New Apple Tablet

[dirk digler]

Cool stuff. On Engadget live right now

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/l...est&refresh=30

[Bewbies]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-duo/pd

I know a guy who bought one of these instead of an iPad and he loves it.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Pittsie

Are you really touting Dvorak as a sage on the future of the tablet market?* Choice quotes:

"First of all there is no stylus. And while that is fine for the iPod Touch, people expect to be able to draw on a pad computer in high resolution"

"Give it a handle. Why not?"

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2358684,00.asp

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/app...ary-2010-01-29

*Granted, he had a ton of company misreading the iPad.

This is the guy AustinChief is claiming his "speculation usually becomes fact"?

Originally Posted by Dvorak on iPad

It seems more destined to impact the market for the Sony Portable Playstation than anything else.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

http://www.dell.com/us/p/inspiron-duo/pd

I'm pretty sure you're joking here. But if not.... that machine is a piece of shit. Dell sent us 2 of them to test at work, and the first one broke in less than a day. We were hugely disappointed in it.

[Bob Dole]

Originally Posted by BCD

This x 1000. While I have no use for one, I'd like to have one. If I could buy one for $200, I would. Even if it's an iPad.

Bob Dole got one just so someone in the IT department would be able to effectively support the faculty and staff who ended up buying the things. You'd be surprised at how useful it can be.

The best example Bob Dole can think of to make is likening it to something like a Franklin Planner. If you just thought of and used a FP as a calendar, it was overpriced and bulky and pretty much useless. If you allowed yourself to fundamentally change the way you planned and worked, it was not useless at all.

A tablet probably isn't going to replace Bob Dole's desktop computer any time in the near future, but it sure as hell helps with organizing and planning, saves a lot of duplicated effort, and once you adjust your habits, it saves time spent retrieving information or looking for a computer so you can access that spreadsheet back on your desktop that you neglected to print out and bring with you.

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by KC Fish

This is the guy AustinChief is claiming his "speculation usually becomes fact"?

"the guy" is John Dvorak.. and if you have been in tech since the mid 80 like I have been.. you'd know what I mean.

[Bob Dole]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

"the guy" is John Dvorak.. and if you have been in tech since the mid 80 like I have been.. you'd know what I mean.

Mid 80's? What were you, like 3 years old?

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by KC Fish

I'm pretty sure you're joking here. But if not.... that machine is a piece of shit. Dell sent us 2 of them to test at work, and the first one broke in less than a day. We were hugely disappointed in it.

It was a joke.. sort of

.. but the Duo is NOT a piece of shit... it's actually a well made device that actually *GASP* can DO STUFF! but it definitely is too bulky to be a true "tablet".

[Skyy God]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

So wrong it's funny... tablets are not MP3 players... ok, actually they ARE right now.. a useful toy... but that is NOT the future. And more importantly none of the big manufacturers ever made any serious push to make MP3 players... it was a niche that had a too short of a window. MP3 players did not eat away at their sales... tablets eventually WILL and because of that, they are jumping in now.

Let's look at the ridiculous "Apple can get parts cheaper" argument... Do you honestly think an A5 will be cheaper than a Tegra2 (Tegra3 in the fall)? RIGHT NOW... the component cost of a Xoom and an iPad2 is almost identical. The iPad2's component cost will drop but not nearly as quickly as the Xoom's will.. mostly because more and more manufacturers will be using the same base components.

We are both "guessing" what the future holds... I am willing to BET that I am right on this...

If there is a $250 tablet with the same specs as the iPad3 out at this time next year... where do you think the market is headed? Do you think Apple will (or even CAN) match those prices?

I'm too lazy to look, but how does the cost of the A5 chip compare to the overall cost? I'd be willing to bet it's pretty small.

There's more to price leadership than just scale, btw.

http://www.businessinsider.com/ipad-...vantage-2011-3

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by Bob Dole

Mid 80's? What were you, like 3 years old?

First paying gig in Computer cane in 1988 so.. I was 14

ok, so mid-late 80s

What were you then? 40ish right?

[AustinChief]

Originally Posted by Pittsie

I'm too lazy to look, but how does the cost of the A5 chip compare to the overall cost? I'd be willing to bet it's pretty small.

There's more to price leadership than just scale, btw.

http://www.businessinsider.com/ipad-...vantage-2011-3

That is EXACTLY the laughable type of article I am talking about... No one at Acer is looking at this article and saying "oh shit.. better not get in the tablet space! Apple has it sewn up!" It's a market analyst buying the Apple kool-aid and ignoring the facts that dictate the way the industry really works.

As to the A5... it would be the most expensive component along with the screen and the battery. The screen and battery pricing drops across the board as the technology ramps up.. so yes, Apple drove those prices down.. but they drove them down for EVERYONE... so it really comes down to processor/memory.. and THAT my friend is where Apple will have trouble keeping up. Again.. it won't happen THIS year... this year will be full of better hardware at the same price as the iPad.. next year will be better hardware at lower prices. It's not going to happen overnight.

[Bob Dole]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

First paying gig in Computer cane in 1988 so.. I was 14

ok, so mid-late 80s

What were you then? 40ish right?

60ish. Already retired and battling the Baby Bells over telephone tariffs.

[Skyy God]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

That is EXACTLY the laughable type of article I am talking about... No one at Acer is looking at this article and saying "oh shit.. better not get in the tablet space! Apple has it sewn up!" It's a market analyst buying the Apple kool-aid and ignoring the facts that dictate the way the industry really works.

As to the A5... it would be the most expensive component along with the screen and the battery. The screen and battery pricing drops across the board as the technology ramps up.. so yes, Apple drove those prices down.. but they drove them down for EVERYONE... so it really comes down to processor/memory.. and THAT my friend is where Apple will have trouble keeping up. Again.. it won't happen THIS year... this year will be full of better hardware at the same price as the iPad.. next year will be better hardware at lower prices. It's not going to happen overnight.

Unless I'm reading it wrong, the process costs $14, out of a total component cost of $326.

http://www.digitimes.com/news/a20110314PR200.html

As for belittling the market analysts, you just don't want to acknowledge a contrary (and mainstream) viewpoint.

[Bob Dole]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

As to the A5... it would be the most expensive component along with the screen and the battery. The screen and battery pricing drops across the board as the technology ramps up..

Speaking of battery... Did you see this? http://www.informationweek.com/news/...SSfeed_IWK_All

[The_Doctor10]

Originally Posted by AustinChief

So wrong it's funny... tablets are not MP3 players... ok, actually they ARE right now.. a useful toy... but that is NOT the future. And more importantly none of the big manufacturers ever made any serious push to make MP3 players... it was a niche that had a too short of a window. MP3 players did not eat away at their sales... tablets eventually WILL and because of that, they are jumping in now.

Let's look at the ridiculous "Apple can get parts cheaper" argument... Do you honestly think an A5 will be cheaper than a Tegra2 (Tegra3 in the fall)? RIGHT NOW... the component cost of a Xoom and an iPad2 is almost identical. The iPad2's component cost will drop but not nearly as quickly as the Xoom's will.. mostly because more and more manufacturers will be using the same base components.

We are both "guessing" what the future holds... I am willing to BET that I am right on this...

If there is a $250 tablet with the same specs as the iPad3 out at this time next year... where do you think the market is headed? Do you think Apple will (or even CAN) match those prices?

My point is, they won't. And nor do they have to. Since their gigantic turnaround, Apple has been Apple because they DON'T lower their prices. They decide what their product is gonna go for, and if you don't want to pay that price, fine. They do not care. Case in point, the 160 GB iPod classic has been 260 dollars Canadian for at least three years. The laptops haven't come down much if at all, ditto for the iMacs. The only reason the iPad is going down is because the 2 is coming out. And based on Apple's ability to get better performance/quality while using lesser-spec'd laptops, I'm sure they're gonna be fine. Will their market share decrease? Probably, but since they were running unopposed until now, that makes sense.

Maybe tablets are the future as far as computing, but based on the limitations of the current hardware, it's not likely that any of them have the capability to replace a computer full-stop; that's probably at least two to three versions away. For now, Tablets remain novelty items, and we'll see who does novelty best over the next year. Odds are, it's probably still Apple.

[Skyy God]

Originally Posted by KC Fish

This is the guy AustinChief is claiming his "speculation usually becomes fact"?

I particularly like this quote.

"Easy, John. You’re slipping into Andy Rooney mode."

http://52tiger.net/dvorak-angered-by...ndons-reality/