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The Next Six Months

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Re: The Next Six Months

#41

Post by yannickt »

mkramlich wrote: post #28
kenjackson wrote: post #19

Microsoft AND Intel being effectively missing from the tablet race is staggering. And there are a few reasons why its staggering: 1) Both have known it was coming, maybe longer than anyone else. But got the core requirements all wrong. 2) No one really seems to care. 3) Related to (2), there is no belief that they have anything up their sleeve. 4) Their existing ecosystem, probably a billion units strong, doesn't see…

Agreed but they have so much cash they could buy a company that does tablets well then rebrand/integrate. Never underestimate what a billion dollars can do given the willpower to use it.

It won't do them any good if they don't have people in house who "get it". Look what happened with the Kin after they acquired Danger.

Edit: another thing, the top dogs in this space (Google and the staggeringly efficient Apple) have a lot of cash and are much more focused. So if they were to go all in in any market segment their money is likely to go a lot further than it would at Microsoft.

Re: The Next Six Months

#42

Post by mkramlich »

yannickt wrote: post #41
mkramlich wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed but they have so much cash they could buy a company that does tablets well then rebrand/integrate. Never underestimate what a billion dollars can do given the willpower to use it.

It won't do them any good if they don't have people in house who "get it". Look what happened with the Kin after they acquired Danger. Edit: another thing, the top dogs in this space (Google and the staggeringly efficient Apple) have a lot of cash and are much more focused. So if they were to go all in in any market segment their money is likely to go a lot further than it would at Microsoft.

true. good point!

Re: The Next Six Months

#43

Post by steveklabnik »

mkramlich wrote: post #28
kenjackson wrote: post #19

Microsoft AND Intel being effectively missing from the tablet race is staggering. And there are a few reasons why its staggering: 1) Both have known it was coming, maybe longer than anyone else. But got the core requirements all wrong. 2) No one really seems to care. 3) Related to (2), there is no belief that they have anything up their sleeve. 4) Their existing ecosystem, probably a billion units strong, doesn't see…

Agreed but they have so much cash they could buy a company that does tablets well then rebrand/integrate. Never underestimate what a billion dollars can do given the willpower to use it.

Like Google, with Android...

Re: The Next Six Months

#44

Post by rimantas »

thushan wrote: post #22

Though I think Apple is the only one that can pull it off. I'm a bit surprised that they'll be able to keep to a one year product cycle with things like the iPhone/iPad when the rest of the market is hitting a new product every couple weeks. Not that they've been one to match the rest of the market, but a lot happens in a year. Then again, maybe the biggest lesson out of the touch screen revolution is that its not th…

It should work OK for them, as long as the new release leapfrogs whatever came out during that time. I think handsets makers had pretty aggressive schedule while Apple was making iPhone. It took Apple two and a half years to get the first gen iPhone ready—eternity in mobile phone makers timeframe–but look at the result. Apple somehow can predict the future (or are they just making it?) well in Advance and prepare accordingly.

Re: The Next Six Months

#45

Post by zyb09 »

loire280 wrote: post #3
alanfalcon wrote: post #2

If Apple does have two separate iPad releases in 2011, I definitely think the first announcement will replace the current iPad and the next announcement will be a product that augments the iPad line, an HD or Pro model, as Gruber predicts. But I sincerely doubt there will be two different iPad announcements this calendar year. Ever since Gruber's initial review of the iPad, I've been intrigued by the possibility of a…

While better specs certainly never hurt, I've never heard any iPad users complain processing power or RAM. iOS does memory management seamlessly (if I didn't understand how it worked, I probably wouldn't even notice it) and the interface is notably responsive. I'm sure the new version will have a spec bump. Whatever that ends up meaning (dual core, faster, more RAM), it will continue to be plenty.

Maybe no users complain, but as a developer I often think, god damn, why is there so few RAM in there. And no iOS doesn't do memory managment seamlessy, the responsiveness comes from developers working hard to constantly cache/unchache everything that might take up a few megs.

Re: The Next Six Months

#46

Post by msbarnett »

moe wrote: post #40
rexf wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to this Engadget comparison ( http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/09/hp-touchpad-vs-ipad-vs-xo... ), competing tablets (TouchPad, Xoom, PlayBook) all have 1GB of RAM. It wouldn't be surprising for the 2nd iPad to have 1GB or more RAM.

Anyone know why they're skimping on the RAM? Does the ipad need some super-special expensive DIMMs? Is it about power consumption? A 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMM costs a measly $40 bucks. I don't think the ipad target audience would care if apple added that to the MSRP.

It's almost certainly about power consumption; Apple absolutely loves being able to tout huge battery life compared to the competition, and one way they do that i s by being tighter on things like RAM usage.

It's also worth pointing out that the RAM lives in a Package-on-Package configuration right on the CPU die. They're not exactly buying mass market SO-DIMMs and sticking them in a bog-standard bus, so the cost per MB is probably higher.

Re: The Next Six Months

#47

Post by Tichy »

naner wrote: post #20

I don't think the market for these things is huge as he suggests. Why would anyone buy a non-Apple touch or tablet device? I can see the argument for smart phones from different vendors, but not for these causal computing touch devices. And this is coming from someone who has never paid a cent to Apple. I haven't drank the kool-aid but none of these touch devices appear to really be competing with Apple. They look li…

If I have the choice, I'd definitely prefer Android tablets over iPads. By choice I mean similar price and performance.

I don't really care for apps, I only need a good browser, video and skype functionality.

I have considered the Galaxy Tab, but as reviews said the browser sucks I passed (plus, it was very expensive).

Looking forward to Honeycomb lot...

Re: The Next Six Months

#48

Post by r00fus »

thushan wrote: post #22

Though I think Apple is the only one that can pull it off. I'm a bit surprised that they'll be able to keep to a one year product cycle with things like the iPhone/iPad when the rest of the market is hitting a new product every couple weeks. Not that they've been one to match the rest of the market, but a lot happens in a year. Then again, maybe the biggest lesson out of the touch screen revolution is that its not th…

The iPhone makes complete sense. The standard 2-year phone contract keeps the (non-fanatic) customers happier... their 2 year contract would only mean skipping one product release without paying the $200 premium.

The iPad... might see faster than 1-year cycles because there is no contract, per-se (of course the competitors keep screwing that part up, so maybe not).

Re: The Next Six Months

#49

Post by wiredfool »

moe wrote: post #40
rexf wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to this Engadget comparison ( http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/09/hp-touchpad-vs-ipad-vs-xo... ), competing tablets (TouchPad, Xoom, PlayBook) all have 1GB of RAM. It wouldn't be surprising for the 2nd iPad to have 1GB or more RAM.

Anyone know why they're skimping on the RAM? Does the ipad need some super-special expensive DIMMs? Is it about power consumption? A 4GB DDR3 SO-DIMM costs a measly $40 bucks. I don't think the ipad target audience would care if apple added that to the MSRP.

The processor and the ram are stacked on the same chip. So they're kinda limited as to what they can put in there. I doubt that you could fit a SO-DIMM of any stripe inside an ipad case, nor would you want the power problems.

There was a teardown of the chip assembly done back when the ipad came out that has some good details: http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Apple-A4-Teardown/2204/1

Re: The Next Six Months

#50

Post by tzs »

thushan wrote: post #22

Though I think Apple is the only one that can pull it off. I'm a bit surprised that they'll be able to keep to a one year product cycle with things like the iPhone/iPad when the rest of the market is hitting a new product every couple weeks. Not that they've been one to match the rest of the market, but a lot happens in a year. Then again, maybe the biggest lesson out of the touch screen revolution is that its not th…

The phone market is doing a new product every couple of weeks, but how about the individual companies? Most buyers are on contract, and can't change phones more frequently than once a year with a reduced subsidy or once every two years with full subsidy.

If a phone company introduces a new phone, and then a few weeks later introduces a better phone, they've to some extent limited the market for the first one to the people who happened to hit the end of their contracts in that few weeks. Given the two year contract cycle, a phone a year makes a lot of sense (assuming your phones are good enough that it takes the competition several months to match or best them--as has been the case for Apple so far).

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