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Cool. Glad to be an AAPL stockholder.

Actually

- considering the burst of the hype bubble, the Euro crisis and the impeding bankrupcy of the US of A -

I'm a pretty happy camper for buying Apple stock put options, when the price was around 410$ :p
 
At it's core it is a computer it just has a different form factor than what most are accustomed to. When one says "computer" people automatically think desktop/notebook and don't even bother taking into account other non consumer computers. If the iPad came with a physical keyboard would you then classify it as a computer?
But then what makes the ipad a computer and the ipod touch not?
 
Just explaining the logic behind the analyses we're seeing. Smartphones don't have a tablet form-factor. A tablet form-factor is important for alit of reasons, mostly from a usability perspective. Size matters.

You don't necessarily have to agree with it.

If you really want to be sure, ask Canalys.

I can throw up my iphone onto as big a screen as I want via a hard wire connection or via airplay.

So is my phone now a computer by your definition?
 
It's a computer if it computes, accesses data, and is programmable enough to be readily adapted to a very diverse set of applications. It's a personal computer if it's a computer and it's personal.

iPads fit.

You know what else fits? The ECU in your car. Your DVD player. Your Apple TV. But I don't think anyone is arguing these are computers in the traditional sense, eh?

And your penultimate sentence makes no sense. What if two people use an iPad at the same time?
 
You're confusing a class (moped) with a brand (Vespa), at least in Europe, any two wheel vehicle of more than 50cc is classified as motorcycle and must have car plates.

Only 49cc are classified as mopeds and only need a urban plate.

I apologize for opening a can of worms... :D
 
I think you can lump an iPad into the computer classification when people start to purchase an iPad over a PC/Mac desktop/laptop.
To me that is the key in adding it to the classification.

Like to me I would lump smartphones into selling category of MP3 players. With Android selling "like hotcakes" that might mean Apple is not the king of MP3 players but I think many people, myself included haven't bought a new mp3 player (iPod) since buying the iPhone.

We have a desktop and a laptop (Mac and PC respectively) I knew our next portable computer was going to be a Mac as the PC Craptop sucks. But rather than buying another laptop we were considering an iPad as it does 95% of what we would want to do with a laptop.
I won my iPad in a Halloween costume contest and I can say we've picked up the laptop to use 1-2 times since and that was mainly because my wife or myself was using the iPad at the moment, not that we "needed" to use the laptop.

So, with all that said, I think you can lump tablets into computers. I think you can lump smartphones into mp3 players. I think you should also have smartphones into their own subset but they can easily be added to another as the "definition" can be used to describe both.


I think people still need one (or more) desktop(s) in a home but can use an iPad as their other household computers.
 
The very fact tablets are lumped into PC sales figures at all in a "post-PC" era, is hard evidence the "reality distortion field" worked in practice.

As well as the adoption of its terms. :)

The fact such sales have exceeded all other "CPU" sales is evidence it is real whatever the terms or the path to get there.

We have arrived.

Rocketman
 
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I can throw up my iphone onto as big a screen as I want via a hard wire connection or via airplay.

So is my phone now a computer by your definition?

It isn't my definition. Consumers and the industry are deciding the way forward.

Again, usability. Joe Average. How is Joe Average using it?

Folks are using tablets as computers - that's how they conceive of them. And they conceive of smartphones more as phones on steroids than "mini" computers.

You can slice and dice definitions until you're blue in the face. It won't matter. EVERYTHING is based on how the average market conceives of and uses these devices, regardless of their extra capabilities. That is how analyses like the one we're seeing are formulated. Trends in usage and market perception.

This requires thinking beyond the 5 feet of personal space that "I" and "me" occupy. Consider where the market is heading.
 
Instead of considering tablets as post-PC devices shouldn't we consider them the definition of a "Personal Computer". A small computer that is portable and used in the day to day life of people. The vast majority of people do not do content creation that extends beyond the existing capabilities of iOS5. What do people need from a "Personal Computer"? To heck their email, browse the web, check their bank balance, take some snapshots, Skype with friends, play simple games.

In comparison to the workstation. The truck, digger or race-car of the computing world. More expensive and used for content creation. Or terminals connected to the cloud for business tasks.


The iPad is not the post-PC device, it is the first true PC.
 
My point is desktop and laptops are a different class from each other the same way tablets are.

Not in the same way. Laptops and desktops are the same kind of computer. They run the same software, using the same peripherals. One just happens to have a screen grafted to it.

They fit in the same general segment of personal computing. One can replace the other and at the end of the day, run on the same software with the same input (cursor or text based).

So you are classification on what OS it runs?? Computers (both desktop and laptop) have have all kinds of different input paradigms over the years - so you change classification every time that changes too? In fact most desktop computers have NO built in input device - you have to add one! ;)

You missed my point by about 3 miles. The OS cited was an example only. I said software, counting all kind of software from OS level to Application level software. And while both have all kinds of input devices, they have 2 input paradigms : text entry or cursor based input.

Or should we also count POS kiosks with touch screens as PCs because they happen to run modified Windows, DOS or OS/2 versions also ?

The tablet is just another evolution of the "computer", just as laptops were.

Never said otherwise. Tablets are computers. But they are not Laptop/Desktop class devices. Just like Mainframes are computers too, but aren't laptop/destkop class devices. Same for programmable calculators and your car's engine management system or a smartphone. All computers.

Laptops were introduced as a way to bring your desktop with you. Tablets were introduced as a new way of doing computing on the go, not as a replacement for laptops or desktops, but as a supplementary device.
 
I can throw up my iphone onto as big a screen as I want via a hard wire connection or via airplay.

So is my phone now a computer by your definition?

I say it is when you replace a computer or a computer purchase with just a phone. then you can lump that into the equation.

I do say a smartphone is a mini-computer but don't think it should be classified in the computer class now as people don't say "i have a smartphone, no need to buy that other computer" but people are saying that with an iPad.
 
I think you can lump an iPad into the computer classification when people start to purchase an iPad over a PC/Mac desktop/laptop.
To me that is the key in adding it to the classification.

If people started buying bicycles over cars - should they be lumped in with automobile sales? Just asking...
 
I say it is when you replace a computer or a computer purchase with just a phone. then you can lump that into the equation.

I do say a smartphone is a mini-computer but don't think it should be classified in the computer class now as people don't say "i have a smartphone, no need to buy that other computer" but people are saying that with an iPad.

It all comes down to how average folks (the bulk of the market) are conceiving of and using these devices.
 
I'm not arguing with the comments below. I am arguing the size of the screen point YOU brought up. You said the iPhone/iPod Touch screen is too small to be considered a computer.

I just showed how they aren't any smaller when used "outside the box" so to speak. So when hooked up to a bigger screen - are they computers.

Just like the Atrix and Atrix 2. Are they phones or laptops when hooked up to their dock.

In other words - screen size doesn't dictate what is or what isn't a computer. No anymore.

It isn't my definition. Consumers and the industry are deciding the way forward.

Again, usability. Joe Average. How is Joe Average using it?

Folks are using tablets as computers - that's how they conceive of them. And they conceive of smartphones more as phones on steroids than "mini" computers.

You can slice and dice definitions until you're blue in the face. It won't matter. EVERYTHING is based on how the average market conceives of and uses these devices, regardless of their extra capabilities. That is how analyses like the one we're seeing are formulated. Trends in usage and market perception.

This requires thinking beyond the 5 feet of personal space that "I" and "me" occupy. Consider where the market is heading.
 
No. They need a bigger screen.

So Apple TV is a proper personal computer then, right?

Just explaining the logic behind the analyses we're seeing. Smartphones don't have a tablet form-factor. A tablet form-factor is important for alit of reasons, mostly from a usability perspective. Size matters.

You don't necessarily have to agree with it.

If you really want to be sure, ask Canalys.

We have 5", 7", and 10" "tablets." When does something go from being useless as a computer to being a "tablet?" I want a number.
 
I would be interested, and I am sure this has been researched, as to how many people are opting for or replacing an iPad or tablet over a desktop or laptop. I've heard enough stories where people are doing this but would be nice to see some data.

Hope it's Nesquick of the European variety chocolate milk. Tastes much better
due to the way they extract the "cacao" :)

We all know that the current ipad cannot replace a full desktop model etc. , but for many consumers tasks it's already pretty close.

Business consumers may have a dual set up. Desktop, MBP PLUS ipad

Older home Consumers, who don't crunch spread sheets , graphic intensive photoshopping and artwork, just surf and e-mail.

Younger consumers also may have a desktop model for the whole family and multiple individual ipads allow for the freedom and one doesn't have to wait until the family CPU is free to be used.

The trick is the ability to synchronize everything regardless of what computer one uses.

Funny, that the PC world after putting down Apple for its tight non open OS architecture, now copies all of it as fast as they can to catch up.

Other tablets will start eating into the ipad sales, but my guess is that consumers who switch and experience both worlds will rarely go back to PC's until the PC world offers something truly BETTER.

Just copying to provide the same isn't exactly innovative.

In this field it is especially noticeable how Microsoft is missing and falling behind, being outdone by Google, Samsung etc.

The more powerful IOS type systems get the less windows needed.

By windows 15 (Advertising slogan by consumers: It wasn't my idea, it was Apples, but I like it!) windows is either an ios or no longer needed.
 
As much as I liked my iPad, I certainly do not class it as a computer. The tablet market should be classed as something separate in my mind.

Maybe, but consider that many people are buying iPads instead of computers because well, the "computer" doesn't do any more for them than the iPad does.

Why is important to classify it as something else when it's being purchased for the exact same purpose? Why is it important to call a PC purchased that will never be used for anything more than a cash register a "computer" but not an iPad which will be used for email, web browsing, photo viewing, movie watching, game playing, etc.
 
Tablets run different software than desktop/laptops, but that's irrelevant at this point.

They are best classed together with laptops/desktops because some people who are about to buy desktops/laptops are buying tablets instead.

Hence they serve as a replacement for desktop/laptops, at least for some people.

But as of today, they are not a total replacement for everyone. As long as there are people who do purchase a laptop/desktop, and a tablet, they are never going to be 100% in the same category as them. But then again, with that kind of classification, laptops and desktops aren't in the same category either, because there are still people who need a desktop machine to do their work, and laptops are not enough.

So if we just go with replacement options, tablets are running really close to low powered laptops these days. So if low powered laptops and desktops are considered to be within the same category, I don't see why tablets shouldn't be.

About tablets being closer to the smartphone category, I think that's nonsense.

Nobody who is going to buy a smartphone drops it to buy a tablet. I haven't seen anyone using a tablet as a replacement for a phone permanently, even if it's possible to call people through Skype etc.



To summarize, based on the software a device runs is not a good way to categorize them. What the device does and which areas it serves, is. Because people don't care about the inner workings of the devices. They care about what the device does, and they decide whether to buy it or not mostly on that factor.
 
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