MacDailyNews Take: If you want to buy a consumer-friendly tablet computer today, why the hell wouldn’t you want to purchase Apple’s iPad? What, did you hit your head or something?
Sutter continues, “The iPad currently has no real competitors, and the touch-screen computer is so far ahead of the market that it has some gadget makers running back to the drawing boards, according to technology industry analysts. ‘In essence, what Apple has done is created a wake-up call to the rest of the industry — that they need to look at what they’re offering,’ said David Daoud, research director for the firm IDC. ‘They raised the bar significantly.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Apple. The alarm clock of the clueless.
Sutter continues, “Tech analysts still expect as many as two dozen different tablet computers to go on sale before the end of the year. But they say it’s questionable whether any of the devices will be able to replicate the iPad experience, which includes not only hardware but also a phone-like operating system, a touch-screen interface and a robust app store.”
MacDailyNews Take: “A phone-like operating system.” Yet another paradigm defined for the world by Apple. (Yes, despite its now-outmoded name, Apple’s iPhone OS (OS X) is much more than a “phone-like” OS. It really does need a new name, Apple.)
Sutter continues, “Meanwhile, it appears that some of the most-talked-about iPad competitors may be getting retooled to better compete with Apple’s high-profile gadget. The HP Slate and the Microsoft Courier — two prototypes of iPad-like devices — were both expected to go on sale later this year.”
MacDailyNews Take: Exactly who expected that and do they have any cash? We ask because we’ve just taken ownership of a very nice bridge in Brooklyn and…
Sutter continues, “Apple’s success is ‘causing a lot of tablet entrants to rethink what they’re bringing to market and how it’s being used by consumers,’ said Van Baker, an analyst at Gartner Inc.”
MacDailyNews Take: What else is new? Steve Jobs defined the personal computer (three times so far, maybe four: Apple II, Mac, Mac OS X, and perhaps iPad) — the portable media player and online media store (iPod and iTunes), the so-called “smartphone” (iPhone), the Multi-Touch™ user interface (iPhone, iPod touch, iPad), and the tablet (iPad).
Sutter continues, “Baker’s company predicted that, of the 10.5 million tablet computers he expects to be sold this year, the majority will be from Apple. On Monday, Apple announced it had sold 1 million iPads in the 28 days since the gadget went on sale.”
MacDailyNews Take: Another analyst who’s forgotten to factor in Christmas and Apple’s imminent international iPad rollout.
Sutter continues, “Other tablet makers will have to get in the game soon to have any chance of competing with the Cupertino, California, company, which also makes the popular iPhone and iPod, said Ashok Kumar, senior technology analyst at the investment group Rodman & Renshaw. ‘You need to have a product on the shelf by fall to make the holiday deadline,’ he said. ‘If you miss that window of opportunity, you essentially give Apple an insurmountable lead.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Surely Eric T. Mole can have his boys, along with HTC or some other collection of too many cooks, shit something out by Christmas for the morbidly befuddled market, right? Barring patent infringement injunctions, of course.
Sutter continues, “Leslie Fiering, a researcher at Gartner, said as many as two dozen consumer-friendly tablet computers — also sometimes called slate computers — will debut by the end of the year. It’s unclear who the main competitors will be, she said, but it may take more than a year for other companies to create a product “ecosystem” that is as useful as Apple’s.”
MacDailyNews Take: Yeah, it’ll probably take more than a “year.” (Hoots of laughter ring throughout the cavernous hall of the palatial MacDailyNews HQ.)
Sutter continues, “Daoud, from IDC, said he doesn’t expect any iPad alternatives this year, in part because the iPad has been so successful. He expects Apple to come out with a new version of the iPad before another tech company takes its first swipe at the idea.”
MacDailyNews Take: Sing it, Roy!
Sutter continues, “It’s unclear exactly what the leading rivals to the iPad will look like, and who will make them, the analysts said. But one thing is clear: They will have some catching up to do.”
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “silverwarloc” for the heads up.]
Awesome…I made the “heads up” list. Thanks, MDN.
“Tech analysts still expect as many as two dozen different tablet computers to go on sale before the end of the year.”
Two Dozen?!?! Do they have any clue where they’re going to find 24 tablet manufacturers? I don’t think I can name that many vaporware manufacturers, let alone hardware manufacturers.
Dell
HP
Lenovo
HTC
Microsoft
Samsung
LG
um…
Toshiba
Google
Motorola
Nokia?
Sony
Psystar…
Linux (yeah, I’m really stretching now)
Cisco
Sun
Where the heck are they getting two dozen from?
Have you seen where M$ and HP have already junked their tablet mock-ups, eh?
Catching up indeed… I would suggest the lead is already insurmountable for at least 5 years. iTunes is how old? And is only recently mature enough to handle the load of making all things multimedia and print available to all.
What’s even more amazing is the fact that the integration of the technology that goes into the iPhone,iTouch, and now Ipad is not revolutionary. No one will be able to match Apple’s computer interface. The iPhone has no match after how many years!
Gotta love the anti-Apple whining in the comments section of this article on CNN! The anti-Apple crowd are simply miserable!
Apple, Inc. = Leadership + Innovation + Think Better + Built wayBetter
The rest are looking from behind the 8 ball or getting crushed.
Apple 1% increment on market share is fine.
Imagine that, a company raised on the principles of doing work for the passion of it, of making your work your art, is kicking the living shit out of companies that are raised in Harvard business school, etc. What’s their strategy? How do we make the most money from the givin circumstances. And they are good at it. The USA is getting shit on at this very moment. But I digress. I just think it’s hilariously beautiful that a crazy lsd tripping liberal Steve Jobs is kicking the SHIT out of those guys.
I ABSOULUTLY LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!
Never in my WILDEST dreams did I think Apple was going to stick it to the competition this badly.
It’s the Greatest Story Ever Told.
Keep up the Grateful work boys and girls the best has yet to come.
Peace.
HMCIV – number of different tablets, not necessarily different manufacturers.
Why are these competitors only now running back to the drawing boards? The iPhone OS has been around for three years.
Speaking of misnomers, iTunes urgently needs a name change to iMedia.
The way I see it, Apple will have a lock on the tablet market for quite a while. Even though the competition has had years to copy the iPod Touch, none did. Now that the iPad is out, we hear that both HP & M$ have killed their current tablets due to the obvious inferiority of their product.
Whomever may come out with an Android tablet, it won’t have the elegance of an iPad because the PC crowd hasn’t figured out that this is a new market for consumer appliances, not a netbook replacement. They will make it thick, heavy and clunky as they don’t get the fact the iPad is a Kindle killer, not a laptop replacement.
Like the iPhone, this product is a game changer and it will take a year or two for the competition to catch up. While they may add extra features with the benefit of being able to build on the iPad model, by that point iPad v2 or v3 will be out and Apple will still own the market.
Bottom line: There’s no better time to buy an iPad as the prices won’t be coming down anytime soon as there is no competition and the demand will only get stronger. The new iPod Touches may give some insight as to what v2 may look like, but Apple probably won’t put all the iPhone/Touch features on the iPad for at least 2 years in order to differentiate.
I think HP Slate + Palm Web OS would be a good combination.
A third leg “à la” iTunes would still miss to the equation though.
@ HMCIV
You forgot:
Tinker toys
Mattel
Fisher-Price
HMCIV,
Dell will bring out two dozen.
13 of which will be crap.
It’s entertaining to watch all the “gadget makers running back to the drawing boards” coming out with their me too products. The humorous part is that they don’t get the fact they do not have a salad bar, i.e. iTunes/App Store and cohesiveness with iPhone/iPod. They’ve got a little lettuce and maybe some beets but they’re missing the rest of the ingredients.
It’s not just the device’s specifications and capabilities–get a clue.
MW: consider, as in it’s time for them to REconsider their approach.
The thing is, Apple planned iTunes to be the software delivery system for all of their consumer hardware products *years* ago, before the first iPod was ever released. Apple has (at least) a 20 year product roadmap and will keep zigging & zagging to the point that no other CE company will be able to keep up.
This is why every other CE company in existence gets blindsided by Apple: they keep looking at where Apple is (at the moment) and try to release a ‘me-too’ product (which takes years for them to ‘perfect’) so they don’t get left behind. Meanwhile, Apple is moving on to something else while simultaneously continuing to improve their existing product line.
Ever since 1976, Apple has made its own hardware & software. When SJ got booted out of Apple, he later started NeXT, for which Apple paid US$400 million for them (unbeknownst to Amelio) to come in and take over.
No other company in the world is as adept at making useful, consumer-friendly software as Apple. This is their ‘secret sauce’: vertical integration of *excellent* (aka: ‘best in class’) software & hardware. Steve Jobs absolutely refuses to have it any other way. Period.
My point is that it’s already over for the other CE companies. They will never be able to get ahead of Apple because they don’t know where Apple’s going… and Apple will never tell.
Sing it, Roy!
Only works in America? Pity.
At first I thought you had written:
Dell will bring out one dozen.
13 of which will be crap.
lol
G Spank, I agree. I will go with the 2 guys in a garage over a “Harvard business school” graduate any day. You think Steve Jobs could stop by Washington DC some day and fix that mess too?
@ Mac+
“I think HP Slate + Palm Web OS would be a good combination.
A third leg “à la” iTunes would still miss to the equation though.”
HP+Palm a good combination??? in 2001 maybe, but now? For what? Fertilizer? Landfill?
You ARE right about the third leg – iTunes – missing, but unfortunately, so are legs one and two.
This is not really analysis at all. Of course, every ox assembler is scared of Apple and the iPad. Objectively, Apple has made everyone wake up and see that mobile computing is the future. And, a new market for smart phones and tablet computers is an area where companies can make huge profits. Everyone wants a taste. And well they should–competition is the only way for technological innovation to occur.
But. Apple so far is the only company to focus on user experience as the way to drive their products. Consistently, most other hardware makers focus on basics and go for the low-hanging fruit.
I do expect more competition–first at the low level, and then higher. It’s all good (says the man with no iPad).
“Will anyone be able to compete with Apple’s revolutionary iPad?”
Yes. The Panasonic 2.45 GHz can kick its ass…..
Copycat Android will make a feeble attempt, it it survives Apple’s lawsuits.
@HMCIV
Not two dozen manufacturers, two dozen models.
Aren’t we all just looking forward to the Home Edition, the Student Edition, the Home & Student Edition, the Office Edition, the Office Professional Edition, the DroidPad. . . you get the picture.