

Questions for iPad skeptics - sown
http://the.sockdolager.net/post/358452430/questions

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waterlesscloud
Point one is misinformed. Netbooks had a great year in 2009, with 2010
expected to be even better.

<http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10421063-1.html>

Just how many ipads does Apples expect to sell?

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Lazlo_Nibble
I think it's a defensible characterization. There were more iPhone-OS devices
sold last year than Netbooks -- possibly a lot more, though it's hard to say
for sure as Apple doesn't break out iPod Touch sales from iPods as a whole.

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joezydeco
I question point 3 as well. Android was underway long before iPhone was
announced. While you can say future Android development might have been
influenced by iPhone, the project was started with zero knowledge of Apple's
plan.

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fragmede
At its core, the iPad is a web browsing box. Viability of that form factor has
never been a question to me. It was so much not a question to TechCrunch's Mr.
Arrington, that he devoted significant resources to making "a Macbook Air-thin
touch screen machine that runs Firefox" [1].

Ignore the walled garden closed ecosystem problem, though it sucks a great
deal. The question on the viability of the product, to all, but to skeptics
especially, is "can /you/ surf the web without flash?" And I'm not talking
about Hulu, which I bet there'll be an app for, soon enough; I'm not talking
about youtube, as I assume the iPad will have the same level of compatibility
as the iPhone. I'm talking about everything else. The sprinkling of flash on
many sites, with no 'alt' text, that say see the pretty animation here, and
sans-flash just has an empty box with no explanation. The non-youtube video
sites, the 'designer' flash-only sites with no alternative for navigation.

[1] [http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/21/we-want-a-dead-
simple-w...](http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/21/we-want-a-dead-simple-web-
tablet-help-us-build-it/)

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csmeder
"Can Apple’s success with its walled-garden environment be characterized and
justified in free-market capitalist terms? I.e., do you believe that Apple’s
policy of encouraging consumers to forego certain freedoms in exchange for
greater utility, and consumers’ decision to accept that tradeoff is an ethical
one, in that ethical framework?"

Exactly! iPad will not kill openess it will inspire open platforms to be
better.

