3 ms·

This is my favourite part: "we're excited about the upcoming wave of tablet computers and the possibilities they bring". Upcoming wave of tablet computers - hi

by adriand 17y ago

This is my favourite part: "we're excited about the upcoming wave of tablet computers and the possibilities they bring". Upcoming wave of tablet computers - hint, hint. How long before the first really killer Android- or Chrome OS-powered tablet? I bet it won't take nearly as long as it took to launch compelling competitors to the iPhone.

jrockway 17y ago
This has been around for quite a while: http://www.archos.com/products/imt/archos_5it/internet.html http://www.archos.com/products/imt/archos_5it/internet.html I guess it makes sense for Google to ride the Apple-hype wave... but it seems odd that they don't advertise Android devices more.
- mbrubeck 17y ago
  The Archos 5 has been around a long time, but it was running outdated software for most of that time, and didn't have access to the Market or to Google's apps like GMail and Maps. These days the Archos is looking better and maybe worth promoting, but I can see why Google wants to concentrate its marketing on flagship devices where it has worked hard on a polished shipping product, like the Nexus One. (Which they are promoting quite heavily, at least to people with Adsense profiles like mine. I see almost nothing but Nexus One ads on every Adsense site I visit.)
  - jrockway 17y ago
    Web browsing has always worked well, however.
mbrubeck 17y ago
Sadly, I think it will take just as long for the rest of the industry to really catch up to Apple's new product, at which point Apple will have moved ahead again. It took more than a year for other smartphone makers to have a serious answer to the iPod, and in my opinion more than two years (with phones like the Droid and Nexus One) to bring a product to market that surpasses the iPhone in some of its own strengths, without sacrificing too much in software or hardware polish. Why do I think the same thing will happen with the iPad? Because Apple is still among the only companies even trying to do world-class software design and world-class hardware design, and treating the two as a single product. (Others, with varying levels of success: Nintendo, Palm, Tivo, Nokia, some divisions of Microsoft.) Tell any other computer maker that they should introduce a new operating system, or a software maker that they need to make their own hardware, and they'll look at you like you're crazy. Sure, there's a big risk of failure, but it's the only way you'll be able to innovate as radically and successfully as Apple. And this saddens me. I think Apple products are great - my first computer was a Macintosh SE/30 in 1989, and my first programs were written in HyperCard. My parents are still happy Mac users two decades later - but I am not. I value open platforms enough to give up the many benefits of Apple's platform for the very different benefits of open source platforms. (I'm a former Debian Developer and current Mozilla employee.) Maybe Google will start designing and making its own Chrome OS hardware someday. (They already worked closely with HTC on the design of Android phones like the Dream and Nexus One.) Maybe a hardware maker like Intel will really go all-in on a new Linux-based product. Maybe I can convince Mozilla that we need to design our own hardware platform! But until that happens, I think many aspects of our consumer products will still be trudging along in Apple's footsteps.
- kalid 17y ago
  Very well put. I don't even know how other comapanies can overtake apple when they are constantly playing catch up. Google and others are behind in mindshare, marketshare, app installs, usability, buzz...

by adriand 17y ago

jrockway 17y ago

This has been around for quite a while: http://www.archos.com/products/imt/archos_5it/internet.html http://www.archos.com/products/imt/archos_5it/internet.html I guess it makes sense for Google to ride the Apple-hype wave... but it seems odd that they don't advertise Android devices more.

mbrubeck 17y ago
The Archos 5 has been around a long time, but it was running outdated software for most of that time, and didn't have access to the Market or to Google's apps like GMail and Maps. These days the Archos is looking better and maybe worth promoting, but I can see why Google wants to concentrate its marketing on flagship devices where it has worked hard on a polished shipping product, like the Nexus One. (Which they are promoting quite heavily, at least to people with Adsense profiles like mine. I see almost nothing but Nexus One ads on every Adsense site I visit.)
- jrockway 17y ago
  Web browsing has always worked well, however.

mbrubeck 17y ago

Sadly, I think it will take just as long for the rest of the industry to really catch up to Apple's new product, at which point Apple will have moved ahead again. It took more than a year for other smartphone makers to have a serious answer to the iPod, and in my opinion more than two years (with phones like the Droid and Nexus One) to bring a product to market that surpasses the iPhone in some of its own strengths, without sacrificing too much in software or hardware polish. Why do I think the same thing will happen with the iPad? Because Apple is still among the only companies even trying to do world-class software design and world-class hardware design, and treating the two as a single product. (Others, with varying levels of success: Nintendo, Palm, Tivo, Nokia, some divisions of Microsoft.) Tell any other computer maker that they should introduce a new operating system, or a software maker that they need to make their own hardware, and they'll look at you like you're crazy. Sure, there's a big risk of failure, but it's the only way you'll be able to innovate as radically and successfully as Apple. And this saddens me. I think Apple products are great - my first computer was a Macintosh SE/30 in 1989, and my first programs were written in HyperCard. My parents are still happy Mac users two decades later - but I am not. I value open platforms enough to give up the many benefits of Apple's platform for the very different benefits of open source platforms. (I'm a former Debian Developer and current Mozilla employee.) Maybe Google will start designing and making its own Chrome OS hardware someday. (They already worked closely with HTC on the design of Android phones like the Dream and Nexus One.) Maybe a hardware maker like Intel will really go all-in on a new Linux-based product. Maybe I can convince Mozilla that we need to design our own hardware platform! But until that happens, I think many aspects of our consumer products will still be trudging along in Apple's footsteps.

kalid 17y ago
Very well put. I don't even know how other comapanies can overtake apple when they are constantly playing catch up. Google and others are behind in mindshare, marketshare, app installs, usability, buzz...