5 ms·

So people really want things like laptops with touch screens and laptops with detachable keyboards, despite those things selling really poorly.. And people dont

by tjogin 14y ago

So people really want things like laptops with touch screens and laptops with detachable keyboards, despite those things selling really poorly.. And people dont want the iPad, despite it selling like hotcakes, thats your conclusion? If the iPad is a mistake, it's a mistake to the tune of 67 million units over two years, and that's limited by manufacturing, not demand. Or you are wrong.

polshaw 14y ago
>So people really want things like laptops with touch screens and laptops with detachable keyboards, despite those things selling really poorly YES. They sell poorly because they are crap and expensive. Exactly like tablets were before the iPad. Give me something like the transformer prime, with an a15 and an android + desktop linux combo for a reasonable price and i'll be all over that. This dock (+retina ipad) has brought me closer to wanting the ipad than ever before.
- tjogin 14y ago
  > Give me something like the transformer prime, with an a15 and an android + desktop linux combo for a reasonable price and i'll be all over that. So if you combine a bunch of things that each sell very poorly then that would sell really well?
  - polshaw 14y ago
    Yes, because they are not mature products. If i had suggested in 2003 we took the tablet PC, swapped in an arm processor and took away all the ports, i'm sure you wouldn't have thought it was such a great idea either. The basic problem is the age old one- tablets (/os) suck at content creation. That is a problem of both OS and lack of keyboard. So a keyboard alone doesn't cut it. As for linux, I would take any desktop OS, but MS have already committed to locking down their bootloader + laming arm windows 8, and there are no signs that apple is about to cannibalise their MBA line. OTOH android integrates well with linux, sharing the kernel-- as ubuntu have demonstrated. And wtf @ downvoting that comment.. why??.
    - tjogin 14y ago
      The iPad is a lot more than a regular PC with an ARM processor. Had you suggested that, and some foolish HP exec would have believed you, then it would have failed catastrophically. The ARM processor is not the magic juice that made the iPad a success.
  - toyg 14y ago
    Touchscreen smartphones were selling fairly poorly. OSX was a niche product. Then they were combined, and the iPhone was born. After Jobs' comeback, Apple has been incredibly successfully at refining concept products that weren't selling well and bringing them to the mainstream. They'll eventually do the same with tablet/laptop hybrids, I'm pretty sure about that. A 15" MBA is attractive even to a longtime PC user like me; a 15" iPad/MBA hybrid? I'd order five tomorrow.
    - tjogin 14y ago
      No you wouldn't, because it would suck. Touch interfaces would suck to use with a mouse, since they are touch interfaces. And mouse driven interfaces would suck to drive with your touch, since they are designed to be used with a mouse. You won't see a hybrid from Apple, because hybrids, by their very nature, are compromises. They are more awkward and less useful than the two things they combine. Apple understood this, which is why iOS exists.
      - toyg 14y ago
        You could have two completely separate interfaces for the two modes, or even two different screens; these are design details, I was talking about hardware integration at the conceptual level, i.e. an object that is a real laptop when you want it to be so, and a real tablet when you want it to be so. I say that's eminently feasible, and I consider products like the Transformer Prime as first attempts at a concept that will eventually emerge. The point about Apple not doing hybrids is simply short-sighted, btw; isn't the iPhone a "compromise" between a computer and a phone? Isn't the iMac a "compromise" between a monitor and a case? And that's exactly why these products are successful: because they give you the best of both worlds in one single physical object. If/when they fail to do that, they end up giving you the worst instead, which is what you mention, but that's not a necessary outcome for all hybrid efforts.

by tjogin 14y ago

polshaw 14y ago

>So people really want things like laptops with touch screens and laptops with detachable keyboards, despite those things selling really poorly YES. They sell poorly because they are crap and expensive. Exactly like tablets were before the iPad. Give me something like the transformer prime, with an a15 and an android + desktop linux combo for a reasonable price and i'll be all over that. This dock (+retina ipad) has brought me closer to wanting the ipad than ever before.

tjogin 14y ago
> Give me something like the transformer prime, with an a15 and an android + desktop linux combo for a reasonable price and i'll be all over that. So if you combine a bunch of things that each sell very poorly then that would sell really well?
- polshaw 14y ago
  Yes, because they are not mature products. If i had suggested in 2003 we took the tablet PC, swapped in an arm processor and took away all the ports, i'm sure you wouldn't have thought it was such a great idea either. The basic problem is the age old one- tablets (/os) suck at content creation. That is a problem of both OS and lack of keyboard. So a keyboard alone doesn't cut it. As for linux, I would take any desktop OS, but MS have already committed to locking down their bootloader + laming arm windows 8, and there are no signs that apple is about to cannibalise their MBA line. OTOH android integrates well with linux, sharing the kernel-- as ubuntu have demonstrated. And wtf @ downvoting that comment.. why??.
  - tjogin 14y ago
    The iPad is a lot more than a regular PC with an ARM processor. Had you suggested that, and some foolish HP exec would have believed you, then it would have failed catastrophically. The ARM processor is not the magic juice that made the iPad a success.
- toyg 14y ago
  Touchscreen smartphones were selling fairly poorly. OSX was a niche product. Then they were combined, and the iPhone was born. After Jobs' comeback, Apple has been incredibly successfully at refining concept products that weren't selling well and bringing them to the mainstream. They'll eventually do the same with tablet/laptop hybrids, I'm pretty sure about that. A 15" MBA is attractive even to a longtime PC user like me; a 15" iPad/MBA hybrid? I'd order five tomorrow.
  - tjogin 14y ago
    No you wouldn't, because it would suck. Touch interfaces would suck to use with a mouse, since they are touch interfaces. And mouse driven interfaces would suck to drive with your touch, since they are designed to be used with a mouse. You won't see a hybrid from Apple, because hybrids, by their very nature, are compromises. They are more awkward and less useful than the two things they combine. Apple understood this, which is why iOS exists.
    - toyg 14y ago
      You could have two completely separate interfaces for the two modes, or even two different screens; these are design details, I was talking about hardware integration at the conceptual level, i.e. an object that is a real laptop when you want it to be so, and a real tablet when you want it to be so. I say that's eminently feasible, and I consider products like the Transformer Prime as first attempts at a concept that will eventually emerge. The point about Apple not doing hybrids is simply short-sighted, btw; isn't the iPhone a "compromise" between a computer and a phone? Isn't the iMac a "compromise" between a monitor and a case? And that's exactly why these products are successful: because they give you the best of both worlds in one single physical object. If/when they fail to do that, they end up giving you the worst instead, which is what you mention, but that's not a necessary outcome for all hybrid efforts.