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Apple not a computer company - they are a mobile device company.
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With of course less features as they are a few years late on Google.
I thought Apple was about user experience, not petty vindication ?
The company catering to the biggest suckers?
Seriously though, I agree that Apple, Google and MS have different core businesses even though they have some overlapping products and goals (and none of them want to become the other).
Lethal
You've got a point on me there. Yes, if we're using the very bare bones definition of a computer, then you're correct, you are using the historic sense of the term. However, the most common interpretation of the word (referring to consumer desktop/laptop stations) is not what I would call modern, at least not anymore. If anything, we are in a sense going back to the historical definition that you advocate. But it's not to that point of universal adoption yet. In this day and age, show nearly anyone a picture of a laptop, and a smartphone, and ask them which one of those is a computer. I don't think I'd be incorrect in assuming that most of them would point to the laptop. This doesn't make it a modern definition, more of an outdated, if not ignorant one that the majority still holds as correct, which is my whole point.
I know what you're trying to get at, but you're going about it the wrong way. It's like people who pretend to not know what someone is talking about when they use the term "iTouch" to refer to an iPod Touch. "iTouch? What is this mysterious product to which you refer?"
They know exactly what they mean, but they choose to be arrogant and mean-spirited just because they don't like the other persons still intelligible, if not incorrect term. It's just rude.
But the point is, saying things like "Apple is not a computer company" is daft. There is no practical difference between their laptop/desktop computers and their "mobile devices" which are computers. Both run OSes, both get updates, both perform communication/productivity/entertainment tasks. Can you do the same tasks on both line-ups ? There's quite a bit of overlap there. Is there some tasks better performed on iPads ? Sure. Is there some better performed on Macs ? Sure. Just like a screwdriver can't replace a hammer and a TV can't replace a radio and vice-versa.
Both bring money to Apple and with that money, Apple continues to make great things and updates their products. If not for that, we'd still be stuck with the mess that was PowerPC.
People whining and complaining need to learn what they are actually whining about. The reason iPads/iPhones outsell traditional laptops/desktops is quite easy to understand : they are the first Truely Personnal Computer. Single-user devices, hard to share by virtue of the design of profiles on the OS (or lack thereof). That's their strength and weakness at the same time. It's what defines them.
And until Myriam-Webster changes their definition, I'm not changing mine :
Heck, they are even more generalistic than me, and go further back, including mechanical computers in theirs.
I know what you're trying to get at, but you're going about it the wrong way. It's like people who pretend to not know what someone is talking about when they use the term "iTouch" to refer to an iPod Touch. "iTouch? What is this mysterious product to which you refer?"
iTouch is a logitech keyboard. Hence the confusion it causes. I can have problems "plugging my iTouch into my Mac" when referring to the real iTouch.
I'm not saying that you aren't correct; people should definitely educate themselves a little better when trying to talk about a certain subject, but you can't fault them for using the most widely used terms, even if they are technically inaccurate. My point is, playing dumb is not a good way to change that.
Perhaps the OP should have had the title as, "Apple is not a Mac company". I don't know if that is the best title, but it would certainly be a bit more correct. However, my point is the term is not really that important as long as the meaning gets across. Sure, using the term "computer" only to refer to desktops/laptops is inaccurate, but using today's most widely used interpretation of that word, everybody knows what he's referring to, and there's no need to try and correct such a minor issue, at least not in the way you've been using.
But how often is that question actually going to come up, referring to the keyboard and not the iPod? I'm sure it's happened and confusion followed, but I doubt it caused too much of a problem before the term was clarified.
Besides that, kind of pertaining to my point; I would think most people picture an iPod touch when that term is used. If I were posting a problem about my iTouch keyboard, I would make sure to clarify from the very beginning exactly what I was talking about, because I would be worried about such confusion in the first place.
That is completely ridiculous. Do you read what you type? So you're saying 90% of their profit come from all the products they sell? Nice... Any moron with half a brain could tell you they make money from selling products. It's WHICH products make them the most money, and the Mac's are not one of them. If Apple only relied on money from selling Mac's (And the iPhone/iPad didn't exist) they probably wouldn't be around today. Or at least... Barley holding on. Therefore Apple does rely a lot on it's "mobile devices". (iPhone/iPad.. As that's what the OP was getting at)
No need to use your definition from the 50's... You can modernize your life a little.
Which are computers. Hence my use of the term when saying 90% of Apple's revenues are from computers. Again, I never said Macs, you said Macs.
Are you now claiming they don't make 90% of their revenue off their 4 main computer lines-up, being the iPhone, iPad, iPod and Mac ? We have a chart showing otherwise last page.
Look, you missed my meaning of computer, and said I was wrong based on that false premise. I was actually right in what I was saying, it's not hard to concede.
And again, I never said Macs. My definition is from the 50s and how is it not accurate today ? What is your definition of a computer ? Let's see what you can come up with that will include all my Integrity based servers, the IBM mainframe we have, the car ECUs yet discount the smartphones, portable media players and tablets.
I'm waiting...
You're technically right, but in this modern age, you're incorrect. Your definition of a computer is from the ice age, and it's time you modernize your life. Give anyone on this planet (Besides you) a phone and a computer and ask them to pick out the computer. See which one people choose. I'd actually like you to go outside and run this test for yourself. Ask 50 random people this question and see the answers for yourself. Post your results once you get back. If you choose not to do this, accept the fact that the definition of a computer has changed, and than your life can't always revolve around a time frame that's long gone.
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If we really want to define a computer, a calculator is a personal computer but we don't consider them to be computers.
I could also argue that any cell phone built in the past 20 years is a computer as it has a computer chip in it.
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What is the new defintion of computer then ? Please, enlighten me, let's see how much you have to type to avoid tablets/smartphones, but include servers/mainframes and other things people recognize as computers.
I don't understand why you are being so intentionally obtuse. The term computer, or personal computer, in common vernacular is a associated with a desktop or laptop form factor computer. Heck, PC is specifically associated w/a machine running Windows even though a Mac is a personal computer by definition too. Apple's very successful "I'm a PC and I'm a Mac" ad campaign even accepted these common, if technically inaccurate, labels (it wasn't "I'm a PC and I'm a Mac... which is also technically a PC because PC stands for 'personal computer' not just a computer than runs a specific operating system like Windows").
Google image search, computer. This is what the vast majority of people think of when someone says the word 'computer'.
Lethal
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Whenever I see "iTouch" my mind first goes to the keyboard, then to the media player. People using "iTouch" to mean "iPod touch" aggravate me: things have names for a reason, and, knowing what an iTouch actually is, my brain gets derailed when the context doesn't fit with the device.It's like people who pretend to not know what someone is talking about when they use the term "iTouch" to refer to an iPod Touch. "iTouch? What is this mysterious product to which you refer?"
I've yet to hear anybody IRL call an iPod Touch by its actual name. It bothers me a bit as well, but we've got to accept that we are definitely in the minority knowing what a real iTouch is, and most people already know the iPT by that name. That ain't gonna change.
You can even go further back than that since all a device has to do to be called a computer is perform computations.
That includes machines from the 1800's that don't even run off electricity
The semantics in this thread are pretty pointless
I know right? I hate it when the salesperson pretends not to know what I'm talking about when I need a new microwave oven and I ask for a 1.2 cubic foot computer! And why do people insist on using the false terms "brain surgeon" and "neurosurgeon"? For people who are so highly trained doctors should know that they are really "computer surgeons".
Hell, the other day I was in a store and asked a salesperson where I could find their portable computers. Her reply was so stupid--"Sir, we only sell clocks and wrist watches here". Can you believe the ignorance?!
So you're saying no one would dare call a IBM mainframe a computer anymore, or that the "computer room" with servers is not actually being called the "computer room"...
Or you wouldn't say that BMW would call their onboard diagnostic electronic apparatus a "computer" :
Or that people would expect this item to come with a laptop/desktop :
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_00921754000P
No, really, I think some of you guys are quite blind to people's actual knowledge about what is a Computer. The very generic term that is computer.
You might want to dare say the iPad is not a computer and that the only computers by "modern" definition are laptops and desktops, but frankly, outside this forum I've never heard such a ludicrous thing.
That made no sense whatsoever, as most of that stuff isn't even computers to begin with (there are no computations in a clock for starters, most are just spring loaded mechanisms, there is no program there). When I walk into a store to buy a laptop, I don't ask for a "computer", I ask for a laptop. And a microwave is not a computer. It might have (or might not, some microwaves only have microcontrollers) a computer to control its output/input/display, but the oven itself is not a computer nor would you refer to it as such.
That doesn't change the fact that a computer is quite the generic term. So it's not innacurate or wrong to say Apple derives 90% of its revenues from computers. Tablets are computers. They are not some kind of device that happens to use a computer to control some of its function, they are computers on the same terms as a laptop (input device, storage, processor, RAM, display, etc...).
There is no definition you can come up with that includes laptops but not tablets. Same for smartphones really.
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I've yet to hear anybody IRL call an iPod Touch by its actual name. It bothers me a bit as well, but we've got to accept that we are definitely in the minority knowing what a real iTouch is, and most people already know the iPT by that name. That ain't gonna change.
And I've yet to meet a single person calling it the iTouch outside of this forum. Everyone I know calls it "iPod Touch".
I clearly said nothing remotely close to that and you continue to see only what you want to see which why this discussion keeps going no where.
I would say it appears impossible for you comprehend that the term 'computer', w/in the context of this discussion, was being used to refer to Apple's desktop and laptop computer line and that 'gadget' was being used in a derogatory way to refer to the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, etc.,. I find that hard to believe though because you seem like an intelligent person so the only thing I'm left with is that you are being intentionally obtuse. Why? I don't know. But it doesn't take much deductive reasoning to know what the OP meant by 'computer' and what he meant by 'gadget'. There's on real point to being pedantic here.
Lethal
I do understand that was what the OP was getting at. I was pointing out to the OP however that the iPad, iPod and iPhone are all computers. That is "Apple is moving away from computers!" end of the world rant was just insane. Apple will always do computers, in one form or the other in all probability. Laptops/Desktops are not the end of the world. No one died when laptops overtook desktops, no one will die when tablets do (if they even do, except in sheer number of units sold, but in actual utility I mean).
That is what people don't get. I know what the OP meant, it's just I find the claim ridiculous. Apple is just recognizing where the consumer computing landscape is heading and its focussing its energies there. There is nothing wrong about that.
Okay, so we all agree that when the OP said "computers" he was specifically talking about laptops and desktops.
By definition yes, but we've already agreed that for the context of this discussion "computers" would mean laptops and desktops.
I agree that Apple will always do hardware, but don't you think Apple is shifting its primary focus away from laptops and desktops and towards tablets and smartphones?
That's the point. The OP doesn't like that Apple is seemingly putting so much more emphasis on tablets and smart phones than it is on its line of computers (keeping in mind that we've already established that "computers" means desktops and laptops in this discussion).
Lethal
You missed my point. My point was that it is a mistake to make that distinction in the first place. To establish that computers is a limited subset of actual computers.
Apple is moving where the landscape is moving. And no, I don't agree that's smartphones and tablets. It's to sandboxed, single user computing, where the device is basically your user profile and data. Think iOS vs OS X, not tablets vs laptops. The preferred delivery form factor just happens to be tablets and smartphones for that type of computing environnement at the moment and that's why Apple is concentrating on iPads and iPhones.
There is no saying however that the paradigm we're seeing, the "post-PC era" won't move back to more traditional form factors like laptops (I do remain quite skeptical about desktops, computing power has just advanced so much compared to the needs of software for the masses, that laptops provide enough in a much more convenient package). This will bring iOS style, sandboxed computing to the traditional "computer-in-the-sense-of-the-OP".
Still it remains, Apple is not moving away from computers, they are moving towards new computing paradigms which are more in touch with the reality of the modern user, hence its increased popularity.
Your point is ridiculous.
The distinction has been made by society for decades now and the world hasn't come to an end. Computer is commonly accept shorthand for personal computer. The term personal computer is widely accepted to refer to desktops and laptops. PC, which obviously is also shorthand for personal computer, commonly refers to a personal computer running Windows even though Macs are also personal computers. None of it is logical, least of all computer being short hand for personal computer which is a subset of computers but that's the world we live in.
Langauge changes and evolves and many times context determines the appropriate definition of the word(s) being used. When does bad mean good and when does bad mean bad?
Honestly, if an iMac an iPad and an iPhone were all powered off on a desk in front of us and I asked you to turn on the computer would you seriously respond with "Which computer?" or would you know to turn on the iMac?
If those new computing paradigms de-emphasize computers (previous agreed upon to mean laptop and desktops) then, yes, Apple is moving away from computers as their central focus.
Lethal
EDIT: BTW if you are ever in Los Angeles we should get a beer. I think the conversations could be rather interesting assuming we don't drive each other mad (mad as in insane, not mad as in upset
).All of them, actually, are computers of one form or another.
I'm not going to ruin it for you, but I will give a hint: a clock 1) isn't usually portable 2) need not be run by a traditional clockwork mechanism.
Sure it is; it's "a programmable usually electronic device that can store, retrieve, and process data"
Which is exactly the point everyone here is trying to show you.
And it's not inaccurate to call a brain surgeon a "computer surgeon" or refer to neuroscience as "computer science", nor to go into a store that sells clocks and wristwatches and ask for a portable computer. Yet, accuracies notwithstanding, no one would, and if one did it would not be unexpected that the general population would not refer to any of the above as anything involving computers
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It seems as if this may be a Canada/U.S. difference or part of Canada/Texas difference. As KnightWRX mentions, I've also never heard "iTouch" used here (here being Toronto, he's somewhere in Québec). I'm sure it is by some people, but no one I know calls it that and I've never heard anyone call it that--and I live within walking distance of four high schools, three senior public schools, and two junior public, i.e. elementary, schools; take that as you will
That right there is true wisdomThat ain't gonna change.
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Will I stir up a hornet's nest if I point out that, under the wide-reaching definition of "computer", an iPad is also a PC?
Your point is ridiculous.
The distinction has been made by society for decades now and the world hasn't come to an end.
That's where we'll have to disagree. I keep hearing about "computer" to refer to actual computers like "my car's onboard computer" or the "central computer" in our data center or even "the navigation computer in my boat" by ordinary folk every day. Also, when I hear people talk about their laptops, they don't call it a computer, they call it a "portable" or "laptop" or "notebook". Same as for desktops, people will usually refer to them as "towers" and let context do its job of letting us understand they're not referring to the CN Tower in Toronto. Again this ridiculous notion that "computer" means "laptop or desktop and nothing else" is something I only hear on this very forum.
Seems to me maybe it's MacRumors, with its computers and iTouches that's kinda of "out of touch" so to say.
The fact that some people use computer interchangeably with laptop/desktop does not mean that the word is now limited to only those computers though. People still know and understand what an actual computer is. And that doesn't change the fact : Apple right now is still selling boxes with CPUs, RAM, they are writing the OS using normal a language, compiling it with a compiler and selling you the result, earning them 90% of their revenue.