28 ms·

The Chair

272 points by martingordon 16y ago

tumult 16y ago
The tech press needs to play up the competition to the iPad as much as possible, because drama drives clicks. But the reality is that Apple's iPad is so far ahead of everything else that it's almost out of sight. Have you used one of the 'iPad killers'? That is not competition. It's a joke. You can't even buy any of them, except for Samsung's Galaxy Tab. [And the Motorola Xoom, but only at retail Best Buy in America, from what I can tell.] I applaud Samsung [and Motorola] for giving it a real try, but I think they fall short of the iPad. Few people are buying those things. I wouldn't, myself. I have some Android phones, but I probably won't get an Android tablet, if Honeycomb indicates where the platform is heading. The lack of competition is allowing Apple to, rightfully, do whatever it wants to with the App Store. And I don't see the situation changing anytime soon. Apple is making the rest of the consumer tech industry look incompetent. edit: Updated with Xoom.
- dr_ 16y ago
  Well the Xoom has now been released as well, so in theory it's competition as well. But you are right, in reality there is no competition. There are a lot of people out there who think competition is on specs alone - #slots, ports, ram, memory, etc. Because that's how it was in the PC era. They are wrong.
  - deleted 16y ago
    [deleted]
  - tesseract 16y ago
    That shouldn't be so surprising. 'Sell the benefits, not the features' has always been a sales mantra. The PC market has always been kind of a weird exception to this, and I think that's in part because of the way the PC market grew out of the enthusiast/hobbyist microcomputer scene of the 70s and early 80s. Enthusiasts like to see impressive technical specifications and a long feature checklist - that's true with phones, cars, computers, cameras, espresso machines, and lots of other things that certain people are enthusiastic about - but in general that is not the way consumers view products.
- orangecat 16y ago
  You can't even buy any of them, except for Samsung's Galaxy Tab. The Xoom is available now.
  - dhh 16y ago
    Unfortunately I found it to be, well, shit compared to the iPad. I bought one for the lure of speed and returned it the next day when I realized that speed was very low on the list of properties that actually mattered. The total user experience is just far worse. The Xoom feels like a PC that has better specs than a Mac. Yes, the frame rate is higher but the game sucks. I seriously wish that webOS is going to show Apple some real competition. It's not healthy for one company to be so far ahead. Power corrupts.
    - edderly 16y ago
      Strange really because I've found the iPad to be a dull clone of an iPhone where the Xoom seems to have a UI which exploits the size of the screen.
      - rbarooah 16y ago
        What UI? The UI of the 65,000 full screen iPad specific apps, or the UI of the 16 Android Tablet apps? Have you actually tried a Xoom?
        edderly 16y ago
        Yes, I've tried a Xoom today, I also have bought an iPad a while back. Have you tried a Xoom yourself? I don't really see the relevance of the number of applications to the the UI experience.
        rbarooah 16y ago
        I have tried one myself otherwise I wouldn't have asked. The relevance is that the apps are what provide the UI. For the iPad there are 65,000 of them customized to utilize the full screen. For the Xoom, there are 16 customized for the full screen, and the rest are literally just blown up phone apps, many of which don't even rescale properly.
- rbarooah 16y ago
  Many of the companies in the consumer electronics spent the last decade wasting energy trying to screw each other over interoperability and standards issues - failing to agree because none of them wanted one of the others to gain an advantage. Meanwhile Apple just ignored the silly games and built their own end-to-end ecosystem. It's not lack of competition that's killing the rest of the industry - it's lack of cooperation.
- rudiger 16y ago
  Precisely. I don't think people understand just how huge of a deal the iPad really is. They're well on their way into a defining a huge product category in a bigger way than Microsoft defined PCs to be Windows. I don't think their competition can compete effectively; price is cheaper, software is better, hardware is better, UX is easier, even the store is a more pleasant experience, which is important, because that is when the largest transaction actually takes place. It's scary thinking how far ahead of the competition they are.
- jerf 16y ago
  Serious competition with the iPhone took time to emerge, but it did. It's a temporary advantage, not a permanent one, as are all such advantages. Just as in the iPhone arena, Apple won't stand still but eventually it will not be able to singlehandedly defeat everybody on all fronts. But while they lead, they will rake in the bucks, and more power to them. I don't want them to be the only viable company out there and I'm not personally a fan of their products per se (don't "hate" them but they do not sing to me) but I'm glad they're out there pushing the envelope in a way few other companies are. Smartphones and tablets would still have happened eventually but I'm sure they moved the timeline up a good two or three years. (I wouldn't go much further though; the major factor driving the iPad is that the tech is finally ready. You simply couldn't build an iPad as recently as 2007 and have anything like the same experience at any price.)
  - alecperkins 16y ago
    In some ways it doesn't even matter if they have competition or not, since Apple effectively defines the category and the expectations of the users. Even now, smart phones are generally playing catch-up to the iPhone. Yes, there is some innovation above and beyond Apple; Windows Phone 7 is surprisingly impressive, and the Web OS notification system is arguably superior. But, the comparison always comes back to the iPhone or iPad, just as it did to the iPod. By providing the first truly mainstream offering in each category, Apple establishes its products as the benchmark. This gives it the freedom to go where it thinks makes sense, instead of being stuck following the leader.
    - phil 16y ago
      > defines the category and the expectations of the users It's stunning how long that has been true. The modern desktop OS is patterned after the Macintosh, modern laptops all use the form factor introduced by the Powerbook 100s, and now all the best phones are made to look like an iPhone.
      - MrScruff 16y ago
        Exactly. The thing that gets me is people claiming they hate Apple and Apple products while eulogising competing products that are derived from a category that Apple defined in the first place.
- blinkingled 16y ago
  Xoom can be bought online at Verizon or Moto websites. That nitpick aside it isn't anywhere near as bad as you are making it out to be. I am typing this post on one. The browser is far better. The OS is far more usable than the iPad, the higher screen resolution is great - I can RDP into my work PC and use it all day. The hardware is top notch, and battery life is plenty. I haven't connected it to a PC yet - have my apps, music and video wirelessly synced! Once Flash is out and Moto ships SD Card enabling update I have everything I need from a PC replacement tablet. People sadly have just decided to exclusively fall for whatever Apple markets them and there is no convincing them to drop their prejudices.
  - rbarooah 16y ago
    Yes but for most non geeks, the Xoom doesn't do much beyond the built in apps, whereas the iPad has 65,000 apps they can use today. That might be different in a year's time but the average user would be crazy to choose a Xoom over an iPad 2 now for that reason alone.
    - blinkingled 16y ago
      Umm no - most existing Android apps work and look good on the Xoom. Better than the iPhone apps looked on the iPad. I gave it to my wife who has an iPod touch and she has yet to complain about lack of apps - I found most of what is needed for her. So lack of apps is not really a burning problem.
      - rbarooah 16y ago
        You're seriously trying to claim that blown up android phone apps, many of which don't even rescale properly, are competition to the dedicated iPad designs? Have you looked at iPad apps lately? Even if you don't include iMove and GarageBand that were just announced, how about OmniGraffle, Sketchbook, Inkpad, the Korg Apps, Reeder, Osmos, iWork, etc.
        jrockway 16y ago
- wvenable 16y ago
  > Few people are buying those things. That's not really true. While Apple has a huge lead, they've already begun to lose marketshare (95% down to 75% last quarter). With more and more competition coming soon, I don't think that Apple will be able to hold on. One only has to look at the success of Android phones -- which literally didn't exist at all when the original iPhone was released -- to see that such a lead is not insurmountable. > Have you used one of the 'iPad killers'? Have you? The Motorola Xoom gets very good reviews -- most praising the software as much as the hardware.
  - rbarooah 16y ago
    75%? Where does that come from?
  - bonch 16y ago
    Where are you getting your marketshare figures? It's no surprise that Android phones have numbers. They're on multiple carriers compared to just one (now two). Tablets don't have carriers backing them like that--they must stand on their own. Apple fought off "iPod killers" for 10 years, so they've proven they know how to keep a lead. I think there's a lot of wishful thinking from some people wanting Apple to fall. For some reason, Apple's constant success antagonizes them.
  - albedoa 16y ago
    The number that wvenable mentions is shipped units and conveniently ignores Samsung's admission that sales are low. http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/31/android-tablet-marke-share/ http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/31/android-tablet-marke-share... When you have to twist numbers to demonstrate a drop in Apple's market share, it's a good sign that Apple's market share is sitting pretty.
- dannyr 16y ago
  Ah, I still remember when the 1st Android phone came out (G1). A lot of people were dismissing it because the IPhone had a 2-year head start. Interface was ugly, phone is thick like a brick, only on 1 carrier, the smallest of the Big 4 at that. Well, how did that turn out? Android is selling more than the IPhone. A proper tablet OS didn't arrive until last month and people are already saying it's almost too late for Android to catch up with the IPad. Alright, people will say that it's not the same. But I believe the barriers to entry to the table market is lower than that of phones since manufacturers do not really need carrier approval. Once Google refines the Android tablet OS, I can't wait to see what manufacturers can come up with.
  - lloeki 16y ago
    Not selling more in Europe where Apple dominates. The only Android device cracking around here is the Galaxy Spica, not quite the same league as the iPhone.
    - ZeroGravitas 16y ago
      IDC predicts Android to be the second best selling smarphone OS in Europe Q1 2011, that is, now. The first is, of course, Nokia which undermines your claim that Apple dominates on a second level. (Also, in the UK RIM is, somewhat inexplicably, the premier choice for young people and recently overtook Apple's web market share).
      - lloeki 16y ago
        I was unclear: I meant iPhone (20%, +6%) vs Android (11%, +10%). Not saying Android won't pass, but I see it more like Q4-2011, 2012 even. Mostly depends on Apple's strategy notably WRT entry-level devices: phones like Spica are really appealing price-wise, especially when they're sold with small contracts (sometimes less than half the price per month of high-profile smartphones like the Galaxy S, Desire HD or the iPhone). Nokia's decline is staggering and unless they build up steam quickly with WP7 I see them in troubled waters. Data source comScore: http://www.comscoredatamine.com/2011/02/smartphone-operating-system-market-share-in-europe/ http://www.comscoredatamine.com/2011/02/smartphone-operating... That said, I actually encountered more WinMo6 devices than Symbian ones (read: not much). Really don't know where they hide. Lots of "dumb" (mostly old) Nokia phones though.
- code_duck 16y ago
  I was playing with a Xoom at a Verizon booth yesterday.
- runjake 16y ago
  Have you used one of the 'iPad killers'? That is not competition. It's a joke. You can't even buy any of them, except for Samsung's Galaxy Tab. Have you played with them before coming to these conclusions? Jumping to conclusions without actual experience & trusting the media is a fool's errand. I've played with them all, some being not-quite-release models. I'd have to largely agree that they are jokes. The Xoom comes closest to being an iPad competitor, but I'd still much rather have an iPad. However, I think that there's a sizable segment of the market who would prefer a Xoom over that of an iPad, and maybe that's good enough for Motorola. Apple is still at what? single digit percentages with the Mac? They seem happy enough.
- joebadmo 16y ago
  As an Android user, I agree with you. Is anyone else concerned about the way Apple is changing the way we think about computers, more as appliances than what we think of as computers now? Maybe that's actually the more natural state, and the last few decades have been the anomaly. Makes me a bit sad, though, and concerned about the future.
- cma 16y ago
  I am posting this from a nook color running honeycomb smoothly... it is on sale for 200 bucks.
guelo 16y ago
Wow, that was as good an iPad ad as Apple could come up with on their own. Apple would be stupid to hire Gruber on internally as he manages to stay on message on his own.
mcav 16y ago
This is why I hope Steve Jobs continues to drive Apple for years to come. He presses forward relentlessly, driving the user experience forward, even when the competition can't come close. No one else has been able to match the original iPad's size, cost, and specs; the iPad 2 makes the other tablets seem so bulky, so utilitarian, even though they haven't shipped yet. Any other company would milk the original iPad for all it's worth. They'd get a device with the iPad's dimensions and call it good enough. They wouldn't push forward unless their competitors caught up. I can't imagine Motorola, Microsoft, Samsung, Google, or anyone else having the muscle to put a device like the iPad 2 out so soon. Forget pro-Apple or anti-Apple. More companies need to strive harder to be better, whether or not they see someone hot on their tail.
- redial 16y ago
  And this is exactly what worries me. When Steve Jobs steps down, his replacement is gonna have a hard time assuming he is not Steve Jobs. I just hope he (or she) doesn't try to prove anything by making bold decisions on his own. On a related note, have you ever found weird that Apple doesn't have any women in a VP position? At least that is the impression it gives me. For such a liberal company, it seems to be mostly run by men (nothing wrong with that btw).
  - gyardley 16y ago
    Just off the top of my head, there's Katie Cotton and Allison Johnson - someone who knows Apple better can correct me, but I'm pretty sure both are VPs.
- kalleboo 16y ago
  How is the iPad 2 not just milking the original iPad? It has no revolutionary changes, it's just faster, thinner, and has the cameras the iPad was rumored to have from the beginning. I think most companies have the muscle to put out a slight revision on a first product after a year.
  - brianpan 16y ago
    I agree there are no huge surprises, but I think you are underestimating the difficulty of redesigning the form factor in under a year. Even just changing processors, radio chips, adding gyro, camera in the exact same mechanical form factor is a non-trivial change. This is a completely different housing that needs to be integrated and tested. To the user, it's the "same size" device- a flat device with a glass screen, but make no mistake, this is a re-engineered device less than a year from the previous. (Yes, parallel development, etc. but still.) Not revolutionary, but far from "milking the original".
recoiledsnake 16y ago
>There’s a palpable sense among everyone from Apple I spoke to yesterday that this is the biggest and most important thing in the history of the industry. Seriously? Bigger and more important than the invention of the Internet and WWW? Well, I just wish the Post-PC devices wouldn't come with a 30% (or 43%) surcharge for all subscription content.
- tesseract 16y ago
  I fear the world got lucky in that the Internet inherited its openness from academia, and the PC inherited its openness from the early hobbyist microcomputer scene. As in many other industries, openness - except when necessary for a bare minimum of interoperability - has never really been the norm in consumer electronics. As computing moves beyond the PC, I think that (sadly) we are going to have to get used to proprietary platforms and their attendant pricing shenanigans.
  - wladimir 16y ago
    Indeed, there was always a big contrast between the telecom world (closed) and the PC world (open). As these are merging now, I hope the openness won't be sacrificed. I really hope we can prevent that from happening. It's one of the things that makes the internet a really great place for innovation.
    - tesseract 16y ago
      It's not just telecom either. Game consoles have always been closed. And we are starting to see apps running on TVs, in cars, and other places that definitely do not have the history of openness that the PC does.
  - bad_user 16y ago
    Unfortunately for companies moving beyond the PC, the genie is out of the bottle already. Phones have been historically locked down by carriers. Taking a look at the alternatives from just 5 years ago, the iPhone looks pretty damn open. And there is a reason for that, and why consumers didn't care. Consumers are used to phones being locked, but consumers are also used to doing whatever they want with the computers they've bought. And funny thing - this wasn't always the case. IBM-compatible PCs that you could extend with ISA cards, assemble your own, coming bundled with MS-DOS / Windows - weren't the first PCs available. Even Apple came after Atari. And those home computers back in those day were pretty locked. What changed the scene is the simple fact that software is so much bigger and more profitable than hardware; and there are many forces in the market that want hardware to be an unlocked and cheap complementary to software. You can see that playing right now with the battle between Android / WinMo 7 / iOS / Blackberry. That's the biggest reason why Microsoft won in the 90's - not only over Apple, but also over IBM's OS/2 - they made no discrimination when it came to hardware, they ensured backwards-compatibility for third-party software at all costs, they kept the SDK free of charge. Compared to IBM's OS/2 ; Windows was a piece of shit ... but it ran fine on 286 processors and was compatible with everything you wanted. My phone has at least ten times the horsepower of my first computer. I had no expectations out of my Nokia 3310; as I only expected it to make phone calls. Bottom line - computing doesn't move beyond the PC, but towards the PC. And Apple is increasingly becoming aggressive because they'd like to keep the grip they have right now, but they also realize that they cannot do it. Want to bet that they'll lose costumers to Android if for example Kindle for iOS is shut down?
bobz 16y ago
My favorite thing about Jobs: Seeing a man who actually DESERVES every ounce of his celebrity, clearly enjoying it so much. Nice piece by Gruber capturing the event, and my favorite flavor of Apple worship.
- retrogradeorbit 16y ago
  Did you actually say "worship"? I suppose you are right. It is more religious than evidence based.
  - jodrellblank 16y ago
    If it was entirely evidence based and nothing else, I wouldn't be a fanboy, I'd just have the 'best available opinion to have'. And where's the fun in that? ;)
akashs 16y ago
It's a bit unfortunate that most of the post is a bunch of gushing about how Apple is so amazing. Unfortunate because there's a very insightful point in that second to last paragraph. The chair is definitely part of Apple's genius when it comes to the iPad. It shows us that this isn't a laptop or a PC and the iPad doesn't fall into the paradigms we're used to. It's something new, meant for you to use when you're relaxing rather than working, and you haven't experienced anything like it. You won't get it until you try it. As for the competitors, they do have a ways to go. But the Xoom is definitely a great step, especially with the higher-res, less awkward screen for watching video (the aspect ratio is an annoyance on the iPad).
- erikpukinskis 16y ago
  But the Xoom is definitely a great step, especially with the higher-res, less awkward screen for watching video (the aspect ratio is an annoyance on the iPad). This reminds me of my friends who've dated someone for many years, and then once they got the nerve to leave them, they end up marrying the next person they date, within 12 months. When you spend time with something, you get really familiar with its weaknesses. Then something walks along that doesn't have any of those weaknesses, and because you are so obsessed with those specific traits, you perceive this new thing as perfect. Of course nothing is perfect, and once the glow wears off, you see everything the old one was amazing at, and the new one sucks at. Widescreen is good for watching movies. But you do a lot on a tablet that's not watching movies.
  - ekidd 16y ago
    I also browse the web, read Gmail, check my calendar, and read books, all of which are great on the Xoom. Games are still way behind the iPad, however, and I imagine that everybody needs at least one great long-tail app that's only available on the iPad right now.
- 6ren 16y ago
  Oddly, in the Apple store I visited, you had to stand up to try the iPad.
tuhin 16y ago
Love how Steve Jobs has craftily defined a point in time "Post-PC era" that everyone including me is referring to in the discussions. A phrase that many of us had not used a few days ago is now the parameter to judge policies of companies: "that's how it was in post-PC era". As far as the point of power corrupts is, I do not really see the basis for that. iPod, iPhone? How did the power corrupt Apple? Or is there some serious competitor to iPod that I have somehow missed?
- recoiledsnake 16y ago
  > As far as the point of power corrupts is, I do not really see the basis for that. iPod, iPhone? How did the power corrupt Apple? A forced 30% cut of all subscriptions to the iDevices.
  - tuhin 16y ago
    Yes, I do see the issue with that and on a fair note, sad to see Apple resort to this. While the rules and the implementation has been dogmatic, there were companies who were very craftily bypassing the app store in app purchases to do all kinds of stuff. Again, I am not justifying the way in which Apple did this, but I do not see how not letting competitors and app developers by pass the rules of the eco-system is getting corrupted.
pridegoforth 16y ago
No front license drives you can see the top edge of a license plate
aik 16y ago
I don't understand Gruber's conclusion, starting with: “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology is not enough.” Firstly, what does Steve Jobs mean by that? I believe simply that Apple is where "Technology meets Liberal Arts". Gruber seems to think this means "better designed, has more developer support, and it’s cheaper", which is all stuff that competitors can't copy? That seems to just be an overview of Apple's status in this and their status relative to others, not necessarily having to do anything with "Technology meeting Liberal Arts". In addition, I don't believe Jobs is referring to their marketing model in this -- that the technology is part of a greater "experience". Rather, and perhaps I'm wrong on this and assuming too much, but I see it as a plea for something greater beyond just the technology and the ingenious marketing scheme. I see the devices (most specifically the iPad) as a technology that is humankind-enhancing material beyond just making life a little bit easier. Sure other tablets are, or could be rather, and I hope will be, the same or better, but at the moment the iPad does hold a special slot here. With the immense backing that it has, that's a fact I would say. Whether Apple has purposefully created it to be so exceptional in so many areas (partner in healthcare, schools, etc.) is something I don't know or if they just got lucky, but it is true that it is excellent(or at least a big step forward) in those areas. And for that reason alone I see the device as more than just a gimmicky piece of technology and rather more of a device that assists in the advancement of mankind.
- calbear81 16y ago
  I think the "advancement of mankind" piece might get you some flak but the basic concept sounds like what Steve Jobs was alluding to. My view of it is that Apple doesn't build technology for the sake of building technology. Every technological investment is married with a deep focus on how it is APPLIED in the real world hence the deep focus on user experience and app ecosystem. I think a good way to look at it is that Apple built the iPod because they LOVE music as a company. I know some people will think it's a marketing gimmick but it's clear that Jobs & Apple are true music fans and to them, the dearth of a player that could hold thousands of songs drove them to think about a solution that could solve that problem.
dave1619 16y ago
I think Apple has the sense that the iPad will dominate the tablet market like the iPod has dominated the mp3 market. The main reason Android has overtaken # sales of smartphone is because of the price tax that the carriers (and also Apple) has taken. But Apple doesn't have the carriers to worry about with the tablet (cause most people are buying the wifi versions). And they've decided they're going to compete on price with the iPad, just like they did with the iPod and iPod Touch. After watching the keynote, it's hard to see the competition creating a better tablet (hardware, software, design, apps) for a cheaper price. Apple has integrated the whole process of innovation, and they're way ahead... and this shows the most in the iPad.
- rbarooah 16y ago
  And the halo of the iPad will probably have a pretty powerful effect in boosting the iPhone, particularly if they release some cheaper iPhones for PAYG as rumored.
  - dave1619 16y ago
    Agreed. I think Apple will be forced to compete on price with the iPhone. Hence, likely will see some lower priced iPhones. I have a feeling that Apple is working to solve the real problem, namely the ridiculous contracts and fees carriers are charging.
brisance 16y ago
One thing that drives me crazy is how each competitor focuses on one or two things, usually hardware specs, and use those things to extol its superiority over Apple's offerings. That's like a car maker homing in on horsepower or number of cup-holders to sell a car. If I were to run a tech company competing in this space, I would do the following: 1) Get rid of the nonsensical names. There's a good reason why car makers give their flagship cars a specific name and stick with it through the years e.g. Toyota Camry, Honda Accord. I don't know why these highly-paid marketers insist on giving their products a new name every quarter. 2) Show how sensible and easy it is to migrate away from a desktop-bound, expensive, heavy and loud computer. Show the customers how losing one's device doesn't mean the end of the world (cloud-backed storage etc), and how easy it is to migrate to a new device should the need ever arise. 3) Start a retail channel where my products can be experienced at the customer's own pace. Best Buy and all those stores are not the same thing because they are electronics retailers primarily interested in moving product and I cannot count on them to build a lasting relationship with my customer.
- NickPollard 16y ago
  The naming thing is such a big issue and I don't see why everyone just keeps on getting it so wrong. For an example, I bought a Sony Vaio laptop a few months ago. Great piece of kit and I love it, but trying to work out what to get was bewildering - there's 7 or 8 categories with single letter names - 'S-series, Y-series, Z-series, F-series' etc. What do they mean? Which should I be looking at? I had to scour through comparing until I realised which one I should be looking at. Compare that to Macbooks - you've got: Macbook (the standard, economical) Macbook Pro (high performance) Macbook Air (portable) It's pretty clear to most people interested in buying a Macbook which one they should look at. Also relevant is the fact that Apple don't put too many versions out keeping things in well defined clusters.
  - easyfrag 16y ago
    I'm not sure about Sony's Vaio line but a lot of computing/electronic manufacturers will build specific models for various chain stores, not sure why they do this but I guess it's to head off comparison shopping by consumers. Apple, of course, refuses to play by the rules of its retailing partners.
marze 16y ago
High definition movie editing, on a phone (iMovie on iOS)? It is amazing to see how far things have come in since 2007. In 2007, if you said you were going to download an app to edit a high definition movie on your smartphone you'd be institutionalized. When the iPad was announced last year, it appeared to be a somewhat risky move on Apple's part, lest it cannibalize Mac sales. Now, just a year later, Apple could take the Mac and shoot it and survive. This has to make the PC maker's blood run cold; Apple is selling a device with 95% of the usefulness of a Windows PC but only 5% of the hassle (to the casual computer user), and they've got nothing to lose if they cannibalize all of their laptop sales. The breathtaking aspect of this is how just a year ago the Microsoft monopoly still looked unassailable, but now, to some, the iPad's position seems nearly unassailable and on track to capture a huge portion of the casual computer users of the world.
- dagw 16y ago
  In 2007, if you said you were going to download an app to edit a high definition movie on your smartphone you'd be institutionalized. Why? I don't recall the first time I saw a phone that came with video editing software, but I'm pretty sure it was before 2007. So if someone had said "in a few years this software will be easier to use and can edit even higher resolution video than it can today", I would have replied, "well, that sounds obvious"
  - kalleboo 16y ago
    Sony Ericsson featurephones have had video editing built-in since 2005.
    - rpledge 16y ago
      Interesting, didn't know that. It makes me wonder if the success Apple has had in mobile is due to their better understanding of software. Has Sony/Ericsson iterated on their video editing feature? Apple definitely gets that software is never done; I can't think of another mobile device company that constantly improves not only the core (i.e. OS) software but also improves its value adds (iBooks, GarageBand, iMovie, iWork, Remote, etc...) RIM comes to mind, but I don't have much experience with RIM devices.
nopinsight 16y ago
> But there are other things any competitor could copy, easily, but seemingly don’t even understand that they should, because such things aren’t technical. Take that chair. The on-stage demos of the iPad aren’t conducted at a table or a lectern. They’re conducted sitting in an armchair. That conveys something about the feel of the iPad before its screen is even turned on. Comfortable, emotional, simple, elegant. How it feels is the entirety of the iPad’s appeal. This is an illustration why product companies, however large, should still be led by a product-oriented CEO. Companies led by MBAs or finance people are not doing too well on innovation front. Microsoft is a prominent example of this observation. Sony during Nobuyuki Idei's tenure was another example.
- yuhong 16y ago
  http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2118742 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2118742
- yuhong 16y ago
  This reminds me of HP which has both consumer and enterprise products under it's umbella, particularly since the acquisition of Palm.
kleptco 16y ago
iPad's post-pc experience: holding your computer get's old fast, touch is frustratingly imprecise, copy/paste and the web suck. SJ talks about how it's not a computer and then points out how great it is for creating content and for business. He is P.T. Barnum and the suckers are lapping it up.
mkramlich 16y ago
Regardless of whether you feel Gruber is a fan boy or not, you gotta admit he's a great writer. Always look forward to his pieces.
- flyt 16y ago
  Don't forget that Apple has officially taken a liking to him, and that he is getting unusual access for a "regular guy". Pre-release hardware to review, invitations to private Apple media events, etc. It would be in his best interest to not anger Apple or they instantly cut off his access. See: Walt Mossberg.
  - silvestrov 16y ago
    This is what all of the industry do. If you review graphics cards and you put out a negative review, no more pre-release graphics cards for you. But Gruber's significant articles (like this one) are based on information that is public available. Most people just sees a chair, they don't see the thinking behind the chair. What Gruber does best is to explain how Apple thinks, I know of no journalists that comes anywhere close to understanding Apple.
    - TillE 16y ago
      Andy Ihnatko is less of a fanboy, and still quite insightful about Apple. He has a very good natural sense of which rumors are probably true. And he's much funnier.
    - flyt 16y ago
      I agree that he probably understands the motivations and spirit of Apple better than most. My point is that he's now a part of the system in a subtle way, and to think about it when reading his coverage. He's no longer just a guy with a blog.
- Johngibb 16y ago
  I agree. I've been following him for a long time (before he quit his day job!), and he is absolutely a great writer. Daringfireball, along with HN, are truly my only daily reads. However, while I think he's generally spot on with his Apple analysis, I can see how his detractors are turned off by the smidgeon of smugness in some of his articles.
ZeroGravitas 16y ago
The big elephant in the room is that there actually is no product category of "iPad" for Apple to dominate. I agree with the Gruber of 6 months ago who thought that phones and tablets would merge into the same product category, which he called "tablets" and I'll call "webpads" since I think that's the key distinction between them and the Microsoft tablets and smartphones that preceded them. Apple thinks there will be 3.5 inch webpads, and 10 inch webpads and that they are two totally distinct markets, so it doesn't matter if you lose share in one of them. Everyone else thinks you can have 3.5, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10 even 12 inch webpads and that they're made from 99% the same commodity hardware and software. Android is in the process of returning Apple to single digit marketshare in the small webpad category, a story that tech churnalists have missed because they live in a rich, old, white, U.S.-centric, gadget-obsessed bubble. I'm fairly certain it'll happen even faster for the iPad.
Newky 16y ago
"This is the iPad doing something new, things that couldn’t be done on the Mac" This is what I want to see, I don't own an iPad but I won't until there is genuine things on it that I cannot achieve on my laptop. I feel it is easy for a device like this to become widespread as it feels magical to use, but for me as a computer scientist, and someone who uses his keyboard almost exclusively, I need something from the iPad that I can't get from any other device. Its why I purchased a Kindle!
- rahoulb 16y ago
  You can read on a laptop ... It's not about exclusivity. The thing with the Kindle (I've only used one briefly) and the iPad (I love my 1st gen) is that they do some things better than a laptop. Reading is better on a Kindle or an iPad - especially curled up on the sofa - than a laptop. Sketching is better on an iPad than on a laptop. Browsing in bed is better on an iPad than on a laptop. Typing is much worse on an iPad than a laptop. I'm particularly looking forward to Garageband (and I've spent a lot on music apps for the iPad) because it looks like it will be better than Garageband on a laptop (although I admit that's a prediction - one I'm willing to gamble five quid on).
  - Newky 16y ago
    I take your point fully, and I don't disagree that there are things that the iPad ultimately does do things BETTER, I just see would like to see more innovative uses (such as garageband) but I guess thats just a case of patience.
spacemanaki 16y ago
Hey, thanks Gruber! "skeuomorph" What a cool word: "a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues to a structure that was necessary in the original." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph
stcredzero 16y ago
Good iPad apps can make the iPad feel not like a device running an app, but like an object that is the app. This sentence alone is worth reading the entire post. Subtract the parts of the sentence having to do with iPad, change good to great, and you get a universal truth. Great apps feel not like a device running an app, but like an object that is the app. Apply this to your user's content/data. A great X app doesn't feel like a device running a X app, it feels like you're directly manipulating X. You can substitute pictures, reports, movies, invites, events, etc...
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
Jun8 16y ago
Excellent points about how Apple's perception of iPad has changed in a year. I also loved this: "Good iPad apps can make the iPad feel not like a device running an app, but like an object that is the app. GarageBand isn’t a musical app running on an iPad. It turns an iPad into a musical instrument." So true. But the most insightful quote is at the very end: "But there are other things any competitor could copy, easily, but seemingly don’t even understand that they should, because such things aren’t technical." That's it! In order to compete effectively, you need to fully understand your adversary's strengths, which I don't think Motorola, Samsung, and others fully grasp. They still brag about the dual core, and this or that technical detail. I have yet to see apps as polished as iPad's on Android. When they come (and when Android has a better app store), then Apple needs to be worried.
johnyqi 16y ago
I seriously don't see how competition can catch up with Apple any time soon. They build such infrastructure and line of products, all tight extremely well together, looking amazing and they keep improving it almost every 3 months so that from competitors perspective even to decide from where to start is extremely puzzling. I can tell for sure that Android will take most of the market, maybe even 60-70%, but this will not be because of quality or user experience, it will only be because of cheaper prices, low end products and trying to please mainstream. But I'm pretty sure that Apple will be happy with their part of the cake with high quality products, high margins and very loyal and happy costumers. Just brilliant from any point of view.
Tom_Chippendale 16y ago
Just a note from a design nerd: it's a Le Corbusier LC3 chair. They're terribly comfortable.
- jodrellblank 16y ago
  It's interesting to hear you say that, but slightly depressing that it's four oblongs of leather coated sponge in a right-angle wireframe holder, designed in 1928 and selling for a thousand dollars. It should be comfortable, and it should be more like $200 and out of copyright by now. Where's the innovation in furniture that would make that chair look like technology from 1928?
  - Tom_Chippendale 16y ago
    Sorry, delayed response! I would say it very much looks like technology from 1928. Compare it with the minimalist forms of Gio Ponti's Superleggera Chair, or side-by-side against the sinuous curves of a Rio chaise by Oscar Niemeyer. The LC3 looks downright old & Bauhaus-y. Re. the innovation: This is a fascinating topic. One difference might be a result of value retention. A furniture model from 2006 won't have compatibility issues with the latest upholstery. I'm being silly to a degree, but knowing my iPhone 3GS will soon run at the speed of snot does not endear the thing's design to me. So old style could stick around without seeming too outdated, reducing the need for innovation. Second, related thought about design innovation (again, from my very non-authoritative perspective) Furniture design seems have two extremes in innovation: A) periods of minor & incremental developments, essentially stagnation. B) Radical developments based on changes in artists' context. The long periods where innovation is noticeably absent generally parallel times when artisans have no new medium in which to elevate their craft. During these periods, they're generally relegated to small changes: modifications & cosmetic variations on mostly-optimized forms. Same as in vehicle design or computer hardware, the real magic happens when you develop new materials for medium & new methods for construction. (Esp. when those materials that improve fundamentals, a material's increased load-bearing ability will radically enhance what is possible in chair design.) A good example are the years after bentwood techniques are pioneered, where designers for firms such as Thonet and J.J. Kohn produced radical new forms - the organic curves of Thonet rocking chairs look decades ahead of their mid-1800s origins, and they anticipate Art Nouveau by more than a quarter-century. The same innovation groundswell appeared when synthetic materials (Lucite, plastic laminate & other petro-products) are introduced to the consumer markets post-WWII. A generation of design names like Charles & Ray Eames, Verner Panton, Charles Hollis Jones & Ettore Sottsass seized on these materials, creating parallel expressions of the abstraction & geometry in post-war architecture. Recommend reading on hotbeds of design innovation: The Sevres Porcelain Manufactory: Alexandre Brongniart and the Triumph of Art and Industry, 1800-1847 pub. by Yale University Press for the Bard Graduate Center Italian Lighting Design 1945-2000 by Alberto Bassi P.S. Apologies for rambling.
kaffeinecoma 16y ago
Can we all pitch in and buy John Gruber a nice, legible font that's larger than 9pt?
- gabrielroth 16y ago
  http://daringfireball.net/preferences/ http://daringfireball.net/preferences/
code_duck 16y ago
When was the last time that Gruber disagreed with anything Apple did, and didn't have a long list of reasons about why it was good for you, all consumers, and society? I can't even read his posts. They are simply too propaganda-like.

272 points by martingordon 16y ago

The tech press needs to play up the competition to the iPad as much as possible, because drama drives clicks. But the reality is that Apple's iPad is so far ahead of everything else that it's almost out of sight. Have you used one of the 'iPad killers'? That is not competition. It's a joke. You can't even buy any of them, except for Samsung's Galaxy Tab. [And the Motorola Xoom, but only at retail Best Buy in America, from what I can tell.] I applaud Samsung [and Motorola] for giving it a real try, but I think they fall short of the iPad. Few people are buying those things. I wouldn't, myself. I have some Android phones, but I probably won't get an Android tablet, if Honeycomb indicates where the platform is heading. The lack of competition is allowing Apple to, rightfully, do whatever it wants to with the App Store. And I don't see the situation changing anytime soon. Apple is making the rest of the consumer tech industry look incompetent. edit: Updated with Xoom.

dr_ 16y ago
Well the Xoom has now been released as well, so in theory it's competition as well. But you are right, in reality there is no competition. There are a lot of people out there who think competition is on specs alone - #slots, ports, ram, memory, etc. Because that's how it was in the PC era. They are wrong.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- tesseract 16y ago
  That shouldn't be so surprising. 'Sell the benefits, not the features' has always been a sales mantra. The PC market has always been kind of a weird exception to this, and I think that's in part because of the way the PC market grew out of the enthusiast/hobbyist microcomputer scene of the 70s and early 80s. Enthusiasts like to see impressive technical specifications and a long feature checklist - that's true with phones, cars, computers, cameras, espresso machines, and lots of other things that certain people are enthusiastic about - but in general that is not the way consumers view products.
orangecat 16y ago
You can't even buy any of them, except for Samsung's Galaxy Tab. The Xoom is available now.
- dhh 16y ago
  Unfortunately I found it to be, well, shit compared to the iPad. I bought one for the lure of speed and returned it the next day when I realized that speed was very low on the list of properties that actually mattered. The total user experience is just far worse. The Xoom feels like a PC that has better specs than a Mac. Yes, the frame rate is higher but the game sucks. I seriously wish that webOS is going to show Apple some real competition. It's not healthy for one company to be so far ahead. Power corrupts.
  - edderly 16y ago
    Strange really because I've found the iPad to be a dull clone of an iPhone where the Xoom seems to have a UI which exploits the size of the screen.
    - rbarooah 16y ago
      What UI? The UI of the 65,000 full screen iPad specific apps, or the UI of the 16 Android Tablet apps? Have you actually tried a Xoom?
      - edderly 16y ago
        Yes, I've tried a Xoom today, I also have bought an iPad a while back. Have you tried a Xoom yourself? I don't really see the relevance of the number of applications to the the UI experience.
        rbarooah 16y ago
        I have tried one myself otherwise I wouldn't have asked. The relevance is that the apps are what provide the UI. For the iPad there are 65,000 of them customized to utilize the full screen. For the Xoom, there are 16 customized for the full screen, and the rest are literally just blown up phone apps, many of which don't even rescale properly.
rbarooah 16y ago
Many of the companies in the consumer electronics spent the last decade wasting energy trying to screw each other over interoperability and standards issues - failing to agree because none of them wanted one of the others to gain an advantage. Meanwhile Apple just ignored the silly games and built their own end-to-end ecosystem. It's not lack of competition that's killing the rest of the industry - it's lack of cooperation.
rudiger 16y ago
Precisely. I don't think people understand just how huge of a deal the iPad really is. They're well on their way into a defining a huge product category in a bigger way than Microsoft defined PCs to be Windows. I don't think their competition can compete effectively; price is cheaper, software is better, hardware is better, UX is easier, even the store is a more pleasant experience, which is important, because that is when the largest transaction actually takes place. It's scary thinking how far ahead of the competition they are.
jerf 16y ago
Serious competition with the iPhone took time to emerge, but it did. It's a temporary advantage, not a permanent one, as are all such advantages. Just as in the iPhone arena, Apple won't stand still but eventually it will not be able to singlehandedly defeat everybody on all fronts. But while they lead, they will rake in the bucks, and more power to them. I don't want them to be the only viable company out there and I'm not personally a fan of their products per se (don't "hate" them but they do not sing to me) but I'm glad they're out there pushing the envelope in a way few other companies are. Smartphones and tablets would still have happened eventually but I'm sure they moved the timeline up a good two or three years. (I wouldn't go much further though; the major factor driving the iPad is that the tech is finally ready. You simply couldn't build an iPad as recently as 2007 and have anything like the same experience at any price.)
- alecperkins 16y ago
  In some ways it doesn't even matter if they have competition or not, since Apple effectively defines the category and the expectations of the users. Even now, smart phones are generally playing catch-up to the iPhone. Yes, there is some innovation above and beyond Apple; Windows Phone 7 is surprisingly impressive, and the Web OS notification system is arguably superior. But, the comparison always comes back to the iPhone or iPad, just as it did to the iPod. By providing the first truly mainstream offering in each category, Apple establishes its products as the benchmark. This gives it the freedom to go where it thinks makes sense, instead of being stuck following the leader.
  - phil 16y ago
    > defines the category and the expectations of the users It's stunning how long that has been true. The modern desktop OS is patterned after the Macintosh, modern laptops all use the form factor introduced by the Powerbook 100s, and now all the best phones are made to look like an iPhone.
    - MrScruff 16y ago
      Exactly. The thing that gets me is people claiming they hate Apple and Apple products while eulogising competing products that are derived from a category that Apple defined in the first place.
blinkingled 16y ago
Xoom can be bought online at Verizon or Moto websites. That nitpick aside it isn't anywhere near as bad as you are making it out to be. I am typing this post on one. The browser is far better. The OS is far more usable than the iPad, the higher screen resolution is great - I can RDP into my work PC and use it all day. The hardware is top notch, and battery life is plenty. I haven't connected it to a PC yet - have my apps, music and video wirelessly synced! Once Flash is out and Moto ships SD Card enabling update I have everything I need from a PC replacement tablet. People sadly have just decided to exclusively fall for whatever Apple markets them and there is no convincing them to drop their prejudices.
- rbarooah 16y ago
  Yes but for most non geeks, the Xoom doesn't do much beyond the built in apps, whereas the iPad has 65,000 apps they can use today. That might be different in a year's time but the average user would be crazy to choose a Xoom over an iPad 2 now for that reason alone.
  - blinkingled 16y ago
    Umm no - most existing Android apps work and look good on the Xoom. Better than the iPhone apps looked on the iPad. I gave it to my wife who has an iPod touch and she has yet to complain about lack of apps - I found most of what is needed for her. So lack of apps is not really a burning problem.
    - rbarooah 16y ago
      You're seriously trying to claim that blown up android phone apps, many of which don't even rescale properly, are competition to the dedicated iPad designs? Have you looked at iPad apps lately? Even if you don't include iMove and GarageBand that were just announced, how about OmniGraffle, Sketchbook, Inkpad, the Korg Apps, Reeder, Osmos, iWork, etc.
      - jrockway 16y ago
wvenable 16y ago
> Few people are buying those things. That's not really true. While Apple has a huge lead, they've already begun to lose marketshare (95% down to 75% last quarter). With more and more competition coming soon, I don't think that Apple will be able to hold on. One only has to look at the success of Android phones -- which literally didn't exist at all when the original iPhone was released -- to see that such a lead is not insurmountable. > Have you used one of the 'iPad killers'? Have you? The Motorola Xoom gets very good reviews -- most praising the software as much as the hardware.
- rbarooah 16y ago
  75%? Where does that come from?
- bonch 16y ago
  Where are you getting your marketshare figures? It's no surprise that Android phones have numbers. They're on multiple carriers compared to just one (now two). Tablets don't have carriers backing them like that--they must stand on their own. Apple fought off "iPod killers" for 10 years, so they've proven they know how to keep a lead. I think there's a lot of wishful thinking from some people wanting Apple to fall. For some reason, Apple's constant success antagonizes them.
- albedoa 16y ago
  The number that wvenable mentions is shipped units and conveniently ignores Samsung's admission that sales are low. http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/31/android-tablet-marke-share/ http://venturebeat.com/2011/01/31/android-tablet-marke-share... When you have to twist numbers to demonstrate a drop in Apple's market share, it's a good sign that Apple's market share is sitting pretty.
dannyr 16y ago
Ah, I still remember when the 1st Android phone came out (G1). A lot of people were dismissing it because the IPhone had a 2-year head start. Interface was ugly, phone is thick like a brick, only on 1 carrier, the smallest of the Big 4 at that. Well, how did that turn out? Android is selling more than the IPhone. A proper tablet OS didn't arrive until last month and people are already saying it's almost too late for Android to catch up with the IPad. Alright, people will say that it's not the same. But I believe the barriers to entry to the table market is lower than that of phones since manufacturers do not really need carrier approval. Once Google refines the Android tablet OS, I can't wait to see what manufacturers can come up with.
- lloeki 16y ago
  Not selling more in Europe where Apple dominates. The only Android device cracking around here is the Galaxy Spica, not quite the same league as the iPhone.
  - ZeroGravitas 16y ago
    IDC predicts Android to be the second best selling smarphone OS in Europe Q1 2011, that is, now. The first is, of course, Nokia which undermines your claim that Apple dominates on a second level. (Also, in the UK RIM is, somewhat inexplicably, the premier choice for young people and recently overtook Apple's web market share).
    - lloeki 16y ago
      I was unclear: I meant iPhone (20%, +6%) vs Android (11%, +10%). Not saying Android won't pass, but I see it more like Q4-2011, 2012 even. Mostly depends on Apple's strategy notably WRT entry-level devices: phones like Spica are really appealing price-wise, especially when they're sold with small contracts (sometimes less than half the price per month of high-profile smartphones like the Galaxy S, Desire HD or the iPhone). Nokia's decline is staggering and unless they build up steam quickly with WP7 I see them in troubled waters. Data source comScore: http://www.comscoredatamine.com/2011/02/smartphone-operating-system-market-share-in-europe/ http://www.comscoredatamine.com/2011/02/smartphone-operating... That said, I actually encountered more WinMo6 devices than Symbian ones (read: not much). Really don't know where they hide. Lots of "dumb" (mostly old) Nokia phones though.
code_duck 16y ago
I was playing with a Xoom at a Verizon booth yesterday.
runjake 16y ago
Have you used one of the 'iPad killers'? That is not competition. It's a joke. You can't even buy any of them, except for Samsung's Galaxy Tab. Have you played with them before coming to these conclusions? Jumping to conclusions without actual experience & trusting the media is a fool's errand. I've played with them all, some being not-quite-release models. I'd have to largely agree that they are jokes. The Xoom comes closest to being an iPad competitor, but I'd still much rather have an iPad. However, I think that there's a sizable segment of the market who would prefer a Xoom over that of an iPad, and maybe that's good enough for Motorola. Apple is still at what? single digit percentages with the Mac? They seem happy enough.
joebadmo 16y ago
As an Android user, I agree with you. Is anyone else concerned about the way Apple is changing the way we think about computers, more as appliances than what we think of as computers now? Maybe that's actually the more natural state, and the last few decades have been the anomaly. Makes me a bit sad, though, and concerned about the future.
cma 16y ago
I am posting this from a nook color running honeycomb smoothly... it is on sale for 200 bucks.

guelo 16y ago

Wow, that was as good an iPad ad as Apple could come up with on their own. Apple would be stupid to hire Gruber on internally as he manages to stay on message on his own.

mcav 16y ago

This is why I hope Steve Jobs continues to drive Apple for years to come. He presses forward relentlessly, driving the user experience forward, even when the competition can't come close. No one else has been able to match the original iPad's size, cost, and specs; the iPad 2 makes the other tablets seem so bulky, so utilitarian, even though they haven't shipped yet. Any other company would milk the original iPad for all it's worth. They'd get a device with the iPad's dimensions and call it good enough. They wouldn't push forward unless their competitors caught up. I can't imagine Motorola, Microsoft, Samsung, Google, or anyone else having the muscle to put a device like the iPad 2 out so soon. Forget pro-Apple or anti-Apple. More companies need to strive harder to be better, whether or not they see someone hot on their tail.

redial 16y ago
And this is exactly what worries me. When Steve Jobs steps down, his replacement is gonna have a hard time assuming he is not Steve Jobs. I just hope he (or she) doesn't try to prove anything by making bold decisions on his own. On a related note, have you ever found weird that Apple doesn't have any women in a VP position? At least that is the impression it gives me. For such a liberal company, it seems to be mostly run by men (nothing wrong with that btw).
- gyardley 16y ago
  Just off the top of my head, there's Katie Cotton and Allison Johnson - someone who knows Apple better can correct me, but I'm pretty sure both are VPs.
kalleboo 16y ago
How is the iPad 2 not just milking the original iPad? It has no revolutionary changes, it's just faster, thinner, and has the cameras the iPad was rumored to have from the beginning. I think most companies have the muscle to put out a slight revision on a first product after a year.
- brianpan 16y ago
  I agree there are no huge surprises, but I think you are underestimating the difficulty of redesigning the form factor in under a year. Even just changing processors, radio chips, adding gyro, camera in the exact same mechanical form factor is a non-trivial change. This is a completely different housing that needs to be integrated and tested. To the user, it's the "same size" device- a flat device with a glass screen, but make no mistake, this is a re-engineered device less than a year from the previous. (Yes, parallel development, etc. but still.) Not revolutionary, but far from "milking the original".

recoiledsnake 16y ago

>There’s a palpable sense among everyone from Apple I spoke to yesterday that this is the biggest and most important thing in the history of the industry. Seriously? Bigger and more important than the invention of the Internet and WWW? Well, I just wish the Post-PC devices wouldn't come with a 30% (or 43%) surcharge for all subscription content.

tesseract 16y ago
I fear the world got lucky in that the Internet inherited its openness from academia, and the PC inherited its openness from the early hobbyist microcomputer scene. As in many other industries, openness - except when necessary for a bare minimum of interoperability - has never really been the norm in consumer electronics. As computing moves beyond the PC, I think that (sadly) we are going to have to get used to proprietary platforms and their attendant pricing shenanigans.
- wladimir 16y ago
  Indeed, there was always a big contrast between the telecom world (closed) and the PC world (open). As these are merging now, I hope the openness won't be sacrificed. I really hope we can prevent that from happening. It's one of the things that makes the internet a really great place for innovation.
  - tesseract 16y ago
    It's not just telecom either. Game consoles have always been closed. And we are starting to see apps running on TVs, in cars, and other places that definitely do not have the history of openness that the PC does.
- bad_user 16y ago
  Unfortunately for companies moving beyond the PC, the genie is out of the bottle already. Phones have been historically locked down by carriers. Taking a look at the alternatives from just 5 years ago, the iPhone looks pretty damn open. And there is a reason for that, and why consumers didn't care. Consumers are used to phones being locked, but consumers are also used to doing whatever they want with the computers they've bought. And funny thing - this wasn't always the case. IBM-compatible PCs that you could extend with ISA cards, assemble your own, coming bundled with MS-DOS / Windows - weren't the first PCs available. Even Apple came after Atari. And those home computers back in those day were pretty locked. What changed the scene is the simple fact that software is so much bigger and more profitable than hardware; and there are many forces in the market that want hardware to be an unlocked and cheap complementary to software. You can see that playing right now with the battle between Android / WinMo 7 / iOS / Blackberry. That's the biggest reason why Microsoft won in the 90's - not only over Apple, but also over IBM's OS/2 - they made no discrimination when it came to hardware, they ensured backwards-compatibility for third-party software at all costs, they kept the SDK free of charge. Compared to IBM's OS/2 ; Windows was a piece of shit ... but it ran fine on 286 processors and was compatible with everything you wanted. My phone has at least ten times the horsepower of my first computer. I had no expectations out of my Nokia 3310; as I only expected it to make phone calls. Bottom line - computing doesn't move beyond the PC, but towards the PC. And Apple is increasingly becoming aggressive because they'd like to keep the grip they have right now, but they also realize that they cannot do it. Want to bet that they'll lose costumers to Android if for example Kindle for iOS is shut down?

bobz 16y ago

My favorite thing about Jobs: Seeing a man who actually DESERVES every ounce of his celebrity, clearly enjoying it so much. Nice piece by Gruber capturing the event, and my favorite flavor of Apple worship.

retrogradeorbit 16y ago
Did you actually say "worship"? I suppose you are right. It is more religious than evidence based.
- jodrellblank 16y ago
  If it was entirely evidence based and nothing else, I wouldn't be a fanboy, I'd just have the 'best available opinion to have'. And where's the fun in that? ;)

akashs 16y ago

It's a bit unfortunate that most of the post is a bunch of gushing about how Apple is so amazing. Unfortunate because there's a very insightful point in that second to last paragraph. The chair is definitely part of Apple's genius when it comes to the iPad. It shows us that this isn't a laptop or a PC and the iPad doesn't fall into the paradigms we're used to. It's something new, meant for you to use when you're relaxing rather than working, and you haven't experienced anything like it. You won't get it until you try it. As for the competitors, they do have a ways to go. But the Xoom is definitely a great step, especially with the higher-res, less awkward screen for watching video (the aspect ratio is an annoyance on the iPad).

erikpukinskis 16y ago
But the Xoom is definitely a great step, especially with the higher-res, less awkward screen for watching video (the aspect ratio is an annoyance on the iPad). This reminds me of my friends who've dated someone for many years, and then once they got the nerve to leave them, they end up marrying the next person they date, within 12 months. When you spend time with something, you get really familiar with its weaknesses. Then something walks along that doesn't have any of those weaknesses, and because you are so obsessed with those specific traits, you perceive this new thing as perfect. Of course nothing is perfect, and once the glow wears off, you see everything the old one was amazing at, and the new one sucks at. Widescreen is good for watching movies. But you do a lot on a tablet that's not watching movies.
- ekidd 16y ago
  I also browse the web, read Gmail, check my calendar, and read books, all of which are great on the Xoom. Games are still way behind the iPad, however, and I imagine that everybody needs at least one great long-tail app that's only available on the iPad right now.
6ren 16y ago
Oddly, in the Apple store I visited, you had to stand up to try the iPad.

tuhin 16y ago

Love how Steve Jobs has craftily defined a point in time "Post-PC era" that everyone including me is referring to in the discussions. A phrase that many of us had not used a few days ago is now the parameter to judge policies of companies: "that's how it was in post-PC era". As far as the point of power corrupts is, I do not really see the basis for that. iPod, iPhone? How did the power corrupt Apple? Or is there some serious competitor to iPod that I have somehow missed?

recoiledsnake 16y ago
> As far as the point of power corrupts is, I do not really see the basis for that. iPod, iPhone? How did the power corrupt Apple? A forced 30% cut of all subscriptions to the iDevices.
- tuhin 16y ago
  Yes, I do see the issue with that and on a fair note, sad to see Apple resort to this. While the rules and the implementation has been dogmatic, there were companies who were very craftily bypassing the app store in app purchases to do all kinds of stuff. Again, I am not justifying the way in which Apple did this, but I do not see how not letting competitors and app developers by pass the rules of the eco-system is getting corrupted.

pridegoforth 16y ago

No front license drives you can see the top edge of a license plate

aik 16y ago

I don't understand Gruber's conclusion, starting with: “It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology is not enough.” Firstly, what does Steve Jobs mean by that? I believe simply that Apple is where "Technology meets Liberal Arts". Gruber seems to think this means "better designed, has more developer support, and it’s cheaper", which is all stuff that competitors can't copy? That seems to just be an overview of Apple's status in this and their status relative to others, not necessarily having to do anything with "Technology meeting Liberal Arts". In addition, I don't believe Jobs is referring to their marketing model in this -- that the technology is part of a greater "experience". Rather, and perhaps I'm wrong on this and assuming too much, but I see it as a plea for something greater beyond just the technology and the ingenious marketing scheme. I see the devices (most specifically the iPad) as a technology that is humankind-enhancing material beyond just making life a little bit easier. Sure other tablets are, or could be rather, and I hope will be, the same or better, but at the moment the iPad does hold a special slot here. With the immense backing that it has, that's a fact I would say. Whether Apple has purposefully created it to be so exceptional in so many areas (partner in healthcare, schools, etc.) is something I don't know or if they just got lucky, but it is true that it is excellent(or at least a big step forward) in those areas. And for that reason alone I see the device as more than just a gimmicky piece of technology and rather more of a device that assists in the advancement of mankind.

calbear81 16y ago
I think the "advancement of mankind" piece might get you some flak but the basic concept sounds like what Steve Jobs was alluding to. My view of it is that Apple doesn't build technology for the sake of building technology. Every technological investment is married with a deep focus on how it is APPLIED in the real world hence the deep focus on user experience and app ecosystem. I think a good way to look at it is that Apple built the iPod because they LOVE music as a company. I know some people will think it's a marketing gimmick but it's clear that Jobs & Apple are true music fans and to them, the dearth of a player that could hold thousands of songs drove them to think about a solution that could solve that problem.

dave1619 16y ago

I think Apple has the sense that the iPad will dominate the tablet market like the iPod has dominated the mp3 market. The main reason Android has overtaken # sales of smartphone is because of the price tax that the carriers (and also Apple) has taken. But Apple doesn't have the carriers to worry about with the tablet (cause most people are buying the wifi versions). And they've decided they're going to compete on price with the iPad, just like they did with the iPod and iPod Touch. After watching the keynote, it's hard to see the competition creating a better tablet (hardware, software, design, apps) for a cheaper price. Apple has integrated the whole process of innovation, and they're way ahead... and this shows the most in the iPad.

rbarooah 16y ago
And the halo of the iPad will probably have a pretty powerful effect in boosting the iPhone, particularly if they release some cheaper iPhones for PAYG as rumored.
- dave1619 16y ago
  Agreed. I think Apple will be forced to compete on price with the iPhone. Hence, likely will see some lower priced iPhones. I have a feeling that Apple is working to solve the real problem, namely the ridiculous contracts and fees carriers are charging.

brisance 16y ago

One thing that drives me crazy is how each competitor focuses on one or two things, usually hardware specs, and use those things to extol its superiority over Apple's offerings. That's like a car maker homing in on horsepower or number of cup-holders to sell a car. If I were to run a tech company competing in this space, I would do the following: 1) Get rid of the nonsensical names. There's a good reason why car makers give their flagship cars a specific name and stick with it through the years e.g. Toyota Camry, Honda Accord. I don't know why these highly-paid marketers insist on giving their products a new name every quarter. 2) Show how sensible and easy it is to migrate away from a desktop-bound, expensive, heavy and loud computer. Show the customers how losing one's device doesn't mean the end of the world (cloud-backed storage etc), and how easy it is to migrate to a new device should the need ever arise. 3) Start a retail channel where my products can be experienced at the customer's own pace. Best Buy and all those stores are not the same thing because they are electronics retailers primarily interested in moving product and I cannot count on them to build a lasting relationship with my customer.

NickPollard 16y ago
The naming thing is such a big issue and I don't see why everyone just keeps on getting it so wrong. For an example, I bought a Sony Vaio laptop a few months ago. Great piece of kit and I love it, but trying to work out what to get was bewildering - there's 7 or 8 categories with single letter names - 'S-series, Y-series, Z-series, F-series' etc. What do they mean? Which should I be looking at? I had to scour through comparing until I realised which one I should be looking at. Compare that to Macbooks - you've got: Macbook (the standard, economical) Macbook Pro (high performance) Macbook Air (portable) It's pretty clear to most people interested in buying a Macbook which one they should look at. Also relevant is the fact that Apple don't put too many versions out keeping things in well defined clusters.
- easyfrag 16y ago
  I'm not sure about Sony's Vaio line but a lot of computing/electronic manufacturers will build specific models for various chain stores, not sure why they do this but I guess it's to head off comparison shopping by consumers. Apple, of course, refuses to play by the rules of its retailing partners.

marze 16y ago

High definition movie editing, on a phone (iMovie on iOS)? It is amazing to see how far things have come in since 2007. In 2007, if you said you were going to download an app to edit a high definition movie on your smartphone you'd be institutionalized. When the iPad was announced last year, it appeared to be a somewhat risky move on Apple's part, lest it cannibalize Mac sales. Now, just a year later, Apple could take the Mac and shoot it and survive. This has to make the PC maker's blood run cold; Apple is selling a device with 95% of the usefulness of a Windows PC but only 5% of the hassle (to the casual computer user), and they've got nothing to lose if they cannibalize all of their laptop sales. The breathtaking aspect of this is how just a year ago the Microsoft monopoly still looked unassailable, but now, to some, the iPad's position seems nearly unassailable and on track to capture a huge portion of the casual computer users of the world.

dagw 16y ago
In 2007, if you said you were going to download an app to edit a high definition movie on your smartphone you'd be institutionalized. Why? I don't recall the first time I saw a phone that came with video editing software, but I'm pretty sure it was before 2007. So if someone had said "in a few years this software will be easier to use and can edit even higher resolution video than it can today", I would have replied, "well, that sounds obvious"
- kalleboo 16y ago
  Sony Ericsson featurephones have had video editing built-in since 2005.
  - rpledge 16y ago
    Interesting, didn't know that. It makes me wonder if the success Apple has had in mobile is due to their better understanding of software. Has Sony/Ericsson iterated on their video editing feature? Apple definitely gets that software is never done; I can't think of another mobile device company that constantly improves not only the core (i.e. OS) software but also improves its value adds (iBooks, GarageBand, iMovie, iWork, Remote, etc...) RIM comes to mind, but I don't have much experience with RIM devices.

nopinsight 16y ago

> But there are other things any competitor could copy, easily, but seemingly don’t even understand that they should, because such things aren’t technical. Take that chair. The on-stage demos of the iPad aren’t conducted at a table or a lectern. They’re conducted sitting in an armchair. That conveys something about the feel of the iPad before its screen is even turned on. Comfortable, emotional, simple, elegant. How it feels is the entirety of the iPad’s appeal. This is an illustration why product companies, however large, should still be led by a product-oriented CEO. Companies led by MBAs or finance people are not doing too well on innovation front. Microsoft is a prominent example of this observation. Sony during Nobuyuki Idei's tenure was another example.

yuhong 16y ago
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2118742 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2118742
yuhong 16y ago
This reminds me of HP which has both consumer and enterprise products under it's umbella, particularly since the acquisition of Palm.

kleptco 16y ago

iPad's post-pc experience: holding your computer get's old fast, touch is frustratingly imprecise, copy/paste and the web suck. SJ talks about how it's not a computer and then points out how great it is for creating content and for business. He is P.T. Barnum and the suckers are lapping it up.

mkramlich 16y ago

Regardless of whether you feel Gruber is a fan boy or not, you gotta admit he's a great writer. Always look forward to his pieces.

flyt 16y ago
Don't forget that Apple has officially taken a liking to him, and that he is getting unusual access for a "regular guy". Pre-release hardware to review, invitations to private Apple media events, etc. It would be in his best interest to not anger Apple or they instantly cut off his access. See: Walt Mossberg.
- silvestrov 16y ago
  This is what all of the industry do. If you review graphics cards and you put out a negative review, no more pre-release graphics cards for you. But Gruber's significant articles (like this one) are based on information that is public available. Most people just sees a chair, they don't see the thinking behind the chair. What Gruber does best is to explain how Apple thinks, I know of no journalists that comes anywhere close to understanding Apple.
  - TillE 16y ago
    Andy Ihnatko is less of a fanboy, and still quite insightful about Apple. He has a very good natural sense of which rumors are probably true. And he's much funnier.
  - flyt 16y ago
    I agree that he probably understands the motivations and spirit of Apple better than most. My point is that he's now a part of the system in a subtle way, and to think about it when reading his coverage. He's no longer just a guy with a blog.
Johngibb 16y ago
I agree. I've been following him for a long time (before he quit his day job!), and he is absolutely a great writer. Daringfireball, along with HN, are truly my only daily reads. However, while I think he's generally spot on with his Apple analysis, I can see how his detractors are turned off by the smidgeon of smugness in some of his articles.

ZeroGravitas 16y ago

The big elephant in the room is that there actually is no product category of "iPad" for Apple to dominate. I agree with the Gruber of 6 months ago who thought that phones and tablets would merge into the same product category, which he called "tablets" and I'll call "webpads" since I think that's the key distinction between them and the Microsoft tablets and smartphones that preceded them. Apple thinks there will be 3.5 inch webpads, and 10 inch webpads and that they are two totally distinct markets, so it doesn't matter if you lose share in one of them. Everyone else thinks you can have 3.5, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10 even 12 inch webpads and that they're made from 99% the same commodity hardware and software. Android is in the process of returning Apple to single digit marketshare in the small webpad category, a story that tech churnalists have missed because they live in a rich, old, white, U.S.-centric, gadget-obsessed bubble. I'm fairly certain it'll happen even faster for the iPad.

Newky 16y ago

"This is the iPad doing something new, things that couldn’t be done on the Mac" This is what I want to see, I don't own an iPad but I won't until there is genuine things on it that I cannot achieve on my laptop. I feel it is easy for a device like this to become widespread as it feels magical to use, but for me as a computer scientist, and someone who uses his keyboard almost exclusively, I need something from the iPad that I can't get from any other device. Its why I purchased a Kindle!

rahoulb 16y ago
You can read on a laptop ... It's not about exclusivity. The thing with the Kindle (I've only used one briefly) and the iPad (I love my 1st gen) is that they do some things better than a laptop. Reading is better on a Kindle or an iPad - especially curled up on the sofa - than a laptop. Sketching is better on an iPad than on a laptop. Browsing in bed is better on an iPad than on a laptop. Typing is much worse on an iPad than a laptop. I'm particularly looking forward to Garageband (and I've spent a lot on music apps for the iPad) because it looks like it will be better than Garageband on a laptop (although I admit that's a prediction - one I'm willing to gamble five quid on).
- Newky 16y ago
  I take your point fully, and I don't disagree that there are things that the iPad ultimately does do things BETTER, I just see would like to see more innovative uses (such as garageband) but I guess thats just a case of patience.

spacemanaki 16y ago

Hey, thanks Gruber! "skeuomorph" What a cool word: "a derivative object that retains ornamental design cues to a structure that was necessary in the original." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skeuomorph

stcredzero 16y ago

Good iPad apps can make the iPad feel not like a device running an app, but like an object that is the app. This sentence alone is worth reading the entire post. Subtract the parts of the sentence having to do with iPad, change good to great, and you get a universal truth. Great apps feel not like a device running an app, but like an object that is the app. Apply this to your user's content/data. A great X app doesn't feel like a device running a X app, it feels like you're directly manipulating X. You can substitute pictures, reports, movies, invites, events, etc...

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

Jun8 16y ago

Excellent points about how Apple's perception of iPad has changed in a year. I also loved this: "Good iPad apps can make the iPad feel not like a device running an app, but like an object that is the app. GarageBand isn’t a musical app running on an iPad. It turns an iPad into a musical instrument." So true. But the most insightful quote is at the very end: "But there are other things any competitor could copy, easily, but seemingly don’t even understand that they should, because such things aren’t technical." That's it! In order to compete effectively, you need to fully understand your adversary's strengths, which I don't think Motorola, Samsung, and others fully grasp. They still brag about the dual core, and this or that technical detail. I have yet to see apps as polished as iPad's on Android. When they come (and when Android has a better app store), then Apple needs to be worried.

johnyqi 16y ago

I seriously don't see how competition can catch up with Apple any time soon. They build such infrastructure and line of products, all tight extremely well together, looking amazing and they keep improving it almost every 3 months so that from competitors perspective even to decide from where to start is extremely puzzling. I can tell for sure that Android will take most of the market, maybe even 60-70%, but this will not be because of quality or user experience, it will only be because of cheaper prices, low end products and trying to please mainstream. But I'm pretty sure that Apple will be happy with their part of the cake with high quality products, high margins and very loyal and happy costumers. Just brilliant from any point of view.

Tom_Chippendale 16y ago

Just a note from a design nerd: it's a Le Corbusier LC3 chair. They're terribly comfortable.

jodrellblank 16y ago
It's interesting to hear you say that, but slightly depressing that it's four oblongs of leather coated sponge in a right-angle wireframe holder, designed in 1928 and selling for a thousand dollars. It should be comfortable, and it should be more like $200 and out of copyright by now. Where's the innovation in furniture that would make that chair look like technology from 1928?
- Tom_Chippendale 16y ago
  Sorry, delayed response! I would say it very much looks like technology from 1928. Compare it with the minimalist forms of Gio Ponti's Superleggera Chair, or side-by-side against the sinuous curves of a Rio chaise by Oscar Niemeyer. The LC3 looks downright old & Bauhaus-y. Re. the innovation: This is a fascinating topic. One difference might be a result of value retention. A furniture model from 2006 won't have compatibility issues with the latest upholstery. I'm being silly to a degree, but knowing my iPhone 3GS will soon run at the speed of snot does not endear the thing's design to me. So old style could stick around without seeming too outdated, reducing the need for innovation. Second, related thought about design innovation (again, from my very non-authoritative perspective) Furniture design seems have two extremes in innovation: A) periods of minor & incremental developments, essentially stagnation. B) Radical developments based on changes in artists' context. The long periods where innovation is noticeably absent generally parallel times when artisans have no new medium in which to elevate their craft. During these periods, they're generally relegated to small changes: modifications & cosmetic variations on mostly-optimized forms. Same as in vehicle design or computer hardware, the real magic happens when you develop new materials for medium & new methods for construction. (Esp. when those materials that improve fundamentals, a material's increased load-bearing ability will radically enhance what is possible in chair design.) A good example are the years after bentwood techniques are pioneered, where designers for firms such as Thonet and J.J. Kohn produced radical new forms - the organic curves of Thonet rocking chairs look decades ahead of their mid-1800s origins, and they anticipate Art Nouveau by more than a quarter-century. The same innovation groundswell appeared when synthetic materials (Lucite, plastic laminate & other petro-products) are introduced to the consumer markets post-WWII. A generation of design names like Charles & Ray Eames, Verner Panton, Charles Hollis Jones & Ettore Sottsass seized on these materials, creating parallel expressions of the abstraction & geometry in post-war architecture. Recommend reading on hotbeds of design innovation: The Sevres Porcelain Manufactory: Alexandre Brongniart and the Triumph of Art and Industry, 1800-1847 pub. by Yale University Press for the Bard Graduate Center Italian Lighting Design 1945-2000 by Alberto Bassi P.S. Apologies for rambling.

kaffeinecoma 16y ago

Can we all pitch in and buy John Gruber a nice, legible font that's larger than 9pt?

gabrielroth 16y ago
http://daringfireball.net/preferences/ http://daringfireball.net/preferences/

code_duck 16y ago

When was the last time that Gruber disagreed with anything Apple did, and didn't have a long list of reasons about why it was good for you, all consumers, and society? I can't even read his posts. They are simply too propaganda-like.