
Only Apple and Google are skating to where the puck is going - eddielee6
http://weiranzhang.com/blog/2013/2/chromebook-pixel
======
netcan
Sony, Asus, and Lenovo are a particular type of company. They make the
computers that they think consumers will buy in the next 12 months. If that's
low end netbooks, mid range ultrabooks, desktop replacements, whatever.

That's not a high margin business model. But it is a _valid_ one. It's also
the model which supplies computers to most of the population. Its the model
which has brought down the price of computers year after year.

It does't inspire cliche images of technological innovators 'building-the-
future' by "skating to where the puck will be" but they _are_ an important
part of the landscape. To me the tech map looks great right now. Better than
ever. We have real competition among OS makers. We have serious innovation in
devices. We have competition between chip makers. Competition between
commodity component manufacturers is pushing prices down.

Sony, Asus, and Lenovo are doing their part. Repackaging the innovations of
last year for the mass market at half the price. They're an important part of
the mix.

It's great that Google are trying this new stuff with ChromeOS. It's great
that Apple is out there creating new products and setting the standard in
industrial design. But we don't need all companies to be Apple.

~~~
chucknelson
This is a great comment and I agree completely. If the business model doesn't
work, things will work themselves out and companies will perish, change, or
survive in whatever way they know how.

------
cek
Shockingly short-sighted post. Apple does not make it's profits from feeds &
speeds (e.g. Retina display). It makes its profits, and delights its customers
through its vertical integration; its excellence at every point of the
customer experience from design, to supply chain management, to manufacturing,
to distribution, to marketing, to advertising, to retail, to sales, to post-
sales, to support, to software, to services.

To assert that, from a business perspective, that the "puck" that Google (or
Apple) worry about is ludicrous. These two companies do not even compete on
the same rink. Their competition is asymmetric. Apple's profits come from
'high margins at retail, paid up front'. Google's profits come from 'the
consumer is the product, the advertiser is the customer'.

It is fun to try to compare the micro-actions of these companies, but it is
not business or strategy analysis.

~~~
jsnell
Except that in this particular case:

\- Google is vertically integerated, at least to as high a degree as Apple is
with Macs

\- Google is trying to sell a physical product at high margins

\- Google is heavily rumored to be setting up its own retail presence

Honestly, you'd think that at least when we're discussing a $1300 laptop, the
lame "you're the product" cliche could be avoided.

~~~
cooldeal
>Google is trying to sell a physical product at high margins

Reference?

The Chromebook Pixel is still heavily geared towards Google's services, be it
Docs or Storage. 1TB of Google Drive storage currently runs $600/yr if you get
it by itself which comes to a $1800 subsidy for a $1300 laptop!

That either means their Drive storage is horribly overpriced, or that they're
heavily subsidizing the Pixel.

~~~
jsnell
Somebody buying 1TB of Drive space presumably intends to use it, and Google
won't make a huge margin on that. (Don't know their cost structure, and
wouldn't reveal it if I knew). But most people getting "free" Drive space with
a laptop is not going to use most it.

Additionally it's unlikely to amount to $1800 subsidy. Storage costs decrease
exponentially, so the value of 1TB in 3 years is much lower than 1TB now.

------
UnoriginalGuy
Microsoft are really holding back higher resolution displays.

I mean 125% on Windows has now essentially become a requirement to use Windows
on any monitor made in the last few years, and we're almost up to the point
where 150% is required. However the problem is that 150% seems to break MANY
Windows applications (both third and first party).

I'm really hopefully that when displays become just slightly higher resolution
we will see some third party software which can "scale" Windows up so that it
works the same as Retina displays on the Macbooks do (i.e. real resolution and
relative resolution aren't locked together).

------
casca
TL;DR: high resolution displays are the future of laptop computing. Only Apple
has a good one, Google is trying.

~~~
joefarish
You forgot to mention the price and the battery life.

------
martythemaniak
I use an old MBP that I'd like to replace soon, but there's no way I can get
the Pixel - it just doesn't do _stuff_.

I think Chrome OS needs a great virtualization solution - just how chrome
handles PDFs and Flash fairly well. I want to be able to open a "windows" tab
or an "ubuntu" tab, use them normally.

~~~
mbreese
Don't they include a Citrix/RDP client? I thought that was one of their main
features when they pitched ChromeOS to the enterprise. With that and VNC, I'm
sure it would be possible to roll your own virtualization. I think there are
just too many variables for them to deploy a generic system.

 _unless_ you want Google to host the VMs as well. That could be interesting.

~~~
deepblueocean
I've had good luck with Chrome Remote Desktop:

[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-remote-
desk...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-remote-
desktop/gbchcmhmhahfdphkhkmpfmihenigjmpp?hl=en)

It works from two instances of Chrome, which could be on any platform (not
just Chromebooks).

------
davefp
It seems like the author sees where Apple is skating, and assumes the puck
must be going there also.

~~~
speeder
I totally don't see why it is important to have absurdly high resolutions,
when sometimes what matters is something else.

For example, I want a machine that is reliable (both in software and
hardware), fast enough for my purposes and with good usability.

The only point where the Pixel scores in that is their 3:2 screen, that make
much more sense than those crazy widescreens.

------
TheAnimus
>but the old Windows desktop has never supported high DPI displays, and I
don't think it's about to.

Except it has. I've been using it like that for 7 years on my lounge TV which
is scaled to 175%. On my old Z series for 3 years which had a high PPI screen
before anyone else was pushing that way (colour rendition suffered a bit I
felt).

The problem is lots of software doesn't play well, they use dodgy code, assume
its always 96 dpi screen. Even VB devs given twips managed to mess it up with
hardcoded assumptions all over the place.

However, all the main apps I use support it, if one doesn't well you can set
that apps option indevidually.

------
hmottestad
Just a quick check on komplett.no, a leading online dealer in Norway for
computer equipment.

\- Laptops with ssds start at 6000 nok (1057 USD).

\- Laptops with IPS screen start at 6000 nok (1057 USD).

\- Small screen (11.7") laptop with IPS & full hd (189 dpi) & SSD starts at
9795 nok (1718 usd).

\- Macbook retina 13" starts at 11490 nok (2015 usd).

A year ago there were hardly any laptops with IPS screens or cheap laptops
with SSDs. A lot has changed. I still love my retina macbook pro 15".

------
kevinconroy
Some context for non-hockey fans:

"A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays
where the puck is going to be." - Wayne Gretzky

~~~
InclinedPlane
Let's continue this digression.

Fun fact I learned recently about guided missiles (I have diverse interests),
modern ones don't adjust to aim directly at the target, they adjust to keep
the target at the same relative angle (the same position on the imager). This
has the effect of leading the target and flying an intercept course instead of
a following course, which is more efficient and effective.

~~~
mpyne
Interestingly, the fun fact is something any mariner could have told a missile
designer. We call it CBDR; Constant [relative] Bearing, Decreasing Range.

Stay in CBDR for long enough and you're pretty much guaranteed a collision.

~~~
marklabedz
Dogs catching frisbees employ a similar methodology:
[http://digitalunion.osu.edu/r2/summer06/maynor/journal_artic...](http://digitalunion.osu.edu/r2/summer06/maynor/journal_articles/Dogs%20Catching%20Frisbees.pdf)

------
stevenameyer
Apple and Google are able to take risks because the companies are all but
guaranteed revenue every year. Google specifically does not really need a lot
of their hardware to succeed because of their massive revenue from search.
They are able to make risks on products that would result in more people
online if they succeed because if it works they make more money off search,
and if it fails they have a lot of revenue to fall back on. Companies like
Sony, Asus, and Lenovo (while I do maintain that they are innovating in their
own ways) can't take these risks because if they get a rep for making bad
laptops they have nothing to fall back on. Hardware is an expensive game and
it's difficult to justify taking risks in it if you have no solid revenue
stream to fall back on if it fails.

------
kayoone
The mass market for which Sony, Asus etc are producing is not really
interested in super high resolution displays. However, they all offer 1080p
displays in their top the line laptops which i find more than enough on a
Laptop.

Most people are fine with their 24inch display sporting 1920x1200 resolution
but then suddenly on a 13" notebook or even a smartphone 1080p isnt enough ?
Its ridiculous!

I have used a Macbook Retina and to me it was not much of a revelation. Yep,
the display is nice, text is super sharp and everything is crystal clear but i
didnt have the feeling that i would absolutely need this, and i would consider
myself a hardware geek and pro user.

------
snowwrestler
Hi-res is the future of laptops because the future of laptops is to become
specialty tools for content creators. Everyone else will be using phones and
tablets for mobile computing.

So I don't understand the purpose of a hi-res "cloud" laptop. The hi-res
screen is ideal for high-end photographic and video work--the two areas of
content creation that are still struggling to move to the cloud.

------
jfb
tl;dr: The low-margin OEM business is different than the high-margin
software/integrated systems business.

------
guard-of-terra
Other laptops can't use high definition displays because Windows would not
look and feel nice on them.

MS behaved as if they can ignore the display progress forever, and now it's
finally bites them and their minions in the rear, which is lovely.

------
gibbitz
Do we really need retina displays? Or are they just trying to make something
new for us to spend money on? Right now Sony ASUS and Lenovo are doing fine.
Nice headline. You got me to read the first paragraph or so.

~~~
r00fus
I'd say we don't "need" retina displays (much like we don't need unibody
laptop shells).

However, it's really nice to have them as a luxury "standard". It's been too
long that computer displays have been held back by 720p/1080p inertia.

------
DrinkWater
tl;dr: this article wastes your time

------
Gotttzsche
can't one just install a different OS? or is the chromebook pixel using some
weird hardware?

~~~
grapjas
Chromebook used to be locked down iirc. Anyway it isn't anymore, so yes you
can install *nix or whatever on it.

~~~
Sephr
Chromebooks never used to be locked down.

------
recoiledsnake
>Sony, Asus, and Lenovo all have notebooks at similar prices, but none have a
high density display and none have only solid state storage.

Huh what? A lot of ultrabooks have only SSDs, has the author been in coma for
the last year?

Sony has a Vaio Duo 11" with a 1080p display. Lenovo and Asus also have or are
about to have high density displays.

All in all, an empty uninsightful fluff piece.

Also, please get some contrast and test how your blog looks on the machines
that aren't (retina) Macs.

<http://contrastrebellion.com/>

~~~
ShaunK
I just purchased an Asus UX51VZ with 2x128gb SSDs and a 15" 1080p display that
weighs less than a Macbook Pro Retina, for $400 less than the Macbook would've
cost. The Retina has a couple of big wins over the UX51VZ (battery life and
higher resolution display) but I wouldn't put them in different classes, or
claim that Asus isn't even trying.

------
OGinparadise
How did this end with so many votes? It has nothing to do with the puck, but
with money. Pay up and they'll add a 42 inch screen to your Windows 8 laptop,
battery hour 36 seconds :). They are many tradeoffs, that's all.

~~~
Zirro
First, this is about resolution and not the size of the screen. Second, Apple
has managed to give Retina Macbook Pro a 7-hour battery life despite it's
screen. Third, the article states that "Sony, Asus, and Lenovo all have
notebooks at similar prices".

