“Huang gave a number of reasons why the first Honeycomb-powered tablets haven’t had a strong start. Specifically with regard to the Xoom, he said the initial model introduced should not have included 3G, and should have been a Wi-Fi-only option.
“It’s a point of sales problem. It’s an expertise problem. It’s a marketing problem to consumers. It’s a price point problem,” he reportedly said, adding: “And it’s a software richness of content problem.””
You don’t say – Source
“Today you can see tablets and pads and other things that are starting to live in the space in between (a PC and a smartphone),” Mundie said. “Personally, I don’t know whether that space will be a persistent one or not.”
Sorry Mr. Mundie, but I think you have your head in the sand on this one and I suppose I can understand why. The tablet isn’t situated between the PC and the smartphone, it is replacing the PC. This surely scares the hell of you.
“Last year, Jobs compared the PC market to the U.S. automobile industry, noting that most vehicles in America at first were trucks, because they were driven by farmers. But as cars became more popular with the growth of cities, and features like power steering and automatic transmission were added, the truck came to represent a smaller number of vehicles on the road. “PCs are going to be like trucks,” he said.
Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer later fired back with a different spin on Jobs’ analogy: “There may be a reason they call them Mack Trucks,” Ballmer said, referring to Apple’s Mac line of computers. “But Windows machines are not going to be trucks.””
Apparently Ballmer took offense to Jobs stating that “PCs are going to be like trucks” and completely miss that what Jobs meant was that PCs would become much more of a utility device. A lot of people buy trucks because they have a heavy job to do.
Of course, Ballmer’s response is to attempt to put Windows everywhere even if it means allowing the market to pass them by.
Great piece by the Macalope on the absolute asshattery from Katherine Noyes on the iPad, iPad2 and tablets in general. It basically boils down to her inability to find a use case for herself and she runs with it saying tablets, and especially the iPad, are nothing more than a fad. As much as I like the iPad for what it can do, I also can’t find a reason to actually own one. That doesn’t mean however that I don’t understand why people are buying iPads in droves, it just means it isn’t a fit for me. Unlike netbooks, which I claimed to be on their way out in 2009, I think tablets are here to stay.
Amazon has launched their Appstore for Android devices. Aside from the eight step install process I think Amazon stands a better chance than just about anyone else in having a successful store and not just for themselves but for developers as well. Like Apple, Amazon has a well established music, video and book presence with millions of credit card holding consumers. What developer wouldn’t want to take part in that?
While the eight step install process on android devices is annoying today, imagine if Amazon produced a their own tablet with their store already loaded on it. I once said on twitter that for Android to really be as successful as iOS someone would have to take it and rebrand it as their own and build a great ecosystem around it. Amazon has that ecosystem, they just need a mobile platform to sell on.
If Amazon were to create that mobile platform, and it included a phone and a tablet, I think Apple would truly have a competitor to worry about.
Reading headlines like this really emphasizes just how lost Microsoft is right now
This tells me two things. One, Windows Phone 7 was nothing more than a reaction to iOS. Two, they had no further strategy than that.
Apparently it simply didn’t occur to them that Apple might take their new mobile operating system and bring it to a tablet device, the same type of device Microsoft has been trying to create *for years* and have failed. Unfortunately for Microsoft, and everyone else for that matter, Apple doesn’t just have a great mobile OS, they also already have an entire supporting ecosystem adding tremendous value to their mobile OS.
Clearly Microsoft, who has been trying build a tablet people actually want to use for years, simply doesn’t know what they’re doing. “Redmond, start your copiers” is really real. You have to feel a little bad for Microsoft. They’ve been trying for years and Apples launches one out of the park on their first try. But the difference here is that Apple has their own vision.
Seth Weintraub writing for CNNMoney.com wonders if Steve Jobs distorted the truth during his iPad 2 announcement. He starts by trying to examine Job’s “First dual core tablet to ship in volume” comment.
“First dual core tablet to ship in volume.” That’s funny, I tested a Dell (DELL) Streak 7, which had a dual core Nvidia Tegra 2 chip in January. They’ve been shipping ever since on T-Mobile.
In volume.
Of course, the Motorola (MMI) XOOM also has this same dual core processor and is certainly shipping in volume as well. In fact, I’ve been using an Android phone (the Atrix) with a dual core chip for weeks and it wasn’t the first to ship in volume. As for Apple (AAPL), they haven’t shipped one iPad 2 yet — iPad 2’s hit shelves on March 11.
Seth isn’t the only one to latch onto this quote and try to debunk it but what a lot of people are failing to realize is that, while others may be shipping dual-core tablets, it’s very safe for Steve Jobs to say that Apple will ship and sell a higher volume of iPad 2’s than any other dual-core tablet available today simply based on sales of the first iPad. Indeed, if previous iPad sales are any indication at all, iPad 2 is going to be a huge hit. What other tablet device can claim that today?
And to say that Apple hasn’t shipped any iPads is completely naive. Apple has a stock pile of second generation either en-route to stores or in stores already. This is very common for any product.
Seth also tries to pick apart Jobs’ “>90% market share” bullet point.
Apple would have needed to sell 3.2 million more to reach 90% of 2010’s tablet market share against just Samsung alone (in triple the time). That’s not including all of the Android-powered Nooks out there, those cheap $100 Androids you can buy at Walgreens or Amazon and even Windows-powered Tablet PCs (which are mentioned two bullet points above!). If you choose to include the Kindle, Apple may not have even reached 50% of the market.
While he might have a point about the actual market share number his supporting arguments are just ridiculous. First, the sales of “cheap $100 Androids” don’t even register, to the point where nobody is actually tracking them. Second, there is no such thing as a Windows powered Tablet PC when you consider how tablets have come to be defined because of the iPad. Nobody is selling a Windows powered tablet. And last, attempting to bring in Kindle sales simply doesn’t make sense as the Kindle is a reading device, not a general purpose tablet device. Talk about skewing data in your favor. “Pot, meet kettle.”
Seth goes on to point out hardware specs and pricing.
Perhaps Jobs could have also compared the iPad 2 to other Android tablets’ prices? Samsung’s Galaxy Tab and Dell’s Streak both now start at $499 and have better cameras, 3G radios and GPS, which seem to compete well with Apple’s $499 Wifi-only offering. Reality distorted.
Know why the Tab and the Streak both now start at $499? Because they’re not selling.
But hey the XOOM has better specs right?
But then consider that the XOOM has a much better, bigger 720P+ screen compared to the iPad’s 1024×768 job (it has less Retina™).
Where Seth wants to pick on Jobs’ use of the word “volume” saying it is subjective, so to is saying the XOOM’s screen is “much better.” The iPad’s screen is an IPS panel giving it a much wider viewing angle where as the XOOM does not. While it is true that the XOOM has a 720p display Seth, like so many other reviewers and Apple nay-sayers, fails to realize is that the iPad’s 4:3 format display makes much more sense than a 16:9 display format. By giving a tablet a 16:9 display format you’ve essentially limited the device to a horizontal layout. The iPads 4:3 format allows developers to create apps that favor either layout and still get good use from it. Remember, the iPad is a general purpose device, not just some common movie player.
The only thing Seth got right in his troll piece is that Jobs misquoted Samsung’s CEO.
Linux News is reporting that Acer will be launching two new Android tablets, both a 7″ and 10.1″ model, as well as a Windows 7 based tablet. I asked the magic 8 ball and it is already saying “outlook not so good.” Even the “experts” who cover this stuff already know that whatever Acer pumps out simply won’t match the iPad.
“The price point is the only way for other tablets to compete against the iPad for now, as it’s very difficult to battle the iPad in terms of the user experience,” Kitagawa explained. “But if the price is lower than the iPad’s, and the user experience is good enough, buyers might be attracted.”
That’s not exactly praise being dished out there now it is?
I’d really like to see more companies compete with the iPad by actually offering a compelling product. Samsung’s Tab is so far about the only Android based offering that even stands a chance but even that tablet comes up short. It kinda reminds me of a certain Dilbert cartoon
And we all know how I feel about Windows 7 on a tablet. That has #fail all over it.