I still don't get why people keep thinking that tablet can't replace desktops/laptops. I kept hearing the screens are too small, no real input devices, and no file systems, etc. What if a few years down the road there are devices that like laptops that you can buy with 12, 15, 17 or even dual screens? How about folded screens? Or screens that can interconnect with each others? Why do you all think keyboard is the best input system? The keys are designed the way they are to slow us down so that it doesn't jam when type on the typewriters. Who needs file system when everything is stored on the cloud? And who said mobile processors can't be powerful enough to do real work? How about the upcoming quad core ARM processors? I agree that the existing tablets are probably best as content consumers but I can totally see things change in the next 3-5 years. I have seen many kids who can type very fast on virtual keyboard. And not for long, they will be able to do even more without what we so call desktops/laptops.
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Apple Executives Optimistic About Future of iOS, Expect Tablet Market to Surpass PCs
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We're getting there . . .
http://www.neowin.net/news/rumor-next-ipad-to-get-quad-core-processor#comments
http://www.neowin.net/news/rumor-next-ipad-to-get-quad-core-processor#comments
Another ridiculous, over-hyped, over-blown article. The hyperbole machine is on overdrive! The PC will never die, no matter what grandma needs!
I'm quite sure that, at various times in the past, people said similar things about typewriters, steam trains, sailing vessels, and telegraphs.
Today's desktop and laptop PCs are the technological descendents of machines that were designed to be used in business offices or science labs. And as long as business offices and science labs continue to exist - there will be PCs.
But the fact that of the matter is that billions of people spend a lot of time doing things that have NOTHING to do with the sort of tasks you do in an office or a lab. Even businesspeople and scientists spend a lot of time doing things that don't really require a PC.
In many respects the Tablet is a far, far better format for people to do many of the "post-PC" tasks they want to do. Its lighter, easier to use. Its battery life is far superior - making it quieter, easier to move around with. It doesn't have a keyboard to get dirty and clogged. It starts instantly. It doesn't require antivirus, and the sort of time-consuming and technical maintenance the PC does. It "just works."
I read an awful lot of dismissive and condescending comments about the iPad, and the people who use them. Such comments don't impress me very much. Because, at the end of the day, the sort of people who make them haven't really thought very hard about how the REST of the world works.
Read again. The word wasn't replace, it was surpass.
Just like nothing has really replaced mainframes and full-sized PC towers. It's just that fewer and fewer companies and people are buying the big old stuff compared to new cheap smaller stuff. Now a lot more PCs are sold than mainframe computers, and a more laptops are sold than full-sized tower PCs. Soon, a lot more tablets will be sold than laptops, and smartphones may already have surpassed laptops in unit sales. Fewer and fewer people will use a laptop when they have a smartphone or tablet to do many of the most common personal computing tasks.
The percentage of the world population that uses photoshop or avid (et.al.), and thus needs a computer that can run that software, is, to the nearest single digit, 0%. But even at only microscopically above 0%, mainframe computing never died. But when was the last time you saw one running in person? The same may happen to PCs.
That's just laughable. No tablet will ever come close to matching the performance and capability of a full desktop PC. As soon as you start to need superior graphics, dual- wide-screens, massive external storage, you realize that tablets are nice accessory to the real thing.
It's great Apple execs are optimistic about the future. Perhaps tablets will surpass the number of PCs in the same future. Though there are more bicycles than cars in the world.
Meaning, it's not necessarily a statistic that has any profound meaning. I find the optimism of futurists very nice - it's just when they start do demand that they know the future.. that's when they become annoying.
Meaning, it's not necessarily a statistic that has any profound meaning. I find the optimism of futurists very nice - it's just when they start do demand that they know the future.. that's when they become annoying.
Nope.
That's a common myth, and has the engineering reason exactly backwards.
In fact, the fellow who designed QWERTY did so in order to be as FAST as possible using that particular mechanism.
It was the reason why people bought his typewriters instead of others, and thus why his design became the most popular.
An amd gaming rig sits in my apartment. Why would I give up the best graphics for a limited input handheld with 1/4 of the screen size? Why would and music editor runing an entire music recording studio switch to something that has limited ports. I believe that tablets will make great strides but in the long run desktops will still be around. People will always need them for tasks that require a lot of processing power or multiple ports.
Hopefully they don't and another company rises to the top, making Apple a dinosaur in the modern world. Steve's stubbornness will ruin the company once again.
"Content creation" is a bit of a buzz phrase that says little about how people use various devices. I know folks with powerful desktops who do nothing but play games on them, while their grandmothers run businesses with less powerful laptops running older versions of operating systems. On the other hand, we have examples of airlines using iPads to replace pounds of maps and other material.
And don't forget about ebook readers, relatively simple devices that have already significantly changed reading habits.
The iPad has succeeded in part because Apple didn't just try to replicate a PC in a tablet format, something that many competitors, and even some users, don't understand. Tablets don't have to be PCs, nor do tablets, smartphones and PCs need to have exactly the same functions and components.
They don't need to. You are looking at it wrong. The idea is that until today most people were buying laptops and desktops, because there weren't other options available. Most of the population doesn't need superior graphics, dual- wide-screens, massive external storage, etc.
Who said you should give it up? How did you come to that conclusion after this article??
Steve's stubbornness never ruined the company, check your history.
No filesystem? Really...?
To the people who say you don't need a filesystem... Or "who needs a filesystem when you have the cloud"... What are you all smoking??? And can I have some?
Not having a true filesystem is still one of the biggest limitations of the iPad. True, for some apps you can get by... But ultimately it's a hassle.
Right now the biggest limitations on iPads is software based. The hardware is fine, and it will keep evolving. But until the iPad software becomes un-castrated (real file system, ability to sync with more than one computer, etc.) it will never become a mainstream replacement to a laptop. A supplement, sure, but not a replacement. But, the increased competition from non apple manufacturers will hopefully push apple into being more forward thinking with iOS and the iPad... And don't get me wrong, I want to see the iPad succeed, and I want to see the iPad make the full use of it's potential, and not be held back by arbitrary software impediments...
To the people who say you don't need a filesystem... Or "who needs a filesystem when you have the cloud"... What are you all smoking??? And can I have some?
Not having a true filesystem is still one of the biggest limitations of the iPad. True, for some apps you can get by... But ultimately it's a hassle.
Right now the biggest limitations on iPads is software based. The hardware is fine, and it will keep evolving. But until the iPad software becomes un-castrated (real file system, ability to sync with more than one computer, etc.) it will never become a mainstream replacement to a laptop. A supplement, sure, but not a replacement. But, the increased competition from non apple manufacturers will hopefully push apple into being more forward thinking with iOS and the iPad... And don't get me wrong, I want to see the iPad succeed, and I want to see the iPad make the full use of it's potential, and not be held back by arbitrary software impediments...
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You have a good point about the lack of a file system on the iPad, and yet the availability of services like Dropbox seems not only obvious but in some ways a superior option. The idea of physically syncing an iPad to another computer to move files around seems primitive. Even having to sync to iTunes seems like something we should be moving away from.
But I also hope that the competition from non Apple companies lead to innovations that exploit the possibilities of tablets, rather than simpler try to turn tablets into little more than another flavor of laptop.
At the risk of bringing up the whole car/truck analogy (whoops!), I bet 90% of the people using computers don't need 50% of the power in their machines. If we accept that as prima facie, and taking into consideration the almost breakneck speed tablets are gaining power and abilities, is it unrealistic to expect that, in the next few years, most people will have docked tablets connected to a larger, external monitor when at their desk?
And no desktop PC comes close to matching the performance and capability of a current IBM Z-series mainframe.
But almost no one buys them anymore. For most people they are way too big and power hungry. Same thing will happen to full-sized desktop PCs.
And tablets have already passed full desktop PCs in performance... if you use a high-end desktop PC you got just a few years back.