Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The iPad Is Unbeatable: Why Apple’s tablet competitors don’t stand a chance—and maybe never will
Slate ^ | March 8, 2012 | Farhad Manjoo

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: apple; ipad
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121-130 next last
To: PJ-Comix

Not mentioned so far is that AAPL owns the supply chain. Competitors need to have access to the same parts in the same quanities, but they cannot buy what is already sold to AAPL.

Catalogue makers want high-res displays for their products - only the new iPad offers resoultions equalling high end print, medical professionals have already snapped up quanities of iPad 2s but the new iPad will make their 10K desktop an antique. Would you rather a doctor looks at your x-rays on an android, ansus or on some crappy 4bit tablet display?

A million more pixels than an HD TV is saying something.

Then there is the USAF buying 18,000 of them.

One must keep in mind all those vaunted competitors are up against the largest compay in history.

And that compay makes its own hardware while the competitors buy off-the-shelf componets - meaning it just a question of who connects which part to another in which order - they are all the same thing, with only the OS and other software to distinguish them freom each other.

I think the competitors were so busy making cheap stuff that when the iPad showed up, they were fast asleep and only now are trying to rose themselves only to find they have been Left Behind :)


21 posted on 03/12/2012 6:57:43 PM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: AZLiberty

Apple will still be a very capable company without Steve Jobs. It’s just a reality that without him, Apple just won’t have the same street cred.

That’s the problem Android has had. Android is a very capable operating system, but there’s nobody who could speak for it like Steve Jobs was able to speak for the Iphone and Ipad.


22 posted on 03/12/2012 7:00:12 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: mamelukesabre
You’ll see. When windows 8 and windows phones are up to full speed there will be nothing to stand in Microsoft’s way.

That's what they were saying about Windows Phone 7, flop.

23 posted on 03/12/2012 7:10:05 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: AZLiberty
Sure, the iPhone 4S was a disappointment compared screen-wise to the Galaxy Nexus, but Apple will catch up and blow by them on the next iteration.

You mean the Nexus that has a screen far too big to be usable as a phone? Apple is doing the right thing by not following the current trend of bigger and bigger screens on "phones." By the mid 90s cell phones could easily fit in pockets. Why are these manufacturers going backwards?

24 posted on 03/12/2012 7:13:48 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: georgiarat
Funny, I have seen the opposite. More companies moving away from the Ipad to some other device (more often a net book or small lap top). But I am in engineering, so that is a different market.
25 posted on 03/12/2012 7:14:46 PM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: antiRepublicrat

For myself at least, 4 inches is about how big a phone should be.

If it gets bigger, it’s not has holdable. If it’s smaller, even if you have incredible resolution, details can be lost when watching a video or looking at a picture.

I think 4 inches is the sweet spot for phones. I think 10 inches is the sweet spot for tablets, though I can appreciate some body with artistic aspirations like the new 13 inch tablets that are available.


26 posted on 03/12/2012 7:18:00 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: 6SJ7; AZLiberty

Google:   Google bans Microsoft Windows

:)


27 posted on 03/12/2012 7:19:12 PM PDT by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: antiRepublicrat

I’ve seen charts that show that Windows has out sold Android, if you take into account that the new Windows phone has only been out for a short time.

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.


28 posted on 03/12/2012 7:20:49 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Tzfat

The “Zune” of the tablet world?


29 posted on 03/12/2012 7:28:43 PM PDT by I-ambush (Don't let it bring you down, it's only castles burning.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

Main selling points:

1) It’s heavier now.
2) “Made in China”.

I sure want to spend a lot of money on one.

/s


30 posted on 03/12/2012 7:30:58 PM PDT by Cringing Negativism Network ("The door is open" PALIN 2012)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

I have an iPad and love this freaking thing. It’s worth triple what it costs.


31 posted on 03/12/2012 7:31:58 PM PDT by GlockThe Vote (The Obama Adminstration: 2nd wave of attacks on America after 9/11)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Jonty30
For myself at least, 4 inches is about how big a phone should be.

My wife has a 4" phone, and that's pushing it. I really liked the new RAZR, but the screen size is what killed any possibility of me buying it. BTW, the iPhone has more pixels than the RAZR at 4.3".

32 posted on 03/12/2012 7:40:12 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: Jonty30
but it can only be considered a flop, if you thought that Android was also a flop in its beginning.

Both were. All anyone was saying about both was basically "Don't worry, the next version will be worth buying." Even Google says Android pretty much sucked until version 4.

33 posted on 03/12/2012 7:49:51 PM PDT by antiRepublicrat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 28 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

Yes! The Apple Lisa will cream Windows 3.2, and Apple will take over the consumer PC market! They will own WYSIWYG!

Oh, wait... did I skip a few years...? ;)


34 posted on 03/12/2012 7:59:21 PM PDT by MV=PY (The Magic Question: Who's paying for it?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: antiRepublicrat

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

At 1080, most can’t see individual pixelation.

so if you’re into Android, that’s probably the phone a person wants.


35 posted on 03/12/2012 8:09:36 PM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death cults.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: Tzfat

Read the reviews from the industry and you’ll see they love it and think it’s the one thing that can beat iPad.

If we went by the blog community then Ron Paul would be winning the primary.


36 posted on 03/12/2012 8:16:10 PM PDT by for-q-clinton (If at first you don't succeed keep on sucking until you do succeed)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: mamelukesabre
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?
  1. PocketPC 2000
  2. Windows CE
  3. Pocket PC 2002
  4. Windows Mobile 2003
  5. Windows Mobile 2003 SE
  6. Windows Mobile 5
  7. Windows Mobile 6
  8. Windows Mobile 6.1
  9. 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.

37 posted on 03/12/2012 8:16:48 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Jonty30; antiRepublicrat

>> “For myself at least, 4 inches is about how big a phone should be.” <<

.
I use my phone for talking on, not looking at pictures. I don’t even know where I’d hide that 4” brick, my shirt pocket is only 3 1/4” wide. My flip phone is 1.9” wide, and 4.3” long, and has real keys so I can punch in the rght number the first time, every time.


38 posted on 03/12/2012 8:18:53 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (No Federal Sales Tax - No Way!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 26 | View Replies]

To: ProtectOurFreedom

Here’s why you have no clue...

Nokia windows phones are making a big hit in the world’s largest smart phone market. CHINA. iphone is toast.


39 posted on 03/12/2012 8:20:24 PM PDT by mamelukesabre
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix

I seriously doubt that I’ll ever own an Apple anything.


40 posted on 03/12/2012 8:21:59 PM PDT by editor-surveyor (No Federal Sales Tax - No Way!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 121-130 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson