Posted on 03/12/2012 5:30:39 PM PDT by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
“Nokia” didn’t they make phones at one time?
Just remember, The Early Bird may get the worm, but the Second Mouse gets the cheese.
Nerd books never erase themselves.
I used to think it was about technology. But recently, it seems to be more about some sort of religion and the heretics must be suppressed.
Personally, I'm an agnostic. I don't have a Mac or an I-phone... but maybe I will jump to that soon --- just to be a heretic. :~)).
I personally don’t like the onscreen keyboard. I like to feel my keys. I think feeling my keys helps me type more efficiently, because I sort of know where everything is by feel.
That’s the way the free market works. A producer creates something revolutionary, so he starts out owning all of the market, but as competitors start to catch up, the start owning their share of the market.
Apple will not stay at 80 percent of the tablet market. They obviously won’t disappear, but they will probably eventually settle to whatever level their computers sell in the general computer market.
Every lawyer I know uses iPads. Basically, they are for scheduling and reading PDFs.
The funny thing is that younger folks are using iPads as notebooks with bluetooth keyboards. They use Pages and email themselves Word-compatible documents. I work with a 23 year old and she is constantly on her iPad, switching between Twitter, Facebook and Pages.
That’s the sucky thing about cellphone plans. I have a 6 gig plan for my cell phone and I’m always hitting about 8 gigs.
Android and guess who owns it.
Very well and succinctly put.
The tablet market is plenty big enough for many players, if they have products people desire and can use productively. Right now, as someone pointed out a few months ago, there is no "tablet market", there is an "iPad market", consisting of the Apple iPad and a bunch of iPad wannabes. But that will change as the non-Apple tablets figure out what they are.
I doubt that Win8 will overcome Apple's leadership position, but if it does well enough, it will keep the other players alive to compete. And there's nothing wrong with competing successfully while not becoming Number One.
“Technology centric people will like Android devices but those who want to get work done will buy iPads.”
Actually, if I know I’m going to need to get work done, I take my Transformer Prime. If I’m just going to read, I use my iPad 2.
I was very disappointed with the iPad 3. I had high hopes of Apple releasing something like the Prime. It would have crushed the market.
You need bigger pockets. :)
Hey Swordmaker, you might find this one interesting....
The problem with the Ipad HD is that there aren’t any apps that need that high level resolution at this time.
But the good thing is that, now it’s here, something will be written for it that couldn’t be useful earlier.
There’s always a down the road purpose for such features with Apple. They’re actually telegraphing near term product introductions, if you’re familiar with the rest of their so-called ecosystem. The other players aren’t really even playing the same game, only part of it. That’s why they’re so tough to compete with, on top of almost always executing with very few flaws.
I also have a Playbook. It works great but I can’t get it to play movies from Netflix.
If I could get it to do that, I would be a happy camper.
Apple initially WAS a computer company built founded around their operating system.
What they have grown into is a HARDWARE company.
Jonty30 already said it when he stated, "eventually all the competitors always catches up".
Apple will have many competitors and like the once exclusive IBM Company they will eventually fall into the ranks of the also-rans.
It's a fact of life, part of the cycle, and INEVITABLE.
I’m late to the thread, but here’s my 2 cents.
(BTW...what the hell happened to the “cents” key on keyboards? I looked for it right now, still thinking I was in my typewriter days. Now I’d have to go all ASCII on the keyboard and look up the code somewhere’s just to get it back. Too much work. Thanks for making life difficult, IBM!)
Windows 8 tablets will be coming out later this year, and when they do, they’ll be the defacto standard for businesses who, for whatever reason, want to move employees to tablets. And there’ll be a lot of businesses doing just that. Apple will lose this market, just like they lost it to windows PCs.
And, oh yeah...I want my function keys back on the left side of the keyboard, please.
I will wait a few weeks, but the IPad is a must-have for me. It may be a niche market, but the music apps available for it are the best out there of any platform and I'm really looking forward to having the ability to control my MIDI network and my APC-40 through the IPad touch interface.
It's at the point now where I buy the hardware to get access to the software. The only place you can get a Fairlight CMI emulation today is as an IPad app. Thirty-some years the hardware version of the Fairlight was in the neighborhood of $100,000 and up in today's dollars. The emulator will set you back the price of an IPad and another $35. Given how cheap all the apps are, I think you can't afford not to pick up a tablet.
I may spring for a Mac Mini just to compliment the IPad. Sometime in the near future I'll be putting together a Linux box and have all the bases covered, (for now,) until I roll a Surface Table or unless I decide to pick up the new Amiga.
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