Posted on 03/05/2012 4:37:26 AM PST by SmokingJoe
With Apple and Microsoft both recently displaying their respective operating systems: Mac OS X Mountain Lion and Windows 8. Digital Trend's Rob Enderle explores why Apple's lion may no longer be king of the mountain.
This last week has been fascinating. Both Apple and Microsoft introduced their new operating system for PCs. Interestingly, folks are raving about Windows 8 and ranting at OS X Mountain Lion. Both products are far from final and, of the two, Mountain Lion has far fewer changes. Given that we dont like change, youd think folks would like that. But it seems they are comparing Mountain Lion to iOS and the last version of the MacOS, and finding it either doesnt change enough or changes too much. In short, Apple may have inadvertently announced a tweener product. I also think we are seeing the first indication that Apple cant function as well without Steve Jobs. Let me explain.
Early Products Are All About Perceptions I was looking at the PlayStation Vita the other day, and remembering that, had this product come out two years ago, it would have easily eclipsed the hottest product of that time the iPad which cost more and did far less. Over time, however, perceptions changed, and even though it is the best hand held game system ever released, people look at it in the shadow of the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, and seem to find it wanting.
(Excerpt) Read more at digitaltrends.com ...
Whenever I want to hop on the ‘net for a bit, I grab the iPad, not a laptop. I take it with me on trips...much more TSA friendly. A flexible bluetooth keyboard and it’s perfect for simple notes. I do NOT take it to the office.
For me it would be great for the internet except for one problem: When I’m on the web I do a LOT of typing (e.g. this post). Those touch keyboards are as effective and will take over physical keyboards in popularity about as well as the touch pad replaced the mouse. i.e. it didn’t.
I must admit that not having to unfold a PC in your coach seat on an airplane is a big plus. For casual surfing, games, movies or “setting on the counter” stuff like using as a kitchen cookbook, I think the pads are really an awesome alternative to a PC. But if I’m only going to buy one device, it’s gonna be a pc. And as my family’s priorities continue to change, I don’t even see a pad in our near (next five years) future.
I look as Win 8 as the true potential PC killer.
and not in a good way.
I got an HP TouchPad for $99, and a wireless charger for it for only $30. It is incredible. WebOS runs circles around iOS and can multitask like mad. It has killer FB and Twitter apps and tons of games. Even with HP canceling it, I still want another one. At $200 or less, it makes sense. the iPad 2 Wifi at $500 makes utterly no sense at all.
I got an iPad 1 when the 2 came out and the 1’s price went down. I rarely use my netbook any more, even though the iPad is not a good platform for a writer like myself if you actually want to compose a piece on it - thanks to the virtual keyboard. I’ve tried a couple of Bluetooth keyboards and they help, but at the expense of portability.
But for sitting in a hotel, the living room, a bar (not that I’d ever do that!) or wherever and surfing the net and emailing, you can’t beat it - and that includes the other tablets I’ve tried; the iPad’s clearly the best.
One bonus I discovered is that airport security doesn’t insist on unpacking the thing; I can leave it right in my carry-on stuff. That’s a nice, though admittedly minor, convenience.
Others’ mileage may vary, of course!
Cheers,
Jim
I think the bottom line is as follows:
If what you are doing is typing intensive, the pads suck. But for pretty much anything else, they are a huge boon to useability.
I will throw this out: We don’t have internet at our home any more. My computer has been off for months because of it. At our previous residence I spent a huge amount of time on the computer. Take away the web, and it’s really not all that useful.
It all comes down to cost-benefit for me. I got a used iPad 1 for $350 from ebay shortly after the iPad 2 came out. The guy I got it from admitted he paid $800 for it a few months ago but just HAD TO HAVE the new one. Now that the iPad 3 is coming out the price for 1’s might come down even more. For me, $350 was well worth it. $800? Nope. But I really do like it and use it daily.
Warning: TALKING OUT OF BOTH SIDES OF MY MOUTH ALERT!!
If we end up getting internet at home again, my wife would love a pad for recipes, internet surfing, facebooking, etc. The recipe thing is especially intriguing. It just sets on the counter and you can either read the recipe while you whip things up, or even watch youtube videos of the “expert” doing it.
I disagree, doc. If nothing else, it will push users to Linux. However, keep in mind, there are still an enormous number of users who are clinging to XP and it’s EOL as far as MS is concerned. It’ll be 10-15 years before Win7 is scrapped, IMO. I’m already using Linux for close to half of my day. I’m FReeping on Linux. The only thing I need Windows to do is play my video games.
And Apple isn’t going to continue to grow at the rates they have previously. People are seeing, as shown in the article, that Apple is just a different brand and just as ugly under the hood. Jobs was a marketing genius, not a product genius. Apple’s hardware is the same as most PC hardware and runs a form of UX OS. Linux is free and runs on the PCs I already have. No need to spend $2K+ for a new platform.
I got an iPad for free last year, it was nice but I wanted a keyboard. I gave it to my kids and bought an Asus Transformer. It runs 14 hours off battery, has a detachable keyboard which I rarely remove because I use the keyboard as a stand.
I really like it but I still use my notebook a lot because sometimes I need a bigger keyboard and industrial strength CPU and OS.
I received a free iPad 2 this year but returned it and bought a camera for my wife.
The problem isn't the cost. It's that who wants to be using a touch screen unless on a small, portable device. On a desktop, you want a real keyboard and a mouse and / or touchpad.
And if you're going to be using your smartphone at a desk to do anything beyond yakking, this is more like how you want to be using it:
The use case is, you want a really portable computer, and you are going to be primarily surfing and reading, with typing limited to the occasional search engine string or, at most, short email.
I especially liked your qualifying email with the word “short”.
This posting stuff would drive me nutz on a pad.
Yep, consider it. My wife has a Galaxy tab, and while it is OK, I prefer the iPad. Garage band on a laptop is a pretty worthless thing, in my opinion. But, on an iPad (for $4.99) with instruments that can be played with the touch screen, it suddenly becomes a good tool to rough out tunes. Just sayin’....
Enderle is a complete moron. I’m no fan of Apple but the Windows 8 Consumer Preview is the worst OS I’ve ever used.
My staff and I have spent the last couple days alternately laughing and being terrified of what a POS it is. It’s worse than Vista.
And I had it running on a netbook next to my Transformer Prime, yesterday, and realized it’s actually Android ICS ported to a PC....literally. It looks like MS stole Google’s interface.
It’s going to be a disaster if they don’t start fixing it, immediately.
Windows 7 left OSX in the dust. If It weren’t for Apple’s hip gay urban core buyers, sales would plummet. iPad mania is pathetic, a fad, a testimony to marketing which is Apple’s only strong point
Windows 8 will widen the lead. Good ol American competition. Microsoft is a giant that has been woken up and will trounce Apple. Jobs died in time to miss this.
Meh, price is coming down and will continue to do so. Especially if it becomes more widespread. (A catch-22, but that's all of technology.)
Price isn't the problem, it's the form factor. It's simply not ergonomic to use a touchscreen at something approaching a perpendicular angle. There would have o be a radical form factor redesign to make touchscreen at a desktop environment work well.
I use 7 and OSX and they have pretty similar useability overall. In hardware my netbook was 1/3 the price of my macbook air, but the SSD and power saving features in the air are exemplary. The differences come in what you are trying to accomplish. Large doc creation needs Word, Pages is not sufficient. In light graphics and web site development the Air has a small advantage in productivity. For casual use and web surfing, especially to sites with dubious content, Mac’s OS and browser offer superior safety with add-ons like click-to-flash. For software development, which is my job, I actually prefer Windows minus the cumbersome crutch of Visual Studio. Both Microsoft’s automatically generated code and Apple’s large code base and environment distract from the real task of programming which is writing your own code. The flexibility of hitting Win7 at a variety of API levels including good old win32 is what convinces me that Windows will keep winning for now.
I have both, and would strongly disagree. Windows 7 is a solid OS, but I much prefer using OS X on a daily basis (as both a user and as the family's admin). If it wasn't for all the kids' software that only runs on Windows, I probably wouldn't even have the Win 7 machine.
see post #6 running on a netbook next to my Transformer Prime, yesterday, and realized its actually Android ICS ported to a PC....literally. It looks like MS stole Googles interface.”
What are you talking about? I’m posting from an ICS device right now. Stock ICS interface is a lot closer to Win 7 than Win 8 and without the ugly tiles.
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