
Apple’s iPad Still Has No Competition - mkrecny
http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/26/ipad-no-competition/
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Kylekramer
You can ignore it, you can say it is weak, you can say the iPad will crush all
comers, but there is competition now. Both in quality and commerically.

Of course, as always, it is hard to get a man to understand something when his
job requires that he does not. For example, where are all these bad reviews
for the Xoom? Most put it a bit below the iPad.

~~~
protomyth
Here's the basic problems with the XOOM: it is priced higher than the iPad,
isn't much better, and has less apps designed for it. It has more ports, but
consumers don't seem to care.

A lot of the old PC vs Mac decision making factors in on the consumer side.
Cheaper has its own quality, but combined with Apple's design - well. It is
very much if the Mac mini was priced at $199 versus the rest of the PC market
at $399.

I think HP will be seriously competitive and Microsoft might finally give up
on the Windows 7 tablets and get someone to make WP7 tablets. Honeycomb looks
good, but cellphone makers seem to have a lot of problems crossing to tablets
because they love their business model with subsidies from the carriers. I
think the first company that has a better iPod touch based on Android, webOS,
or WP7 will be the sign post for their tablet to be a true iPad competitor. I
think it will show they get the whole market.

~~~
tdfx
It's barely priced higher than the equivalent iPad model. $729 for the 3G/32GB
iPad vs. $799 for the 3G/32GB Xoom.

IMHO, Honeycomb is far beyond the current iOS iteration for iPad. Granted I'm
a Google services oriented person and Apple will most likely be releasing a
new version of iOS for the iPad 2 in March, but apples to apples comparison:
I've owned both now and I prefer Android. Not for "openness", or because I
don't like Apple, but because the functionality is just more intuitive and
convenient. Google really did good with Honeycomb. Most specifically is the
tabbed browsing (though apps like Google Reader still don't work correctly).

I realize there's no WiFi model at the moment to compete with the iPad's lower
end choices but I would imagine that's coming. Obviously there's a serious
lack of apps for Android tablets as the Xoom is the first major tablet to be
put out. I think these problems will be solved in time and only be a concern
to early adopters.

tldr; Android is serious competition for Apple and without some serious
innovation they're at serious risk of falling behind. I purposely purchased my
Xoom so that the 14-day return window include the March 2nd iPad2
announcement, so I'm definitely not staying with the Xoom if Apple pulls a
rabbit out of their hat.

~~~
mikeklaas
The only iPad price point that matter is the $499 wifi version. Seriously.

The rest are there to capture some price discrimination value, and that's all.

~~~
protomyth
That's the key. A XOOM is $800 and an iPad is $500. It is the old Dell versus
Apple thing. The cheapest price unit sticks.

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HaloZero
The title is misleading. He doesn't mean competition like "there are no other
tablets out that can compete against ipad", he means competition in the sense
that he believes that nobody is doing anything innovative in tablets except
for Apple. Apple does something, then everyone rushes to copy it. Nobody else
is doing anything impressive that Apple rushes and other vendors try to copy.

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51Cards
"Motorola has the Xoom, but so far the reviews haven’t been the best."

What reviews has he been reading? I have read several and most have said in
short "While there are still a few kinks to work out, this is better than the
iPad right now."

"Go where the puck is going to be"

You mean like putting 2 cameras, HD aspect ratio and resolution, dual core
processors, 4G upgrade-ability, true multi-tasking, a UI that relies on no
hardware buttons other than power and volume (orientation free), Wi-fi hot-
spotting, workstation style docks, etc. into a tablet ahead of the current
market line? Kind of like the Xoom perhaps? Yes I know iPad 2 is coming but I
don't expect it's specs to exceed that by much feature wise.

From the very first line: "Jim Dalrymple has been writing about Apple for more
than 15 years." I had a strong expectation this was going to be an "Apple's
Best' article and that's exactly what it was. I would like to give it more
weight than that as I have occasionally respected his views in the past but
this time I just can't. There are "fan-boys" in every camp and this article is
to me another example.

~~~
ThomPete
This would be a rather weird claim unless you are only looking at the hardware
specs, which obviously would be pretty stupid.

You cannot exclude things like ecosystem from the equation.

~~~
51Cards
Edit: Mea culpa on the Honeycomb mention, scratching my head on that... did a
find on Android and Honeycomb just to be sure before I hit post.

~~~
ThomPete
The big difference between Android ecosystem and Apple ecosystem is that
Android want's to make their ecosystem big so they can make money on ads.
Apple want's to make their app market great so they can make it big.

That is a rather fundamental difference and explains why the android
marketplace is one big sorry mess with no direction. I wish it would be
different but it's not.

The difference between the chaos on the internet and the Android ecosystem is
almost non-excisting.

So I think it is fair to not spend much time if any on Androids ecosystem.
What is there really to say about it other than it's big?

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nr0mx
The conclusion seems a bit forced to me. Considering how long the iPhone was
without credible competition, and how quickly the landscape changed (and is
still changing) you'd have expected a more circumspect reading of the iPad
situation.

And the article does not take into account the effects of Apple's overreaching
control of their platform, which I think has as big a punitive effect on their
platform's growth as anything their competitors do.

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code_duck
I'm rooting for competitors, but I have a hard time picturing many of them
coming near Apple's quality in either hardware or software.

Apple has a vast amount of experience in creating consumer software and
interfaces, and even with Google's help, Samsung, Motorola and HTC will have a
hard time matching that in the near future.

Motorola, for instance, I lost much trust in due to the endless stream of
problems I've had with my Droid 2 phone. Many of these problems are said to be
present in the original Droid, too (the most current issue? The camera's focus
is stuck at about 1 foot). What Motorola seems to lack is Apple's high
standards.

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ihodes
The author is absolutely correct in regards to his central thesis: Apple's
iPad has got the market cornered.

However, he builds so many little strawmen that I fear that argument will be
lost. For example, there is competition. The Xoom is competition. Apparently,
it's pretty good, too. No, it won't beat the iPad, but it's there. It's good.
We've yet to see how well it does, even.

Who knows what will be a real threat to the iPad–it probably won't be Android;
the iPad is not fungible (just like the iPhone has proven not to be). Instead,
Android devices will carve out market of their own, and continue to compete
against each other.

I wonder if it would take an entirely new OS and an entirely new company to
successfully compete. I doubt we see anything soon, but I can only hope.
Apple's making me feel more and more walled in, every day, even as I enjoy
their products.

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Tycho
All the iPad clones, while they might be half decent, fail to excite. As in
they bring nothing surprising to the table. Give us something like, I dunno,
Kinect-powered interaction, seamless 2nd-monitor functionality for
Windows/Linux, holographic projection, 3D television, built-in offline/syncing
wikipedia, free internet plan, velcro wall-mounting kit, an FM transmitter,
spectral analysis, hook it up to specs-mounted camera and let me Sky+/TiVo my
day, something game-changing, _anything_ , just not another USB port.

~~~
netcan
I think you're right. Tablets are new territory. This should allow some sort
creativity to happen. One possible approach is to ask "what apps could exist
if we added hardware x?".

~~~
Tycho
Yeah, or at least look at problems with the iPad that are non-obvious because
they seem insurmountable: too big to fit in your pocket (fold-up tablet?);
screen is poor for outdoor use (e-ink display on the back side?)... rather
than 'we do Flash.' I remember so many people saying 'that will never catch
on' or 'nobody needs that' in reference to the iPod, iPhone, iPad, because
they broke the mold. They need to put out something that makes _iPad_ owners
sit up and think 'actually, that's pretty cool' or 'what?... that will never
work!'

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extension
Apple is not in the tablet market or the phone market. They are in the
clairvoyance market. If you're reacting to the present instead of predicting
the future, you're obviously not in the same market.

~~~
rythie
Surely any technology company is trying to predict the future and create
products that people want. The iPad was, what, 5 years after Microsoft's
tablets, the difference is that Apple can execute well.

Most the of the other vendors, Motorola included, don't control their OS.

~~~
cletus
Actually if the iPod, iPhone and iPad stories have taught us anything it's
that Apple is visionary (whether or not you, personally, agree with that
vision or not is immaterial; the market has generally decided in their
favour).

Everyone else is just copying last year's Apple product with a shotgun
approach with no idea of why they're in the market (other than Apple is in
it), what their vision for their product and company is or what consumers
actually want.

There are also countless examples to prove that just because you take a
working formula and add stuff to it, it isn't _by definition_ any better. In
fact, it can be worse.

~~~
danenania
Maybe you're right, but you completely ignored his point that the IPad isn't
really the first product of its kind.

~~~
cletus
And the iPhone wasn't the first phone or even the first smartphone.

And the iPod wasn't the first MP3 player.

His point about being first is misguided. It's more accurate to say Apple was
the first to do each of these things _right_. The competition are simply
mimicking what Apple already did right and, in doing so, chasing last year's
model.

~~~
danenania
Maybe you should reread the post. You've actually just restated his supposedly
"misguided" point that Apple succeeds due to its excellent execution of
existing product concepts, not by inventing those concepts.

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Tichy
The iPad doesn't have a camera for video chat. I think some competitors
already do.

I suppose the iPad will have the bloody camera, but it is not yet available.

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shaggy
WebOS and the TouchPad will absolutely complete well with the iPad on both the
hardware and software levels. I'd be very surprised if the iPad2 was released
with better hardware than what is in the TouchPad. WebOS is the best mobile
operating system out there and it's such a shame that it wasn't handled better
until this point. It has had features in it for years that all other mobile
OSes are still trying to catch up to. Hopefully HP will do a great job
marketing everything because that's the real key to competing with Apple.

~~~
jmelloy
And with the iPad selling 15 million copies, and the iPad 2 coming out
Tuesday, they need to get the damn thing out the door and into the hands of
customers.

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jimfl
"Apple didn't invent the tablet..."

Completely disagree. All previous attempts have been nothing more than laptops
with the keyboard torn off, and a stylus sensitive screen.

You can actually watch Apple invent the tablet right before our eyes with the
iPod touch, iPhone, unibody MacBooks, and glossy displays.

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shareme
I am reminded of a story..

One upon a time someone had the bright idea to close the first Mac in that no
one could open it up and customize...

PCs came in at a lower price and less features and in 2 years time Apple was
losing..

So which vendor infrastructure is now acting as wintel?

Every OEM/Mobile Operator combination that did not get an iPad deal is gunning
to beat Apple..no one tablet has to out compete iPad..the sheer number of
choices and volume of those choices will..

