The iPad Is Unbeatable: Why Apple’s tablet competitors don’t stand a chance—and maybe never will

Slate ^ | March 8, 2012 | Farhad Manjoo

[PJ-Comix]

Imagine you run a large technology company not named Apple. Let’s say you’re Steve Ballmer, Michael Dell, Meg Whitman, Larry Page, or Intel’s Paul Otellini. How are you feeling today, a day after Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled the new iPad? Are you discounting the device as just an incremental improvement, the same shiny tablet with a better screen and faster cellular access? Or is it possible you had trouble sleeping last night? Did you toss and turn, worrying that Apple’s new device represents a potential knockout punch, a move that will cement its place as the undisputed leader of the biggest, most disruptive new tech market since the advent of the Web browser? Maybe your last few hours have been even worse than that. Perhaps you’re now paralyzed with confusion, fearful that you might be completely boxed in by the iPad—that there seems no good way to beat it.

For your sake, my hypothetical CEO friend, I hope you’re frightened.

[mamelukesabre]

The youtube/facebook/twitter crowd not only does NOT use email, they don’t use spreadsheets or word processors unless it is a school assignment FORCED on them. They use a smart phone and a sony play station. An apple iPad is a big step up for them.

Contrast that to someone like me who is using a home built minitower made of spare parts and running XP with a radio card and tv tuner card and an old CRT style 20-something inch monitor with very high resolution...QXGA to be exact which is something like 2000x1500 resolution.

[PreciousLiberty]

"Not that long ago, the same was said about Microsoft and the Office/OS systems. No company stays on top forever."

Well, to be fair Microsoft is still "on top" of the PC OS and Office markets. LOL

I'm not sure you made your point there...

"Now, Apple makes a nice slick product, but I have never been very fond of them."

Which appears to color your view considerably.

"A blog I go to refers to them as a nice walled in garden, that has very strict rules on what you can do. That is ok for many, but I like a little bit of freedom to tinker."

You have that with the Mac - and you can run Windows software on them well to boot. It is also perfectly legal to jailbreak your iOS devices if you wish to accept Android-like security risks.

"And to be honest most engineering software is geared to the PC."

As I said, the Macs will run Windows well (VM or not) if you need to. I think you'll find much more software of all types arriving for Mac, as Mac sales are growing much faster than the PC market as a whole. The figures for February show an 18% year-over-year growth rate.

New models based on Intel's Ivy Bridge platform due within a couple of months are expected to accelerate things from there.

[af_vet_rr]

I hope Microsoft is successful at marketing it -- I really do. I count on them and Windows for my living. But I think they're becoming a little schizoid in their attempts to simultaneously fend off the challenges of Apple in their PC business, and enter the handheld market with something credible. They've been caught yet again with their pants down, and they'd better pull them up before they try running off in new directions.

That's not going to happen until Steve Ballmer steps aside, and I don't see him stepping aside for anything other than ill health or being forced out by others. He does not realize the shape that Microsoft has been in under his tenure, or he doesn't care.

Ballmer is not a product guy. He's a sales guy. Look at what happens to successful tech companies when the sales and marketing people take over - they lose their way, they lose their core, they lose their audience.

There are occasional glimpses that Microsoft maybe trying to right itself, but after being a major player in the tablet and smartphone market for many years, at one point carrying the tablet on their own backs, they have totally botched it and lost those markets and keep digging themselves even deeper.

It's stunning how Microsoft let the mobile market slip out of their grasp. Palm's problems should have left them in the driver's seat.

[af_vet_rr]

I’m not saying that Windows will become a big factor or anything, but it can only be considered a flop, if you thought that Android was also a flop in its beginning.

I think Microsoft will get the #3 spot, but it'll be a distant third. That won't make it a flop, but it will hurt Microsoft as a whole, because the line will blur between mobile devices and desktops for a lot of people. The new iPad could damn near replace a lot of people's computers if it had a keyboard and mouse. Jump ahead a year or two, to quad-core iPads with more storage, and you'll see things changing. Plus a lot of people are finding they don't need Microsoft Office as badly as they thought they did.

[af_vet_rr]

LOL...right. Any day now MS is going to dominate the phone landscape. You'll be old and gray before that ever happens. Remember all these smash hits?

PocketPC 2000
Windows CE
Pocket PC 2002
Windows Mobile 2003
Windows Mobile 2003 SE
Windows Mobile 5
Windows Mobile 6
Windows Mobile 6.1
Windows Mobile 6.5


And that doesn't even include all the Windows Mobile Professional, Windows Mobile Standard and Windows Mobile Classic flavors which all bombed.

Their cumulative sales probably don't even equal a single year's sales of iPhone.

As somebody who had a company that relied on some of those devices and that supported those devices for our own customers, the comparison is not the best. Back in the days when the touchscreen smartphone market was between Microsoft and Palm, the hardware was too expensive for most people, which really restricted the market for software. Nobody was going to start up a development company with a handful of people and be making millions within a year selling $0.99 or $1.99 apps and most users were not going to pay $500 for a decent touchscreen smartphone with a crappy data connection.

But I won't make excuses for Microsoft and Palm. They never did a good job of helping developers get their software in the hands of end-users, both from a technical and marketing point of view.

Microsoft also deserves blame for something you bring up - all the different versions of what should have been the same OS, not to mention all of the different hardware versions. Microsoft should have only supported certain types of touchscreens. Instead they allowed themselves to divide the market to hell and back, complete with Windows-certified smartphones that didn't even have a touchscreen. It made it difficult for developers.

[antiRepublicrat]

The Samsung galaxy III is supposed to be better than 1080p.

"The Next Big Thing" is always supposed to be an iPhone killer. And the screen will be even bigger, too big for a phone.

[Jonty30]

I think a 4 inch screen is about right, for most people who want to use their phones as portable computers.

[SunkenCiv]

:’) I’d get one, because I like the capability and portability etc, but I need a bigger screen and a mouse. :’)

[itsahoot]

The iPhone sucks

Apple is doomed

They should sell the stock and return the money

Bla, bla, bla.

Like an iPhone, is not an iPhone and the sales prove it.

[itsahoot]

Consumers vs producers, which market to go after, tough decision.

Apple makes more on the iPhone and tablets than it does anything else. Both items are for consumption not creation.

[itsahoot]

Is this a great country or what?

You are free to buy whatever you can afford, and if you have credit maybe even what you can’t afford.

[itsahoot]

I got my screen name back during the M$-Apple wars on FreeRepublic, I thought it was a hoot.

The war continues, but the consumers given a choice not dictated by cooperate IT, choose Apple Products.

Apple OS X is still $29.00 compare that with 8 versions of Windows 8.

iPhones and iPads the Kleenex of the new century.

[af_vet_rr]

Apple makes more on the iPhone and tablets than it does anything else. Both items are for consumption not creation.

Actually people are creating a lot on the new iPhones. I'm not talking about the idiots tweetering about where they are eating, I'm talking about people taking photos and video. The iPhone 4S is one of the best non-pro cameras I've ever had.

And last summer, Flickr said that the iPhone was responsible for more photos than any single dedicated camera currently being used.

And it's still the top camera as far as taking photos - Flickr states that the top 5 cameras currently being used to take photos on Flickr are:

Apple iPhone 4
Canon EOS 5D Mark II
Nikon D90
Canon EOS REBEL T2i
Canon EOS 7D

If you select Apple the brand, it lists the individual iPhones. The iPhone 3G has taken 40 million photos that were uploaded to Flickr. the iPhone 4 has taken 25 million. That's a lot of creation.

[Jonty30]

An adjustment in the marketplace is hardly doomsday.

[itsahoot]

Well I was remiss in mentioning all the great software upgrades that were prepped for the new iPad, but they had not entered into the conversation. iPhoto will be a boone to the consumer.

[tacticalogic]

The war continues, but the consumers given a choice not dictated by cooperate IT, choose Apple Products.

I knew Apples marketing was good, but that's just scary. All those people who bought PCs actually choose Apple, and don't even know it.

[for-q-clinton]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2858853/posts

[itsahoot]

All those people who bought PCs actually choose Apple, and don't even know it.

I don't know how you got that from my post. <[p> What I said was people in business used to be required by the IT department to choose the standard PC. Now the IT departments are being a little less controlling and people can and do choose Apple products. The iPad has invaded and the IT people have adapted, and the beat goes on.

[tacticalogic]

but the consumers given a choice not dictated by cooperate IT, choose Apple Products

Seems plain enough. Not some consumers, the consumers.

The idea is that nobody buys a PC unless someone else is forcing them to do it.

I get it.

[meyer]

The idea is that nobody buys a PC unless someone else is forcing them to do it.

Hate to tell y'all but I bought, of all things, a Netbook last month. With Windows 7. Now if that ain't a crime, I don't know what is!!!