Apple's iPad to demand lion's share of tablet PC market?
By Thomas Ricker 
posted January 29th 2010 5:10AM
posted January 29th 2010 5:10AM
On the surface, these numbers are pretty optimistic when you consider that Apple sells about 13.5 million Macs per year (extrapolating 3.36 million sold last quarter). Even more so when you realize that only 3 million to 4 million tablet PCs are sold annually according to Peng and Endpoint Technologies' analyst Roger Kay. Problem is, the iPad isn't really a tablet PC is it? As Technologizer astutely points out, "the iPad isn't a traditional PC –- it's more of an appliance. You don't tinker with your television; you turn it on and consume services." By that logic, it's not a direct competitor to the netbook or e-reader either (though the markets definitely overlap). The only thing we can say with certainty is that it is divisive and that it has captivated the attention of the entire consumer electronics industry.
@MosesusedaniPad
No, I'm just going by what many consumers consider a personal computer to be. Some are going to call this a tablet regardless, which I can live with, but I find it foolish to call it a Tablet *PC*. At the very least, I give Apple credit for giving it an apt name: a "Pad", since it really, really isn't a tablet PC.
The HP Slate? That's a tablet PC. The Archos 9? That's a tablet PC. The iPad is NOT a tablet PC. And when in the fuck was the last time you used a computer and didn't multi-task? Hell, I don't think my non tech smart family members only use one program or application at a time now. I think you're very out of tune with market here.
Guys I don't get the hate. Why are you hating if this thing sells it will mean that more and more good tablets will be available from other companies just like with the iPhone. Nobody cared about touchscreen phones before the iPhone.
BUY it ONLY to spur more tablet releases!
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Fact: Every Windows tablet was a huge failure and it scared the entire industry never to build tablets for consumers. The word was that consumers will never take to tablets or slates. This year we will see if the industry was telling the truth or merely lying to cover up the truth that Microsoft and Windows is just useless for anything except desktop computing.
Consensus from pundits seem to be that Apple will not even sell a million iPads this year. The publishing industry is betting on high sales. There are going to be an awful lot of idiots with their foots in their mouths within six months.
@MosesusedaniPad It will sell a million for sure it will not sell 10 like the iphone but I see it as a perfect substitute for my internet enabled TV.
@kyphem
I say Apple will sell 5 million units this year easily. Once a consumer gets their hands on one, they'll want it even if it doesn't run Flash or multitask. The ones with their foots in their mouths will be the tablet naysayers. The iPad has tremendous potential for users of all ages. The A4 chip and beyond will revolutionize all Apple mobile devices. Just imagine what the iPhone will do with an A4 chip at it's heart. Apple could probably downclock it for extended battery life. Apple will have the entire mobile industry scrambling like beheaded chickens.
Good day, I'm in love with my Nexus One - superphone ( just updated yesterday -OTA- its so much better now about the 3G signal & more faster charging time ) - we still have the 2g iphone & 3gs but were using it as MP3 player in our cars - 09 RIDGELINE & 09 PILOT -
I called my friend who's working on HTC in Houston - (he's senior engineer-the best guy to ask about software & phones) ( USA-HTC repair center is in Houston,Texas ) he divulge something to me.
We moved from California for GOOD - he worked with APPLE before & myself with Honda R&D and now we are in Texas ( hes in Houston, I'm in the best city in the USA - AUSTIN,TEXAS).
Here's the big scoop guys, GOOGLE wants some share on HTC board & they will invest in the company for more products to be made by HTC for them, like the ultra advance tablet & more advance phones that is way better than the so called OLD TECHNOLOGY iPAD& iPHONE, who are just good in aesthetic appearance with APPLE logo on it ( i'll bet all my money that whatever piece of crap they will make, people will buy it because of the name APPLE )
BUT if it is EMACHINES that even can do anything & will make your life easy and happy, still people will not buy it because its EMACHINE, people did you get it??? WAKE UP!!!
Thats all for now...
Take care buddies & gurlies...
God bless y'all
http://bit.ly/chbGj3
I've given this a great deal of thought the last couple of days and I think we have just witnessed the death toll of the personal computer as we know it now as a major consumer product. I think that computers in the work place will never be replaced by a device such as this, but the days of people buying mom and dad a computer so they can read emails and see pictures of the grandchildren that live on the other coast are numbered.
Over the past couple of decades the computer industry has tried to push what is essentially a business computer into the consumer space. They come in a big desktop size bun, tiny little netbook size bun, all-in-one meal size bun and portable desktop replacement size bun. Like a good burger joint they make them any way you want them, plain as can be, or loaded with everything, just as long as it's a business shaped burger inside. Which was fine 10+ years ago when that was all there was to choose from, but it isn't today when people want a grilled chicken salad or a fish dinner.
It used to be home computers where for the younger more technical savy crowd, while their parents, who were part of the TV generation, avoided them as unnecessary to have in the home and were actually afraid of using them. Well that generation of computer adopters grew up and had kids of their own. A generation who grew up with desktop computers and think of them as a natural part of life. Their children grew up with laptop computers as a natural part of life.
The problem is that the computer industry and those computer generations try to find any and every reason to make use of computers. Some weren't satisfied with computers at home, so they made computers that could be taken with us. Some weren't happy with the bulk of those laptops so they invented the Netbook. Some didn't like a big computer case sitting under the desk so they invented all-in-ones. All shapes and sizes to choose from, but still always at it's core was a business shaped burger.
Heck the last couple of years even having one computer in the house wasn't enough. They wanted us to have an HTPC in the living room and a Home Server to collect all the media and serve it when needed. Always though it was taking a business shaped burger and trying to shove it into another consumer size bun.
Apple very smartly is trying to break the cycle of computers as we know them today. Tech types will come up with a million reasons why it is not as good as a real computer. No real Windows or OS X with desktop applications, no expandable memory or storage, doesn't output 1080p over HDMI, not a big enough processor, the list goes on and on. Basically its not a burger and what they want is a burger in another size package.
But that is about to change......
Maybe not by this Apple device, but by some product that takes this tablet device and refines it and improves on it and polishes it to perfection. But the flood gates are open now and there's no stopping the eventual course that this river will run.
The problem is that the generation growing up right now is the handheld generation. They've always played games on handheld systems like the DS, listened to music and watched video on iPods and had Smartphone's before they were teens. This generation is not going to except being told that it takes a big clunky desktop computer or a laptop computer to enjoy the internet, play games, watch video or listen to music. They already know that it doesn't and you could never convince them it does.
So maybe not this year or even next, but once other companies start turning out their own versions of the iPad, and by that I mean devices that aren't based on the business burger in yet another bun, then the days of the older couple going into Wal-Mart and picking up a $489 HP computer so they can keep in touch with those kids and grandchildren on the other coast are over. A few years from now those grandchildren will be carrying these handheld type devices and showing them how easy it is to do things on them and on that day the era of the home computer desktop as a mass consumer device is over. The grilled chicken salad era will start and the burger will go back to being a business item.
iPad is the only tablet device that runs on app...
Apart from tech geeks, who the hell "tinkers" with their computer. No one. Which is why Apple is having record sales, despite not even being able to "tinker" with the battery. That's why none of you can comprehend why Apple is successful. It is a consumer electronics company.
Ever since I got my iPod Touch, I always wanted a larger screen for surfing. The iPad is perfect. Only thing missing is Flash. I've got laptops, htpcs, windows homeservers. I don't need anymore computers. I just need something that I can casually surf the web.
If you already have an ipod touch, that so easy to take away with you , why bother with this.
Good day,
I'm in love with my Nexus One - superphone ( just updated yesterday -OTA- its so much better now about the 3G signal & more faster charging time ) - we still have APPLE products like macbook pro & ipod touch for my daughter then 2g iphone & 3gs but were using it as MP3 player in our cars - RIDGELINE & PILOT -
I called my friend who's working on HTC in Houston - (he's senior engineer-the best guy to ask about software & phones) ( USA-HTC repair center is in Houston,Texas ) and he divulge something to me.
We moved from California for GOOD - he worked with APPLE before & myself with Honda R&D and now we are in Texas ( hes in Houston, I'm in the best city in the USA - AUSTIN,TEXAS).
Here's the big scoop guys, GOOGLE wants some share on HTC board & they will invest in the company for more products to be made by HTC for them, like the ultra advance tablet & more advance phones that is way better than the so called OLD TECHNOLOGY iPAD& iPHONE, who are just good in aesthetic appearance with APPLE logo on it ( i'll bet all my money that whatever piece of crap they will make, people will buy it because of the name APPLE - like me before )
BUT if it is EMACHINES or any brand that even can do everything & will make your life easier and happy, still people will not buy it because its EMACHINE or not a popular name...
People did you get it??
WAKE UP!!! I am...
Thats all for now... more revelation to come!!!
Take care buddies & gurlies...
God bless y'all
The other day as I followed the iPad event Live Blog I found myself quite underwhelmed by the whole thing. Man, what an over-hyped product compared to the reality of this tablet. I'm not an Apple fan by any means and have no Apple products at home, but I do realize that they have a certain insight into the minds of consumers. I was left wondering how a company that usually gets everything so right, get this product so wrong. It wasn't just me either as the comment sections of all the various tech websites I frequent were filled with comments from people thinking the same thing. Now that I've had time to digest the iPad and think about what it means to the consumer, I must grudgingly admit that I think Steve Jobs is a brilliant man. Before I get to that though I want to talk about consumer electronics for a moment as a whole.
Walk into any Wal-mart or Target and look around their electronics section and you will see the huge divide between PC's and every other piece of electronics in the store.
Go to the computer software isle. Now stand in front of the new release section, close your eyes, and reach out and pick a package. Will the software you picked run on your PC? You don't know until you read the package. Do you have a graphics card with DirectX 9c? Do you have shader model 4.0? Do you have 2GB of ram? Do you have 11GB of available hard drive space. Do you have EAX 5.0? Do you have PhysX? Do you have Windows XP service pack 3 or higher?
Now go to the computer hardware isle. Stand in front of the storage section and do the same thing. Wait, do you have a USB 1.1, 2.0 or 3.0 port? Do you have a Firewire port? Do you have an e-SATA port? Do you have Windows XP Service Pack 3 or higher?
Now go to the CD section and do the same thing. You close you're eyes and pick the one. That's it, you're done.
Now go to the DVD section and do the same. Now the XBOX 360 section. Now the PS3 section. Now the Wii section. Now the DS section. Hold on a second. There may just be a pattern forming here.
The truth is that the PC as a consumer device is a completely broken model. One of the greatest strengths of the PC is also it's biggest weakness. There are just too many choices. Choice is good, but there comes a point when too much choice is a bad thing. Do you have to know what makes your CD player work? or your DVR? Your cordless phone? No you don't. PC desktops, laptops and netbooks make you know too much about the device. A modern consumer device SHOULD be free of that. You SHOULD be able to turn it on and just use it. It SHOULD be just as easy as those other devices and completely free of any guess work.
Now back to Steve Jobs being a brilliant man. I think he understands that they let the computer get away from them and become this massive, unruly mess that we have today. I think he has been tying to put the genie back in the bottle ever since. He just could never do that with the Mac's and OS X because they really are just PC's too, with all the same problems.
So this time around he is creating the biggest controlled environment that the computer industry has ever seen. He is turning the computing experience into a real consumer model. You go to the application store and pick anything at random and it just works on three classes of devices. There are 75 million Apple device users already, add in millions of people a year from this pad, and combined with new Touch and iPhones this summer and and I bet there will be 125+ million users by next Christmas. There could be more devices taking advantage of this eco system than the current record holding DS with 130 Million units sold, and it is just a game system. The Apple portable platform does so much more than that. He is taking the game console model that is hugely successful and expanding it out to as many consumers as he can.
People gripe about it not having Flash and thus no Hulu and all that. But lets get real here for a second. When his eco system goes up from 75 million users and reaches 100 million users and then 150 million users, Hulu is going to make an app for that. I think the next step will be the Apple TV2 built on the same platform and running apps for content and first run programming through them. This Apple platform already uses up 50% of all mobile broadband data. What company in their right mind wouldn't change the way they operate to cater to the 100+ million heaviest data consumers? Stick the app on your iPad, iPhone and Apple TV2 and watch all your content anywhere you want, whenever you want.
I have no idea where Steve Jobs wants to lead everyone, but I think the common person consumer is going to follow him there in ever increasing numbers. I think any companies that try to stick with the old computer model are going to see a smaller and smaller market going forward.
It seems like a lot of people ( who write comments on tech sites ) are confused about who the market is for this device, and that's because it's not really aimed at the kind of people who write comments on tech sites.
There's this image that Apple is some sort of elitist company, with high prices and "smug" users, but people don't really like to admit that they are actually making computers easier.
The emphasis is on speed ( instant power-up and no multi-tasking ) and ease-of-use. It's a consumer product, not a pc : it's for people who want to press the button and go, and not spend hours tinkering under the hood.
Computers aren't beige anymore and the idea that you need to be some sort of "expert" to operate them is more elitist than anything Apple has come up with.
Move on ...