iPad Idiot FUD Ping!
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Swordmakers BACK...
Posted on 03/19/2010 3:04:14 AM PDT by Swordmaker
Brace yourself. Before the month is out, they will be knocking at your door, insisting that Apple’s iPad tablet―for sale on or about April 3 (pre-orders started March 12 at 5:30 pm PST) ―is just the gadget that will solve a multitude of IT problems while, simultaneously, giving your IT strategy a leg up . It will not.
What it will do, say many experts, is create problems. And those problems will become your problems. It’s not just the iPad. Other tablets are not much better, even though Gartner now is projecting an avalanche of 10.5 million tablets to be sold in 2010.
Even if your company has relented and now supports the iPhone, as growing numbers of businesses do (70% of the Fortune 100 are at least testing it, says Apple) you'll want to say "No" to the iPad and other tablets. Here's why:
1. Slow is as slow is. Even the academics join in the dissing. “Tablets and touch screens do not work in traditional enterprise settings because the interface is much slower than the traditional mouse and keyboard,” said James Wolf, an assistant professor of Information Systems at Illinois State University. Moving your hands around a screen is clunky. “The keyboard/mouse is much faster and easier than the tablet’s input.”
2. “The iPad does not run common office productivity tools,” said Lorenz Lammens, a web strategist and managing director at the Online Design Bureau in Dallas. No Microsoft Word, no PowerPoint, not much of anything important to business today.
3. No camera on an iPad. None. How weird is that? No video conferencing. No Skype video.
4. No multitasking allowed on the iPad. At a time when multitasking is the norm, only one non-Apple app can run at a time because, under the hood, the iPad is a gussied up phone (it runs on the iPhone OS).
5. No Flash on iPad. That means no watching Web videos (unless it’s on YouTube, for which a special player is promised).
6. No USB out of the box. So, just how will a user transfer blocks of files? There’s no transferring work to look at later at home. But that doesn't really matter because there’s no app to run that work on anyway, said Lammens. So, maybe the lack of USB makes a kind of only in Cupertino sense.
7. Money talks. A decent netbook can be had for half the $500 Apple is expected to price the bare bones iPad. A tricked-out iPad will cost $829. http://www.apple.com/ipad/pricing/ A really sweet netbook won’t cost more than $400, and this unit will run all the office productivity tools. The economics worsen. A data plan for 3G capable models is expected to add another $30 monthly to the tab.
8. Speaking of money, there is no money in the company budget to pay for iPads. There is money for cell phones so a persistent Apple fan might finagle funding for an iPhone in lieu of a BlackBerry, but there is no budget line for tablets. None. That makes saying "No" definitively easier.
9. Not supporting iPad will be the enterprise norm. ”Consumers will buy the iPad to use as an e-reader,” predicts Chris Hazelton, research director for Mobile and Wireless at The 451 Group. “But the iPad will not be bought by enterprise.”
10. Tablets have never caught on. Apple won’t change that. As far back as Comdex in 2001, Bill Gates predicted tablet computing would change the world. You know what happened to Comdex and tablets, too. Steve Jobs has marketing mojo, no doubt, but it is difficult to see exactly where tablets will fit into enterprise. What do they do that smartphones don’t do better at one level, and netbooks at the other? The right answer is nothing.
Here’s a final irony, per Trevor Doerksen, CEO of MoboVivo, a distributor of content to iPhones, iPods, many other devices. “The people in enterprise I know who have tablets were given them by vendors. They did not pay for them.”
As a busy freelance writer for more than 30 years, Rob McGarvey has written over 1500 articles for many of the nation's leading publications―from Reader's Digest to Playboy and from the NY Times to Harvard Business Review. McGarvey covers CEOs, business, high tech, human resources, real estate, and the energy sector. A particular specialty is advertorial sections for many top outlets including the New York Times, Crain's New York, and Fortune Magazine.
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Swordmakers BACK...
Those are some very good reasons. No USB? No camera? Srsly?
>> ... It’s not just the iPad. Other tablets are not much better...
That’s my opinion. The iPad will become the iFlop. It’s not that it’s Apple, it’s that the pad form factor simply isn’t that universally useful.
>> No USB? No camera? Srsly?
Remember, these are the Masters of Design talking.
If their creation doesn’t have it, well then Sparky, you don’t NEED it! End of discussion!
It's a giant iPhone that won't fit in your pocket!
Reason:
1. Keep Apple profitable
2. Maintain Job’s techno-god status
That’s the only two I can think of.
Speaking just from the history of the last 10 years, betting against Apple and Jobs isn’t a smart bet.
He just may have spotted a niche here nobody else could see.
I almost forgot - welcome back :)
I cannot understand the hype. My wife and I have Kindles. We buy a book online and by the time we go to church in the AM the book is there. It is easy to read. I have gotten books free and some for 88 cents. When I was younger, I probably would have jumped at the temptation. I suspect some young bright techie (I mean it respectfully) will answer and make me to look like what I am - a 67 grandfather, non tech savy who loves to read.
1. Slow is as slow is. — Unless the UI is completely redone for touch.
2. “The iPad does not run common office productivity tools,” — iWork, completely redone for touch
3. No camera on an iPad. — This is a bad one, OTOH it’s good for places that don’t allow cameras.
4. No multitasking allowed on the iPad. — What they mean is you can’t let something crunch in the background while you’re doing something in the foreground. You can still effectively (as far as the user knows) run multiple apps and switch between them.
5. No Flash on iPad. — I’ll give them that one. I don’t like flash either, but it’s there.
6. No USB out of the box. — Bluetooth, and the dock connector contains USB
7. Money talks. — And yet we’ve found that people will pay extra for good engineering and design.
8. Speaking of money, there is no money in the company budget to pay for iPads. — Depends on your company.
9. Not supporting iPad will be the enterprise norm. — Probably not, because Apple doesn’t really chase the enterprise much. But I can already see many great enterprise uses for this thing.
10. Tablets have never caught on. — That’s the point of the iPad, to catch on where they never have before by not just making a notebook without a keyboard.
I have a HP tablet, I don’t use in the tablet mode, it is quirky. I have replaced it with a Dell netbook, but still tote the HP around for the DVD.
I dislike the iPad because every application has to be purchased through Apple, with them having the final say on the apps, their look and feel and their functions.
Right now I can purchase Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Poser, Maya, etc., and install them on my Macs. Apple has no say whatsoever on my purchasing it, installing it or using it.
But with the iInfrastructure I am limited to purchasing everything through Apple, and if they want to yank Dreamweaver I would have no say in it, if I wanted Poser but they don’t like Poser and ban it from their Apple store, I’m SOL, and cannot purchase it.
Plus, I do not have direct control over the file storage. I can’t drag a group of files to a folder I created and copy them there, or open them up there...everything is controlled by the iTunes infrastructure. You’re also limited to Apple’s choice of browser (no Opera or Firefox) and email client (no Thunderbird.)
Now, I can see a use for it for someone like my boss and his wife, who just use their laptops to check email and surf the web, but I wouldn’t recommend it at this point to them because the iPad doesn’t use Flash, and they therefore couldn’t see most of the videos on the internet nor play most of the games...that’s a game-changer right there.
Plus, no multi-tasking so they couldn’t compose email in one window whilst surfing eBay or listening to Pandora in another window, so its most obvious choice of customers: none-tech geeks who primarily surf and write emails, is truncated because they can’t do those activities without artificial Jobsian limitations...Jobs wants a cut of, and control over, every program you buy or download, and every song played or movie watched.
I still love Apple, though...for its GUI, the OS and media-creation capabilities of its computers...the iCrap umbrella, though...is stuff I have no interest in.
Ed
Let me modify that last comment: I would love to buy an iPhone, even though it doesn’t have Flash or multi-task, but I shan’t, as ATT’s coverage is so execrable here in rural Southern Oregon.
If they come out with a Verizon iPhone, who’s coverage is stellar here, I’d buy it in a New York Minute!
Ed
An Ipad is not meant to replace your computer, its meant as an adjunct. I’d consider getting one if it didn’t require a high monthly service charge. Right now I love my kindle because I get better reception and can down load books, do email, listen to music and play games, though not in color, better than on my computer because all I have is Hughes net, which stinks. I could never down load a whole book on Hughes Net. I’m thinking of dropping the Hughes and just going with ATT for the computer, as well.
I love that — no Flash as a reason, because, y’know, all employers love it when employees sit around watching online videos.
Actually, the processor/graphics on the iPad, is very fast compared to other tablets... and the complaint seems to come from someone who has never, ever had his hands on one.
2. “The iPad does not run common office productivity tools,” — iWork, completely redone for touch
And able to read and write Office files... 3. No camera on an iPad. — This is a bad one, OTOH it’s good for places that don’t allow cameras.
Which the vast majority of enterprise businesses do not. I also expect to see a third-party add on camera available soon for those that want one, with a flexible head that will clip and point where you want it to, connecting either by bluetooth or through the dock connector. If i had the expertise, i'd be designing it right now. 5. No Flash on iPad. — I’ll give them that one. I don’t like flash either, but it’s there.
Nope, no Flash... but then the idiot goes on to say there will be no Web video at all... ignoring every other web video format that is supported... excellently.
8. Speaking of money, there is no money in the company budget to pay for iPads.
Yeah, and before there were viable smart phones, there was no money in company budgets for smart phones either.
Can you watch a movie on your Kindle? Can you type a term paper on your Kindle? Can you browse FreeRepublic on your Kindle? Can you answer this reply on your Kindle? Can you read National Geographic and look at the pictures in full color on your Kindle?
It doesn't require a monthly service charge... 3 of the models do not even come with 3G... they just use WiFi.
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