Apple Starts to Wobble 2 Months After Jobs' Death

I don’t know or care what version of Linux is behind the curtain on my TiVo; it’s so heavily customized that even though it’s basically a Linux computer, no one buys it as one or uses it as one. I note that Amazon isn’t marketing the Kindle Fire as a full-fledged tablet, and they’ve designed a custom interface that puts media consumption front and center, left and right.

I think a lot of folks are going to be happy with the Kindle Fire, if they go into it with the right expectations. There are a lot of folks who don’t follow technology like we do, who don’t know Gingerbread from Honeycomb, who will buy the Kindle with a realistic assessment of what it can do, and who will love it for that. After a while, they may come up with things that the Fire can’t do, things they never particularly thought of or wanted to do before. And then they’ll be ready to get a full tablet and hand the Kindle down to the kids.

I know most folks don’t follow tech, but the reality is you can go buy yourself a 2.3 or 2.2 tablet for less than the fire already, always have, and they haven’t really sold for a REASON... Amazon has marketing clout, but if FIRE is on top of 2.3, those reasons that other tablets with even larger form factors don’t move when on 2.X are going to shine through the Amazon Marketing Spit Shine, and a lot of folks are going to wind up disappointed.

Fire’s already suffering from user experience complaints, and in spite of their attempt to resolve, will continue to do so... 2.3 just isn’t going to cut it for what folks expect when they are sold what they are told is a tablet.

Thanks TigerLikesRooster.

Apple's competitors, who were caught on the back foot by the iPhone and iPad, are rapidly releasing products aimed at toppling the leader.

Yeah, that's what happened with the iPod, which is why it isn't sold anymore. /snicker

Apple's competitors wait to see what Apple does, and rush something to market because they know that Apple's idea is likely to be a good one. I wandered through the Big Box chain store the other night, and the recent reorganization of the computer area was done to accommodate the tablet computer products. There were, hmm, twenty? different models. The only one I'd be interested in is Amazon's Kindle Fire, $200, web browser, the Amazon store, color screen, plus, I know three or four people who have one now. Tablets can not serve as a stand-in for a notebook computer, at least for me, and anyone else with declining eyesight from middle-ages and up (the entire Baby Boom, iow) would rather have...

wait for it...

wait for it...

Apple TV (the next generation).

Yes, as a matter of fact, there are www interface products for the TV, including various add-on boxes with no other functions, as well as many BluRay players, and even the higher-end (larger) flatscreen TVs. But there were mp3 players (like the Rio, which were very popular with pre-iPod Apple customers) before the iPod.

I've heard a grapevine rumor that the 17" MacBook Pro will soon be the only MBP Apple offers, that by this time next year, there will be the MBP 17", and the 15", 13", and 11" formats will be lower-power chips (and less expensive). Also, there won't be any more tower Macs. The iMac will trail along for a few more years at least, then be folded into the expected success of the next-gen Apple TV.

"All I can tell you is that whenever I walk past an Apple Store these days, you can’t get in the darn place. Wobble or not, they are well positioned to keep printing money for a while."

Ain't that the truth. Was in one today. Had to exchange one of our four, iPhone 4s. Had a bad mic. Walked out with a new one and a happy 17 year old daughter.

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