Apple

[Breand]

I have to agree with Greive on this one. I work for a large Canadian bank and tablets are a desire for quite a few people. Especially traveling people and marketing.

Every manager in our company has one, and the vast majority dont even need it, they just want to be "cool." Our engineering department has one for testing our apps. It basically became one of our engineer's by default because he was the only one of us who didnt have one. He takes it home every weekend.

[Zirak]

Neither of the big companies I have worked for have even allowed cell phones outside of the front office area - they sure as hell aren't going to give people tablets. Wi-Fi is forbidden. The company I work for now recently even cut back on the number of people who get to have laptops and saddled everyone, including engineers with dumb terminals. The only reason I'm able to do my job as an engineer is because my dumb terminal is a lobotomized real computer and I know how to hack it to open up features when I need them.

My experience is not unique. I talk to salesmen who cover large territories and are in lots of manufacturing facilities as well as contractors who work for other large companies such as Honeywell. The trend is for IT to remove computing tools and lock things down.

[strife]

I have to agree with Greive on this one. I work for a large Canadian bank and tablets are a desire for quite a few people. Especially traveling people and marketing.

Every manager in our company has one, and the vast majority dont even need it, they just want to be "cool." Our engineering department has one for testing our apps. It basically became one of our engineer's by default because he was the only one of us who didnt have one. He takes it home every weekend.

This is exactly how our company is as well... dev has them for testing our IOS/ANdroid apps and all of our management have them because it's cool to have one. 99% of the shit they do could be done on a smart phone or more efficiently on a laptop.

I have an ipad in my drawer that collects dust.. if you need to do any actual work, a tablet is pointless. They are kind of useful for going to meetings, travel and if you have a business that goes to customers and you can do work orders or show off product on them.. other than that.. it's just the cool thing to do IMO.

I work for a bank, in IT.

[Grieve]

This gen consoles have been around since 2005 and they still beat the living shit out of games on the ipad - how do you think its going to compete when the next gen consoles are out next year or so? Hell, I don't even think that the ipad has any games that match PS2 games. The best game on ipad is final fantasy tactics and thats a fucking PS1 port.

Apple's new iPad making waves in video game market

From Electronic Arts to "Crysis" developers Crytek, industry executives are figuring out ways to migrate graphics-intensive so-called hardcore games to the iPad. Epic Games and Namco Bandai (TYO:7832) took the stage at Apple's iPad unveiling this week to show off what they can do with an iPad that has a faster quad core processor.

With more than 55 million iPads sold to date, including 15.43 million last quarter, the tablet is quickly catching up to the number of consoles on the market: the PlayStation 3 has sold 62 million units and Xbox 360 has moved more than 65 million units. That growing user base is drawing developers who want to see their games played on as many devices as possible.

"Apple is definitely building their devices as if they care a lot about 'triple-A' games," said Mike Capps, president of Epic Games, the studio behind "Gears of War" for consoles and "Infinity Blade" for the iPad.

[Jakensama]

[quote="Grieve"]
I really think you're wrong on this one. I work for a really big company, and all the sales and marketing folks are using iPads instead of laptops. They are not even taking their laptops with them to sales conferences and customer sites. You go into a hospital, and you see doctors and nurses walking around with them. Airlines are giving them to pilots to use in the cockpit.

Here's an article showing in 2010, iPads were in use at 9% of small and medium business, and in 2011 it had already grown to 34%:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/o...story.html

Here's another: iPads Eliminate Need for Laptops for 60% of Business Professionals

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...z1ochM9aAN[/quote]

Its trendy, people convince their bosses they need them even though they are god awful as content creation devices. I might see a salesman having them since it makes your company seem hip and trendy, but for the vast majority of people there is absolutely zero need for them as a company device. Fuck, most companies use 10 year old software to get shit done..

As someonone with a chronic illness who goes to pretty good hospitals, ipads are not quite as ubiquitous as you may seem to apply.

I'm a bit skeptical on their claim that "Ten percent of all business professionals say the iPad is their primary device". What was their sample size on that study, 5 san francisco coffee shops?

[quote="Grieve"]
Apple's new iPad making waves in video game market[/quote[

Of course designers want to monetize a popular platform, it doesn't make it a good gaming device.

Guess what, designers want to monetize facebook too because it is super popular. I guess by your logic that makes it a super awesome gaming platform. Farmville and the swipe the screen to swing your sword games are for awesome gamers!

Also, if yellow journalism is now evidence, here is some that tells us why ipad sucks at gaming:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401360,00.asp">http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2401360,00.asp</a><!-- m -->

[Jakensama]

Final Fantasy Tactics on iPad??? And then I saw it was $18. I have it for the PS and PSP, they should just give this thing to me for free already!

Why waste $18 bucks on a port with a terrible control scheme when you could just download the psx emulator on your tablet?

Oh, you have an apple device... crack that wallet.

(Seriously, $18 for a 13 year old game?)

[Breand]

yeah Im not buying it. If I want to play it that bad Ill blow the dust off my PSP.

I saw a commercial for the new portable SONY device last night. I'm wondering if they have any clue what they are doing. $300 for what, exactly?

[Jakensama]

I wonder how many apple defenders at sometime used the douchy term "Micro$oft" on an online forum in the past and are now trying to rationalize their way out of the fact that Apple has taken on the monopoly throne.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46711960/ns/business-us_business/">http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46711960/ns ... _business/</a><!-- m -->

[Grieve]

Ipad 2 was an incremental upgrade as well. Unless you are offering something for the average person its just not that big a sell for people who already own them.

Apparantly they found a market - 3 million sold in four days. All Apple fanboys, no doubt...

[Jakensama]

release numbers for 10 countries compared to previous numbers for 1 country.... there is an apples to oranges joke to be made here....

[Vanraw]

One of my guys brought in a his Ipad3 and we did a side by side comparison to my Galaxy 10.1.

First impression is the Ipad3 weighs more then the 10.1. Its feels significant to me. The 10.1 screen is slightly longer (about half inch) but the ipad3 is slightly wider. Screen performance, honestly I didnt see a major differance. We played youtube side by side as well as some photo's. I have no doubt if a photo resolution was higher, the ipad3 would be better when zomming in and such, but didnt see anythjing that blew me away. On sound the 10.1 blew the ipad3 away. the stero speakers on the 10.1 was one of the reasons (besides the 4g) that I bought the tablet.

The wieght was surprising. It actually feels like a ultra laptop.

The lack of stereo speaker was disapointing to me, and was also to the ipad3 owner once I turned on and turned up the 10.1. Strange that apple would have a mono speaker with crap quality.

So in the end, I saw nothing that would make me want one over the 10.1. In fact it really seems that all apple did was to catch up from a technology perspective. The screen has much better stats but nothing that would be usefull to me, or noticiable as far as day to day use.

[Grieve]

release numbers for 10 countries compared to previous numbers for 1 country.... there is an apples to oranges joke to be made here....

Yes, but 99% of Android/Rimm/HP tablets haven't managed to sell 3 million tablets at all, let alone in 4 days.

Hell, according to the link below, only 1.2 million TOTAL non-iPad tablets were sold in the first 10 months of 2011 (and that amongst literrally 100s of Android and other tablets):

http://www.complex.com/tech/2011/11/how-...ld-in-2011

Obviously the Amazon Fire broke that trend, but it has a long way to catch up.

[Grieve]

One of my guys brought in a his Ipad3 and we did a side by side comparison to my Galaxy 10.1.

First impression is the Ipad3 weighs more then the 10.1. Its feels significant to me.

Battery is 70% bigger. Driving 4X the pixels is a pretty significant, and they wanted to keep the same 10 hour battery performance.

[Jakensama]

release numbers for 10 countries compared to previous numbers for 1 country.... there is an apples to oranges joke to be made here....

Yes, but 99% of Android/Rimm/HP tablets haven't managed to sell 3 million tablets at all, let alone in 4 days.

Android tablets are thus far less appealing than ipads (transformer prime was a beast but on tablet apps ipad has the clear advantage), i never argued that. And, far more than phones, the number of sub-par android tablets out there really hurt.

Hell, according to the link below, only 1.2 million TOTAL non-iPad tablets were sold in the first 10 months of 2011 (and that amongst literrally 100s of Android and other tablets):

That number doesn't jive with all the other numbers. You are once again comparing the 10 country launch numbers which what is likely a localized tablet sale. Apples to Oranges.

Also, tablets are fucking retarded.

[Grieve]

Yep, I was just early...

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/onli...-in-the-us

iPhone is only 5% down on Android now, from 16% 3 months ago.

[strife]

Pretty cool chart.. Android stayed solid and IOS took everything blackberry lost lol.

Speaking of RIM, Balsillie "stepped down" after they took huge losses.

[Grieve]

Yeah, and they are basically leaving the consumer market and sticking with business. Pretty stunning fall from a few years ago.

[Breand]

iTV is next:

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://techland.time.com/2012/05/11/report-foxconn-chief-reveals-details-about-apple-tv-set/">http://techland.time.com/2012/05/11/rep ... le-tv-set/</a><!-- m -->

I guess the big question is price point. How much more would the fanboys be willing to pay for a TV? We are talking about a very large purchase and will Apple be able to price these things at it's usual inflated price points? To me, it's also not a toy/impulse buy. A TV is a standard home purchase that has a long life so if people have already bought one recently, they aren't going to go out and get a new one just because it is Apple. I know I wouldn't.

I will say it makes sense since the TV manufacturers are still clueless about providing a complete experience and Apple is great at simplifying.

[Vanraw]

Yeah, and they are basically leaving the consumer market and sticking with business. Pretty stunning fall from a few years ago.

Rim has lost its edge, which is crazy since they owned the enterprise market. Working for a company that had over 30k bb handsets, I can tell you that they have lost the edge. Wait for the penny sale when they guys are bought for patents.

[Vanraw]

I will say it makes sense since the TV manufacturers are still clueless about providing a complete experience and Apple is great at simplifying.

Apple certainly the champions of look and feel design. But that edge is slipping, ever so slowly.

On the TV front, I was checking out the Samsung Smart TV at Best buy. Since I have a 10.1 tablet I was interested in the integration. They have done some good things here. You buy the TV, or the Blueray player that makes your TV a "smart TV".

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.samsung.com/us/2012-smart-tv/index.html">http://www.samsung.com/us/2012-smart-tv/index.html</a><!-- m -->


Xbox is also very strong in the business. They are signing up service providers and really strong rate, and xbox looks more and more like windows 8 will look like. VZ is close to offering a Netflix service with xbox in conjunction with redbox for the physical DVD's. VZ has all sorts of rights to stream digital content.


Googletv is making another run. LG has announced a Google TV and Google is reportedly revamping some stuff.


In the end TV is going to be about service providors and not sets. At least that is what I think we will see. Unless iTV knocks something out of the ball park as far as interface and control is concerned, I seriously doubt we will see a single corporation domination in this space.

[Breand]

I think Apple cares more about the services than the set too...but at what price point?

[Grieve]

On the TV front, I was checking out the Samsung Smart TV at Best buy. Since I have a 10.1 tablet I was interested in the integration. They have done some good things here. You buy the TV, or the Blueray player that makes your TV a "smart TV".

http://www.samsung.com/us/2012-smart-tv/index.html

What they have done looks very nice, but...that TV is almost $3000. $3200 for the 60". I can't imagine an iTV would be hugely more than that. And if it integrates the Apple app store (rather than the handful of apps that Samsung offers), that would be a huge selling point.

So far I've tried Google TV and a Sony smart blu-ray player. Neither one really did it for me. Fun for a few minutes, but I quickly returned to my easy-to-use Apple TV box and haven't touched the Sony for months (already returned the Google Tv). The quality of the apps is way below the default apps on the Apple TV. And there are only a handful that aren't worthless. With an iTV supporting apps, I think you'd quickly see thousands of apps specifically written for it, and tens of thousands of others made for the iPad/iPhone that would just work.

In fact, if Apple were smart, they'd announce it now (even if it won't be out of 6 or 12 months), to build up a frenzy in the media, made people hold off on buying other TVs, and let developers make a head start on apps.

To me, the one killer feature would be "TV channels (or shows) as apps". If this will let me truly cut the cable, I'm all in. I don't even need an iTV for that, they can just update Apple TV. I don't want to pay $100+ for a cable subscription + HBO just to watch Game of Thrones. But would I pay $10-20 a month for an HBO Go app? Sure.

EDIT: If you read the reviews on Amazon, even the 4* ones, you see all the problems with the TV. This is where I'm sure Apple can do much better. For example (from a 4* review!)

So, why did I return it and not just get a replacement since it was a simple dead pixel defect?

*The sluggish speed of loading the apps and web controls

*The hand movement gesture feature isn't as glamorous as they claim

*The smart remote is buggy, and works intermittently

*The white halo blotches. The brighter spots throughout the screen are noticeable during dark scenes

*Night scenes are not that great, whereas plasma provides stunning night scenes

*I suspect quality control concerns with the TV

[Grieve]

Looks like Apple might be buying Loewe AG this week (Jake should know who they are), which should make ze TV thing verrrry interesting...

[Slamz]

I don't think an iTV would catch on in nearly the same way as other iProducts have:

1) Price.
2) I don't think there's a huge interest in "smart TV". If there was, Tivo would already be dominating. Everyone would own a DVR.
3) I think iProducts sell well based partially on a "see and be seen with" mentality. Look at me! I have an iPad! Something that sits in your living room isn't going to have that appeal. Especially for friendless Apple misanthropes.
4) Dirty hippies already don't watch TV.
5) Apple lovers are mostly dirty hippies.


Of course, maybe Apple can revolutionize television in general. Maybe they can take their billions and just buy out various Hollywood production companies and put all that stuff out there for streaming "only on iTV". That might do it.

[Chain]

I'm currently living in a house with seven other 20-something year olds going to a college down the road - we are Apple's target audience. Taken together we have at least two dozen computers, smart phones and tablets, but we only have one TV, about six years old, down in the basement. It's used almost exclusively to play the Wii we have connected to it.

Take whatever lesson you want about the feasibility of an "iTV" from that.