average consumers won't find any limitations. they'll use it as is and be happy with it.
it's only geeks and people who read rumor sites all day who think the iPad is a fail, because it doesn't have the options they fantasized it would have.
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Just realized something about iPad criticism
- Thread starter ScaryRobot
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average consumers won't find any limitations. they'll use it as is and be happy with it.
it's only geeks and people who read rumor sites all day who think the iPad is a fail, because it doesn't have the options they fantasized it would have.
the iPad will be an instant hit. it's all anyone is talking about. remember that there is an installed base of millions of iphone/ipod touch users who are already familiar with iphone OS.
do you really think there WON'T be lines when it goes on sale just because it doesn't run flash? really?
The average consumer is my mom, who has a gigantic, slow Dell laptop in her living room (which was unusable when she purchased it because it came with Vista and not enough RAM) and all she does with it is surf the web. She doesn't care about Flash. She doesn't even multitask on her laptop. And there's nothing in her living room that she would need to take a picture of with a camera. Instead of having an eyesore of a laptop sitting on the furniture all of the time, she can have a digital picture frame that just happens to also do everything she needs from a personal computer.
Why do the iPhone/iPod touch sell more than the macbook? Price.
Why do you assume that a mac netbook has to sell in the same numbers as the current full-size range? A better comparator would be the likes of Acer who sell around 12M units/ year, i.e. about the same as your predicted sales for the iPad.
So many criticisms about the iPad have been about it not really "doing anything new", and it is just a big iPod. Apple has never been so much about doing "new" things (IMO) as much as doing things we all like to do in a "new" way. There had been "smart phones" out for years, GPS units, hand held gaming, MP3 players and iPods, Mobile browsing via laptops, and poorly implemented media versions on "Razor" and other such phones. But Apple took all of those things the industry had been doing poorly, on multiple devices, and did it Very well, and seamlessly, on one device; that "doesn't do anything new" iPhone you may have heard of.
Now we have readers (galore in the past couple of months), like the Kindle, Nook and Sony's that are nice for reading, but have no internet capability, or very hobbled web experiences in 16 shades of gray-scale. We have netbooks that really can't serve as readers for books, and are not optimal for video/movies (even if iTunes is loaded on them). Netbooks and laptops are certainly not optimized for gaming (especially netbooks). PSP has the only media player in a dedicated game system, but it is very poor, and inconvenient (UMD-were they kidding - and now only downloads on the new version) and it can't browse. Only the laptops and netbooks can do business apps equivalent to iWork. So again, Apple, while not really "doing anything new" is going to do Everything "old" in a "new" way. And on one device. That is called innovation, and that is were Apple just "gets it" (and why their stock and market capitalization absolutely blow every other computer maker out of the water).
One device-the difference: I work on my presentation for a while on the flight. Take a break, catch an episode of "Lost" and watch the really cool chase scene in the "Matrix-Reloaded" for the umpteenth time. Start talking with the person in the seat beside me, tell him about my family and flip through pictures in iPhoto. I exchange contact info later in the flight and enter it easily via touch in my Contacts. I preview my Keynote presentation one last time on my HD screen, which I will be able to pass around at the conference. My new friend on the flight is clearly jealous as the ink from his USA Today transfers to his hands as he tries to complete the crossword puzzle. He sees I too have today's puzzle on my iPad (yes, there's an App for that). He is also jealous as I read the paper without unfolding a newspaper across the breadth of three seats. I leave him to his ink-stained hands, flip through cover-flow to choose my favorite album, then jump into some intense driving in "Need for Speed-Undercover", hoping my accelerometer induced gyrations don't bump his newspaper that is hanging over my seat. As we descend through 10,000 feet, the announcement tells us to prepare for landing and to do all the "securing" that goes with it. I slip my iPad into its slender sleeve and easily slide it into the seat-back in front of me. My new friend opens his carry-on, which he had earlier deposited his netbook with its 2 hour battery. He stashes his paper among the cable clutter for his Blackberry, netbook, brand new Nook and (ironically) his iPod. I laugh to myself as I think he may need help carrying that bag of the plane.
To the people who say the iPad, "doesn't do anything new" - You just don't get it, and perhaps you should try "saying something new".
Now we have readers (galore in the past couple of months), like the Kindle, Nook and Sony's that are nice for reading, but have no internet capability, or very hobbled web experiences in 16 shades of gray-scale. We have netbooks that really can't serve as readers for books, and are not optimal for video/movies (even if iTunes is loaded on them). Netbooks and laptops are certainly not optimized for gaming (especially netbooks). PSP has the only media player in a dedicated game system, but it is very poor, and inconvenient (UMD-were they kidding - and now only downloads on the new version) and it can't browse. Only the laptops and netbooks can do business apps equivalent to iWork. So again, Apple, while not really "doing anything new" is going to do Everything "old" in a "new" way. And on one device. That is called innovation, and that is were Apple just "gets it" (and why their stock and market capitalization absolutely blow every other computer maker out of the water).
One device-the difference: I work on my presentation for a while on the flight. Take a break, catch an episode of "Lost" and watch the really cool chase scene in the "Matrix-Reloaded" for the umpteenth time. Start talking with the person in the seat beside me, tell him about my family and flip through pictures in iPhoto. I exchange contact info later in the flight and enter it easily via touch in my Contacts. I preview my Keynote presentation one last time on my HD screen, which I will be able to pass around at the conference. My new friend on the flight is clearly jealous as the ink from his USA Today transfers to his hands as he tries to complete the crossword puzzle. He sees I too have today's puzzle on my iPad (yes, there's an App for that). He is also jealous as I read the paper without unfolding a newspaper across the breadth of three seats. I leave him to his ink-stained hands, flip through cover-flow to choose my favorite album, then jump into some intense driving in "Need for Speed-Undercover", hoping my accelerometer induced gyrations don't bump his newspaper that is hanging over my seat. As we descend through 10,000 feet, the announcement tells us to prepare for landing and to do all the "securing" that goes with it. I slip my iPad into its slender sleeve and easily slide it into the seat-back in front of me. My new friend opens his carry-on, which he had earlier deposited his netbook with its 2 hour battery. He stashes his paper among the cable clutter for his Blackberry, netbook, brand new Nook and (ironically) his iPod. I laugh to myself as I think he may need help carrying that bag of the plane.
To the people who say the iPad, "doesn't do anything new" - You just don't get it, and perhaps you should try "saying something new".
Instant? I'm not sure about Instant. And there are already people who think that what they spent on an iPhone is a lot - and complain about its cost. These people who own iPhones aren't automatically going to go out and buy another device. The bigger (I believe) audience is the uninitiated. Those with perhaps different phones and/or computers. The iPad is a great entry device BECAUSE it's not really a computer but offers some computer-like features. It can handle all sorts of media. And the interface is relatively easy to learn.
Will the iPad appeal and be purchased by those already with Apple products - of COURSE. But I think you'll ALSO find that those with iPhones and Macs are also the ones who have a HARDER time trying to "justify" an iPad purchase as there IS overlap. I'm one of those people. I understand fully and exactly what the device means, can do, etc. All that. But for now - I have NO need. I have my Mac Book pro which I use for video editing and is mobile enough for me. I have an iPhone and that's my phone/mobile "on the go" device for internet, mail, etc. I have no need for that middle ground as Jobs conveyed in the keynote. When/if the iPad has features that make it more interesting to me and can justify the cost, I'll happily purchase one. That time, is just not now - for me.
Also - I think it's important to remember, as I've said in other threads. People need to remember they are being very geocentric. The iPad is a luxury item. And I believe it's inarguable that one doesn't NEED an iPad. But rather one can find uses for it. That being said - the price point, even though it's relatively inexpensive for what it can do - is not "Cheap" to the masses.
Hands up who's tried an iPad yet? Exactly.
Nearly all the criticism and FUD coming out should be suffixed with the words
"for me"
e.g.
It doesn't look useful for me
It won't multitask, that's a deal breaker for me
It doesn't have Flash, that's a shame for me
Apple has as explicitly as it has wanted to, told the world what audience this is for, and what market, what price. It's not showed everything off, that's what 3 months is for in part.
It's not a netbook, it's not just an oversized Touch.
Sweeping statements can bug the hell out of some on the boards, because they're usually easily proven incorrect, and they show little nuance. Apple's done a hell of a lot of work on the iPad, and the OS.
iPhone v 1 and v2 - I didn't want. They lacked features that I demand in a mobile phone these days. The 3GS had those features, so I purchased one. EXACTLY the same story with two former colleagues of mine. The iPhone just didn't work for them until it's third iteration. We all now have one.
It may well be the same story with the tablet, but I'll have to have hands-on with one first - if it's an AWESOME ebook reader, and can store many pdf's in an organised fashion - I may go for it anyway. The prime missing link for me is the camera missing from the iPad - it so very clearly deserves one, and it's so bloody obvious that the second or third version will include one. It's damn frustrating that they didn't include one this time around.
Well see for me, I could care less about the camera and in fact don't want one on it, because it would increase the price. I have a digital camera and my iPhone, what I'd use a camera on the iPad for beats the heck out of me.
you know whats funny? I can ask a million normal customers that have iphones/touch devices.
And if you say "How do you feel that iphones don't have multi-tasking?"
they would say "multi-what?!....Did you just curse at me?!!!"
END OF ARGUMENT.
And if you say "How do you feel that iphones don't have multi-tasking?"
they would say "multi-what?!....Did you just curse at me?!!!"
END OF ARGUMENT.
Actually, he didn't say that, it's a myth. In fact to begin with the Model T Ford wasn't available in black at all! And neither will the iPad!
It's pretty close, but it's overspecced for what I want & hence too expensive. I had specs more in line with a high end netbook in mind.
A quick comparison from Amazon (US):
HP mini 11 price = $400
iPad price = $500-700 (ignoring the 3G options, which are more)
Macbook air price = $1400
I don't mind paying extra for an Apple netbook, but we're talking iPad prices, not MBA ones.
That works both ways, though. As long as the praise comes with "an I haven't used one, but it looks good for me" too, that's fine.
"Netbooks aren't good at anything!"
Whether you love or hate the iPad, netbooks are junk and a waste of money. We can argue about what the best web browsing experience would be, but a netbook is definitely the worst web browsing experience. Low quality 1024x600 screens, cramped trackpads, painfully slow Atom CPUs, and most of them are almost twice the weight of an iPad. A netbook is overpriced no matter what the price is.
If Apple made a netbook, it would be the beginning of the end for them.
Whether you love or hate the iPad, netbooks are junk and a waste of money. We can argue about what the best web browsing experience would be, but a netbook is definitely the worst web browsing experience. Low quality 1024x600 screens, cramped trackpads, painfully slow Atom CPUs, and most of them are almost twice the weight of an iPad. A netbook is overpriced no matter what the price is.
If Apple made a netbook, it would be the beginning of the end for them.
It does blow hard though. Wish you guys could see past the shiny new Apple toy and see this for what it is. Just another money maker, with nothing new to bring to the table. So much for 10 years of work. They had a chance to release something that could have really boosted productivity in a massive range of areas. But no, we get a bigger iPod Touch with a stupid name.
I wish you could see past the "stupid name" and see the great product the iPad is going to be.
Really, you have no idea how this product will impact the world, so you can't gauge if they've wasted ten years or not.
And as for the camera argument, stop and ask yourself how often you would use a front facing webcam. The average person doesn't do video skype, or anything like that. If anything they'd use it a few novel times, and then be done with it. And a back facing camera, do you want to take pictures with a ten inch device? Especially a camera that was likely to be at most a 5 megapixel?
No, take pictures with your real camera, or even your phone, then upload them to your iPad. Sheesh, it isn't that hard.
- Not all netbooks have 1024x600 screens, some have full HD screens (unlike the iPad). In any event, you can web browse just fine on them. Plus, you don't suddenly lose half the screen any time you want to type something in (e.g. this forum response).
- Cramped trackpads? Sure they're small, but I've had no probem using them. Admitedly the iPad's touch model is easier, but if the trackpad bothers you, you can simply add a mouse. You can use the space in your bag that you've saved from not having to carry the keyboard dock & VGA adaptor to store it in.
- The atom is "painfully slow" is it? Please show comparative performance figures for the A4 vs Atom. I know from practical experience that the Atom on my aged netbook is rarely anywhere near 100% utilisation, so it's clearly fine for the task in hand. The main performance limit is usually lack of RAM or a slow HD, both of which are easily remedied. Edit: Assuming the A4 chip inside the iPad is based on the ARM Cortex-A9 MPCore as rumoured, that will turn out 2000 DMIPS at 1GHz. A 1.6 Ghz Atom as found on the HP Mini 1100 turns out 4000. If these numbers are correct, then "painfully slow" translates into "twice as fast".
- It's true that a netbook will on average weigh more than a "naked" ipad. For example, the HP Mini 1100 is 1.17 kg, vs the iPad's 0.68 kg. But add in the keyboard dock, power adaptor, camera adaptor & carrying case you need to match what a netbook does "out of the box" and its likely to be a different story. I couldn't find the weights for these on the Apple website, but I'd say there's a fair chance they'll exceed 0.5 kg in total, plus they are all annoying & fiddly to carry around & plug/unplug.
So I mentioned before that I felt that the iPad's strongest asset was that I believe it will be a great e-reader, then someone moaned that it is not an e-reader. Let's face it the iPad IS an e-reader 'with bells on', that is why Amazon has been pushing their Kindle device so heavily over the past week. That is why most of the (non-tech) news we are hearing about the iPad relates to publishing deals. I know Jobs didn't play very hard on the e-reading facility, but that is because Apple don't want the iPad to be seen as 'just an e-reader' (and that's called 'marketing', be it right or wrong).
Several people have said that they don't know who will use the iPad, speculating moms, older people, etc. Well as I see it the main clients for the iPad will be people like my colleagues looking for a secondary device to take 'on site', students/academics who don't want to carry around text books/papers/documents/ or their 2kg main computing device (mbp), and yes a lot of people who just want to have a simple device to check their e-mail, go on the web, or read a book/magazine on a screen bigger than their hand. Oh yes I also believe the wifi function works in the bathroom and the screen is wipe clean so that should satisfy the most ardent techno-geek
Several people have said that they don't know who will use the iPad, speculating moms, older people, etc. Well as I see it the main clients for the iPad will be people like my colleagues looking for a secondary device to take 'on site', students/academics who don't want to carry around text books/papers/documents/ or their 2kg main computing device (mbp), and yes a lot of people who just want to have a simple device to check their e-mail, go on the web, or read a book/magazine on a screen bigger than their hand. Oh yes I also believe the wifi function works in the bathroom and the screen is wipe clean so that should satisfy the most ardent techno-geek
Netbooks aren't perfect but they surely beat surfing and emailing on my iPhone. Currently the sole reason I take a netbook with me on trips is that until I get my hands on an iPad, a Netbook is the most portable most comfortable email/web experience I can get. Sure the iPhone is ok for a quickie message here or there, but for a full 1 page email the netbook spanks the iPhone.
I can't wait to get my iPad so I can sell the damn netbook though.
Let me try to write that again for you, this time using a real scenario.
P.S. Even the cheapest Netbook (like my $285 one) has a 3+ hour battery, I don't know where you could even find a netbook with a 2 hour battery, as the one you described.
So many criticisms about the iPad have been about it not really "doing anything well", and it is just a big iPod. Apple has always been about doing one thing well. There had been "smart phones" out for years, GPS units, hand held gaming, MP3 players and iPods, Mobile browsing via laptops, and well implemented media versions on "Walkman" and other such phones. But Apple took all of those things the industry had individually done well, on multiple devices, and did it Very poorly, and jarring, on one device; that "targets a different market from the" iPhone you may have heard of.
Now we have readers (galore in the past couple of months), like the Kindle, Nook and Sony's that are nice for reading, but have no internet capability, or very hobbled web experiences in 16 shades of gray-scale. Luckily, books are different from the internet. We have netbooks that are not less optimal for books than the iPad, but especially not optimal for movies like my 50" plasma TV is. Netbooks and laptops are certainly great for gaming (especially games designed for netbooks). Only the laptops and netbooks can do business apps equivalent to iWork, unlike the iPad where you don't even have a proper keyboard. So again, Apple, while not really "doing anything well" is going to do Everything in a "new" way - We call that re-inventing the wheel. And on one device, too! That is called poor design, and that is were Apple just "lost it".
One device-the difference: I work on my presentation for a while on the flight. Take a break, catch an episode of "Lost" and watch the really cool chase scene in the "Matrix-Reloaded" for the umpteenth time, which is strange because my netbook has a 320gb HDD, about 10x the size of the most expensive iPad's. Start talking with the person in the seat beside me, tell him about my family and flip through pictures in Picasa. I exchange contact info later in the flight and enter it easily via a keyboard into my Contacts. I preview my Powerpoint presentation one last time on my screen, which I will be able to pass around at the conference. I laugh as I start to read the Economist on my screen, while my friend is turning the pages of his magazine. I am jealous that I don't get to feel that paper under my fingers as the backlight burns my retinas. I ignore the feeling as I power up one of my netbook optimized ARPG's and mindlessly kill monsters while I listen to music. The poor soul is stuck doing a crossword puzzle now and actually asks me what 6 letter word means Apple follower!
As we descend through 10,000 feet, the announcement tells us to prepare for landing and to do all the "securing" that goes with it. I slip my netbook into its slender sleeve and easily slide it into the seat-back in front of me. My new friend keeps working on his crossword, as I now jealously stare at it, desperate for something to do while I wait. He easily gets off with his suitcase, and I grab my netbook and go, thankful that one side isn't all glass.
To the people who say the iPad, "doesn't do anything well", well, it's actually a reinvention of the wheel and still has some kinks
Most of them are 1024x600 and all of them are low quality. Show me a netbook that has a display that isn't crap. Also, lose half the screen when typing? When you're typing, is there a reason you need the full screen?
I find the trackpad extremely frustrating to use. For example, if my cursor is at the bottom of the screen, I have to move my finger repeatedly to get it to the top. I don't know how anyone can use it daily.
Add a mouse? The point of a portable device is not to add anything. NOBODY with an iPad is going to be carrying the keyboard dock and VGA adapter with them.
A4 isn't out so benchmarks are impossible but every journalist who has used the iPad has said it was "blazingly fast", words nobody uses to describe netbooks. Link me to one reporter who says the iPad is not shockingly fast. The A4 is most likely dual-core, but even if it's not, it's running a mobile OS optimized for speed. The netbook has shoehorned a desktop OS in it.
I repeat, nobody using an iPad will take anything with them (even the power adapter if the 10 hour battery holds).
Netbook manufacturers are always about cramming in more ports and any other cheap component they can find and listing them as features.
Apple has always been about minimalism. How to reduce the need for ports. Stripping away everything and keeping only what is absolutely needed. And I appreciate that. That's why I have a MacBook Air. It has everything I need and nothing I don't. If I only use a DVD drive once every few weeks, I don't want it inside my machine and be forced to carry it around 100% of the time. If the purpose is portability, I don't want to see a bunch of ugly ports on the side of my machine. With my MacBook Air, with the door closed, I don't see any ports at all.
Same with the iPad. I will only miss the physical keyboard when I'm typing long documents (which is 1% of the time). Don't want to be forced to carry it around 100% of the time like a netbook.
I don't understand you people. Every PC manufacturer makes netbook, an uninspiring product with old technology that ONLY exists because of price. Apple does something different and people prefer they make another boring netbook?
Responding to this post would be a good example of why you don't want to lose half your screen. Wouldn't fit on half a screen. As for quality, there's nothing wrong with the one on my old rebadged MSI wind. I'm sure they're better now.
Sounds like your trackpad is set up incorrectly then.
If that's the case, then say goodbye to connecting it to a projector for your Keynote presentations, downloading pictures from your camera, typing up anything non trivial in Pages or any useful spreadsheet in Numbers.
That isn't because the Atom is slow (as you originally claimed), it's because Apple have cut functionality out of the iPad. Now that's a legitimate design decision, but claiming that the Atom is "painfully slow", as you originally did, is just misleading. All the evidence points to it being at least as fast as the A4, it's just doing more work.
That's because they are features. Good luck getting a file from a client's memory stick onto your iPad, printing a document or connecting to a wired network, a projector or monitor. Not to mention recharging or syncing your iPhone. That desktop OS that you dislike brings a lot of functionality with it.
The Air is indeed a lovely piece of kit. However, it sells for around $1400, whereas netbooks sell for around $400, so it's a bit of an unfair comparison. That's why the fair comparison for netbooks is the iPad, which is in the same price bracket.
By "you people", I presume you mean me. There isn't a committee writing this post.
I don't see why an Apple netbook would be boring. A 10" Air would probably be just as lovely as the current one. Besides, "different" is not an intrinsic good. The Segway was "different", but that didn't stop it being useless.
I'll leave you with this thought. Just imagine that Apple had, instead of developing the iPad, put the same amount of effort from Steve Jobs, Jonathan Ive etc into a 10" MacBook. Do you seriously think that product would have been "uninspiring"? Of course it wouldn't. It would be beautifully engineered and would run full OSX. It would do the same job as the existing Windows/Linux machines, but much better, just as the current MacBooks do a better job than their Windows counterparts. And even if you up the price compared to a conventional netbook by 50%, that's still only $600. I'd buy that in an instant.