IA32 has a different can of worms - Bob Colwell, former chief architect at Intel
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Apple gets set to shaft its initial Ipad customers
DO YOU REMEMBER when everyone said that Steve Jobs was evil for shafting early adopters by dropping the price of his Iphone just a few months after it had been released?
Well it seems that Steverino is planning to pull a similar stunt on the gullible fanbois who will queue up to buy his giant Ipod Touch when it first comes out.
Wired is reporting that Apple has already said that if sales of the Ipad aren't brisk enough it will drop the price to make the gadget sell.
The problem is that after all the excitement of the first week is over Apple will have a long way to go before it hits the targets that it needs to hit.
Charlie Wolf with Needham & Company said that sales of the Ipad are likely to ramp slowly, but that "the $500 starting price point is low enough to attract a sizable portion of the early adopter crowd, consisting of Iphone and Ipod owners."
Apple makes its money back off of them and then has to try to give the gadget some mass appeal. The only way to do that is by dropping the price to a more reasonable level. Just like it did with the Iphone.
This means that dropping the price is almost a certainty, particularly as there are signs that interest in the Ipad is already sloping off. Punters are waking up to the fact that it is a giant Ipod and really not useful and the marketing Kool-Aid hype is apparently fast wearing off.
After all $500 is a pretty steep price for a slow netbook without a keyboard or decent operating system.
The Ipad costs only about $270 to make so there is a lot of leeway on profit margins. Certainly a drop in price to $399 or even lower strikes us as more reasonable.
What many Apple fanbois do not understand is that the Ipad is a niche product and few people will actually want it. Probably only those lame fewls who queue up to buy it on the first night.
These are exactly the people who Jobs will annoy if he makes any price cuts. The last time he did that he actually said he was sorry. But in doing it again he will be like the schoolyard bully who punches you and is made to apologise by the teacher. The moment the teacher's back is turned he socks you again.
Fortunately for Apple its fanbois don't seem to mind. They love the attention and justify it to themselves as part of Jobs' genius.
With its early adopters not minding about being ripped off, Apple can then concentrate on trying to gull those who were a little more careful with their cash. µ
Tags: Apple
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The IPad is not a tablet PC. There is no market for a tablet PC. The IPad is a media tablet.
The difference?
The automated home is the future, and a well-functioning media tablet fits perfectly into this future vision.
Is the IPad well functioning?
On the plus side, the IPad has a quick and agile interface and a wide variety of apps for tailoring it for home use.
On the minus side, the IPad has the usual Apple limitations described above in great detail, which could very well cost it in the end.
Several Android tablets, soon to be released, may be able to offer a relatively similar experience without the same Apple limitations and at a lower price point. And Microsoft will probably eventually join the fray, using it's more agile Zune/Phone interface to interlink home computers, music media and the XBox.
The point is that whether you choose an IPad or a competitor is unimportant. You might choose a ICD Vega instead. But you should at least recognize that within the next five years, millions of houses are going to be full of small touch screens linking people with their media and content, and helping to organize their lives. And it's worth recognizing that the IPad has performed a crucial service in getting us away from creating slow devices using cumbersome PC OSes and into the creation of quick, responsive and portable interfaces that can realistically automate our lives.
for 'early adopters' read 'fools'
"fanbois" "fewls"? You are a stewpih'ihd ih-dee'ohot.
I like the tablet concept. I won't buy Apple's, but I'll buy when another big vendor comes with a look-a-like, like Acer or Asus.
Ipad isn't made for long typing, for that there is your computer. It's meant for entertaining, e-book reading and quick browsing/e-mail reading. And THAT'S IT. Using a netbook for work is just as silly.
I also don't like the 4:3 aspect ratio of Ipad. Hopefully, there will be tablets with 16:10 and 16:9 formats. That and a slight bigger screen, say 11" or 12".
We need to know how the generous screen surface will hold up to some rigorous (horizontal) cutting and snorting of coke off of it. These gouges are making my Lenovo tablet starting to be terribly difficult to read off of.
Hold the front-facing camera, please.
You can tell you don't type anything properly. A touch keyboard is not a keyboard it is a slightly better version of a mobile phone interface. It would take a day to type a longish document on. The plug in keyboard is an an add-on which I assume Jobs mob will charge you at least $100 extra for which would leave you with a $300 netbook which you will have paid $700 for. But you will not buy it with a keyboard... maybe you should check your facts too :-)
The iPad HAS a keyboard. 2 actually. One on-screen and one that hooks into the dock. Get your facts straight if you're going to slam somebody.
Talking about setting the price? Hmmm, software runs about 90% profit, in volume. That means that Windows 7 Professional cost about $29.00 to create, manufacture, promote, and sell. Using the same rationale Windows 7 Professional full version should be priced at $42.92. Wow! Microsoft is ripping off it's customers! An upgrade should be even lower. $29.00 would be a fair price.
Apple also provided original iPhone users with upgraded software and the data plan for original users was $10 less per month. There were complaints about the memory being more in a newer model with lower, and carrier subsidized pricing. Of course those users ended up paying back the difference in 14 months or so.
Let's talk about Cable TV or data services. Or a steak at Mortons. What does it cost to serve a steak? $15? Ok, Mortons should be charging $22.20 then and not the $50 or $60.
No. Pricing is set by market demand. And people pay for perceived value. Some people will pay $100 for a good steak dinner where the next guy boasts over the $3.99 price at Crazy Nicks all you can eat steak house.
I'm disturbed by the comparison that the ipad is simply a large iphone/ipod. The thing is, the ipad will do right what the iphone/ipod do poorly - read books/magazines - display photos, videos, write short notes and articles, work on presentations, email, web browsing, etc. Sure, you can do all these things on an iphone/ipod - but do you enjoy doing them there?? I don't! The ipad will actually save me money since I won't have to upgrade my iphone! Let's see... $500 for an ipad with much better viewing, etc. or nearly $2800 for a new iphone plus contract? I'll stick with my original iphone and a new ipad even if Steve does lower the price later.
If it wasn't a lacking piece of crap missing an array of needed features, it would sell on it's own...
Don't get me wrong, I'm not an Apple fan, but "early adopter premium" has and always will be out there. My first 50inch 1080i plasma monitor cost me $7000. Am I bothered that the price has come down by 75%?..yeah a little bit. Was I surprised that it happened? Not at all.
For all the negativity out there, people seem to be forgetting something about Apple-under-Jobs...they are patient, and they evolve their product. The first gen iPod, music only, ultimately became an iPod touch with video and internet capabilities. And they sell an incredible amount of songs and software. I sure didn't see all that coming when gen 1 iPod was introduced.
This is now the starting point for the iPad...who knows what it will all look like in 5 years...I don't.
I am a 30-year technology professional and the only hardware I trust is room-sized and says IBM on the box. I am not an Apple fanboy....but you've got to notice what they're doing in, and how they've changed, the consumer space.
The notion that a company is "shafting" early buyers if it reduces the price seems really stupid to me. If I pay a particular price, it is because that product is worth at least that much to me, based on what it can do for me at that time. The product is still going to be worth that much to me a month or a year later, no matter what its sticker price is at that time. We all know that prices drop over time, anyway, so if a product is not worth its sticker price to me, I'll just wait until it is. Of course, it's always disappointing to miss a chance to save money by just a few days, but just about all companies, including Apple, routinely provide some sort of good-will rebate to customers who just missed a price decrease. At present, I don't see the comparison to laptops as meaningful. I already have a MacBook Pro that I take when I want a laptop. I don't have much use for a dinky, underpowered laptop. On the other hand, I get a great deal of use out of my iPhone, and I'm very interested in a device that is designed primarily for web and media access, with an operating system designed from the ground up for multitouch use.
I dont know why this is being conceived as a netbook or anything else. this is an I-reader that does some other things. of course its not as fast as a note book and it doesnt have a keyboard. I dont know any books that have keyboards... People are looking at this thing from the wrong direction. its an inovaative I-reader, an i-reader that can do a few tricks and download books on the go. and will let you play your games and aps too.
I would never want to buy this Ipad as a laptop/netbook replacement it will be too slow and too akeward to use. It will however be very useful as an audio controller, like ableton. But again its for reading books!
Um, waste of time and money, does what an ipod touch does, but costs 2x more? Only Apple could do this because of the simpletons that buy their products. Vy the way, Zune HD blows away the iplods! PC/tablets for the same price as an ipad (what a dumb name) do more.
Keep moving, nothing to see here.
"it had no cam for skype"
Give it a little time for the second generation. The price drop will have happened. It will be improved and have the same price. That's what I plan on doing.
Still not sure about it. I am happy with my 13" Acer Timeline running Ubuntu 64bit and a 6 hour battery life. I like my Mini Mac too and yes I have XP for gaming.
Pretty much ALL consumer electronics launches at the highest price it will sell at and then gets cheaper over its marketing life. Early adopters accept this, and the fact that they'll likely find bug, but still buy anyway. Welcome to the world of sales and marketing.
What is really amazing is that an electronic device, that you can't even buy yet, has gotten Nick so hot and flustered that he has to write at least 3 or 4 articles a week slamming it. Either its bad, and people will figure this out themselves and not buy it, or its good and will yet again demonstrate Nick's fabled inability to predict the market or what people want from a computer. My guess is that he's panicking about the latter.
"Front facing camera? What a load of crap"
Er… just like the iMac's?
"Front facing camera? What a load of crap. Who seriously needs to see your ugly mug to understand what you're saying."
You seem to be showing typical Apple devotee behavioural response to criticism -- managing your requirements to align with the functionality missing from the device. "If i[Something] doesn't do it, I never needed it anyway!"
I'll bet you never needed to Copy+Paste or forward a text message when you bought your early iPhone too, right?
..as in the bloke formerly of TalkSPORT(s) radio?
Does he still use that Vizor?
I seem to recall that he and Alan Brazil were the only TalkSport presenters who could program in Fortran.
Damn Jon Gaunt.
Real Apple fans know how to spell iPhone and iPad and know that iTouch doesn't exist. It's iPod Touch. What a moron. And seriously.. Front facing camera? What a load of crap. Who seriously needs to see your ugly mug to understand what you're saying. And why would you hold a tablet up in front of your face? As for a decent OS... Windows? Please...
I'll admit it could be better. But there's a point where too many features are too many features. The reason people by apple products is because they want something simple that works. If you want a plasticy piece of poo buy something else.
That has exactly noticed a drop in the price of an Iphone.
The thing's a bloody rip off.
Apple is not shafting its customers, it is marketing and promoting a product that has marginal utility. Many who reviewed the I-Pad when it was introduced called the I-Pad an I-Touch on steroids. Since then, the I-Pad has been defended by the Apple marketing machine as everything from a superior Kindle to a more productive Netbook. The reality is Apple has introduced a tablet that "may" do many things but nothing exceptionally well to transporting it around and certainly is not better than a laptop, regardless of whose brand.
The early adapters are not being shafted, they might be paying the price of being an early adapted for a product that many others may not choose to buy. Would a $50 to $100 sway me to buy an I-Pad, no.
I am a Apple fan and think different but I do think
The thing about mesmerism is not whether it exists [the-rejectionists/masculinity] nor whether it is on-going [the femininists/"over"] but about the mesmerised. Should mass mesmerism exists, and it does, you are then talking about the piped-pipered and the main thing about goo-goo, ga-ga's is which tune are they now dancing to. As such, a weapon is always a two-way sword and when wielding one, ensure you know which direction the blade is swinging at whilst remembering that within the realm of Reality, time is never the point, timing is.
As all good bushidos know, harakiri/seppuku is the final act of guilt to end the viscious cycle of anger-cum-guilt and it seems iPad One is going that way too … and all because one's mesmerics are too in denial/saviourship-mode - the audacity of it all. Being a saviour within the cycle of saviourship-cum-worship, however, means ashes and pheonixes but caution is advised because you'll never know when the cycle will end for good.
Lack of front facing cam on the ipad is deal breaker for me. My jobs requires allot of travel and was going to buy the ipad until I found it had no cam for skype. Going to keep my netbook. Thanks apple but waiting for vers 2.