problem, ken1w…
Are you using Safari 5.1? I’ve been having problems with refreshes ever since I upgraded.
I don’t like the change in tab behavior either.
Sorry Apple, but Safari 5.1 SUCKS compared to 5.0.
This guy starts out fine – he states that consumers aren’t stupid, that they won’t buy a tablet that is missing important features like web browsing, etc.
But then he falls off the believability cliff when he gets to his forced conclusion – that consumers won’t notice that a Kindle is basically an ereader with some basic other features.
Sorry dude, but consumers not only notice, they are acutely aware of the differences. That’s why people who carry and like Kindles aren’t worried about checking email, web browsing, etc., because they bought their Kindle just to read books.
People buy iPads to do lots of things, even to replace their laptops. They don’t confuse the two, no matter how much a journalist wants to profess they do.
I agree with you. I am tired of companies, writers, and politicians thinking they are the only smart people on the planet and rest of us only have a couple of brain cells in our head.
But that is the foundation of all reporting (and leadership), that smug sense the reporter knows better than the reader when in reality often gets basic facts wrong (how many more time do I have to hear Microsoft “saved” Apple by investing $150 million dollars eons ago – not true).
When the readers know more than the writers (common these days) it’s eyes-go-glassy and moving on time. What ever happened to fact checking writers?
I was actually told the same old MS investment story by actual MS employees… More than one insisted to me that MS still had their investment in Apple, and this was 2 years ago, LONG after MS sold their stake. The myth is a live and well in Mordor.
I agree with one of his points, there won’t be one!
Really is this a bad thing? Nope.
You don’t need an ipad killer to make a good tablet, you just need something better than the crap that has been released to date and then you’ll move more than 10 units and some smart company out there will make a good living selling tablets that co-exist with the ipad.
The game will hot up once Windows 8 is released.
“I’ll believe it . . . when I believe it.” — Yogi Berra
The only things Windows 8 might “kill” are laptop and desktop PCs (that are not Macs).
If Microsoft offered actual competitive products worth owning and using, I’d cheer. But they don’t. I expect a lot of user backlash regarding Windows 8 and a lot more spending by MS to prop up its Windows products, both PC and phone. Judging from Windows Phone 8, (which may or may not be fair criteria), I don’t see much to recommend Windows 8.
Windows7 is very good (best MS has done) and WP7 is an excellent mobile OS.
But I’m not feeling that Win8 on a tablet will make a dent. My notebook is a power house for data entry. A full blown 12~15GB of space-sucking OS on an ARM powered tablet is over-kill, it means less battery life, less performance… so what if it’ll run MS-Office 2012. A tablet is NOT a notebook. And we already have a few Windows7 tablets on the market, guess what?
They are NOT selling by the boatloads. They typically cost more, they use a hard drive, rather than flash memory and the battery life sucks. Windows8 *IS* not going to be a tiny version of Win7.
Now, if MS is smart, they’ll make a WinTab8 OS that is basically WinPhone8 scaled to work with 7~10″ screens in a 4×3 screen (but we can bet 90% it will be 16×9 ugh).
I can see that even the Apple Ipod connector has advantages over USB. When it comes to DOCKs and cables, the standard USB connector (which is NOT bad) – doesn’t work well for consumer devices. Plugging in my iPad into its charger cable is 3x easier than the USB on my Samsung.
Apple requires competition. We the customers have consistently benefited from Apple having competition. Eventually actual competition with the iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch will arrive. But right now technology is stuck in a deep rut with Apple YEARS ahead of anyone within a biznizz culture that demands exploitation of the customer while crushing employee innovation, originality and customer respect.
IOW: There’s more to our current economic depression than just financial FAILure. It is also the FAILure of our currently corrupted culture of free enterprise. It has been gutted. Very few companies in the world remain true to the free enterprise spirit and capability. One of them is Apple. It is no surprise that Apple succeeds while the quislings of bad biznizz consistently FAIL.
It’s going to take a long time to weed out the crap biznizziz and engender the growth and success of new businesses that treat everyone concerned with respect and encouragement. Until then, Apple rulz.
Let’s hope Apple indeed remains the same with Steve Jobs out of the CEO chair. We don’t need another behemoth hegemony of self-destructive fools.
Apple didn’t need ANY competition to decide to develop the Apple I, Apple II, Mac, iPod, iTunes, iTunes (Music) Store, iPhone, App Store, or iPad.
In other words, Apple’s BEST work gets done regardless of “competition.” The rest of the work (that is somewhat affected by the ability of the competition to copy) is just maintenance.
You are a fool
Thanks for taking the time to read my post, and being totally incapable of coming up with an intelligent response… 🙂
(my point is made)
The only Apple product I own is an iPad, because we needed a tablet like device for business and there was NOTHING else to choose from and the iPad2 was out of stock. Even compared to the Androids available, the iPad has worked great. I give credit where credit is do.
BUT, Apple *IS* in competition with Windows PCs (Macs are 99.9% PC. My ThinkPad came from the same factory as Powerbooks and i-Products) and any other company making similar devices. I’m not impressed with Apple’s lawsuit against Samsung and others… sorry, all phones have a screen and have the same shape in general. Nobody – NOBODY mistakes any iPhone for any Android. That said, WP7 interface is quite nice and original compared to Android.
Apple = never competed against anything since it was always a prototype.
Apple II = Perfect time to market, excellent marketing. Its CPUs were made by Commodore owned CMOS 6502s. In general, the C=64 was ¼ the price with far better graphics and sound and out-sold the Apple II.
Mac = Brought GUI to the masses. It grew into great products (there are some bad ones). But Apple didn’t invent the GUI. Other such computers were on the market years before the Mac, but they were $20,000+ and huge.
The Amiga came out a year or so later in 1985 (it was in development for a few years). It did things that Macs couldn’t do back then… until the 90s. Such as multi-tasking. It included color and stereo sound… all for $1200 or so. Its GUI was ugly blue and orange, but user changeable.
Both Mac and PC demanded and needed those multi-media features of the Amiga and it did take a while. The Mac board kicked out Steve Jobs…. And he made NeXT, a more advanced system that worked great. Coming back to Apple saved Apple’s life. He made a lot of people angry, but his vision for the company has usually been correct – no matter the attacks on him (including from myself) – Job’s earned the respect. He was able to make Mac a stable, serious and multi-tasking system. Which in turn pushed Microsoft to make Windows 2000 look like Windows XP.
I’m okay with Apple OWNING the tablet market. I think Samsung, Lenovo, Blackberry have a huge uphill battle on their hands. Apple doesn’t need to sue anyone and they have been faking some of their “evidence” against Samsung. As an owner of a Samsung Android phone (Notice that Apple isn’t suing Samsung over their WP7 phones which are built the same as their Android line) – Samsung doesn’t have ITunes or simple transfer software for their devices. I don’t even like iTunes – I prefer a direct approach (meanwhile HP’s WebOS was WAAAY to direct), but it works… and for average computer people, iTunes makes using such devices easy to use.
Samsung has got a sexy tablet… I’m looking at the ThinkPad Tablet (Why not go with “ThinkTab”? See, many PC companies DON’T THINK) which has lots of expansion and even a pen to use. But the screen Aspect ratio is 16:9, made for watching movies. Movies?!
The least thing I do is watch movies on a mobile device (I have the HBO and TWC apps installed)… I use my iPad as a development tool, web browser, sales tool and of course to relax with. I have a 24” monitor on my main computer, I have two ThinkPads – but I maybe relaxing on the couch or bed feet from such equipment… reading articles, reading ebooks to my son. 4:3 is a better, its paper-like. It doesn’t feel cramped. HP’s had it right, mostly. But they went with cheap glossy plastic and useless features; like a camera that IS NOT USABLE to take (get this) pictures. It felt cheap and nasty. WebOS did some very cool stuff, its multi-tasking is easily better than iOS 4.x (Can’t wait for 5) – but was easily slower than my iPad. I’d rotate the device and nothing would happen.
So… what is my future plans? It won’t be the iPad2, that’s for sure. My iPad 1 does pretty good already… I’ll give it to my mother who WON’T touch computers when the iPad3 comes out, unless somehow Android 3.2+ blows everyone away.
PS: I do find it amusing that all these non- iPad tablet makers don’t KNOW why they are failing or selling as well. They sell for the same price and they don’t have the infrastructure that Apple created. Even ACER has publicly stated that tablets are not the future (something like that) as their sales drop off. Android will eventually get a good market share, especially with the lower cost devices. I noticed this in Walmart with a whole isle of iOS accessories, with very little for anything else. Nobody even bothers trying to compete against iPods. Sony is about it at the same price. Zune is dead. Most non Apple MP3 players are cheap junk.
We NEED competition against Apple, and Apple needs compete. That DOES create innovation / R&D / ideas. Why do you think the MS-PC world is so… plain. They just pump out $400 black boxes and sells them by the millions (more than Apple). Dell, Acer, Gateway, HP… all the same level of junk.
Only!
As in, first and only to respond to your post. You seem to feel very defensive about enjoying your ipad, which apparently was forced down your throat. Loosen up, dude. Apple products really are better than what you’ve fooled yourself into favoring all these decades!
LOL… macerroneous, you’re funny.
If I thought / felt / know that an Android tablet from this spring was better than an iPad, I’d gone that way. Android 3.1 looks pretty slick, but I don’t think the screen is productive for my needs or those of many others. Perhaps its a way to get Apple off their back. I do defend iPad against PC folks who say “a notebook is better”… they are not, its a different type of device.
Apple products are *NO* better than any other well made product. There are PC notebooks that costs more than Powerbooks but also do more as well. Apple gives the specs to Foxconn to build products. Any company can do that – most don’t. Apple has had its share of defects and lemons, it happens. Memory, drives, CPUs, displays, etc… they all come from the same places.
I’d say that iPods are the best manufactured MP3 players on the market. SONY maybe equal (in quality).
The ecosystem of Apple products is what makes them “better” than pretty much anything on the market.