Posts tagged tablet
Is there really an alternative to the really cool iPad?
Jun 1st
More than one year since its release, the iPad is starting to come up against some hefty competition. Make can anyone really knock this crown off the Apple head?
Intel is in the middle of promoting a new, thinner and lighter mobile computer called an ultrabook in a bid to challenge the growing dominance of Apple’s iPad and the tablet computer market.
Intel’s vision is to enable a new user experience by accelerating a new class of mobile computers.
The world’s largest chipmaker said in a statement, “These computers will marry the performance and capabilities of today’s laptops with tablet-like features and deliver a highly responsive and secure experience, in a thin, light and elegant design.
“The Ultrabook will be shaped by Moore’s Law and silicon technology in the same way they have shaped the traditional PC for the past 40 years.”
Hardly a ‘sexy’ brand, despite its cool singing geeks ads, Intel has a lot of bricks to lay in order to build a path to first place in the light computer market – with in which the tablet sits.
Nic Newman, managing director and head of strategy at personal media company TigerSpike reckons that while the personal media landscape is rapidly evolving and for publishers across the UK, no device has sparked such a change in consumer behaviour as the iPad.
And Apple is a tough act to follow.
Newman said, “Through our own research, we have found that average engagement time on a publishers’ iPad app is 30 – 34 minutes. This is a significant time for a reader to dedicate to a specific application. When you compare this to time spent on a publisher’s website, it is far higher – we’re seeing page views five times higher on a publisher’s tablet app than on the website.”
Intel said that Ultrabooks based on its latest 2nd Generation Intel Core processors will be on shelves later this year. So there’s a long lead time if you want to back the underdog.
The company is aiming to convert 40% of consumer laptops to the new category by the end of 2012.
Desktop computers and laptops continue to outsell tablets. Last year, nearly 18 million tablets were shipped, with Apple’s iPad accounting for nearly 83% of the market. More than 346 million personal computers were shipped in 2010, with Hewlett Packard grabbing 18.5% of the market, and Dell having 12.3%.
However, while PC sales have slowed down in the past two years, iPad sales have skyrocketed.
Research firm International Data Corporation said last month it expects that there will be 50 million tablet shipments in 2011, with Apple maintaining 70% to 80% of the tablet market.
Jefferies & Co. projects that 70 million tablets will be sold this year, with the total expected to increase to 246 million in three years.
But Intel is adamant, “We want to find new ways to propel the PC forward. With what has happened in the tablet space, there is a ‘hurry-up’ to the PC industry.”
Apple is also expected to face more competition this year from Research in Motion’s PlayBook, Samsung Electronics’s Galaxy Tab and Motorola Mobility Holdings’s Xoom.
Question is, are we even ready for something new yet? I’m certainly not over my iPad yet.
Apple’s evil twin emerges in China
Jun 1st
So, you thought only Louis Vuitton handbags and Rolex watches could be faked? Well it seems even the iPad has an evil twin.
Despite Apple’s massive success with iPad – having already sold more than 2 million genuine iPads since its launch 2 months ago – a Chinese challenger has emerged, beating even Google to the game.
The iPed, no that’s not a spelling error, is identical to Apple’s massively popular tablet and is selling for a fifth of the price at around $US126.
Available in Shenzhen in the country’s south, the lookalike product runs on Google’s Android operating system and is said to be powered by an Intel chip.
Pictures of the iPed, filmed by Japanese TV news and posted on YouTube, show the gadget being sold in a Shenzhen computer mall in packaging that looks remarkably similar to an iPad box.
The change in vowel is seemingly the only major difference in appearance between the two computers.
A review of the iPed on tech website TECHi says “the iPed is exactly what you’re thinking: a Chinese knock-off”.
“The iPed is an Intel-driven, Android-based copycat packaged like an Apple product and, to be honest, it doesn’t look half bad.”
Last week, Apple and its contract electronics manufacturer Foxconn refused to confirm or deny rumours that the iPad was being made at Foxconn’s massive Shenzhen factory, which had been hit by a spate of staff suicides.
The iPad will go on sale in a further nine countries in July including Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
So, you think the iPad sucks?
Apr 6th
The most anticipated product launch of the year, the iPad, has been and gone with some success, but it’s not without its glitches – and either was the launch of the iPhone.
Over the weekend, despite rumours the launch date had been moved to later in the month, Apple sold more than 300,000 iPads. That figure includes the pre-ordered tablets, too.
iPad users have already downloaded more than one million applications at Apple’s App Store and over 250,000 electronic books from the iBookstore, according to the company.
But there has been complaints about the device already. Anything that Apple does causes mass hype and hysteria, however, the explosion of information and publicity surrounding the iPad launch has left consumers feeling that their expectations have not completely met. Big surprise.
Apparently, some users have been having major issues connecting to the internet via wi-fi. Apple has a support page set up for those having issues but many have complained on the TechCrunch blog that they are going to return their iPads.
While users are praising the sleek design of the device, many are still complaining about the lack of camera and Flash capabilities.
There’s even people bashing the device to death, somehow proving that the screen isn’t all it’s cracked up to be (being taken to with a baseball bat).
All this might seem like what has been a long run of bad publicity for the iPad, since it was first announced in January. But demand is still high and the tech giant has doubled its manufacturing output for 2010.
Furthermore, the iPhone didn’t come without it’s complaints and now look at its phenomenal popularity.
The iPad hype isn’t over yet, just wait until version 2
Jan 29th
Many reports are being very negative about the iPad, they say Apple has got it wrong. But this is all part of a greater marketing plan – the iPad revolution ain’t over yet, the best is yet to come and we’ll be just as sucked into that as we were this one.
I know that by now most will be feeling a little inundated with iPad information and are probably growing a little tired of hearing about Apple’s latest and greatest invention. However, I am surprised by the number of negative reports about yesterday’s launch (a great moment in history people!)
I don’t want to come across as too much of an Apple advocate, most will know I was happy with Dell for years before crossing over to the greener side of the Apple last year. But the iPad, without any doubt at all, is revolutionary.
Some reports say that the iPad is a “disappointment” and that it didn’t live up to the hype. Many reports have also gone and listed everything that the iPad doesn’t do – including such things as include a camera and Flash for example.
But to them I say this, you have missed the point of the iPad and completely forgotten Apple’s tremendous history of success.
The iPad isn’t meant to be a smartphone or a laptop. There are smartphones and laptops that do those jobs incredibly well and doh, the last thing that Apple would want to do is to make two of their best selling products redundant by cheaper alternatives.
The iPad is meant to act as a replacement, or an easier alternative to reading a book, a newspaper, or watching TV on the run.
While the iPad may not be perfect right now, I bet the next version will be pretty close. Remember the first iPhone wasn’t perfect…then came the 3G version one year later. The first iPod’s weren’t great either, they were big and bulky and didn’t have much memory. Now the likes of the Nano have an inbuilt video camera and the iPod Touch supports web browsing.
Give the iPad time people and don’t under estimate the magnificence of Steve Jobs and the incredible marketing genius that is Apple.
Why we loved Apple’s iPad before we even knew it existed
Jan 28th
Following the launch of the iPad, Apple is being hailed as a marketing genius. But what has ensured this company’s phenomenal success and consumer love?
The internet has been buzzing today following the launch of Apple’s new “magical” product, the iPad.
Rumoured for the past couple of months, news sources across the globe raced to put the official word online and the rest of the world watched.
I am still amazed, hours later, by the amount of hype one company with one new product launch could generate.
Today’s big reveal didn’t actually give watchful Apple enthusiasts anything that wasn’t already rumoured. We’d heard about the partnership deals with publishers, we’d heard about the size, we’d seen mock-ups and we were sure about what applications would be included. So why was this still the event of the year in tech land?
Even as the media and technology worlds have anticipated this announcement for months, Apple has said not word one about the iPad prior to its unveiling, apart from Steve Jobs earlier this week confirming that a revolutionary product would indeed be launched. Furthermore, instead of prototypes, Apple makes patents – and that’s what really kicked this whole thing off.
Apple is just one of those company’s where everything it does is hailed as ‘revolutionary’ and its ads and promo videos certainly do well to tell consumers the company is about to change communication and technology as we know it forever. It uses such phrases in its launches as “this is what the future looks like” and makes its viewers feel like they are part of history. One day soon we’ll be saying, “do you remember where you were when the iPad was launched?”
Apple is also the coolest brand in the world, according to last year’s CoolBrands list, from the SuperBrands survey. Furthermore, visitors to Brandchannel.com claim Apple is the brand they cannot live without. It is the marque they most want to sit next to at a dinner party and with which they most identify.
In tech land, Jobs is “the ultimate showman who keeps the audience excited the whole way leading up to the reveal,” said the New York Times last week.
And more often than not, Apple has delivered on Jobs’s showmanship. People remember the debut of the iPhone three years ago, and Apple’s promise that it would change everything. It promptly did and even before we knew Apple was launching a new product, we pondered about what the company would do next. It’s one of the few companies that keeps us guessing and where the rumour mill is aptly fed. Check out such sites as Apple Insider and 9 to 5 Mac – not a day goes by without something new to say about Apple.
A recent report in The Mac Observer, also says that Jobs is quite the marketer – everything he does is with a higher purpose. There was a suggestion at the beginning of the month that Apple actually quietly engages with the media in a way that does not leave fingerprints. The way Jobs pulls this off is to release only pieces of specific information to journalists that are friends with Apple employees. The information is handed over in what would seem like a normal conversation and banking on the nature of journalists and their need to be first with the news, that information is usually ‘leaked’ out in news reports or at least does the rounds in the blogs. This is all controlled that way and the journalist walks away thinking they have something, they just have no idea how big or small that information is in the bigger picture.
But why is Apple one of the only companies that can create such buzz around a product that starts off as a rumour? The answer is innovation and the company’s promise that it’s about to change everything. In the case of the iPad, not only is it saying it will save the publishing industry from near extinction, but will also be a catalyst for new marketing channels and in turn more revenue in the suffering advertising industry.
But Apple products are pretty expensive, so how does the company convince consumers to pay a premium for a product that isn’t an absolutely necessity?
Apple products look cool, feel cool and, most of all, everyone wants one.
Apple isn’t just a brand, it’s an experience. Something proved by its some 170-odd worldwide Mac stores. A young, hip, and technically knowledgeable staff is friendly without being hard-sell. They won’t boot you out for using the Macs and free Wi-Fi. Apple has managed to turn a computer into a day at a digital park – and it’s all free. Its image is undeniably cool and in a stroke of genius they’ve made technology available to even the most hopeless technophobes out there by launching products that are so effortlessly easy to use. The iPad is no different.
The reason for all the hype around the iPad? Simple, brand loyalty. Apple products rarely let people down, but they do leave them wanting more. Apple is one of the most talked about and buzzed brands on the internet, why? People are constantly surprised and impressed a company that never seems to rest on its laurels but instead seeks to continuously innovate and shake up the market. Apple is out to change the world by changing the way we do the things that we do everyday.
It’s marketing is always focused on the product, what it does, what it looks like and what it can bring to a users life. You’ll never see an Apple ad and wonder what the hell the campaign is taking about. It keeps it simple and as demonstrated by Apple’s record results this week, shows us that Apple truly is a brand we can’t and shouldn’t live without.
e-Readers will save the media industry and lead the ad market to recovery. Or will they?
Jan 22nd
e-Readers, Tablets and Kindles are going to save the media industry! Have you seen those headlines?
There is widespread excitement among the newspaper industry at the moment with all this hype over Apple’s upcoming ‘Tablet’ (or iSlate…or whatever). The reason is that just a few months ago people were saying that the newspaper industry was poised for failure.
It couldn’t attract advertisers due to falling circulation numbers. London’s evening free press was pretty badly hit too, those papers (London Lite and thelondonpaper) actually no longer exist. But, with the launch of these tablets and the like, the rebirth of the newspaper industry is being touted.
Suddenly, apparently, advertisers will be attracted once more to the newspaper mastheads and brands.
This seems like the silver bullet to save the industry doesn’t it? It’ll reignite good journalism and revolutionize how we consume news media. But I have my reservations.
Firstly, one report in the US said the ‘Tablet’ will cost around $999. I don’t know too many people that can afford that…they might stick to paying 20p for a copy of the Sun each morning with a side of breasts on Page 3.
Secondly, how will the ads differ from web ads?
Are they going to be interactive?
There is no doubt that January 27 will be an exciting day. But I think it’s too soon to be predicting the rebirth of the newspaper masthead.
There’s going to be pay walls next year around News Corp publications and I predict several other publishers will follow suit. So even after you do pay this $999 for a ‘Tablet’, you then also have to pay for a copy of your newspaper of choice.
It all sounds very expensive. And people have enjoyed getting the news for free for so long will they be willing to pay and to view it on a fancy reader? The reader (I’ve seen leaked pics) looks as big as a laptop…will consumers really want to lug it around all day? I for one can’t afford a bigger handbag, nor can my back.
Apple’s device is widely expected to be geared toward the publishing industry, a hub for newspaper, magazine, and book reading in addition to accessing music, games, and video. And with its App Store already a huge success, Apple will enter the market with a major advantage.
And is worth noting the success so far of Amazon’s Kindle in the US so far – it was the most popular Christmas gift last year.
When iTunes started selling music on the internet I know that the industry had its reservations about that too: “We download music for free, why would we all of a sudden pay for it?”
Perhaps I’m echoing those calls with this ‘Tablet’ business. Don’t get me wrong, I’m just as excited about this gadget as most. I do however think it is a bit early to be suggesting it’s the industries savior.
Furthermore, look how long it took advertisers to get on board with social media. Will they jump aboard these e-Readers instantly? Publishers are going to have to make some interesting deals with advertisers to make them worthwhile for both the newspapers and the consumers.
Tablets bring new revenue stream for media industry
Jan 20th
Deloitte has predicted that the tablet computer market will boom this year with tens of millions of people deciding the notepad-sized devices are “just right” for their needs, but what does the new technology mean for marketers.
“This Goldilocks of devices – not too big, not too small – is expected to offer an appealing balance of form and function going forward,” the market analysis firm said.
Tablet computers “may turn out to be ‘just right’ for many users in 2010,” Deloitte said, allowing them to buy and consume more media than ever and on the go. The tablets have certainly restored confidence in the media industry which is hoping to restore ad revenues this year given fallen circulation numbers last year.
The forecast bodes well for iPhone, iPod and Macintosh computer maker Apple, which is hosting a January 27 event here to unveil its “latest creation,” which is hotly rumored to be a tablet computer resembling an oversized iPod Touch.
According to various reports, Apple is poised to launch a colour multimedia device that allows users to browse the web, listen to music, watch movies or TV and also serve as an electronic book and newspaper reader.
Publishing powerhouse HarperCollins is reported to be in talks with Apple regarding providing digital literature for reading on a tablet device.
Apple’s tablet is expected to have a 10- to 11-inch (25.4cm to 27.9cm) screen, slightly larger than typical devices on the market. There are also rumours about consumers receiving free content in exchange for watching advertising.
“With a new form factor and significant processing capacity, connected portable devices will likely be purchased by tens of millions of people in 2010,” Deloitte predicted.
Improvements in graphics, processing power, and wireless broadband internet availability are making tablets more attractive, according to analysts.
“2010 is likely to see a proliferation of netTabs,” Deloitte said, which noted that the devices will likely be a threat to tablets limited to single functions such as reading digital books.
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