Comments on: Some iTablet Nonsense & And Some iTablet News http://www.geardiary.com/2009/10/26/some-itablet-nonsense-and-some-itablet-news/ Everyone can understand technology; sometimes it just takes a little translating. Wed, 15 Feb 2012 01:37:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Thai Short News ✆http://www.geardiary.com/2009/10/26/some-itablet-nonsense-and-some-itablet-news/#comment-56359 Thai Short News ✆ Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:39:18 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=55643#comment-56359 <span class="topsy_trackback_comment"><span class="topsy_twitter_username"><span class="topsy_trackback_content">มีรูป Tablet ของแอ๊บเปิ้ลออกมาให้ดูอีกละ -- ดูเอง จริงปลอม ไม่รู้ -- http://is.gd/4Emqf</span></span> มีรูป Tablet ของแอ๊บเปิ้ลออกมาให้ดูอีกละ — ดูเอง จริงปลอม ไม่รู้ — http://is.gd/4Emqf

]]> By: doogaldhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/10/26/some-itablet-nonsense-and-some-itablet-news/#comment-50953 doogald Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:22:36 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=55643#comment-50953 How shocking - people want devices to be cheap. I assume that Apple will price this impending device (heh) in a way that maximizes their profit, regardless of market share. In other words, they will care less about pricing it right for mass adoption by cheap users and instead will focus on getting it priced in a way that gets enough adoption at as much profit as possible. I'm sure that if Apple had done a similar survey before the release of the iPhone they would have received a similar result. They priced it at $500/$600 and still got huge lines and adoption at launch (and managed to cut the price and then change the price model later on.) How shocking – people want devices to be cheap. I assume that Apple will price this impending device (heh) in a way that maximizes their profit, regardless of market share. In other words, they will care less about pricing it right for mass adoption by cheap users and instead will focus on getting it priced in a way that gets enough adoption at as much profit as possible.

I’m sure that if Apple had done a similar survey before the release of the iPhone they would have received a similar result. They priced it at $500/$600 and still got huge lines and adoption at launch (and managed to cut the price and then change the price model later on.)

]]> By: MacOnSteroidshttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/10/26/some-itablet-nonsense-and-some-itablet-news/#comment-56360 MacOnSteroids Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:41:28 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=55643#comment-56360 <span class="topsy_trackback_comment"><span class="topsy_twitter_username"><span class="topsy_trackback_content">Some iTablet Nonsense & And Some iTablet News | Gear Diary: There was, however one bit of news regarding th.. http://bit.ly/4Esxuh</span></span> Some iTablet Nonsense & And Some iTablet News | Gear Diary: There was, however one bit of news regarding th.. http://bit.ly/4Esxuh

]]> By: Haesslichhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/10/26/some-itablet-nonsense-and-some-itablet-news/#comment-50946 Haesslich Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:29:58 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=55643#comment-50946 "or feature phones which were still 'dumb' phones at heart (camera phones, music phones) but which could do many of the things that Palm or WM-based phones could, but without the hefty price tag attached to WM-based or Palm-based smartphones or PDA's. And Windows Mobile 6.5 is STILL stylus-centric, despite the best efforts of manufacturers to try to catch up with people who may not have the time (or elbow room) to whip out a stylus to interact with 20 drop-down or roll-up menus... while Windows Mobile 7 is god knows how many years away, and marginalization is becoming an ever-increasing danger as it loses more and more mindshare to other OSes, and it is looking less revolutionary and more like it'll be obsolete even before it gets to the RC stage, much less the market." Forgot that last bit. “or feature phones which were still ‘dumb’ phones at heart (camera phones, music phones) but which could do many of the things that Palm or WM-based phones could, but without the hefty price tag attached to WM-based or Palm-based smartphones or PDA’s. And Windows Mobile 6.5 is STILL stylus-centric, despite the best efforts of manufacturers to try to catch up with people who may not have the time (or elbow room) to whip out a stylus to interact with 20 drop-down or roll-up menus… while Windows Mobile 7 is god knows how many years away, and marginalization is becoming an ever-increasing danger as it loses more and more mindshare to other OSes, and it is looking less revolutionary and more like it’ll be obsolete even before it gets to the RC stage, much less the market.”

Forgot that last bit.

]]> By: Haesslichhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/10/26/some-itablet-nonsense-and-some-itablet-news/#comment-50945 Haesslich Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:22:10 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=55643#comment-50945 Heck, look at Windows Mobile which hasn't really fundamentally CHANGED in about 10 years: Windows CE looks much like Pocket PC 2000, which looked like PocketPC 2002 which became Windows Mobile 2003, which begat Windows Mobile 5, which spawned WM6 (eventually). The interface has gained a few more colors, but is basically the same as it used to be... right down to the stylus-driven menus which were inherited from Windows CE's interface, which could've come straight from Windows 95, with the exception of the bottom-left and bottom-right menus which got added in WM5, that owe more to the introduction of WM5 to the smartphone market (and the dumbphones which had similar menus for years) than any real advance in concept. Windows in a handheld computing situation has suffered from a fixation on the Windows Desktop as the be-all and end-all of interfaces, which meant they attempted to adapt the desktop experience to the mobile world, rather than try to create something which was easier to use... which is why Palm ate their lunch to start in the PDA world, before it metastasized and suffered the death of irrelevancy as other mobile OS's advanced in capability and the platforms became more powerful, while Palm and Windows Mobile stayed exactly the same... until the market had moved past them with more specialized devices which came with their own purpose-designed servers (Blackberry), more configurable (and cheaper) ones (Symbian, the failed Java-based phones), or feature phones which were still 'dumb' phones at heart (camera phones, music phones). Then we drag in the iPhone OS, which is sort of a mix between a 'dumb' phone and a 'smart' one... and here we are. Heck, look at Windows Mobile which hasn’t really fundamentally CHANGED in about 10 years: Windows CE looks much like Pocket PC 2000, which looked like PocketPC 2002 which became Windows Mobile 2003, which begat Windows Mobile 5, which spawned WM6 (eventually). The interface has gained a few more colors, but is basically the same as it used to be… right down to the stylus-driven menus which were inherited from Windows CE’s interface, which could’ve come straight from Windows 95, with the exception of the bottom-left and bottom-right menus which got added in WM5, that owe more to the introduction of WM5 to the smartphone market (and the dumbphones which had similar menus for years) than any real advance in concept. Windows in a handheld computing situation has suffered from a fixation on the Windows Desktop as the be-all and end-all of interfaces, which meant they attempted to adapt the desktop experience to the mobile world, rather than try to create something which was easier to use… which is why Palm ate their lunch to start in the PDA world, before it metastasized and suffered the death of irrelevancy as other mobile OS’s advanced in capability and the platforms became more powerful, while Palm and Windows Mobile stayed exactly the same… until the market had moved past them with more specialized devices which came with their own purpose-designed servers (Blackberry), more configurable (and cheaper) ones (Symbian, the failed Java-based phones), or feature phones which were still ‘dumb’ phones at heart (camera phones, music phones).

Then we drag in the iPhone OS, which is sort of a mix between a ‘dumb’ phone and a ‘smart’ one… and here we are.

]]> By: Haesslichhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/10/26/some-itablet-nonsense-and-some-itablet-news/#comment-50944 Haesslich Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:12:01 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=55643#comment-50944 Dan: It was basically a crippled Windows box which didn't have good enough hardware to run the Windows programs it could run otherwise, didn't have the battery life of a PDA, and was heavy. The most successful tablets I recall were all tablet/laptop convertibles. The stylus took the place of the mouse, but it couldn't take the place of a keyboard which, combined with the lack of a very good handwriting recognition protocol (early examples were, IIRC, compared unfavorably with the Newton, which itself wasn't exactly the best at 'reading' handwriting). Between this and the whole 'stylus as mouse', it wasn't a revolution in computing.. and to be honest, why would you want a tablet when a less-expensive and more capable notebook could do most of the same things? Especially not when the tablets were going at $3000-$3500 a pop when laptops with double the RAM and hard drive, along with similar or better battery life, were available for about $2500 if not less... and even with the drop in Macbook pricing in the past year, I'm afraid any Apple tablet will look at the 'premium' market and decide the rest of it isn't worth pursuing, as they did in past years. Part of what Apple fans like is the feeling that their machines are more 'exclusive' due to their higher prices and more standardized hardware from a single source, which guarantees better driver support for the base units (and less driver support for accessories), without the driver nightmare which was with Windows all the way up until XP SP2 or thereabouts. Want to bet that the Apple tablet, if it shows up, will be retailing for about the same price as a 17" MacBook Pro? Sorta like how the first iPod Touch 8GB and 16GB units were about the same price as a high-end iPod Classic (100GB)? Dan: It was basically a crippled Windows box which didn’t have good enough hardware to run the Windows programs it could run otherwise, didn’t have the battery life of a PDA, and was heavy. The most successful tablets I recall were all tablet/laptop convertibles. The stylus took the place of the mouse, but it couldn’t take the place of a keyboard which, combined with the lack of a very good handwriting recognition protocol (early examples were, IIRC, compared unfavorably with the Newton, which itself wasn’t exactly the best at ‘reading’ handwriting). Between this and the whole ‘stylus as mouse’, it wasn’t a revolution in computing.. and to be honest, why would you want a tablet when a less-expensive and more capable notebook could do most of the same things?

Especially not when the tablets were going at $3000-$3500 a pop when laptops with double the RAM and hard drive, along with similar or better battery life, were available for about $2500 if not less… and even with the drop in Macbook pricing in the past year, I’m afraid any Apple tablet will look at the ‘premium’ market and decide the rest of it isn’t worth pursuing, as they did in past years. Part of what Apple fans like is the feeling that their machines are more ‘exclusive’ due to their higher prices and more standardized hardware from a single source, which guarantees better driver support for the base units (and less driver support for accessories), without the driver nightmare which was with Windows all the way up until XP SP2 or thereabouts.

Want to bet that the Apple tablet, if it shows up, will be retailing for about the same price as a 17″ MacBook Pro? Sorta like how the first iPod Touch 8GB and 16GB units were about the same price as a high-end iPod Classic (100GB)?

]]> By: sherlockhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/10/26/some-itablet-nonsense-and-some-itablet-news/#comment-50924 sherlock Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:57:14 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=55643#comment-50924 Hi, "the impending Apple slate" I took this as meaning impending slate of products, nothing specific. It could very well have said "Microsoft slate" and not gotten any press but being that Apple was mentioned and the press and all the Apple people jumped in and threw a whole new meaning that was not meant. Simply ridiculous. Hi,

“the impending Apple slate”

I took this as meaning impending slate of products, nothing specific.

It could very well have said “Microsoft slate” and not gotten any press but being that Apple was mentioned and the press and all the Apple people jumped in and threw a whole new meaning that was not meant.

Simply ridiculous.

]]> By: Dan Cohenhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/10/26/some-itablet-nonsense-and-some-itablet-news/#comment-50920 Dan Cohen Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:18:59 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=55643#comment-50920 Haesslich- Great comment thanks! I used XP Tablets for years and never fully understood why they didn't get more of a reception than they did. Even with all the issues you listed (totally agree) I still loved using a tablet. Now I am using a Livescribe Pulsepen and while it isn't the same thing it does give me enough of the note taking ability to stop me from longing for my tablet on a daily basis. Like you I hope Apple doesn't price itself out of the market. At the right price point it will be a huge hit and FINALLY bring large tablets to the mainstream. Haesslich- Great comment thanks! I used XP Tablets for years and never fully understood why they didn’t get more of a reception than they did. Even with all the issues you listed (totally agree) I still loved using a tablet. Now I am using a Livescribe Pulsepen and while it isn’t the same thing it does give me enough of the note taking ability to stop me from longing for my tablet on a daily basis.

Like you I hope Apple doesn’t price itself out of the market. At the right price point it will be a huge hit and FINALLY bring large tablets to the mainstream.

]]> By: Haesslichhttp://www.geardiary.com/2009/10/26/some-itablet-nonsense-and-some-itablet-news/#comment-50917 Haesslich Tue, 27 Oct 2009 01:38:52 +0000 http://www.geardiary.com/?p=55643#comment-50917 I've commented on this elsewhere, especially with regards to the past and some of the reasons why PC tablets have failed to really make a splash in the market outside of very limited applications (and even then, I barely see them). Price for performance was always a big factor, on top of an OS which wasn't optimized for the tablet experience; the need to always hit Windows-like menus, going through Windows menu bars, and closing things out using the same Windows 'X' button meant that you would always encounter some niggling annoyance when working with the tablet... and on top of it being horribly expensive for what you got, would usually send people away from such devices. The iPhone OS really 'gets' the notions behind portable computing in a way no other Microsoft OS has done to date - it's fairly easy to use, the interface isn't designed around a stylus or some other small pointy thing which can get lost, it supports what many would consider to be natural gestures (scrolling up faster by moving your fingers faster, zooming by tapping or trying to expand the window with your fingertips and thumb, having menus which don't require a lot of dexterity with a stylus to hit, not having 50 pages of drop-down menus to access features when you can have a simple on/off switch on a page of options), and is powering one of the most used PDA's to date. My main concern now is that Apple will price itself out of the market... building on Microsoft's mistakes rather than capitalizing on its own strengths and MS's failures to create another niche in the mobile computing world the way they did with the iPhone OS and the iPhone/iPod Touch. That, and instead of building on the legacy of (semi) open computing as on the Mac, will go the route of locking down the tablet Mac even more than they have the iPod and iPhone in the name of 'unifying the customer experience'... and by doing so, keep suppliers of various bits of software which could do well on a tablet (I'm thinking of people who need instant access to records, doctors, etc) out by making it prohibitively expensive to develop for or to acquire. I’ve commented on this elsewhere, especially with regards to the past and some of the reasons why PC tablets have failed to really make a splash in the market outside of very limited applications (and even then, I barely see them). Price for performance was always a big factor, on top of an OS which wasn’t optimized for the tablet experience; the need to always hit Windows-like menus, going through Windows menu bars, and closing things out using the same Windows ‘X’ button meant that you would always encounter some niggling annoyance when working with the tablet… and on top of it being horribly expensive for what you got, would usually send people away from such devices.

The iPhone OS really ‘gets’ the notions behind portable computing in a way no other Microsoft OS has done to date – it’s fairly easy to use, the interface isn’t designed around a stylus or some other small pointy thing which can get lost, it supports what many would consider to be natural gestures (scrolling up faster by moving your fingers faster, zooming by tapping or trying to expand the window with your fingertips and thumb, having menus which don’t require a lot of dexterity with a stylus to hit, not having 50 pages of drop-down menus to access features when you can have a simple on/off switch on a page of options), and is powering one of the most used PDA’s to date.

My main concern now is that Apple will price itself out of the market… building on Microsoft’s mistakes rather than capitalizing on its own strengths and MS’s failures to create another niche in the mobile computing world the way they did with the iPhone OS and the iPhone/iPod Touch. That, and instead of building on the legacy of (semi) open computing as on the Mac, will go the route of locking down the tablet Mac even more than they have the iPod and iPhone in the name of ‘unifying the customer experience’… and by doing so, keep suppliers of various bits of software which could do well on a tablet (I’m thinking of people who need instant access to records, doctors, etc) out by making it prohibitively expensive to develop for or to acquire.

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