Why the iPad will Flop

Seeking Alpha ^ | 04/04/2010 | Alex Cook

[ctdonath2]

He mentioned using a mouse, so I contrasted using a mouse.
If you’re going to jump into a subthread, read it first.

[longtermmemmory]

I wonder...if the ipad, with its limited feature set, was made by any other company, would be 25%-50% of the price.

At $50 we are approaching the star trek data padd.

[Swordmaker]

And I disagree that that was the case. Ford, Edison, Westinghouse, Morgan, etc. were none of them like todays MBA-driven businessmen, whose only goal is to add $0.02 to the stock price, no matter what the means used, and no matter the effects that doing so will have on their employees or their customers. They were FAR more like Feuerstein than Jobs.

I would like you to come up with a MODERN example of malfeasance on the part of Jobs that is not 30 years old. You can use the back dating of the stock options if you like, but be aware that that whole thing has been re-thought and is no longer being considered as unethical as it was and the GAAP rules change that made it so, are being changed back. Consider also that Jobs did not grant himself the options and in fact recused himself from the board meetings where the decision was made. Also be aware that Jobs has taken only $1 in salary as CEO of Apple since his return in 1997. So, Wonder Warthog, please, SHOW US THIS REPREHENSIBLE CONDUCT you claim. Make it relevant.. i.e. modern

[Swordmaker]

And I disagree that that was the case. Ford, Edison, Westinghouse, Morgan, etc. were none of them like todays MBA-driven businessmen, whose only goal is to add $0.02 to the stock price, no matter what the means used, and no matter the effects that doing so will have on their employees or their customers. They were FAR more like Feuerstein than Jobs.

And, incidentally, I can demonstrate far more documented cases of actual outright THEFT of intellectual property by Microsoft from small companies, and the subsequent failure of those small companies. It was a deliberate business practice of MS and Bill Gates. He attempted it on Apple... and got caught with his fingers in the cookie jar. It cost MS $150,000,000 in 1998 in a law suit settlement in the Quicktime infringement case where MS got caught not even filing the "serial numbers" off Apple's stolen code... found embedded in MS's first release of Windows Media Player.

Do you think that Bill Gates was honest when he sold IBM a product he didn't own? And then cheated the actual owner when he bought it for a song and dance? How about using the access he was granted to the Apple Mac OS to develop Office and Word, under a non-disclosure agreement and a non-compete agreement, to reverse engineer many of its operational aspects to solve his problems with his initial offerings of Windows?

So, Wonder Warthog, do you buy Microsoft Products, or do you eschew products from this pirate organization? Or are you a hypocrite, boycotting only Apple products because it's easier to do so because you don't use them, and can crow about your superior moral stance?

[Swordmaker]

I have a very basic question, from a non techie.
Do you have to have a monthly contract to use the iPad?

Can you just use your existing internet subscription to down load stuff?

I am sure that many of you are laughing, but I know with the iPod you don't, but with the iPhone you do.

No, you so nor have to have a contract with either the WIFI or the WIFI plus 3G iPads. The WIFI iPad allows you to download anything from the App Store over your standard existing internet subscription, or from any WIFI hotspot you have access to. The WIFI plus 3G allows that, plus you can have a month -to-month access to the internet available anywhere there is an AT&T 3G signal for $15 for 250 MB or $30 for unlimited access, renewable monthly (or when the 250MB is used up) without a contract. I imagine that AT&T will be offering multi-month packages.

The iPhone requires the contract because of the voice connection. However, if you cancel your contract, the WIFI on the iPhone still works... the 3G and EDGE don't.

[Swordmaker]

But let's be real about where WYSIWYG came from...and it wasn't Apple.

Actually, you are wrong. XEROX did not invent the WYSIWYG... Apple did. XEROX did invent the GUI and Apple and XEROX jointly invented a lot of what is today accepted as standard. Xerox invented the windows of the GUI. Apple invented the draggable, movable windows and nested drop down sub-menuing systems... and has documented, photographic evidence of every step to back that up.

But Apple did develop the "What you see is what you get" concept. XEROX had not gotten very far at all with developing the metaphor of what you saw on the screen would be what you got printed on the page. Apple was responsible for that. That is why they wound up owning the publishing platform market. They were the ones that coupled the 72 DPI screen (1/72 of an inch is a PICA in printing terms) in both directions to the 72 DPI printing and then moved that to a laser printer. Microsoft was crippled because their screen was NOT 72 dpi in both directions... and had to jump through hoops to convert the screen to the printed page. I know, i was there in the printing publishing industry during all of this.

[Wonder Warthog]

"I would like you to come up with a MODERN example of malfeasance on the part of Jobs that is not 30 years old."

Can't. Not because they don't exist (the leopard does NOT change his spots), but because I no longer follow the ins and outs of the personal computer business. Jobs and Apple are simply no longer relevant to what I need and/or want to do. The fact that Jobs is "working for fun" these days still doesn't override his fundamental dishonesty and past behavior.

[Wonder Warthog]

"That's why those kinds of CEOs can be very successful, because they get their company "in line" for what the goal of the company is."

Yeah, right. That's why so many of those companies no longer exist, having been destroyed by the very people who were supposed to be building them up.

Here's a clue....those business leaders never gave a crap about the companies they were heading, their only focus was their own advancement, by any means necessary, even if that meant destroying the very means for their success.

A great many things which are now illegal were at one time not so. The reason they became illegal was due to abuses by "capitalists" (i.e. business leaders).

I can't decide which group in universities has done more damage to the US, schools of education who turn out crappy teachers, or schools of business who turn out MBA's.

But you keep right on supporting business amorality as today's MBA's shut down your company and/or sell it off to China.

[Wonder Warthog]

"So, Wonder Warthog, do you buy Microsoft Products, or do you eschew products from this pirate organization? Or are you a hypocrite, boycotting only Apple products because it's easier to do so because you don't use them, and can crow about your superior moral stance?"

I boycott the current Apple products (Ipod, Iphone) because they are closed, proprietary systems. I don't use Apple PC hardware, because I can get the SAME hardware from other dealers for less bucks. And I won't use the Ipad because I can get BETTER hardware, which does more, for less. I buy as few Microsoft products as I can manage, but if I want to do business, MS "is" THE business standard, so I don't have much choice in the matter. (and no, Linux is not an option).

[tax-serf]

No one I have talked to who has purchased an iPad is complaining about the lack of a USB port.

Isn't this like those commercials that "customers who switched saved $X on car insurance"? Well, DUH -- people who looked at the numbers and didn't save money if they switched didn't switch. And customers who want to be able to use a standard interface to transfer files instead of paying some ridiculous sum for a gold-plated custom Apple cable didn't buy an iWhatever.