CapnNismo wrote:
If you want an iPad similar experience with multitasking on a netbook, look no further than Jolicloud and/or Google Chrome OS. Both are far superior to the iPhone OS even in their beta stages. Jolicloud is my personal preference between the two simply because of the fact that you have more access to your hardware whereas with Google Chrome OS, you don't have much of any because everything you do is cloud-based whereas Jolicloud is kinda half-in, half-out.
You missed my point again, though, Kmar. Steve Jobs said, and I quote, "Netbooks don't do anything better." Then he introduces the iPad right after that statement. Now if you want to analyze his speech and the past year and a half of rumors of an Apple netbook and the same rumors turning into a tablet over the last 4 months, I would be willing to bet that this is Jobs' answer to the netbook without it being a netbook.
Despite the current state of affairs, Apple stock has still been on the rise with the release of the iPhone 3GS and other devices. I've read analyses saying that Apple has been defying the current market climate (as did Microsoft with the release of Windows 7) and was able to continue to increase profits across the board. Now, when I hear something like this and I see a stock more than double over the course of 6-8 months and then all of this market reaction and hype suddenly dies when the product that has caused the most growth in recent months, that says something. Certainly the market is very conservative and is not all up on luxury at the moment (just went to the Vienna Auto Show and that was an embarrassment in comparison to pre-credit crunch shows), but when you have a brand that does sell products at premium prices defying trends and growing and turning larger profits, that says something (kinda just repeated what was above, but whatever).
And as I recall, the keyboard that attaches to the iPad with the dock connector isn't even wireless and costs $70... come on... That's what I love about Apple, though. They're all about trying to buck proprietary technology (Flash being one of them), yet they create their own proprietary crap more than any other hardware manufacturer that I can think of. It's ludicrous. It makes good business sense, don't get me wrong, but it just stinks of hypocrisy. Steve Jobs is a very smart guy, perhaps one of the smartest in the IT world, but it's hard to take things he says seriously sometimes.
I'm still convinced the iPad will remain a niche device. Though who knows, maybe once it comes out in Q2 then we might start seeing them everywhere. If so, kudos to Jobs and Apple for doing the near impossible. Just proves that they've got a banging marketing department (which they do) and a great group of app developers (that are forced to shell out $99, iirc, annually to use their SDK).
As Bert and I both pointed out you can multitask. Jolicloud has a book store? Your netbook has gps like features? It's touchscreen? At least compare it to a released tablet with similar or more features. This isn't a production device, it is a consumption device. Jobs realizing that the short sighted would instantly try to compare it to a device that really doesn't have all of the same features
and services made that statement. A netbook
is just a smaller, cheaper laptop.
People were waiting to cash in their apple stock. Apple has been decling like nearly every other tech industry has been since the end of the holiday season. The last two weeks have been absolutely brutal. It would have been stupid to sell Apple stock when the rest of the market declined. As soon as the iPad price was announced @ around 2pm the stock SPIKED. Then the sell off began. Look what amazon (Kindle) stock did at the same time. Quick profits are the only profits being made right now. It's easy to think.. "O' investors didn't like it (in week one) so it's not going to sell" if you just think one dimensional. Look at the
last two weeks across the board. Markets leading up to and at the holiday season compared to after the holiday season are VERY different. Anyone who follows stocks consistently knows this.
Yes Apple = proprietary. When it stops working for them then yea.. they might change. Jobs is all about a closed environment.
I'm not saying that this isn't a niche device.. I'm saying it's still being developed and the actual usability of the device has yet to be realized. Apple sells when people have their products in their hands. There is the possibility of a lot of people being"just curios" about the device and then end up walking out of the store with the iPad. Apple does this better in their stores than any other company I've seen. Not because they need the product, but because they want it. I don't think that this device is something that many people
would necessarily in this forum would want. Some people want simplicity. For those people multitasking is a moot point.
