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When will Apple directly compete with Surface Pro?
- Thread starter pdoherty
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where are you pulling 20% from? made up numbers don't make for good arguments.
The the true advantage of an app centric model is that it gives a very easy way for developers to monitize. Technically, it is inferior to the cloud-centric environment which everything is moving to.
My perfect world would actually be a Cromebook that could do everything in the cloud. I think we will be there one day.
I think apple makes more money by having a more defined line between their laptop and tablet categories. There is obviously still a very large market for both their MacBooks and iPads. Many who own both, turning into a 2in1 might cut into the sales, especially for those who would have owned both.
Apple tries hard to make sure all their devices merge together to work together as one, thus promoting the idea for you to buy all apple. If they start merging all their devices into just one, unless they start selling it for an even more insane price bump then they do now, then they hurt their profits. Apple prefers their products excel well in the category they were put into and as a tablet, the iPad is at the very top. They are trying to merge as much into it as they can without hurting the core of what made the iPad so successful.
I love my iPad for what it is, a grand handheld device that i can take anywhere and use anywhere to stay connected. I dont treat it as a work device, i dont expect it to replace the laptop, but i still use it way more then i ever did my laptop when I’m home because i love being able to just sit back on the couch and surf the net. Surface pro is a much harder device to do that with because the touchscreen aspect of it sucks compared to the iPad. So while it excels more as a laptop as an iPad, it still gets its ass kicked as a tablet.
I think apple is smart by taking it slow when merging more laptop like features into it, throwing the kitchen sink at it and hoping for the best will not be a successful gamble. (Happily sitting here typing this all out on my iPad and BT keyboard in bed)
Apple tries hard to make sure all their devices merge together to work together as one, thus promoting the idea for you to buy all apple. If they start merging all their devices into just one, unless they start selling it for an even more insane price bump then they do now, then they hurt their profits. Apple prefers their products excel well in the category they were put into and as a tablet, the iPad is at the very top. They are trying to merge as much into it as they can without hurting the core of what made the iPad so successful.
I love my iPad for what it is, a grand handheld device that i can take anywhere and use anywhere to stay connected. I dont treat it as a work device, i dont expect it to replace the laptop, but i still use it way more then i ever did my laptop when I’m home because i love being able to just sit back on the couch and surf the net. Surface pro is a much harder device to do that with because the touchscreen aspect of it sucks compared to the iPad. So while it excels more as a laptop as an iPad, it still gets its ass kicked as a tablet.
I think apple is smart by taking it slow when merging more laptop like features into it, throwing the kitchen sink at it and hoping for the best will not be a successful gamble. (Happily sitting here typing this all out on my iPad and BT keyboard in bed)
This is true. They don't win by merging devices together. One thing Apple has always been known is about their ecosystem (if you are a fan). Their devices work good together. They just don't play good with other devices. And it's not because they can't do it technically. This is also part of their marketing.
This is all great but then they should drop the iPad vs notebooks comparison because honestly it's irrelevant. Even if the iPad is as powerful as rocket it's still a tablet and can do what tablets can. Nothing less, nothing more. Granted this is part of their marketing. People hear this and they are all like "This sounds awesome".
For me the tablet wins over laptop in being portable. However if this device cannot offer me what I need then I still need to bring my laptop with me during trips. At that point it does not make sense to bring the iPad at all. And now the feature of being portable becomes irrelevant.
Anyway I think that Apple would not make the iPad close to the Surface Pro line because it does not fit in with their marketing. What I could hope is Microsoft improving the Surface Pro line and having more and more 2 in 1 laptops. This way people like me would move to the other devices and will leave the iPad market to the ones that need the true tablet experience only.
This.
I have a 'break' coming up and traveling abroad for about 10 days (may well extend it, not sure yet).
Coming to the point, on such a break, I don't need to bring a laptop with me, however I never travel without one because stuff does pop up in emergencies and I want to be on call with my clients. Secondly, I like my entertainment (netflix etc) so I do need something to accompany me and the Macbook Pro does a grand job.
That said, I don't need the entire power of a Macbook Pro ether on this break but I will need to do because the iPad is not capable of handling website builders and i'm big on file management so theres a no go either with the iPad. I could store my files in Dropbox over the cloud but I am unsure of what the wifi will be like in the resort we're staying in nor should I have to go the extra mile to find out by calling the resort, reading reviews of the resort - I simply can't risk it. The iPad should, really, "just do it" (maybe they could learn a trick or two from Nike).
Are these business trips I guess? Because if I was on a trip, whether it’s camping or a hotel, a tablet is all I ever took to stay connected with friends and family and to watch movies
I'm in the same boat. I travel super light. I mean really light. It does not matter business or pleasure, I look to take as little tech gear as possible. Tablets and laptops, and their supporting gear are often the heaviest and bulky items in my pack, plus the additional hassles they bring when going though security. My original purpose in getting my 9.7 Pro, then the 10.5 Pro was to have something, that on short business trips, or pleasure trips, I would have one device that could handle any business need that may pop up, especially on a pleasure trip when who knows when a client might have an urgent request.
I keep all my files on Dropbox, so accessing them is never an issue (you can actually sync and download full directories now), but I found out that I could not do a lot of the productivity work that I needed to do, and often had to resort to the hotel lounge computers or an internet cafe. I ended up bringing my Air and iPad, which doubled my load and defeated the whole purpose of carrying a highly mobile "Pro" device.
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It's a leisure trip but I take my MBP as I do work now and then #hustle
If it were only entertainment, I could easily do off an iPad #NetflixandChill
Sadly, the reality is that my work is such that I can be on a moments notice to get things done and whilst I could have the auto-responder in my email set to "I am currently out of the office and will be back on X" will not suffice in my case.
Same for me
. I am rarely on vacation without doing something small work related. It's not just about the emails, it's about doing specific work checks for which there are no iOS apps.What sucks is that for business trips I will have to bring both the laptop and the iPad because I prefer to use the iPad and the pencil for taking notes during meeting. And this is why I need 2 in 1 device.
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Same for me. When it comes to the entertainment part for me the laptop and the iPad are interchangeable.
Same for me. I quite often am in places with no or weak internet connection. And I need file managers as otherwise cannot find what I need. Apple system might work for most people but for me it's not intuitive at all and it only slows me down as I waste time looking for files.
It doesn't sound like the files and directories you work with are very large or demand a lot of processing power.
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Well, as a creative professional myself, I’m telling you that it’s true.
I’m not saying the iPad can 100% replace the need for a Mac, but the day is coming closer. If I didn’t need to use Illustrator on a daily basis, I could dump my iMac pretty much right now.
Lots of folks here claiming they want mouse support or finder or some other MacOS stuff invading the iPad. I’d rather see Apple give us the ability to use the iPad as a Wacom Cintiq, rather than rely on third-party app developers (like Astropad)
I travel super light as well (I just cleaned out my backpack of excess cabling yesterday - probably saved another 2 ounces!), although I have to bring my work laptop when traveling for business in addition to my iPad. My iPad has greatly reduced what I need to carry - no more books, magazines, newspapers, journal, etc.
If you haven’t signed up for TSA pre-check, do so! No more taking your shoes or jacket off, no more taking your electronics or liquids out of the bag.
That's why cloud centric works for you, but bandwidth of LTE would kill my workflow. I can generate 12 GB directories in a couple of hours, so to me a cloud centric approach is not for "pros."
Was that not the original vision of the Chromebook? People didn’t buy it without local storage, local processing, and local apps.
No it does not always work for me, but now that I have a Surface Pro 6, its all on local disk so no worries.
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Yea, I have TSA Pre, Global Entry and APEC BTC as well. Best money ever spent.
It’s also a gamble to market it as a laptop, with laptop features, but not really provide the features customers expect from a laptop.
I’d love to see how you use a separate keyboard with an iPad in bed ... that seems the least useful place for that combo. I mean, are you laying on your stomach with the iPad propped against the pillow typing with the keyboard flat on the mattress? Inquiring minds want to know!
Isn't that's one of the Pencil many usage for? To facilitate text input? I mean, I'm writing this post in bed on the iPad & Pencil. Much more comfortable & up-close personal.
Yes, inquring mind wants to know
So then I would say that it isn’t very useful speculation. There is no way to prove that they would actually gain anywhere near that amount of sales from mouse and pointer support. Not to mention that there is a chance that they would lose sales from it as well.
It would be negligible at best.
I am not sure if they are marketing the iPad as a laptop with laptop features. They are saying iPad is a computer alternative for a lot of people, primarily those that likely didn't need a traditional PC to begin with. It's a tablet computer, with the ability to use a keyboard for typing, and a Pencil for art. I don't think there is much confusion there. I will sometimes prop my iPad up and use my Apple wireless keyboard (the old small one) on my lap. It's fine for that, but I am mostly at a desk when using a keyboard with my iPad.
I wish I could test drive one for a week. I just really don't want to go back to Windows after all these years. I like how integrated all my stuff is between my Mac and iOS devices. The iPad has too many pain points to make it productive for moderately complex tasks.
It depends on the perception and interpretation. This is not how it's advertised though. It's specifically said that it's more powerful than a laptop (which is irrelevant as I can't run any meaningful software to me there to actually take advantage of said power), that it's a laptop replacement and that it can be the only computer you will ever need.
Now I give you that. Apple are careful in the way they do marketing. They do it in a way where you could never say "they claimed this and that", but I don't see it. They play with words carefully so that we can always have discussion on "did they advertise it as a laptop replacement or not". And in the end of the day you could definitely see that some interpret this as yes, others as not. Based on this different people have different expectations.
And obviously some people (though let's agree not that big amount) do have the expectation that the iPad is a laptop replacement. It seems that all tech reviewers are on this opinion as well. That in itself shows that for some people Apple do claim that iPad is a laptop replacement. And obviously for people like me and few others as well as tech reviewers are not.
Then we have two other groups. Group of people that do not see it as a replacement but they never expected it to be and they are OK with this so they do not care and group of people that do find it as a replacement as it fits in with their needs and workflow.
I said sitting in bed lol. Sitting, pillow propped up on the headboard for back support, tv wallmounted with iPad in front of me. It’s a nice set up for late at night
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I guess this also depends on what people use a laptop for. There’s a mass majority of people that simply buy laptops for checking email, web surfing etc. Not everyone who buys a laptop owns it for business purposes either
I’m a perfect example of that, I have a laptop collecting dust on the shelf because my phone and tablet have taken over the role that I used it for.