Apple's revenues are now zooming higher than the entire music and movie industries combined. Apple makes tons of money by selling more hardware partially because of all the content that is readily available for their hardware (media, plus software and apps).
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Amazon Set to Unveil $199 'Kindle Fire' Tablet
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Apple's revenues are now zooming higher than the entire music and movie industries combined. Apple makes tons of money by selling more hardware partially because of all the content that is readily available for their hardware (media, plus software and apps).
Right now the Kindle fire is way too market specific, to stop growth for the iPad. I would not say not massive overlap but, rather considerable overlap. Limited apps, limited hardware, sales are still limited to the United States. It could and more then likely change in the future but that remains to be seen.
Where have you guys been for the last year and a half?...lol The iPad has over 75% of the tablet market ( Closer to 83% now ).
Of course everything is subject to change, but I'm only going by things as they are right now.
In a situation where you could possibly control two co-related assets there is always an active choice involved. Here, in short, the choice between skewing price towards content or the content-player so to speak. That said, the encompassing environment is - of course - always a factor, but even still there are different routes to take. Here too, we can look at the gaming console business as an example of subsidizing the player to cash in on content.
I disagree. But like stated, its not like they had much choice. The genie was already out of the bottle so to speak, and if Apple didnt make the move, someone else would. As such, i also disagree with your second point. Granted, ipad has created a buzz around tablets in the consumer market, but if Apple hadnt gone first, someone else would've (in fact, others did, albeit not as successfully).
"Theres no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance." (Steve Ballmer - 2007)
There is no way apple will dominate the tablet industry like the iPod industry. why? Every major electronic company wants a slice of the market. There is going to be so much investment and competition because everyone wants a slice of the pie, much like the mobile industry.
Apple wins global smartphone crown (July 2011)
You know the problem with pulling old quotes. They will always sound ridiculous when compared to the reality several years later.
Bill Gates spoke YEARS ago how no one would need more that 256K of memory (or something like that...I'm paraphrasing)
And there are many examples of similar quotes. And I am sure Good Old Steve has made some comments as well that now see ridiculous.
The truth is - it's marketing and PR. And no one REALLY can predict the future in technology years out because there are so many factors that can play a role. Instead - CEOs beat their chest to do what they can to make their company rise above the rest.
Huh? What I meant is that, nowadays, there's not much choice as far as pricing the content, or more exactly the choice belongs to the publisher's side, not the distributor. Basing a business on content-retail is not sustainable, especially when said content is basically platform-agnostic, like books, music and video. Apps (including games) are slightly different because the retailers are also playing the role of publishers and because they're somewhat tied to a platform (at least it needs a significant amount of work to port it to another one).
Amazon would be better off trying to become a publisher rather than exploring tortuous strategies to try extending it's current digital-retail business model, or trying to out-Apple Apple (no one can do that).
Actually, the genie went out of the bottle when Apple started the iPhone (allegedly, iOS was initially developed in order to make a tablet, but S. Jobs found it safer to hold that one first and go for a smartphone).
Moreover, Apple will continue to improve the iPad. iOS is already going to be big with Assistant. But I got the feeling that it's nothing compared to what's still to come. Those devices are going to get smarter and smarter and that's precisely where the ultra dumbed-down approach of the Kindle Fire, 'subsidized' by content, is doomed.
There is, and where choice belongs between "publisher" and "distributor" is (as always) a function of power (relations). For example, if AMZN were to slash prices to half, and sell, say, 100 million of these babies (i.e. pretty much one to every household in america) the power-balance would obviously be tilted...
As for the last part, please. Apple hasnt changed the music industry. Nor the movie industry. In your terms, Apple hasnt even "Appled" themselves. Second, only the naive think that publishers hold no value besides "publishing and distribution". Granted, their role (and power) as gatekeepers can change (often to the better), but thats about it.
Yes, the iphone let the genie out. Thats exactly what i said. With the iphone out, the ipad-like tablet became a no-brainer. Had not Apple gone early, others would've beaten them to the chase.
I am sure that Apple will continue to improve it, however, so will everyone else. The problem was never that the device wasnt good enough though. Rather, it was: "too good, too expensive". Will they still have a market selling these devices? Surely - but its no where the size of the potential market that the KF can reach.
p.s. you should stop exaggerating the dumbness of the KF compared to the ipad. i suspect that the difference, especially in the average users eyes, will not be that great in the end.
Addendum:
I was too young to really experience it first hand, but this whole discussion reminds me a bit of accounts that i have read regarding the early days of palm-top computing with the newton, zoomer and the palm pilot. The latter was not as able as zoomer and newton, but the subset it did, it did really great*, and where others try to do it all, the pilot happily saw itself as a "companion", a complementary device. I guess i dont have to tell you which one succeeded where all others failed?
* hence, it can also be used for post-pc tablets vs. full blown pc-tablets too.
Investors don't like the fact that Amazon is at best break-even on the hardware and the decline in AMZN stock reflects this. Amazon might make a tiny profit on content, but nowhere enough money to matter for investors. Amazon probably made a huge mistake going this route - should have stayed less ambitious. It's fruitless to compete with Apple head-on in anything. You just annihilated like the previous 30 tablets.
yeah, im sure they would've been much happier receding the entire market to its competitors in the market. That would be way more beneficial to its core-operations.
p.s. stock is going down because it went up 40% since it bottomed out in mid august. Investors are hardly disappointed*. Stock is clearly outperforming index. Buying some might actually be a quite good choice in the semi-short terms. Massive sales figures will lead to nice speculation hype ("will this be the next apple?"), with lots of people possibly trying to get on board. Even long-term though, Amazon seems solid enough to deliver steady returns. Wouldnt want to get on that boat though, given that digitalization has yet to flip many of its key markets around just yet.
* that said, the new kindle fire did perhaps not blow their expectations away, but the market seemed to have it down quite well. Otherwise we wouldve seen bigger movements.
Yep. Just look at this forum for examples of bad predictions by everyone
Often misquoted. Gates was speaking to a class in retrospect many years after the jump from 64K to 640K, and was poking fun at how they had all thought that 640K would be enough for the next ten years, but only turned out good enough for five. It's a good lesson in not being able to predict future needs. (I remember wondering why anyone would need more than about 10MB of hard drive.)
"There are no plans to make a tablet. It turns out people want keyboards. We look at the (idea of a) tablet, and we think it is going to fail (because they only have a touchscreen).” - Jobs at All Things Digital 2003
"I’m not convinced people want to watch movies on a tiny little screen." - Jobs to Mossberg 2003
"It doesn’t matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people don’t read anymore. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people don’t read any more.” - Jobs dissing the Kindle and any book or magazine apps - Jobs to NYTimes 2008
Yep. Just look at this forum for examples of bad predictions by everyone
Often misquoted. Gates was speaking to a class in retrospect many years after the jump from 64K to 640K, and was poking fun at how they had all thought that 640K would be enough for the next ten years, but only turned out good enough for five. It's a good lesson in not being able to predict future needs. (I remember wondering why anyone would need more than about 10MB of hard drive.)
"There are no plans to make a tablet. It turns out people want keyboards. We look at the (idea of a) tablet, and we think it is going to fail (because they only have a touchscreen). - Jobs at All Things Digital 2003
"Im not convinced people want to watch movies on a tiny little screen." - Jobs to Mossberg 2003
"It doesnt matter how good or bad the product is, the fact is that people dont read anymore. Forty percent of the people in the U.S. read one book or less last year. The whole conception is flawed at the top because people dont read any more. - Jobs dissing the Kindle and any book or magazine apps - Jobs to NYTimes 2008
The difference is Jobs was able to redeem himself from those quotes. Ballmer was humiliated because he couldn't back up his trash talk. Let's face it - Ballmer is a pygmie compared to Jobs! Gates is a medieval peasant by comparison!
W7. Fastest growing OS ever. Also, what the **** do you expect CEO's to say? We're screwed, were years behind and our competitors product is awesome!
...to Ballmer et als. defense one must also remember that there was quite a lot of serendipity involved in the success of the iphone. the iphone that was first revealed and the iphone "that came to be" are entirely different beasts.
Makes me wonder, if Apple had gone with the ipad instead of the iphone... would there have been a success story to discuss at all?
p.s. how did Jobs redeem himself from his "people dont read books"-quote?
Bottom line, MSFT is mainly making profits in 2011 from products they had mad a "hit" by 1999. Windows, Office. They haven't brought an equivalent new profit engine since Ballmer took over. He's a miserable failure.
Nike is mainly making profits in 2011 from products they had made a "hit" by 1999. Tracksuits, shoes etc. I fail to see why maintaining ones dominant position equals failure, really. I dont think Ballmer is particularly visionary; he comes across as a business-kind-of-guy. But in that area, despite the Vista debacle, he seems to run a quite good show. The transition to Metro, and whether it'll be a success or a failure, will be nice to follow as well. I, for one, applaud the move, and the bravery involved in taking it. Breaking free from decade long paradigms is easier said than done. Especially so given that they're actually breaking with two, simultaneously: first, the desktop paradigm, with the metro design language; and second, the application paradigm, with their information-driven, integrated "web of apps" approach.
Both of these steps are quite huge. In a sense one can view it as the merging of two dominant platforms: the internet and the pc. Granted, Google, in a sense, paved the way for one of the streams, the same way "Internet as the platform" showed us the future with web 2.0, but still: for a dominant firm, to take said step is way easier said than done.
It's still Windows. No matter they bolt on a new UI and fix up some things to make it better it's not a visionary new product that changes the way we live our lives. Only Apple can do that.
I don't consider OSX Lion revolutionary, new or changing anything. Not everything Apple touches turns to gold. And it gets tiresome when people fail to acknowledge history - or worse - try to recreate it favorably to suit their whim
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Macintosh - revolutionary for introducing the public to GUI
OS X - revolutionary when released
iPod - revolutionary with click-wheel & iTunes
iPhone - revolutionary touchscreen phone
iPad - revolutionary tablet
over and over again, Apple has changed our lives. How has MSFT/Amazon? I can give credit to Google for introducing that verb and mainstreaming search.
hear hear...
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MSFT has done more for computing than Apple*. Thats how. As for Amazon, they were pioneers in the Web 2.0 paradigm, a shift that clearly has had a much greater impact on our daily lives than all of the products outlined above.
That said, Apple runs a great show. But there's really no need to downplay the contributions of others. Its all connected. One love!
* including, the desktop paradigm (or what you call, the GUI).
I don't understand your logic. Apple's OSX was revolutionary when released, but Windows wasn't? And Windows (now) is just updated UI but OSX gets a free pass?
A bit hypocritical, no?
No - because Apple gets credit for inventing the modern UI. So MSFT refined their a bit, but it's still the same bloated buggy crapware underneath. Remember OS X is *nix.
No your logic makes no sense.
You want to say Microsoft's newest OS is just upgraded UI. But at the same time imply that Apple's new OS isn't and then refer to the genesis of their OS as being innovative.
So are you trying to compare the first version of OSX to the latest edition of Windows?
My point is - stop being subjective and at least be objective when it comes to reality.
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Well, first "the modern UI" (aka wimp) was invented at parc. Second, W7 is hardly bloated, buggy or crapware. Looks like W8 will be even better. Windows is more complex though, for obvious reasons. Enabling support for anything and everything in your software has that side-effect. Its obviously a trade-off most of us are willing to make - and, one that has benefited the industry as such massively.
Second, metro is an invention on the same scale as the desktop paradigm. Even if we ignore the fact that Apple did not invent the latter, why wouldnt MSFT deserve praise there when you're so fast in (wrongly) praising Apple?
Your reasoning "just doesnt work".
Which investors of Amazon are you talking about? The stock has gone from 156 this time last year to 216. What decline?
Are you aware that every time Apple announces new hardware their stock goes down? And when Amazon announced their new line, stock went UP - it was only the last day or two when the whole market went down that it backed of a little
I would think investors are quite happy.
And Amazon is going to do great with their tablet - why? Because not everyone wants or can spend $500+ on a media consumption device. At $200 - even if it ONLY played media, had email and could hop on facebook/youtube via browser - the Fire has a wide demographic.
Are you just pulling would-be "facts" out of your toosh? Did you even LOOK at the chart for Amazon before posting?
How is Metro a huge change in the paradigm? Apple already trumped that interface with iOS.