BILL GATES ON THE IPAD: 'A Lot Of Those Users Are Frustrated'

Business Insider ^ | 05/06/2013 | Jay Yarrow

[SeekAndFind]

Bill Gates took a shot at the iPad while explaining Microsoft's rationale for the Surface this morning on CNBC.

He was asked about the declining PC market. He said that tablets are growing in popularity, and it's "going to be harder and harder to distinguish products" that are PCs versus tablets.

The Surface, he says, brings the "portability of the tablet but the richness of the PC."

He then said of people using iPad-like devices, "A lot of those users are frustrated, they can't type, they can't create documents, they don't have Office there."

While some people are frustrated by the iPad's limitations, most embrace it. Apple sold 19.5 million iPads last quarter. Over that same period, HP, the world's number one PC seller, sold 11.7 million PCs, according to Gartner.

It's a cliche, but the truth is that the iPad just works for surfing the web, light emailing, videos, and some games.

[Crusher138]

I use my iPad at work and home. In the last week I have:

1. Attended a meeting where all the docs were emailed as PDF’s before. I viewed the docs and made notes right on the screen. When done, I forwarded the marked up PDF to my co-workers with just a couple of clicks.

2. Pulled up pricing from a supplier while a customer was sitting with me. Created a quote with that info and sent it to their email before they even left my showroom.

3. Checked the status of orders placed with multiple vendors.

4. Created a quote in response to an email request, complete with a mock up of their shirt.

5. Took dozens of payments using Square.

6. Reviewed Receivables with the QuickBooks app.

I could go on, but my iPad is DEFINITELY more than a toy.

[erod]

HA!

[itsahoot]

Tablets are toys. People buy them, mostly, for games and everything other than actually computing anything.

Eight billion people on he earth more or less, how many programmers? Which market should they go after?

[roadcat]

If I could change one thing about it, I would allow multitasking. That really is the only thing that bothers me: going between programs and having to close and reopen apps every time.

Huh? I do multitasking on my iPads all the time. You don't need to close programs. On the current IOS, double-click the large button above the docking port. You'll see your open apps at the bottom, and you can easily switch to another app. Another way is to place four fingers on the screen and slide them left or right, to switch to another open app. I often cut and paste between apps in this manner. Sliding four fingers up on the screen does the same thing as double-clicking the large button.

There are a lot of available features present, if you take the time to learn them. For instance, hold down the large button and simultaneously press the power switch on the opposite corner. It takes a screen picture of whatever is displayed, placing it in your Photos camera roll folder. Easy way to capture information you're displaying, no matter what it is. You can then edit and crop the picture for content you want to keep.

[roadcat]

I could go on, but my iPad is DEFINITELY more than a toy.

Likewise for me. I'm helping a friend by rewiring part of his home. Using my iPad 2, I snapped numerous pictures of his existing wiring from the circuit box in his garage, up his stairs and into his kitchen. I then used a drawing program, to draw wire runs on the pictures. Took measurements of the runs, and "wrote" them on the pictures, added them up and wrote up a parts list of supplies. Then I emailed the pictures to him via the mail program, along with a writeup. All in ten minutes. This included sketching drawings on a picture of his kitchen where I'll build a custom cabinet for his laptop computer and wire connections. The iPad is a fantastic tool, far more useful for this handheld portable work than a laptop could do. No keyboard or mouse necessary, just used my index finger on the screen.

[Pikachu_Dad]

Roflol. You just perfectly described the difference between the iPad (which I am tuping on now) and the other guys.

There is next to no ‘figuring it out’ on the iPad.

Athe other guys, are overly complicated and easier to get lost on.

Apple wins on perfect simplicity.

[Vermont Lt]

A lot of enterprises rely on Excel spreadsheets and macros.

A lot of enterprises rely on Excel spreadsheets and macros, and the three people who really understand it.

I used to go into the macros and change them to make the numbers do what I wanted. You should have seen how pissed the budget people got. I laughed.