“As the Apple iPad succeeds beyond expectations, it leaves in its wake an enormous body count of dead and dying products,” Mike Elgan reports for Cult of Mac. “While consumers love it, several major industries have grown to hate it. And for very good reason.”
“It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The iPad was supposed to usher in a new era of tablet computing, creating a thriving new market that looked a lot like the world of smart phones,” Elgan reports. “After gaining an early lead, the iPad was supposed to settle in as a big seller, dominating the high end of the market. Android tablets were supposed to grab most of the unit sales, offering a variety of successful sizes, options and price points. And tablets running proprietary platforms like HP’s WebOS and RIM’s BlackBerry Tablet OS were supposed to bring healthy new sources of revenue to those companies.”
Elgan reports, “But that’s not what happened. What happened is that Apple has asserted an unshakable lead, and no other company other than Amazon has taken significant share.”
MacDailyNews Take: Define “significant” and then provide proof of your last statement, otherwise it is nothing more that regurgutated Amazon PR pablum.
Elgan continues, “What’s worse, the vast distance between expectations for non-iPad touch tablets and the ugly reality is causing havoc and possibly even wrecking companies and even transforming entire industries.”
MacDailyNews Take: Steve Jobs’ specialty. What he set in motion will take many years to play out.
“The first major casualty was the HP TouchPad, which shipped July 1. Although HP had enormously high hopes for the tablet, its reception in the market was so bad that seven weeks later HP announced the termination of all WebOS hardware products,” Elgan reports. “The bloodbath was just beginning. Next up: RIM.”
In the full article, Elgan covers:
• Why Vertical Tablet Makers Hate the iPad
• Why The Toy Industry Hates the iPad
• Why the PC Industry Hates the iPad
• Why Amazon Will Soon Hate the iPad: “The Amazon Kindle Fire is the only non-iPad touch tablet currently succeeding in the market. The main reason is price… It has also become clear in recent weeks that the Kindle Fire is a piece of crap.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Mmm, bloodbath. 😉
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
The flops pile up in the tablet market – December 8, 2011
As Apple iPads sell like hotcakes, mountains of unsold tablets pile up in channel – August 15, 2011
There is no tablet market, only an iPad market – August 24, 2011
Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire’s big security problem – December 14, 2011
Lack of parental controls on Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire lets kids charge up a storm – December 12, 2011
Disgruntled early adopters of Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire have slew of complaints – December 12, 2011
Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire estimated to play distant second fiddle to Apple’s market-dominating iPad – December 6, 2011
Usability expert Jakob Nielsen tests Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire: ‘A disappointingly poor user experience’ – December 5, 2011
Amateur Hour is Over: Best Buy cancels BlackBerry PlayBook orders, pulls listings – November 28, 2011
Instapaper creator reviews Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire: Bad game player, bad app platform, bad web browser, bad video player and bad Kindle – November 18, 2011
PCWorld reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Flawed, unimpressive, subpar; can’t hold a candle to iPad – November 16, 2011
Mossberg reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Frustrating, clunky, much less capable and versatile than iPad – November 16, 2011
Apple iPad 2 vs. Amazon Kindle Fire: Bootup, browsing, and Netflix streaming (with video) – November 16, 2011
Wired reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Web browsing sucks, emotionally draining, makes reading a chore – November 14, 2011
NY Times’ Pogue reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Sluggish, ornery, unpolished – November 14, 2011
The Verge reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Uninspired, confusing, incredibly unoriginal – November 14, 2011
Engadget reviews Amazon’s tiny-screen Kindle Fire: Sluggish, clunky, too limiting and restricted – November 14, 2011
PC Magazine reviews Apple iOS 5: The best phone and tablet OS, Editors’ Choice – October 15, 2011
The Guardian reviews Apple iPad 2: Ahead of the pack – March 25, 2011
The Telegraph reviews Apple iPad 2: Does everything better; now’s the perfect time to join the iPad club – March 25, 2011
Computerworld reviews Apple’s iPad 2: ‘The Holy Grail of computing’ – March 16, 2011
Ars Technica reviews Apple iPad 2: Big performance gains in a slimmer package
Associated Press reviews Apple iPad 2: Apple pulls further ahead – March 10, 2011
PC Mag reviews Apple iPad 2: The tablet to get; Editors’ Choice – March 10, 2011
Associated Press reviews Apple iPad 2: Apple pulls further ahead – March 10, 2011
PC Mag reviews Apple iPad 2: The tablet to get; Editors’ Choice – March 10, 2011
Pogue reviews Apple iPad 2: Thinner, lighter, and faster transforms the experience – March 10, 2011
Baig reviews Apple iPad 2: Second to none – March 10, 2011
Only Apple has perfected in its tablet form the art of hardware/software integration while creating a robust 3rd party developer ecosystem. Until another company achieves a similar mix (very doubtful), this bloodbath will continue unabated.
I concur. the whole iOS ecosystem is just one big halo effect.
Almost a perpetual motion machine…
actually just make that the whole .
…ecosystem.
dang i need more kawfeee!
Put that mug down and back away slowly!
my brother in law has been complaining about his blackberry to his company for months.
They told him he had to wait until November to get a new phone… Well he put in the paperwork to get a new phone, they Asked him if he wanted to try an iPhone! He has to wait until last week to actually get it (and had no clue which iPhone either)
They sent him an iPhone 4S!
He’s already talking about switching his house entirely to Mac.
All apple needs to do is get one device/Mac in a household… Apple has a huge halo effect. Google/ms has one also, but it’s a toilet effect.
I agree, I bought an iPod in 2005 followed by a iMac 2006, iPhone 2007 MacBook pro 2011 iPad 2011. My mother in law has seen how much I love my apple devices and has gone on to buy an iMac and iPad this year, my son got an iMac and my daughter an iPhone.. People see how well these products work and they go get one no matter the price.
In the “Tablet” market, you can find products that are not as good as an iPad, but it will cost you more.
It’s the content, stupid.
Not only is the iPad by far the best tablet in the marketplace (and I will summon a horrible death upon anyone who uses “slate” – Ballmer/Monkey Boy’s chosen moniker), but the ecosystem of apps / music / movies / TV / books and more via iTunes gives Apple an unassailable moat around the castle.
Lack of content is keeping miserable, cork-soaking bastiches like Samsung out of the running. By the time Microsoft climbs into the ring, it will be too late.
I like our strategy. I like it a lot.
“bastiches”. I like that word.
The whole post is deliciously peppered with several such sparkling gems (unassailable moat… cork soaking… summoning a horrible death…). Nicely done, Mr. Anger (assuming that’s Ed’s surname)
“Cork-soaking bastiches” is a memorable line from the 1984 comedy movie “Johnny Dangerously” by a character who just _butchers_ the English language. I wish Ed Anger had somehow worked “fargin iceholes” into his post.
I didn’t think ANYBODY remembered “Johnny Dangerously.” Lots of that Kukoff/Steinberg stuff, “Fargin Icelhole,” in particular, remain embedded in my brain t this day. Man, am I old.
There’s more to it than content, stupid.
Just look at the original iPhone – no content except built-in apps, and access to a world wide web filled with flash and non-mobile optimized websites. It still permanently redefined portable computers and changed the world, despite a complete lack of content. Perhaps software and hardware design are important too.
The question is- why did it take so long for some people (critics, pundits) to figure out that the Kindle Fire was crap? It seems they are easily amused by anything new, and the rest of us get called “fanbois.”
He was right when he said the Fire was crap! Bezos is an idiot and his gambling with shareholder money is irresponsible; and his ridiculous “business” methodology cannot be sustained.
Samsung will continue to eat it’s losses, because of their blind envy and hatred for Apple. Why in the world would anyone want a tablet that they need to run antivirus on? Norton is the biggest virus out there.
Warren Buffett chose to invest in Amazon over Apple and the Oracle of Omaha is never wrong. He likes Jeff Bezos’ buffoonery because Jeffy knows how to take risks. Jeff Bezos has decided to take down Apple with the Kindle Fire and a yet-to-be-announced Amazon smartphone. Jeffy figures he’ll cut Apple off at the knees and boost Amazon’s share price by 20%.
What investor wouldn’t approve of that strategy? Think about it. Jeffy was able to take a mediocre, by anyone’s standards, 7″ display tablet and sell millions of them to budget-minded consumers and the media loved it. David felling mighty Goliath with a $199 stone. Who doesn’t love that sort of fairytale story.
Well, time will tell – but I had a Kindle. Got a chance to try an iPad & immediately bought one, gave the Kindle away and never looked back.
If the Fire is as bad as it sounds, it isn’t gone’ fly.
iPad 2 started it but iPad 3 will truly be the stake in the Android vampire heart.
I think iPad 2 will still have some life in it yet when version 3 comes out. Still guessing in 2012:
$99 AppleTV
$199 iPod touch
$199 Kindle-murdering E-ink reader
$299 IPad mini
$399 IPad 2
$499 iPad 3
$799 Macbook Air
$999 iMac
$999 – 1999 Apple Television
someone iCal me. (hehe)
Making no money on a piece of shit device.
Yeah, sounds like David’s got a real winner there.
When I read this one, I was glad I had a recipe for blood pudding handy. 😆
That recipe almost made me upchuck my freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. The English will eat anything.
French and German apparently have their own similar versions, too.
“In France, this is known as boudin noir; in Germany, as Blutwurst”
Not just the other side of the pond, but over here, too. Try some good Cajun Boudin Rouge. But not with those chocolate chip cookies. 😆
Yes of course, but as you know, Cajuns, or Acadians, are French descendants.
D’acccord. Mais il ya aussi une version créole.
Including spotted dick!
I love the smell of bloodbath in the morning. It smells like … blood.
It is not just the tablet.
Apple introduced it, added the support ecosystem, introduced the next model quickly, brought developers on board w/expectations of sales &/or advertising, brought users and industries in with the ability to quickly generate needed apps.
In other words, what may have taken a decade in the past has now been achieved in a matter of about 2 years of public use (for sake of arguement at least).
Apple recognized that to keep their lead (as opposed to their UI in the 80s), they would have to push hard on all fronts all the time.
Any competitor had to do likewise or be trampled by the crowds heading to the Apple Store.
Absolutely brilliant on Apple’s part and they had the $s to do it and do it fast.
“MacDailyNews Take: Steve Jobs’ specialty. What he set in motion will take many years to play out.”
The only iPad competitor with the financial strength to fight this battle is Samsung, and they will only achieve a very distant second place. Unlike the PC wars, this one won’t last three years.
Gregg, agreed; many years…like about 2 more.
A Pad survivor either becomes totally vertically integrated QUICKLY and controls their own OS, somehow mimicking Apple’s tight control and security, or they will be hopelessly behind in 2 years.
I think Apple used software to predict how fast they had to move and what they had to control waaaay back when the iPod started to ramp and they saw they could do a iPhone and iPad and compared it to how their competitors would react AFTER Apple released their “i” products.
My best guess is they quickly realized that a full court press for years on advancing the technology would cause most competitors to fall by the wayside for one or more key reasons associated with both $, time and OS control.
Apple has shown a brilliant case study in how to create and keep a whole new iPad product ecosystem category to itself, mutilating every competitor who tries to merely compete on hardware alone.
The deluge of in-house applications for corporations that are out & still being developed are going to lock in a lot of companies and their users to the iPad for a very long time.
With every new device being blogged as the next iKiller or labeled that by the manufacturer, their hatred of Apple is their own fault for thinking that they were/are going to be the next big iDevice leader. Shucks, why doesn’t a company just make and compete on its own merit and aim for a very small niche at best – rather than blogging the world of their great vision and miss by shooting themselves in the foot, or mouth rather. Their own disdain of Apple is the result of their own misguided reality distortion!
Exactly.
When the iPod launched, it wasn’t launched as “the RIO killer” or whatever – it wasn’t even available for PCs.
It was a niche-product, that grew.
HP and RIM had “growth-products” that shrank.
Maybe some people should think of that.
Far from a perceived “niche player”, the iPod was the sounding bell for massive changes ahead in the Tech industry. The big Apple wave began in earnest the moment Apple made a Windows version of iTunes. It’s been nothing but tsunami season since that fateful day.
Yes, and the roadmap was laid out by Steve when he first coined the “digital hub”.
“The big Apple wave began in earnest the moment Apple made a Windows version of iTunes.”
Yes… like giving a glass of iced-water to someone in Hell.
Funny, Steve had to convinced, and not easily, to do iTunes for windows!!!! If he hadn’t given in, I’m sure that the Tsunami would be little more than a ripple.
Hate… BS
They had the last 30 year to fart around with a ripoff of Mac OS and all they came up with Microsloth Windblows… Zero innovation for 30 years!!!!
Somebody finally was able to beat them, why hate?
There is NO tablet market! Only an iPad Market! The ‘Tablet’ market is littered with crap that is dead or dying.
The tablet market is littered with the carcasses of the Android copybooks, the Playbook amateur-timers, the Touchy-feely under pads and the Windows slates dinosaurs. Apple will be exhibiting them in its new tablet museum at the spaceship in Cupertino for the benefit of historical connoisseurs.
It’s not just competitors who hate the iPad. It’s the Apple haters, nonconformists and tinkerers who’ll use any piece of crap so long as it’s not Apple.
Meanwhile, the rest of us “mindless iSheep” will settle for the best product.
There are some geeks that will buy cheap close-out tablets and load it with some custom variant of Linux just for fun and/or challenge.
the gloriously wonderful Kindle Fire will DOMINATE!
My reasons , some I’ve mentioned before , some are new are listed below! :
– Apple will NEVER successfully SUE the Kindle Fire for Design Patents because the Kindle Fire is NOTHING like the iPad. The iPad is sleek and elegant with a large screen.. the Kindle is clunky, plasticky with a tiny screen and the power button at the bottom.. ! So the Kindle Fire is SAFE from apple’s predatory lawyers
– Rumours has it that the Kindle has Already DEVASTATED APPLE MANAGEMENT.
My sources say when they saw the Fire, both Jonny Ive and Scott Forstall fell off their chairs laughing. One’s got a hernia now and the other sprained his wrists … (Tim Cook’s response when he walked in with them still laughing on the floor was NOT PRETTY). So with one swell swoop Apple has two top guys hospitalized.
– Kindle Fires disadvantages has been EXAGGERATED.
the tiny screen issue can be solved with a Magnifier also sold by Amazon
You can buy 2 Kindles and get the same screen real estate as an iPad. Reading Magazines is easy, just read the LEFT of the magazine on one screen and the RIGHT on the Other.
– Polls show kids want the iPad for Christmas. Just give them a Kindle instead and SAVE MONEY. Just put some sticky Apple Logos on them and the little tykes if their under 5 will likely never know the difference. Tell them it’s a new MINI iPad. If they complain it’s SLOW unlike the neighbours iPad, just show them the Car Insurance brochure “Speed Kills” and if they complain about the small size tell them “Mommy always wanted that diamond ring and it’s really SMALL right? Small is good”. and if they ask where are the games like the iPads tell them “games will retard their growth”. With money saved you can spend it on BEER.
– Kindle Fire sales will boom with new markets still un recognized. For example I’ve heard malware hackers love it as the bigger screen makes them easier to make Android malware than using phones…
– RIM’s Twin CEO’s LOVE the Fire and have asked their blackberry engineers to copy the device slavishly for the new Playbook. It was first recommended to the CEOs by that famous VP (you know the guy who got drunk on the Canada Air flight and chewed through his restraints). With such respect from RIM can the Fire FAIL?
Space precludes me from adding even MORE Kindle Fire Advantages.
Sufficient to say the Kindle Fire will dominate and Apple will not stop it.
This article and all comments put a big smile on my face;)
> It wasn’t supposed to be like this. The iPad was supposed to usher in a new era of tablet computing, creating a thriving new market that looked a lot like the world of smart phones…
Except it’s a completely different situation. The smartphone market was well-established when Apple entered it. It was also largely controlled by the wireless carriers, not the phone makers. Therefore, although iPhone redefined the smartphone, the existing powers (the largest handset makers and the biggest carriers) had a lot of “momentum” on their side.
The tablet computer market was mostly nonexistent, except for clumsy stylus-based “convertible” tablets running PC Windows. It was like the digital music player market when iPod was released. That’s a better comparison… iPod quickly became dominant and never gave up the lead.
Initially, the competition tried to match iPod based on specs, features, and price. But no one wanted an expensive fake iPod, so they went for the low end, and Apple started producing lower-priced iPod models. Eventually, most of Apple’s iPod competitors simply gave up trying to compete.
And “iPad market” is repeating history. We have mostly passed the phase when the competition tries to match iPad based on specs, features, and price (no one wants a fake iPad that costs as much as a real iPad). We have now entered the phase when the competition goes for the low end.
I don’t expect the competition to give up as easily as they did with the iPod. There’s too much at stake: control of the future of digital media, communications, software and services.
They did not give up “easily” with the iPod market, including Microsoft coming late to the party with Zune. And Apple left the low(er) end of the market alone for the first few years (between 2001 and 2004), before expanding the lineup to include the mini, nano, and shuffle. iPad is still less than two years since introduction.
> I don’t expect the competition to give up as easily as they did with the iPod…
They will give up if they can’t make a decent profit (or ANY profit period). So far, Apple has prevented the competition from making a profit in tablets. The ones that tried to match iPad (on specs, features, and price) have lost money, because they don’t get sold off until the inevitable fire sale. And Kindle Fire is being sold for $199 at a loss (“negative” profit by design), in the hope that “consumption sales” of Amazon’s content will provide a net profit. It remains to be seen if that strategy will work, but for now, each Kindle Fire sold is LOST profit for Amazon, and each one returned is MORE lost profit. Kindle Fire might bankrupt Amazon with its “success.”
Apple has good profit margin on iPad because Apple has a cost advantage in the large volume purchase of components and manufacturing, AND because Apple gets full retail price on every iPad. With that profit, Apple can produce better and better iPads, while the competition loses more and more money trying to keep up; how long can that go on…?
+1
you are right that the Kindle is big azz gamble for Bezos.
He’s already warned that Amazon might take a 200 m loss in the quarter.
People are guessing each Kindle loses $50 or more.
As Amazon’s net profit margin is around 2-5% (not sure what the digital margins are) people are estimating they’ll need to sell about $1000 worth of media to make up for one tablet. Will Android users spend $1000 on apps, media? I would think readers (who consumer a lot of books) will buy the easy on the eyes b&w Kindles. IOS users spend a lot more on apps etc than Android (and even then iTunes, App store wasn’t profitable for a long time), Bezos is gambling big that Kindle will be the exception.
I laugh:
… and no other company other than Amazon has taken significant share.”
For those who are able to comprehend but still don’t know it: The iPad and the Amazon Kindle Fire are NOT in the same market. The crossover between the products is that they are both computers with which you can read books. The end. Discussing them together as competitors is plain old hilarious.
We apparently have A LOT more hilarity in store, 😆 as a shocking number of TechTard journalists are apparently incapable of getting the clue. TechTards are rampant. 😯
Well, that depends on how you define the “market.” You could argue that a Ferrari is not in the same market as a Prius, but they are both part of the the “car” market share. Or, are those “convertible” stylus-based tablets (running PC Windows) considered “tablets” or PCs? It depends on how the “market” is defined.
But it doesn’t really matter. iPad is the ONLY profitable tablet. The only other tablet that “has taken significant share” sells at a loss (by design). The iPad copycats that have come and gone did not sell out until fire sale prices kicked in, so they also sold at a loss (not by design). Going forward, Amazon’s “sell the device at a loss and make a net profit on content sales” strategy, if it works, is going to make it difficult for other non-iPad tablets. They are caught between not being able to match iPad and not being able to under-sell Kindle Fire.
These idiots think they can run out a me too clone in X months??
Like a drag race. Where one has cross the finish line and the other is being built on the starting line…
I remember a year ago about the hyped Playbook and Xoon. At CES they were the major talk! But saw each as barley Alpha units and forget which one was only playing videos??? And it won beat of show???
Re touchpad: that was just cause they had a CEO on par w Gil amelio. Ie. not that bright! But at least now web is is open s. that’s a good thing, right:)
In other words, the public wins.
My iPod defined significant as following:
Sufficiently great or important to be worth of attention; noteworthy: a significant increase in sales.