7 ms·

I don't understand why it had to be TC to create this device. Its usefulness is blatantly obvious; all Arrington did was list the specs and declare his intentio

I don't understand why it had to be TC to create this device. Its usefulness is blatantly obvious; all Arrington did was list the specs and declare his intention to have it made. To rephrase, why hasn't the industry been able to do this? They are the ones who have made this possible anyhow; it is not very innovative on a technical level; it is obviously a good idea. What took them so long?

smidwap 18y ago
Your thoughts parallel mine. At the very least, if this idea is so brilliant, why can't a company like Dell or Apple begin mass-producing these little tikes? Even with patents and all that legal mumbo-jumbo, I'm sure they could find something to sell. Makes me wonder if this product really will sell, or if the biggies just lost out on an early opportunity.
- rms 18y ago
  >why can't a company like Dell or Apple begin mass-producing these little tikes? If these tablets sell, they certainly will.
- whacked_new 18y ago
  I was wondering if big companies were unable to produce these things cost effectively due to tie-ins and bundle deals or whatnot. Oh, perhaps one thing is the requirement to fork a dev team to maintain a niche OS... methinks that's one of the biggest reasons?
  - fizx 18y ago
    They could be afraid of cannibalizing sales of their more expensive gizmos.
there 18y ago
> it is not very innovative on a technical level seems like an ideal product for a y combinator startup!
- jonknee 18y ago
  Takes more than $5k to make a device like this. Much more.
  - there 18y ago
    whooosh
    - jonknee 18y ago
      Whoosh back, my point being that if you want real tech innovation it most often takes more than $5k.
noonespecial 18y ago
Simple. Instead of our market research in the target demographics show that the average consumer wants... it was more like yaknow whatd be awesome!?.
- dkokelley 18y ago
  I wish more new product development was done this way. Sure there would be more losers and if the market is efficient they will die quickly but the winners will be truly terrific.
  - tlrobinson 18y ago
    I suspect that's why Apple has been so successful with things like the iPod and iPhone. They've also had a number of failures, but people don't really remember those (Newton, cube, etc)
    - Zev 18y ago
      Even Apple's failures managed to gain a small, rabid fanbase behind them. Possible exception being the HiFi.
    - redrobot5050 18y ago
      The Newton wasn't a failure. The first version sucked, but afterwards the handwriting recognition was spot on. And do you know what the final newton designed by Apple turned into? The Palm Pilot.
- axod 18y ago
  >> "yaknow whatd be awesome!?" Often a recipe for total disaster - making something that's technically impressive, rather than something that people actually want.
  - Zaak 18y ago
    On the other hand, it's the only way to create something that people don't know they want until they see it.
mkuhn 18y ago
IMHO this is what entrepreneurship is all about. You identify a need and then try to satisfy it... And Arrington had a good idea and he obviously managed to execute (probably) equally well... I just have to say, I'm impressed!
- TomOfTTB 18y ago
  I remember a quote that applies here but for the life of me I can't remember where I saw it. It was... "Entrepreneurship is about believing something will sell even though every market measure says it won't and then implementing it even though every competitor says you'll fail"
tjogin 18y ago
Who could have possibly made it? Dell? HP? These guys think in the line of "more features is better". The whole industry does. Apple? They choose to not compete on the low-end market.
- agotterer 18y ago
  The big boys may choose not to compete on the low end market, but that doesn't mean the market doesn't exist. Should KIA have never started making cars because they assumed no one wanted a cheap, low end vehicle?
  - tjogin 18y ago
    I don't think I was even close to saying that the market doesn't exist.
axod 18y ago
>> "Its usefulness is blatantly obvious" Please explain for me. I have an iPhone for portability, I have a laptop for semi portability. I have a mac mini for watching movies etc. I can't think of how a tablet device like that would be useful. It's sort of too big and delicate to take traveling - nothing to protect the screen, so a laptop or netbook wins there. The only use I can imagine is having it in the kitchen on the wall to look up recipes :/ Perhaps "the industry hasn't been able to do this" because there's not a proven market there. Further, there have been several tablet type laptops with flimsy swively screens, most of which seem total failures. I can completely see geeks buying this. But that's a small market and one which I don't think you can make a lot of money from. Also could the packaging be any more copied from Apple packaging?
- fiaz 18y ago
  I can see my parents each buying one of these. I can see my siblings buying one of these for each of their kids. I would never buy one of these because my tech needs, like yours, are a bit more "nuanced" depending upon my need at the moment. Look at this as a "gateway" device for people that aren't as "hardcore" as you or I.
  - skwiddor 18y ago
    Mom, Davey stood on my tablet and all goo is coming out of it
- greendestiny 18y ago
  Using the internet on the couch, in the kitchen, around the house, in the shed. Probably the biggest usage factors are that its always open and it has a big screen.
- whacked_new 18y ago
  Basically a lightweight, handheld, kiosk computer. It is what Microsoft's Origami should have been. Although now you bring it up, I don't know the biggest reason behind Origami's failure. Maybe I overestimate its usefulness. I can see Walmart and such taking a big interest though, for inventory control and also modified for in-store use. But you may be right. As for the packaging, unless Apple is truly the one that started this kind of packaging (which I doubt, but could be wrong, but also wouldn't care), it doesn't strike me as an Apple rip. To me, they're all obnoxious... to hell with the "experience" :-P
jodrellblank 18y ago
Its usefulness is blatantly obvious, it is obviously a good idea Bleedin' isn't. (Obvious, I mean). "like a laptop but less powerful", "a netbook without the keyboard", "an iPod touch with gigantism", "a PDA that doesn't fit in your pocket", "a kindle without the high DPI screen or long battery life", "an OLPC without the low price tag or cool features". Full TabletPCs never took off. They are more expensive and have the restricted form factor. TC is betting that it's the higher cost that stopped them. I'm betting it's the restricted form factor and resultant limited usefulness. I predict TC will only sell them to the sort of person who sees a tablet, or a chumby or a clocky or any other of a dozen terrible devices on TC and comments "OMG OMG I WANT ONE". That may yet be a big enough market, so I'm not going to predict out and out failure yet.
fiaz 18y ago
Arrington/TC are relatively close to the center of the technology blogging world, and so they see a lot of information. I'm certain that if anybody was exposed to as much of this information as he is, then they'd see some obvious patterns of where the industries are heading. So to spot a trend and formulate a concept/idea for a product from that point of view might contribute a great deal to the inspiration for creating such a device. The ability for a non-engineer to connect resources together to produce the device is a function of Moore's Law. If TC is really worth as much as 24/7 Wall St. and others have speculated, then the marketing dollars are taken care of. Also, Arrington is well known and a highly resourceful individual.

smidwap 18y ago

Your thoughts parallel mine. At the very least, if this idea is so brilliant, why can't a company like Dell or Apple begin mass-producing these little tikes? Even with patents and all that legal mumbo-jumbo, I'm sure they could find something to sell. Makes me wonder if this product really will sell, or if the biggies just lost out on an early opportunity.

rms 18y ago
>why can't a company like Dell or Apple begin mass-producing these little tikes? If these tablets sell, they certainly will.
whacked_new 18y ago
I was wondering if big companies were unable to produce these things cost effectively due to tie-ins and bundle deals or whatnot. Oh, perhaps one thing is the requirement to fork a dev team to maintain a niche OS... methinks that's one of the biggest reasons?
- fizx 18y ago
  They could be afraid of cannibalizing sales of their more expensive gizmos.

there 18y ago

> it is not very innovative on a technical level seems like an ideal product for a y combinator startup!

jonknee 18y ago
Takes more than $5k to make a device like this. Much more.
- there 18y ago
  whooosh
  - jonknee 18y ago
    Whoosh back, my point being that if you want real tech innovation it most often takes more than $5k.

noonespecial 18y ago

Simple. Instead of our market research in the target demographics show that the average consumer wants... it was more like yaknow whatd be awesome!?.

dkokelley 18y ago
I wish more new product development was done this way. Sure there would be more losers and if the market is efficient they will die quickly but the winners will be truly terrific.
- tlrobinson 18y ago
  I suspect that's why Apple has been so successful with things like the iPod and iPhone. They've also had a number of failures, but people don't really remember those (Newton, cube, etc)
  - Zev 18y ago
    Even Apple's failures managed to gain a small, rabid fanbase behind them. Possible exception being the HiFi.
  - redrobot5050 18y ago
    The Newton wasn't a failure. The first version sucked, but afterwards the handwriting recognition was spot on. And do you know what the final newton designed by Apple turned into? The Palm Pilot.
axod 18y ago
>> "yaknow whatd be awesome!?" Often a recipe for total disaster - making something that's technically impressive, rather than something that people actually want.
- Zaak 18y ago
  On the other hand, it's the only way to create something that people don't know they want until they see it.

mkuhn 18y ago

IMHO this is what entrepreneurship is all about. You identify a need and then try to satisfy it... And Arrington had a good idea and he obviously managed to execute (probably) equally well... I just have to say, I'm impressed!

TomOfTTB 18y ago
I remember a quote that applies here but for the life of me I can't remember where I saw it. It was... "Entrepreneurship is about believing something will sell even though every market measure says it won't and then implementing it even though every competitor says you'll fail"

tjogin 18y ago

Who could have possibly made it? Dell? HP? These guys think in the line of "more features is better". The whole industry does. Apple? They choose to not compete on the low-end market.

agotterer 18y ago
The big boys may choose not to compete on the low end market, but that doesn't mean the market doesn't exist. Should KIA have never started making cars because they assumed no one wanted a cheap, low end vehicle?
- tjogin 18y ago
  I don't think I was even close to saying that the market doesn't exist.

axod 18y ago

>> "Its usefulness is blatantly obvious" Please explain for me. I have an iPhone for portability, I have a laptop for semi portability. I have a mac mini for watching movies etc. I can't think of how a tablet device like that would be useful. It's sort of too big and delicate to take traveling - nothing to protect the screen, so a laptop or netbook wins there. The only use I can imagine is having it in the kitchen on the wall to look up recipes :/ Perhaps "the industry hasn't been able to do this" because there's not a proven market there. Further, there have been several tablet type laptops with flimsy swively screens, most of which seem total failures. I can completely see geeks buying this. But that's a small market and one which I don't think you can make a lot of money from. Also could the packaging be any more copied from Apple packaging?

fiaz 18y ago
I can see my parents each buying one of these. I can see my siblings buying one of these for each of their kids. I would never buy one of these because my tech needs, like yours, are a bit more "nuanced" depending upon my need at the moment. Look at this as a "gateway" device for people that aren't as "hardcore" as you or I.
- skwiddor 18y ago
  Mom, Davey stood on my tablet and all goo is coming out of it
greendestiny 18y ago
Using the internet on the couch, in the kitchen, around the house, in the shed. Probably the biggest usage factors are that its always open and it has a big screen.
whacked_new 18y ago
Basically a lightweight, handheld, kiosk computer. It is what Microsoft's Origami should have been. Although now you bring it up, I don't know the biggest reason behind Origami's failure. Maybe I overestimate its usefulness. I can see Walmart and such taking a big interest though, for inventory control and also modified for in-store use. But you may be right. As for the packaging, unless Apple is truly the one that started this kind of packaging (which I doubt, but could be wrong, but also wouldn't care), it doesn't strike me as an Apple rip. To me, they're all obnoxious... to hell with the "experience" :-P

jodrellblank 18y ago

Its usefulness is blatantly obvious, it is obviously a good idea Bleedin' isn't. (Obvious, I mean). "like a laptop but less powerful", "a netbook without the keyboard", "an iPod touch with gigantism", "a PDA that doesn't fit in your pocket", "a kindle without the high DPI screen or long battery life", "an OLPC without the low price tag or cool features". Full TabletPCs never took off. They are more expensive and have the restricted form factor. TC is betting that it's the higher cost that stopped them. I'm betting it's the restricted form factor and resultant limited usefulness. I predict TC will only sell them to the sort of person who sees a tablet, or a chumby or a clocky or any other of a dozen terrible devices on TC and comments "OMG OMG I WANT ONE". That may yet be a big enough market, so I'm not going to predict out and out failure yet.

fiaz 18y ago

Arrington/TC are relatively close to the center of the technology blogging world, and so they see a lot of information. I'm certain that if anybody was exposed to as much of this information as he is, then they'd see some obvious patterns of where the industries are heading. So to spot a trend and formulate a concept/idea for a product from that point of view might contribute a great deal to the inspiration for creating such a device. The ability for a non-engineer to connect resources together to produce the device is a function of Moore's Law. If TC is really worth as much as 24/7 Wall St. and others have speculated, then the marketing dollars are taken care of. Also, Arrington is well known and a highly resourceful individual.