Other tablet makers seem to be playing follow the 
leader
Sent from my iPad
http://dvice.com/archives/2010/10/what-other-tabl.php
leader Sent from my iPad
http://dvice.com/archives/2010/10/what-other-tabl.php
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
This says it all about copycat tablet makers.
- Thread starter EspressoQueen
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
the point is that apple created a market for themselves amongst its own users. there really isn't an apple "netbook" to slot between the macbook/air and the iphone. other companies can create whatever they want, but they will be trying to attract their own users, but won't sway current ipad owners.
As I said before.
Apple have an advantage, but they also have a problem.
They have the iPod Touch, then the iPad then the MacBooks
All in a neat and tidy package, and to the most part, right now, none of the products really hurts the other.
Given time (time makes a BIG difference) Other tablet will come along and for most other makers the reigns are off when it comes to how far they can push the tablet concept.
In 5 or 10 years time we can have Tablets as fast as todays fast gaming PC's and can do anything and be totally independent devices.
But can Apple do that?
What are Apple going to do in a few years when other Tablets start offering more than their iPad4 or iPad5?
Are they going to damage their Macbook sales by gearing up the iPad into a way more versatile device that can replace a laptop, or are they going to forever hold back THEIR tablet and let others race ahead?
Be interesting to know what the market will look like in 2020
Apple have an advantage, but they also have a problem.
They have the iPod Touch, then the iPad then the MacBooks
All in a neat and tidy package, and to the most part, right now, none of the products really hurts the other.
Given time (time makes a BIG difference) Other tablet will come along and for most other makers the reigns are off when it comes to how far they can push the tablet concept.
In 5 or 10 years time we can have Tablets as fast as todays fast gaming PC's and can do anything and be totally independent devices.
But can Apple do that?
What are Apple going to do in a few years when other Tablets start offering more than their iPad4 or iPad5?
Are they going to damage their Macbook sales by gearing up the iPad into a way more versatile device that can replace a laptop, or are they going to forever hold back THEIR tablet and let others race ahead?
Be interesting to know what the market will look like in 2020
Steve Jobs said that if the iPod should be cannibalized by another product, it would be better if Apple itself did this with his iPhone. Time moves on.
Apple, or maybe Steve Jobs, has the gift to understand where the market is going, and even the intuition to create its own market sometimes.
So I think Jobs knows very well where Apple is going to do with their products and their different category of products.
Apple didn't created the iPad just to sell it, but because Jobs understood that it will have a key role in the Apple ecosystem in the next decade.
I'm sure that at Apple Headquarters, they discussed the fact of iPad and MacBooks hurting each other in the market, and they know where they're going.
It wouldn't surprise me, 5 years from now, to see both a touchscreen and a classic MacBok in the market.
Apple defines markets, and it will do it again when the times are right.
*gets on soapbox*
For me the lesson from the iPad to the rest of the computer industry is the benefit of having control over both hardware AND software development. This is the fundamental advantage Apple have over everyone else and it's really shown first with the iPhone and now with the iPad.
Right now tablet OS's are in pretty poor shape outside of iOS. Android sorta works but it really IS 'a big phone' and there's a fair amount of work to do there. Windows is... well, Windows. Nice OS but ultimately it's built from the ground up around the concept of a mouse and keyboard and wants relatively beefy hardware. Blackpad is currently vaporware, webOS is being worked on for V2. The net result is it becomes VERY hard to make your product stand out on anything other than hardware features.
How do you fix that? Tricky question actually. In an ideal world you'd have something like Android available as a proper, modular OS where you can bolt whatever UI you like on top, add whatever apps you want and still have updates to the core OS apply without breaking anything (assuming the changes are done according to the relevant design specs). Failing that you really need a way of creating apps that work across multiple OS's to remove the dependency on a strong dedicated developer community. In the longer term that's likely to be web apps of one form or another with local apps being more of a suplement or for off-line working but, again, we're not there yet.
So in the short term where goes the Tablet market? Android 3.0 will be vital for the majority of manufacturers as it's going to be the only real option unless Microsoft come up with something unexpected. The two companies that may have a real chance at major sales are RIM (assuming that Playbook doesn't stay as vaporware) and HP (assuming they can get webOS 2.0 into decent shape) as their offerings are going to stand out and can offer something different from the rest of the market the same way that Apple does.
For me the lesson from the iPad to the rest of the computer industry is the benefit of having control over both hardware AND software development. This is the fundamental advantage Apple have over everyone else and it's really shown first with the iPhone and now with the iPad.
Right now tablet OS's are in pretty poor shape outside of iOS. Android sorta works but it really IS 'a big phone' and there's a fair amount of work to do there. Windows is... well, Windows. Nice OS but ultimately it's built from the ground up around the concept of a mouse and keyboard and wants relatively beefy hardware. Blackpad is currently vaporware, webOS is being worked on for V2. The net result is it becomes VERY hard to make your product stand out on anything other than hardware features.
How do you fix that? Tricky question actually. In an ideal world you'd have something like Android available as a proper, modular OS where you can bolt whatever UI you like on top, add whatever apps you want and still have updates to the core OS apply without breaking anything (assuming the changes are done according to the relevant design specs). Failing that you really need a way of creating apps that work across multiple OS's to remove the dependency on a strong dedicated developer community. In the longer term that's likely to be web apps of one form or another with local apps being more of a suplement or for off-line working but, again, we're not there yet.
So in the short term where goes the Tablet market? Android 3.0 will be vital for the majority of manufacturers as it's going to be the only real option unless Microsoft come up with something unexpected. The two companies that may have a real chance at major sales are RIM (assuming that Playbook doesn't stay as vaporware) and HP (assuming they can get webOS 2.0 into decent shape) as their offerings are going to stand out and can offer something different from the rest of the market the same way that Apple does.
There's two things wrong with your statement:
1) You assume that Apple will fail to pander to their customers and that other manufacturers will swoop in with their iteration of superior magical devices, and
2) You assume other manufacturers aren't going to start experiencing the same problem (Dell sells laptops too, and Crackberry might start cutting into their cell-phone business).
The issue is a bit more complex and the world, unlike forum posts, is never just black and white.
This isn't necessarily true. For some users the iPad is their first Apple product. I am not loyal to the iPad and if something better comes out, I will have no problem swaying.
I agree. I love my iPad but I am also smart enough to realize it is far from perfect. I am not blind to the fact that something could be better. If somebody does make something better then I would have no problem selling my iPad and getting that new product. I am a Mac user and I teach graphic design students on Mac computers. I love Mac computers but one thing we all have to consider is that many of us consider a Mac computer to be superior to PC systems and a no brainer that people should use a Mac instead but look at the market share there. Do not be over confident that alternative tablets could not end up doing the same thing to Apple and repeating history all over again. Maybe they will not be better but what matters to people is the cost and what they can do. Sure alternative tablets may not be perfect but then again neither is Windows.
Actually, the iOS devices are bringing in a lot of non-apple users. It is a lot easier to get a PC guy to spend $500 on an iphone or ipad than $1500 to try a Mac.
Apple does a much better job at researching the market than the other guys. All the PC guys decided that consumers wanted a portable computer, so they created netbooks that were just scaled down full-size machines, running the same OS but with unusable keyboards, screens, and weak performance.
Apple watched this play out and saw that people definitely wanted the portable devices, but didn't necessarily expect them to be full featured computers. So they design a new OS to make it work the way people want it to work. Boom! iPad. Success.
Now the PC guys are copying Apple. But they build the hardware in one place and get the software (Win, Android) from another place. It just never works out as well as Apple. They control the whole experience, and it shows in the finished product.
you guys are taking my post too literally. sure there are some new apple customers created by the ipad, but studies have shown, that 74% of ipad buyers own macs and 66% own iphones.
the point is that there may be a "better" product out there, but many people enjoy the ease of integration with apple products. who do you think will be the majority buyers for the droid and BB tablets?
edit: you also have to remember that apple was first to market so obviously you're are going to get some penetration into new markets.
the point is that there may be a "better" product out there, but many people enjoy the ease of integration with apple products. who do you think will be the majority buyers for the droid and BB tablets?
edit: you also have to remember that apple was first to market so obviously you're are going to get some penetration into new markets.
Other tablet makers seem to be playing follow the
Sent from my iPad
http://dvice.com/archives/2010/10/what-other-tabl.php
The big point of the article was that these folk weren't following the leader.
They are doing it wrong!
9.7" gives you a near laptop size keyboard to type on.
4:3 display means that portrait mode is closer to paper/page dimensions.
I keep on wincing every time I read the specs on these new tablets.
I want a really cool tablet, but everyone keeps making things that look like NetBooks with really tiny screens and no keyboard.
I think webOS 2.0 looks sharp, it could be a contender to iOS. But HP hasn't rolled out hardware for it, and that will make or break it.
Why is it that we can envision tomorrow's iPads being superpowered competitors to today's notebooks but assume the notebooks will still be inching forward? Your MacBook Pro of 2012/2013 - or whatever it will be called then - will undoubtedly be a different animal. The roads will likely start converging at some point.
While I agree with this sentiment, I don't see any prospect of anybody making something better anytime soon. At this point, to make me switch, the competition would have to come up with something much better than the iPad -- if it were as good as or only a little better, it wouldn't be worth the bother. And the more I use my iPad, the less I'm finding things that could be improved. The things that I do find lacking on the iPad are mostly things that can be fixed by software -- for instance, ability to print directly from the iPad, and better file management. I just found an app called FileBrowser the other day that mostly solves the file management issue for me. The vlc app was approved into the App store recently, and while I found it too buggy to be of use, it does show that eventually, the iPad would be able to handle most file formats. Zumocast lets me store and play audio files in flac format on the iPad. Every day there are more apps that make the iPad more useful and less limiting. I even found a software workaround that lets me print from my iPad via Dropbox to a network printer. And this is without the enhancements promised in iOS 4.2.
So in order to get me to switch, the competition would have to not only have superior hardware, but also convince me that they have enough apps to provide the same functionality as the iPad. And I'm really not seeing that happening. When I was picking my first PC in the early days of Windows vs Macs, it always seemed as if the most robust applications were made for Windows, and Mac apps seemed like an afterthought for most software developers. Not so with iOS vs Android or any other mobile platform. Android may be catching up, but it's got a long way to go to convince me that it is worth a serious look.
Yes, but No
True, but irrelevant. In 5 or 10 years the fast gaming PC's at that time will be able to handle whatever the hot thing is at that time (3D holographic smell-o-vision?). The tablet of that time will not be able to do that.
So sure, in the future you can run a 5 year old game (say Bioshock 2) on your tablet, but you'll go home and play MarioSex 3D on your 20 monitor iMac.
True, but irrelevant. In 5 or 10 years the fast gaming PC's at that time will be able to handle whatever the hot thing is at that time (3D holographic smell-o-vision?). The tablet of that time will not be able to do that.
So sure, in the future you can run a 5 year old game (say Bioshock 2) on your tablet, but you'll go home and play MarioSex 3D on your 20 monitor iMac.
I think too many people are assuming that the mainstream user wants USB ports, full blown OS's, sd card slots, specs that shame any net book etc etc etc.
I'm no computer geek, I have a decent quad core pc only because that's what everyone said I needed, when I bought my iPad I didn't care about how much ram it had, that it couldn't run flash, that there was no USB ports or that the OS was sandboxed. My experience with my iPod touch showed me that apple makes great looking devices that... Just... Work! That is more important to me than the limitations.
Allow me to compare my experiences:
This year I have had my pc blue screen, die completely and require a service (for what turned out to be some loose wires), crash god only knows how many times, i've spent days mucking around trying to get a new wireless dongle working and I had to reinstall windows 7 because of a virus (great job there norton
).
My iPad has never had any problems. Not one. Yeah I have to sync it with iTunes but I DON'T CARE I use iTunes for managing all my multimedia anyway.
I know that the iPad is not a full computer but it is reliable, simple and it meets my needs perfectly to the point that I only switch my desktop on if it is unavoidable. I always thought that I needed a 4gig quad core pc with 8 USB ports and whatnot because that's what everyone oohs and ahhs over. But you know what, I don't. My dad, who has a spaz attack if his window minimizes on his pc because he can't find it, can open the app store, browse for something he likes and download it on my iPad.
Apple won a new fan. My next computer will be an iMac.
Edit: and my dad's next pc will be an iPad Before he drives me insane
I'm no computer geek, I have a decent quad core pc only because that's what everyone said I needed, when I bought my iPad I didn't care about how much ram it had, that it couldn't run flash, that there was no USB ports or that the OS was sandboxed. My experience with my iPod touch showed me that apple makes great looking devices that... Just... Work! That is more important to me than the limitations.
Allow me to compare my experiences:
This year I have had my pc blue screen, die completely and require a service (for what turned out to be some loose wires), crash god only knows how many times, i've spent days mucking around trying to get a new wireless dongle working and I had to reinstall windows 7 because of a virus (great job there norton
).My iPad has never had any problems. Not one. Yeah I have to sync it with iTunes but I DON'T CARE I use iTunes for managing all my multimedia anyway.
I know that the iPad is not a full computer but it is reliable, simple and it meets my needs perfectly to the point that I only switch my desktop on if it is unavoidable. I always thought that I needed a 4gig quad core pc with 8 USB ports and whatnot because that's what everyone oohs and ahhs over. But you know what, I don't. My dad, who has a spaz attack if his window minimizes on his pc because he can't find it, can open the app store, browse for something he likes and download it on my iPad.
Apple won a new fan. My next computer will be an iMac.
Edit: and my dad's next pc will be an iPad
Before he drives me insane I used to be like this too. With the exception of Skype and virtual machines I don't use my laptop for anything an iPad couldn't do. It is a Core2Duo with 3GB RAM. I don't invisage needing to upgrade this anytime soon based on my workload. Although switching to a MBP seems likely in a years time.
Exactly! Honestly I am a geek in that I've been using computers forever (my computer programming course was in Fortran using card punchers), I have a B.S.E.E., and do requirements for new software products. Before getting the iPad I was skeptical, but after getting it, I'm convinced that this is the computer future for most users. Most users just don't care about specs, they just want to do things.
Yeah I think people forget what a coup, what a shocker that the iPad was as cheap as it is. Everyone, I mean everyone predicted it would be $200+ more starting off. Somehow saying 'Tablets should be under $500' is, imho, the biggest factor that's forked the competition up, because they can't touch Apple's manufacturing/flash-buying capability, so their only way to be cost competitive and still have something enticing (better specs) is to lowball the overall form factor.
I'm shocked that there are no products actually out in the wild or even announced that genuinely compete with the iPad toe to toe. What Apple did was... and is amazing: a beautiful, usable, sleek device for cheap with an industry-defying battery life. I'm not even sure they'll be caught up by 2011, as is the norm for iPhones, just in time for the next iPad to blow out of the water whatever the copycats attempt peddle.
I agree with that. Weren't the rumors that it was going to be under $1000? So when they came out at an entry price of $500 (with IPS screen) that sent everyone else back to the drawing board to take cost out of their tablet that originally was going to be powerful enough to run Windows.
Greg
I love my iPad, and I haven't seen anything that comes close to it "yet" (as an overall experience), however- the first tablet PC that runs World of Warcraft and/or Fallout New Vegas even halfway decent in a sleek design, we will see a lot of iPads for sale on craigslist.
There are far more "quality" games for Windows out-of-box than anything app store has to offer, so the hardware just needs to be brought up to the task. it will happen, it's just a matter of time. I just hope Apple is up to the task, rather than letting the same gap between PC games and Mac games happen to the iPad.
There are far more "quality" games for Windows out-of-box than anything app store has to offer, so the hardware just needs to be brought up to the task. it will happen, it's just a matter of time. I just hope Apple is up to the task, rather than letting the same gap between PC games and Mac games happen to the iPad.
Exactly! iOS interface is so easy to use my wife can use it the first time she tried. When I opened camera app on my new iPT4 I told her she can switch to front camera and she just did it. Right there without needing my guide (and before I even had a look for where to press). And this is someone who needed my help for something as trivial as resizing the picture on her PC.
