The IBM Z Series and the Power 7 behind Watson are hardly legacy computer systems... but most home users can't run what they want on them. So you want IBM to call them "toasters" or something?
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The IBM Z Series and the Power 7 behind Watson are hardly legacy computer systems... but most home users can't run what they want on them. So you want IBM to call them "toasters" or something?
What exactly is the difference?
Is an Ipad really anything but a big-screen Iphone without the voice cellular radio? It's less than an Iphone, in fact, since it doesn't have the voice cell radio..
We already know they are dumping netbooks, which are a "mobile PC", or at least something that was at one point considered "superior" or more "serious" than an iPad. You don't need any big headlines to see that tablets have killed netbooks.
As for people dumping full PCs (e.g., notebooks) to go iPad only, I honestly couldn't tell you, though we've heard rumblings in the news that the iPad has been eating into PC sales proper. In any case, the argument for inclusion of the iPad in regular PC sales numbers wasn't based on the iPad displacing PCs in the first place. It was (and still is) based on the line of reasoning that an iPad can do enough of what a PC can do for the average user, that its inclusion in "computer" sales numbers isn't that inappropriate.
You're asking for proof about an issue that will only crystallize in the future, possible a year or two from now. Tablets have already killed off netbooks, so what's the next victim? "Ultrabooks"?
I don't necessarily disagree.
But the lumping together is already happening. The question is whether it will spread and become the norm.
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That's apparently all it takes. Amazing, isn't it?
Certain key things I can do with comfort on an iPad, I can't do with comfort on an iPhone. I can't explain it any better than that. It's just the way it is, and doubtless a lot of people feel the same way (hence, lumping in iPads with PCs in sales figures, but not smartphones.)
It also has a much larger screen, with apps designed to take advantage of it. That alone is really the kicker.
There is a big difference between 4 inches and 10 inches.
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People are doing it everyday...
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I know of two larger firms that give you the choice PC or iPad...Several people are taking the iPad
It's certainly possible for some.
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscent...y_30_the_verdictcan_an_ipad_replace_a_pc.html
There's also a big difference between 3.5" and 4" - as many Android users would attest.
But, you admit that you can't explain why an Ipad should be counted as a PC, but an Iphone should not. Good enough for me.
Do we really need to have this thread again? If you are asking about including iPads vs smartphone in PC market share numbers, the simple answer is that iPads have been shown to have an (arguably) significant impact on the PC market outside of simply redirecting consumer dollars. Smartphones have not.
Bigger screen and apps designed to take advantage of it. That's really the kicker. Ay least a major difference that changes/improves the experience.
It's only natural to consider a tablet closer to a conventional computer than a smartphone. You can certainly continue to question it and get caught up in semantics, but it won't change the fact that the comparisons are happening, and it seems quite favourably.
Not necessarily. Including phones would probably mean opening the door to including all iOS devices.
And exactly why is an iPhone not a personal computer? It has a much faster general purpose CPU, more memory, more storage, more display pixels, faster connectivity, etc. than an IBM PC/AT or Mac Plus or C64 or hundreds of other models of popular personal computers (the C64 was possibly the best selling single personal computer model ever).
An iPhone probably now has more apps available for it than one could find for a Mac Plus as well. What did your grandpa call a Mac Plus or IBM PC/AT. Toasters?
What do you call that thing with a wire, handset and a rotary dial? A telephone. Same as your grandpa. It didn't suddenly become a frog just because you now use some new fangled iPhone/Android thing to make phone calls. It's still a phone.
And an iPhone is a computer pretending to be a phone. And vice-versa.
A calculator is a computer. Do you think calculator-selling companies should be included in the graph too? To answer your question: the line is blurry, but one thing stands clear - what we refer to as "computers" is merely a small sub-set of "computing devices".
Why not treat the iphone (or the calculator) as (personal) computers? One argument is that they (just like PDAs, or phones) are in many ways companion devices. Granted, we are seeing a shift in "computing" towards consumption complicating things further, but in the end words are words - vessels filled with meaning. Currently, the ipad is "the computing-device which is not the (personal) computer". Perhaps Jobs had a point after all, talking of post-pc devices. At least, it gives us a word to describe this thing which is not what it is.
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see above.
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Not necessarily. Including phones would probably mean opening the door to including all iOS devices.
And then, the measure would lose its value*. We delineate the world to derive meaning, without boundaries everything is no-thing.
* That said, this measure may have value too, only for others.
You don't surf the web, do e-mail and watch movies on a calculator. Let's not get into absurdities.
1) Tablets come closest to the average consumer's expectations of a traditional computer, and 2) there is also evidence that they (not smartphones) have not only killed netbooks, but in some cases *can* replace PCs, according to consumer trending.
Apparently, this is enough for the industry and reporting companies to start raising questions, including them in PC numbers, and do forecasting.
Quite frankly, I can see their point.
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Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
(Just saying... in essence i agree with your reasoning).
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Dont forget about the Padfone - now thats when things get really ****ed up.
How many people surfed the web, did e-mails and watched movies on the Apple Lisa? The Commadore 64? (I would've included the Xerox Star, if not for the "disturbing" fact that they actually did send e-mails... or well, the equivalent). Were they then not computers?
But, to get to the point, including calculators would indeed be absurd. In fact, so would perhaps including early-age personal computers (despite them, by definition, being just that - albeit in the past).
Thus, we know that the meaning of the word "computer" is situated, or historicized. This is what i tried to make clear by speaking of the conflict created by the shift in "computing" towards consumption, with the notion of what a "computer" is - which, still, leave the ipad as the computer which is not.
That said, the measure itself holds value. But it only does so in so far as the ipad is seen as the computer that is. If not, the measure loses value.
Is the ipad a computer? Of course, but that is besides the point.
p.s.
The observation that Y were able to successfully replace A with B does not imply that A is B.
There's no need to introduce other devices - clearly the Ipad is inferior to the Iphone in capabilities, and clearly both are inferior to netbooks/laptops/notebooks/desktops/workstations.
But some fans want to call Ipads "PCs" for these market share numbers, but don't want to include Android phones in the numbers.
Their agenda is not hidden....
...and what could make your argument more clear than the Padfone, being a phone "within" a pad -- Padfone! (God, that presentation is... something!)
But only you and Steve could see these things, and now he is gone. So that leaves you. Everyone else is wrong except for you, and hopefully for your sake Tim Cook inherited the sixth sense from Steve.
As much as I hate to agree with LTD, he does have a point. For your average just-computer-literate-enough mom and dad, the iPad is a more than capable replacement for a laptop.
I'll use my mom as an example here. I bought her a laptop about 3 years ago. It was an $800 dealie. Powerful. Well built. Smooth experience. And what does she do with it? She plays around on the internet, checks her email, watches movies, reads books, plays solitaire and Mahjongg. Occasionally, she'll use it to pay bills and check her various bank accounts.
There are probably a few million people out there who use their laptops for these very same reasons. They're about as far from power users as you can get. For them, even a low end laptop is overkill. An iPad, on the other hand, excels at doing all the above stated, and comes in a form factor that's considerably more comfortable to use.
For this particular demographic, the iPad is the first bold step into this Post PC world dealie everyone keeps yakking about. It's a perfect fit for their needs. Comfortable. Simple. Lets you check out the internet and play Mahjongg.
But if they included the iPhone and all Apple's iOS devices then Apple would be number one by far, so I don't get your point.