[adorno]

That graphic/graph is so dumb for anyone to use as a “proof” that the “market has decided”.

Look, the tablet market has received a “redesign”, and that new tablet redefinition was brought about because of the iPad, and, just like anything else on the market, no matter what the market, the “original” will, of course, have a big head-start and an advantage out of the gate with bigger sales.

So, even if the iPad has sales of 10 or 20 or 30 million, the market is barely getting started, and the winner is still to be determined and still way in the future.

You are getting desperate, and you’ll try anything to try to win the argument, and the pie charts you presented are not indicative of what the competition is about to unleash on the market.

Come back in 2 or 3 years when the market has matured and received a more balanced introduction of tablets from the many manufacturers who will become competitive against the iPad and anything Android.

Even after having the “new” tablet form factor to itself, the iPad hasn’t really sold as many as one would expect, and there aren’t going to be too many people willing to part with $500 to $800 for simple tablets when for the same kind of money, they could get their hands on an i5 laptop or desktop. Heck, I just bought myself a desktop with the AMD Phenom six core CPU, and with a 2 terabytes harddrive, and 16 GB of main memory, and it cost me only $799. That’s a computer with “supercomputing” capabilities for the price of an iPad. The iPad and any other tablet for around $600 to $800 is simply insane. I want tablets, for a more reasonable price, and they’re coming.

The iPad did set sales records, and it is in the lead, but, the market for iPads may have reached saturation point, and it’s “growth” may depend more on the “replacement” arena, where, the “new” iPad2s end up being purchased by the same iPad1 customers. Recurring purchases do not add to the customer base.

But, sales comparisons between different manufacturers are silly when, the market is basically a new one with virtually one player having most of the initial sales because, they were virtually the only player in the market.

Let’s see what happens when the competition gets going. One thing for sure is that, the iPad and Androids are going to get a lot more competition this year and next, and the sales figures to look for will be the ones that come out after the 2011 shopping season and those towards the middle of 2012, when even more competition enters the market.

So, again, why are you so intent on defending the iPad and touting the sales figures when the competition was virtually non-existent? What you’re doing is like comparing the output of an orange tree which took 15 years to grow against an orange tree which was “born” 2 years ago. It’s unfair and nonsensical. Let’s see the production of both trees when they’re of comparable sizes.

But, I’m not interested on sales figures. I’m interested on you answering the questions I keep posing to you regarding the Windows 8, and the reasons that “it will fail” according to you.

Look, stay away from the fanboism and the charts and your excuses, and concentrate on the discussion at hand. I don’t care about Apple or Microsoft or Google. I just want tablets that are “useful” for more than just “media consumption”. If Windows 8 were to give me what I want, then I might want one, but, if it’s destined to be a failure like you claim, I want to know what inside information you have that would have you make that claim.

Comprende?

[Hodar]

I agree with much of what you have stated. We simply don’t know what the Tablet market will be. It’s a ‘new’ market - that has been drastically redesigned with Apple’s iPad.

With 15 Million plus in the first year - I think we do have an idea where it’s going. But, bear in mind this was projected by the ‘experts’ to be a phenominal failure. The ‘experts’ predicted sales of less than 3 Million; and Apple would have to drop the price.

In 2 to 3 years, the tablet will be a commodity - much like the laptop you have. But, the question will what ‘kind’ of commodity will it be?

I question you, if 15 Million in 1 year; for a brand new design - something totally unique - if 15 Million isn’t ‘good enough’ - what did you expect?

And yes, I do agree that the price tag is high - but what I do not understand is that the competition cannot match, or beat the ‘Apple tax’ reputation that Apple has.

Now, IMHO, the bottom end iPad is unuseable. At 16 GB, it’s too small for multi-media and anything else. So, for the interest of simplicity - let’s say that the entry point for a Tablet from Apple is $600. That’s 32 Gig and a 10” screen.

I fail to see the appeal of 3G or 4G; as I can use my cell to Hot Spot - so why pay $25-30/month for a duplicate data plan. The Xoom is available with 3G for $800, and it’s now reported that after 6 weeks in the lab, you can upgrade it to ‘4G’ (and it’s really not 4G - that’s another discussion).

I was one of the folk who pre-ordered the iPad 1.0. At that point in time, I owned exactly 1 Apple product - a 7 yr old iPod. I now own an iPhone 5, that same 7 yr old iPod, and an iPad. So, I’m hardly an Apple fanboi. I do own 2 Win7 desktops and a 17 inch HP laptop also sporting Win7 Ultimate. 3 different Windows machines - not one Mac.

Will I replace the iPad 1 with the iPad 2? Absolutely not. Why? Because the iPad 2 is just polish on an already solid design. Possibly 1.2 GHz dual core over my single core 1 GHz? big deal. Better display? Sorry, this one is good enough for me. More memory? I have 64 Gig and I currently have 34 Movies, 2,248 songs, 88 Apps and 2,200+ pictures and still have 2 GB left.

The iPad 2 is not really such a strong offering that a signifiant number of iPad 1 users are going to upgrade. However, it does reset the bar for those debating the Android competition. Personally, I would suggest that instead of getting the iPad 2, buy a refurb iPad 1 and save $100. The camera is a market driven device. It’s simply not practical to take a picture with a tablet.

Price-wise - I’d like to see the price come down; and in a couple years it might. My question is “Why haven’t the Androids come out at a lower price than the iPad?”.

Yes, you can get a laptop cheaper; yes the performance is drastically (incomparably) better on your laptop. Your laptop is a commodity product, the tablet market is not.

Sales comparisons is not silly, when you have new products. How else would you compare them? Sales dictates developers. 500K+ Apps iOS, 50+K apps Android, 5K apps for Win7 mobile is the latest I heard.

Why was I touting the iPad when the market didn’t exist? Because IT DID EXIST!! HP and Dell both had flip-top laptops with touch screens that were touted as ‘Tablets’. They bombed. Apple took an idea - and despite a HUGE negative campaign (remember the funny Hitler hears about the iPad YouTube) - came out with a market stunner.

This was predicted to be a failure - I knew a year ago that it was a new “niche” product. It’s not a laptop, it was never intended to compete in the laptop marketspace.

The iPad is a LEISURE DEVICE!!!

Why do you want a tablet? Small, no keys, light weight, super display, long battery life. Kindle got it, and they are doing very well with it. Nook got it, they are doing pretty well too. Apple got it, and expanded on it. Newspapers, email, books, movies, music, games.

That is the difference. I seriously doubt the iPad will EVER be competing against the laptop market. Laptops are PRODUCTIVITY devices. I fly a lot. I pack my laptop, and carry my iPad with me. Why? I get 1.5 hrs battery life on my laptop. Small airplane seats will result in a damaged laptop if the guy in front of me decides to recline. Nearly had that happen twice. With the iPad - it’s not an issue. I get 10 hours on a charge - 10 useful hours!!

At the airport (assuming AT&T can manage to provide data at International Airports) I hotspot my phone, and book my hotel, car, return trip, email ect on my iPad. At the hotel, I fire up my laptop and crunch whatever stuff I gotta crunch. I do my reports, my presentations, my schematics, ect on the laptop.

And it all revolves around what’s inside the Tablet. Small, energy efficient, and just fast enough to get the job done. If you are looking for doing PRODUCTIVITY - then you are probably looking for the Win 7 Tablet, that will cost more, and give you a 3 hour battery life.

I would humbly suggest that your money would be better spent on a laptop.

If you travel a lot - like I do, then the iPad Tablet (or possibly Android, if that’s your cup of tea) would be fine. Do NOT expect Tablets to be Productivity devices - HP and Dell tried that - and they failed.