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My personal thoughts, which have been mirrored by a few other commenters, are that it will be hard to compete with a higher price and lower quality product (vs

My personal thoughts, which have been mirrored by a few other commenters, are that it will be hard to compete with a higher price and lower quality product (vs the iPad). There was some discussion here recently, and an article on Slate (http://www.slate.com/id/2286005/ http://www.slate.com/id/2286005/) that talked about some of the reasons why Apple has managed to keep their costs low, and the fact that they had shifted from the premium end of the market to a mid-range cost point (which is always easier when you largely create the market). Does this mean the Motorola Xoom and others to come will be to Apple what Apple computers were to PCs in the '90s? If that anaology stacks up, there are lessons that can be applied - if you're going to cost more, be better, and be WAY cooler. But Apple itself really only started to grow again when they moved out of that paradigm - the iPod etc defined a market in the way the Mac never did. (That's why they ran Mac v PC ads, but never iPod v ???) Apple learned that competing with a dominant player wasn't going to deliver the business profits and growth that they wanted. Yet Motorola etc are here, in the tablet space, giving it a try.

seabee 16y ago
What's interesting in this case, compared to Mac vs. PC, is how the roles have changed - and I don't mean "Apple is on top", either. On the desktop, the OS that ran on commodity hardware was the dominant force, even though there was no 'dominant' hardware supplier. And this made sense, since the desktop is very 'general-purpose'. With tablets, the hardware is inextricably linked to the OS. The experience between different Android tablets is more variable than Windows ever was, as well as being largely dictated by the manufacturers - both by locking down the OS and the lack of hardware customisation. Maybe this will settle down in a few years, but Apple have always been in better control of their experience, so naturally they're far ahead on this one.

seabee 16y ago

What's interesting in this case, compared to Mac vs. PC, is how the roles have changed - and I don't mean "Apple is on top", either. On the desktop, the OS that ran on commodity hardware was the dominant force, even though there was no 'dominant' hardware supplier. And this made sense, since the desktop is very 'general-purpose'. With tablets, the hardware is inextricably linked to the OS. The experience between different Android tablets is more variable than Windows ever was, as well as being largely dictated by the manufacturers - both by locking down the OS and the lack of hardware customisation. Maybe this will settle down in a few years, but Apple have always been in better control of their experience, so naturally they're far ahead on this one.