iPad 2 - what's the latest buzz - heard anything?
- Thread starter DarthTom
- Start date
For the last few months, I had been wanting to get a tablet. It fulfills a good spot in both my business life and my personal life. After waiting to see what is announced, I decided to go for an iPad 2.
One of the biggest reasons why because it is available now. Everything else is just speculation and vague product announcements. I would consider a XOOM if a WiFi version was available (or even if they announced when it would be and a price point). The Playbook is by RIM and I hate Blackberries. The HP Tablet looks to be a real contender except there is no date for its release or any real other concrete info. I am interested in seeing what WebOS does to the desktop market, though.
Even with that, the biggest reason is Apps. The iPad has good Apps to do everything I want to do with a tablet, from note taking to editing office documents to drawing to recording music to reading. Honeycomb can only compete in one of those areas. I doubt that it will have as full featured app as Garageband (at least at the $5 price point). Yes, I do have qualms that are mostly centered around the fact that there is no real file explorer for the iPad (though I will use Dropbox for Office Documents) and Apple's new subscription policy. And the lack of an SD card slot is a little annoying. However all of its strengths vastly out-weigh its weaknesses.
Tablets are going to succeed or fail based on Third-Party support and Apple so far has a giant lead with that.
One of the biggest reasons why because it is available now. Everything else is just speculation and vague product announcements. I would consider a XOOM if a WiFi version was available (or even if they announced when it would be and a price point). The Playbook is by RIM and I hate Blackberries. The HP Tablet looks to be a real contender except there is no date for its release or any real other concrete info. I am interested in seeing what WebOS does to the desktop market, though.
Even with that, the biggest reason is Apps. The iPad has good Apps to do everything I want to do with a tablet, from note taking to editing office documents to drawing to recording music to reading. Honeycomb can only compete in one of those areas. I doubt that it will have as full featured app as Garageband (at least at the $5 price point). Yes, I do have qualms that are mostly centered around the fact that there is no real file explorer for the iPad (though I will use Dropbox for Office Documents) and Apple's new subscription policy. And the lack of an SD card slot is a little annoying. However all of its strengths vastly out-weigh its weaknesses.
Tablets are going to succeed or fail based on Third-Party support and Apple so far has a giant lead with that.
I got the 3G and my wife got the Wifi only and she is sorry that she did. How many conferences she has been at without wireless access. To do over, we would pay for the additional 3G.
One thing I do want to point out, why is it that so far apple is the only company out of the primary ones that has actually released both wireless and wifi versions at the same time of their product?
WHy on earth would other companies not also put out a lower cost version? Its actually highly irrational. First you have PR of being able to state said product starting at $$$$.
I mean look at Motorola being able to put out an ad that states the Xoom starting at $799. Compare to Apple being able to put out an ad stating Ipad2 starting at $499. For casual buyers or buyers for others, thats a huge difference. Most buyers are going to see an ad, or the price before they actually look into the different models and pricing options.
2nd part of the pluses for apple and ipad is there year lead in app development. With Xoom limiting its marketability due to its cost, that doesn't encourage developers to spend as much time on working for their product. It makes sense to get product to the market and to the largest number of the populace.
WHy on earth would other companies not also put out a lower cost version? Its actually highly irrational. First you have PR of being able to state said product starting at $$$$.
I mean look at Motorola being able to put out an ad that states the Xoom starting at $799. Compare to Apple being able to put out an ad stating Ipad2 starting at $499. For casual buyers or buyers for others, thats a huge difference. Most buyers are going to see an ad, or the price before they actually look into the different models and pricing options.
2nd part of the pluses for apple and ipad is there year lead in app development. With Xoom limiting its marketability due to its cost, that doesn't encourage developers to spend as much time on working for their product. It makes sense to get product to the market and to the largest number of the populace.
Multiple models mean much higher risk. There's also quite a bit of info out there about what Apple is doing to make cheap entry models possible and still rake in a large profit: Apple has been building up their own sales channels, and it seems they like those long term high volume contracts for key parts of their products now.
Come to think of Microsoft: they have a history of buying themselves market share via subsidies (see Xbox models). They don't seem to have the appetite this time around; you'd need a competitive product, however which they don't have yet.
I'm wondering if Mac computers could come down in price as well.
Come to think of Microsoft: they have a history of buying themselves market share via subsidies (see Xbox models). They don't seem to have the appetite this time around; you'd need a competitive product, however which they don't have yet.
I'm wondering if Mac computers could come down in price as well.
I managed to get one at Best Buy this Friday, and after playing with it for a couple days now I can tell you that it's really fast. All those enhancements they have done are coming together nicely. Multitasking works on the original iPad, but on V2 you don't feel paying a price for it anymore.
High volume contracts is the only real reason. The lower models of the iPad are clearly profitable; the markup that they put on the increasingly higher versions is probably pretty steep considering what memory actually costs. The profit margin on the $500 iPad2 isn't nearly as high as the $830 one, but Apple makes a tidy profit on all of them. Further, a lot of the components used are in short supply... if Apple is locking up the majority of supply for large capacitive touch screens, for instance, everyone else has to fight over the available scraps. It's a bit of an odd situation though because a lot of the iPad's components come from Samsung... which is also one of Apple's competitors in several markets.
As to their competitors... the only real competitor that has shipped is the Xoom (none of last years Android tablets were really in the same space... they were glorified phones) and that was clearly rushed to market. Motorola decided to push it out before the product was finished to beat the iPad2 to market and that's what we're seeing now. Extrapolating out from a single, rushed release to all the upcoming competitors isn't going to tell you much.
I went to Best Buy on Friday to snag one and they only got 10 in, so being 20th wasn't helping. It worked out because I went to Microcenter on Saturday and they gave me $50 off since they didn't have it in stock and I reserved one off the shipment that is coming in on Monday. That I would call that a win!
I messed around with it and it does seem speedier; what I was really impressed was the form factor. The curved back was really comfortable and it is super thin. Even if you don't have any real interest in getting a tablet, I would check it out just to appreciate the form factor.
I agree. The form factor is much improved over that of any other tablet device that I've seen.
Because Apple has one heck of an experienced product team starting with conception through engineering and ending with marketing and sales. They know exactly what they are doing and they are doing it extremely well however i will never be able to shake the feeling that they intentionally hold back so they can release better versions in a comparatively short time frame.
1st generation.. no cameras, some features not included
2nd generation.. shitty cameras, a bit "sexier" and some additional features
3rd generation.. better cameras, better resolution
etc..
How about this then?
1st gen: excellent camera, lots of features, low price => buggy device & marginal profit
2nd gen: same camera, more features, low price = > still buggy & even less profit since sales are lower.
Sounds more like it?
I honestly don't understand exactly what you mean.. what i meant is that Apple intentionally leaves out features they know are technically possible but includes them in later releases so people will buy the product. It is the mastery of double dipping (or triple/quadruple/etc) and i'm constantly amazed how surprised people seem when within a year the follow up hits the store.
They get away with very well and on some level i'm admiring them for pulling it off so good.. they do make great products but on the other hand they are manipulative as fuck and this is what rubs me the wrong way because they're not even hiding it well.
I read it and have no idea what you mean either. Your point really wasn't clear...
Yeah because all companies do this. I don't think any thing has every possible option that technology could provide. Nor do they have to, nor should they feel the need to do so.
I mean lets look at Apple and everyone else. Sure the Ipad needed a update for some features to work and it didn't include cameras, of which I still think is highly unnecessary (in fact I have never used a camera on any of the computers I have ever had), and yes the company refuses to work with Flash (thank You, I hate, Hate Flash), and that they don't include USB or Sim cards I admit I did come across a couple of times I int eh last year I would have liked USB. But its also like how there were a few times I needed a crappy floppy drive when I bought my first imac (and getting rid of those damn crappy drives was a god send). I do hope the new cord does make it into a future model.
But look at some of the new products by same very large companies. Tab released when even the software maker says the software isn't for a tablet, XOOM shipping with several things unfinished (and by this unfinished for what they want the device to be able to do), the Windows Phone which still can't do something as easy as copy and paste.
Most portable devices are designed to be upgraded. This isn't an apple issue. Its an issue with pretty much all of them.
As for the quality of some parts (being poor) compared to other aspects being quite good (the new chips and graphics are excellent), its not just an upgrade issue its also a costs issue. Do we put the bells and whistles (so to speak) and put high quality ones in and raise the price where its like buying a laptop and expect the product to sell, or do we focus more on what we think are going to be the primary uses of the devices and skip or use lesser parts to keep the price at least reasonable.
And lets all remember before the original Ipad came out the general thought was it would be starting at no less then $799. Now understand this, they could have done just that. Would the product have taken off like it did? Would its success help push other companies into the same field? It's very possible that those might not have happened.
I read it and have no idea what you mean either. Your point really wasn't clear...
Well, FPAlpha's seems to think that having a clear roadmap (that's the operative term here to understand my response) that allows for a healthy profit is a bad thing
Roadmaps, the real ones and the ones in your head, allow consumers to make decisions as to buy or not. That's a good thing.
Don't wait for a USB port or a card reader, though.
Why not? All the various competitors have had a year of more to counter the iPad. So far we have one rushed release and a hot air balloon's worth of vapor. It's still early days to be sure, but the tablet market is starting to look to me like the PMP market, and we all know how Apple has done (and is still doing) in that space. Without carriers to drive adoption, we could very well see a situation where Android continues to be the volume leader in the phone space and the distant also-ran in the tablet space.
Because to do so is to ignore the specifics.
Flash was missing from the Xoom at launch, Adobe will be putting out Flash for Honeycomb in 2 days (a beta already leaked out). The 4G upgrade will be in less then 90 days. Honeycomb was obviously not complete due to a few missing features (SD card support for instance), I wouldn't expect more then a month or two for those to be resolved. Same with general bug fixes, etc.
Most of the Android tablets will be coming out in June... at which point all of these issues will already be dealt with. Maybe there will be other issues, we don't know, but there's no reason to expect other tablets to be as rough as the Xoom which was obviously pushed out before it was ready to beat the iPad2 to market. So considering the specific issues and their reasons with the Xoom, why do you think it is representative of all non-Apple tablets?