Read more.As the PC market declined for everyone else, Apple continued to grow.
Read more.As the PC market declined for everyone else, Apple continued to grow.
It seems the decline of netbooks is really hitting PC companies very hard. TBH,netbooks have been overpriced for years considering the level of usability they had.
Are there any figures to show what the sales are like excluding netbooks out of interest??
Still don't see the iPad as competition for PCs or even NetBooks but I guess there were a lot of people out there who were under using their machines (email & social networking only) and if that's the case then they were just waiting for a product to suit there very limited needs.
This is the thing - most people really don't need a PC at home. They have one at work, and if they work from home work will usually provide a machine for that purpose..but generally most people are using their PC for browsing the web, looking at stupid videos on youtube and checking facebook/email.
Personally I still think that a netbook is much better for all those things, seeing as you have a real keyboard and all (I still don't get tablets, other than the cool gadget wow factor), but people will buy what they are told to, and as tablets are the current fashion..that is what people buy.
When people DO want a computer, Apple are making a lot of headway as they make it less geeky/techie for end users. Whether you like it or not for most people it DOES just work and is simple to use/get used to. Quality wise you do get a lot more for your money..maybe not enough for what they charge, but it still beats most PC competition when it comes to build quality, look/feel and overall UX of one box systems. They won't ever take the enthusiast market (ie: most readers on here) but then we are only a tiny % of the overall market.
Apple have managed to do what many thought was impossible, and they deserve a lot of credit for it. They even got me, even if I do run windows in some form on both my apple machines. I'm considering selling my mac pro and replacing it for a dell though since I just don't need it's immense power anymore..who knows.
Got to say that I agree with Spud1 on this. iPad got the "instant on" part of the requirements correct, but the price point (~£400) is way too high for an "occasional use" niche. Certainly all the iPad's I've seen (and the Android tablet competition are either poor quality ereader+ devices or ferociously overpriced - e.g. Xoom) are "tech bling" - the "look at what I've got". And I wouldn't like to do more than a Tweet-sized email with an on-screen keyboard.
From the tests I've done it's kind of a shame that MeeGo isn't being developed more - that's got very rapid boot times, and couple it with a cheapie netbook and it's a perfectly usable system for email/web/office docs. All that for say around the £250 mark (at least according to Dell/HP's websites).
Being very cynical, I'd perhaps suggest that some of Apple's gain is the result of the constant bombardment of advertising. It's difficult to pick up a newspaper or watch a cable channel these days for any length of time without seeing some Appletisement.
I think the next major change will come when SSD's are commonplace in machines and BIOS is replaced. I read something a while back about BIOS being a major delay factor of the startup process (possibly on here).
I have used an iPad, its nice for showing photos, a big collection of portable photos... and erm, you can watch films on it, and other than that its fiddly and extremely pretentious (which is why my brothers have them). Personally would rather have a small form laptop as its too big for a pocket anyways. (Kindle fits my inside jacket pocket perfectly tho).
The only reason I would buy an iPad is for the etch a sketch cover, would love to walk into a boardroom full of suits and plank down my etch a sketch with all my data on them.
geek factor x 10
That's a fair point about the instant on - its something that only really works well on my mac air (I run windows in parallels on that) - It really is a case of open it up and its on and usable in less than a second. That's just as quick as an iPad would be.
Shame the air is over a grand for one with a decent spec though! (this should change come the refresh in june however).
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