Apple Should Be in 'No Rush' on iPad 3 as RIM's PlayBook Falters

[tatonka]

With all due respect, that notion that 'competition' would be good for consumers, in this specific context of iPad / tablets is laughable. iPad launched at a time when there was nothing like it, and the first iteration was already something extremely robust.
Everything 'tablet' that came after March 2010 has been *failed* attempts to catch up. Including that hypothetical Windows 8 ARM tablet you're placing your hopes on (actually, a Motorola/Google Honeycomb product would be a safer bet, for that matter... but I don't hold my breath about that either).

The iPad was a relatively great and stable product right out of the gate, because iOS had been worked on for several years. The iOS 1 was lacking a lot of things and the competitive pressure from Android Android was a huge factor in getting to where we are now in iOS.
There is no large competition right now, but there will be substantial competition in the future and Apple will need to stay up on there toes to stay ahead of the pack.

Competition is great for us as consumers!

T.

 

[Bodygard]

Nothing new here. Steve said "2011 is the year of the iPad 2". Move along...

 

[darkplanets]

I should become a research analyst... I mean damn, you get paid to state the overtly obvious as if it's some new or gospel truth unillustrated to the masses. If that gets too boring on rare occasions you call up potential component suppliers and ask about business, and then make educated guesses off of that, even if they're only thought to be related to Apple.

Oh, and tdar, at Apple it is all about the money. It's a company, by very definition is has to be. If it wasn't about the money, Apple wouldn't be having such high profit margins, they would please consumers more by offering a mid-tower and expandable/replaceable components, etc... the list goes on. At the end of the day every company has one goal: that's money-- the only thing that differs is the method. Apple takes the make something that consumers will want approach whereas others take the make what the consumers want now approach-- in the end its all for the same goal.

 

[flight]

With all due respect, that notion that 'competition' would be good for consumers, in this specific context of iPad / tablets is laughable. iPad launched at a time when there was nothing like it, and the first iteration was already something extremely robust.
Everything 'tablet' that came after March 2010 has been *failed* attempts to catch up. Including that hypothetical Windows 8 ARM tablet you're placing your hopes on (actually, a Motorola/Google Honeycomb product would be a safer bet, for that matter... but I don't hold my breath about that either).

Yes, there was nothing like it. But it did have competition, which it is doing a superb job at wiping out: Netbooks. The first iteration had to be great. I know Apple loves to introduce exciting technology, but they're still a company and market strategy plays a major role in their decision making.

 

[pewra]

The iOS 1 was lacking a lot of things and the competitive pressure from Android Android was a huge factor in getting to where we are now in iOS.

iPhone OS 1 had no competition, neither did iPhone OS 2.

In my opinion, still no competition.

 

[Sean4000]

BMM BMM BMM Another one bites the dust!

 

[Amazing Iceman]

Are they behind Windows 8?

The Windows 8 Tablet is going to be the best when it comes out!

None of its competitors will be able to surpass its success; It will definitely be the killer of the Digital Photo Frame. A big step forward in technology.
The home screen will show you a nice photo collage of your most useful apps, just make sure not to add too many.

 

[Hastings101]

The Bible?

Yes, kind of like the Bible, because people also get bored with the Playbook a few minutes after they pick it up.

 

[MacinDoc]

I made no claims to the contrary. But Apple sure isn't so darn sure they're dominating because then there would be no need for lawsuits.

Just crush them in the market.

I suspect that any success Samsung is having in this arena is largely because its products look like iPads. Consumer goes into Best Buy, sees product that looks like iPad, salesperson has been told to try to move non-Apple tablets because the Apple ones sell themselves and have only now had supply catch up to demand, so salesperson is sure to tell consumer how Samsung tablet is superior to iPad. Consumer thinks, "Great, I'm getting an iPad, only better.", and buys a Samsung tablet.

But this strategy does not work with something that doesn't look like an iPad. Consumer sees RIM Playbook and says, "No, I want an iPad.", even though the Playbook is a better tablet than the Samsung, with a better OS. Why would the Samsung sell and not the RIM? Because one looks like the iPad (not just the physical form, but certain parts of the OS), and the other does not. Hence Apple's attention to Samsung.

 

[Juan007]

Apple owns the tablet market and competitors will have to accept it. iPad will dominate for 5-10 years at minimum and other tablets will be marginal players at best. It's the reward Apple gets for basically inventing the market.

If competitors want to compete with iPad, they need to come up with something innovative and new, not an iPad clone. So many companies are incapable of this. They pay thousands of dollars for research reports that say "tablet market = BIG MONEY", and decide to enter that market. Too bad there is no tablet market, only an iPad market. HP and RIMM were the first to get slaughtered, Samsung and Motorola are next.

BTW I wonder what the research reports said about the tablet market BEFORE the iPad was released... Steve Jobs sure didn't care, he created buyers out of thin air with innovation.

 

[Amazing Iceman]

The iPad was a relatively great and stable product right out of the gate, because iOS had been worked on for several years. The iOS 1 was lacking a lot of things and the competitive pressure from Android Android was a huge factor in getting to where we are now in iOS.
There is no large competition right now, but there will be substantial competition in the future and Apple will need to stay up on there toes to stay ahead of the pack.

Competition is great for us as consumers!

T.

Apple doesn't need competition to improve their products. instead of going the Android way (putting as many features as possible, even if these work mediocrely or can't be properly handle by the existing hardware), Apple has been adding features progressively, making sure these would work perfectly (well... at least good enough to make users happy). This doesn't mean that the iPad is perfect, but at least it's stable enough for me.

 

[JAT]

It had better be 2012, after getting an iPad 2 only couple of months ago I don't want to have to go and buy an iPad 3 so soon.

What model year is your car? Presumably you buy a new one every year. Since you "have to".

 

[OhHaiThere]

Actually I disagree that Apple "shouldn't be in a rush". While they don't need to panic I do think that they need to keep their foot on the accelerator. I think they learned a valuable lesson with the iphone and the ipad2. With the iphone, they jumped out to a sizable lead but Android was able to catch up (for various understandable reasons, but still a lesson to be learned there). When they released ipad2 and others were caught flat footed, having to ditch/redesign existing products in the pipeline, this gave them a huge competitive advantage.

So the bottom line, when they're weak, press harder on their throats and don't let them breath. If you're in a position where your competition is perpetually a generation behind, then you maintain a massive competitive advantage.

Exactly what I was thinking. Android tablets with Kal-El and Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) are right around the corner. Android tablet software offerings are also catching up to iPad very quickly. If Apple wants to keep their dominant position in the tablet market they need to keep pushing.

 

[KnightWRX]

I suspect that any success Samsung is having in this arena is largely because its products look like iPads. Consumer goes into Best Buy, sees product that looks like iPad, salesperson has been told to try to move non-Apple tablets because the Apple ones sell themselves and have only now had supply catch up to demand, so salesperson is sure to tell consumer how Samsung tablet is superior to iPad. Consumer thinks, "Great, I'm getting an iPad, only better.", and buys a Samsung tablet.

Oh please, you're making consumers sound like they're dumb. One of my co-workers bought a Asus Transformer tablet. He owned an iPad and an iPad 2. He knew quite well what he was buying.

 

[Juan007]

Exactly what I was thinking. Android tablets with Kal-El and Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) are right around the corner. Android tablet software offerings are also catching up to iPad very quickly. If Apple wants to keep their dominant position in the tablet market they need to keep pushing.

Apple is pushing out iPad 3, don't believe for a minute they are slowing down. Some Wall Street idiots saying "they must release iPad 3 now" or "it can wait until Spring" have zero effect on the way Apple operates. The iPad 3 release schedule was probably hammered out over a year ago.

Ice Cream Sandwich seems more like a turd sandwich to me. And a turd with a quad-core processor is just a fast turd. Bottom line, nobody can compete with iPad 2 anytime soon.

 

[vrDrew]

There is no large competition right now, but there will be substantial competition in the future and Apple will need to stay up on there toes to stay ahead of the pack..

Maybe. But so far the competition has fallen more than a little short. A year ago the tech blogs were full of people confidently predicting Apple's iPad marketshare would be swamped by the flood of "magical Android tablets." Today, Android's tablet future is uncertain, to say the least. HP has abandoned the market, and RIM is circling the drain.

So this week, Microsoft previewed Windows 8, which supposedly can run on ARM-based tablets. Great. And if it were able to run legacy Windows applications it might pose a real threat - but it doesn't. If it were available for OEMs to use today, it might pose a real threat. But its at least a year away from shipping. A year in which Apple will probably sell another 50-60 million iPads.

At this point I'm having a very hard time understanding exactly where all this fantastic "competition" is going to come from - at least in the foreseeable future.

 

[the8thark]

What competition?

Apple's only real competition is itself.
ie. To ensure each product is better then it's last so people still line up to buy them en mass.

 

[AppleScruff1]

Windows 8 for tablets? The "Metro" design, while simple, looks pretty damn slick. I love my iPad, but let's be honest, it has quite a few short comings. Looking for multiple accounts, live app icons, etc, etc. Needless, no time to rest on laurels. Get to it Apple!

The fangirls won't like this post. You should have said the iPad is perfect.

Windows 8 looks great, and beyond the Apple hype, there are still more Windows users than Apple users worldwide. This analyst is living in the Apple bubble. If there's no competition, why are Apple constraining sales of the Galaxy Tab?

Oh boy. You're not going to make friends here talking like that. I think you meant to say, Windows 8 will suck, Apple dominates the world.

I made no claims to the contrary. But Apple sure isn't so darn sure they're dominating because then there would be no need for lawsuits.

Just crush them in the market.

A most reasonable post, hence everyone voting negative. The girls here don't like reason or logic.

Windows 8 will do fine on pc's ... I am looking forward to it myself.

On a tablet ... competing against an iPad? No chance!

You hope not, but it may give the non Apple tablet manufacturers the boost they need. The world runs on Windows and the average Joe grew up with Windows.

 

[Bytor65]

It's not that we should stop giving these people credit far stating the obvious, it is that we should realize that they have no ********** idea what they are talking about (and that they get paid lots of $$ to spew this crap).

+1

Only the utterly clueless think companies look at faltering competition and think they should hold back completed products, or sit on their hands.

Only the utterly clueless believed nonsense rumors that Apple was releasing an iPad 3 in September (started by Gruber musing aloud).

Apple is all about meticulous planning. Ipad 3 would have been from the beginning with early 2012 shipping date and nothing going on with competitors would shift them from that plan. Work on iPad 3 most likely began BEFORE iPad 2 shipped. Apple has never worried about some feature the didn't have, they always rely on their own internal counsel.

 

[MacinDoc]

Oh please, you're making consumers sound like they're dumb. One of my co-workers bought a Asus Transformer tablet. He owned an iPad and an iPad 2. He knew quite well what he was buying.

That's not the point. The point is that those tablets/OSs that more closely resemble the iPad/iOS have had more success, and those (like HP and RIM) that less closely resemble Apple's products have had little or no success, even though HP and RIM's products were arguably better than Samsung's (most would agree that their OSs were superior to Android), just less like the iPad. I submit to you that this is no coincidence. People want an iPad or something that resembles it. Any success of Samsung's tablets is due to it riding on the coattails of the iPad. If they were not like the iPad, most consumers would not want them.

 

[LagunaSol]

Pfft, the iPad is dead meat as soon as this HP + Microsoft Slate thingy hits the market.

 

[*LTD*]

The also-rans can barely match the first-gen iPad, never mind the iPad 2.

But I think it's safe to assume Apple is quite on top of iPad 3 development and already has the next 5 years planned out pretty tightly.

 

[Lesser Evets]

"No rush" is the stupidest thing an analyst has said recently. YES, RUSH. Any company with an edge needs to destroy the competition and grow-grow-grow. If Apple could release a retina iPad NOW, you could be assured it will take a huge percent of the competition away. You never, ever, ever want to "take it easy" when running a competitive business of any sort.

 

[Bernard SG]

Yes, there was nothing like it. But it did have competition, which it is doing a superb job at wiping out: Netbooks. The first iteration had to be great. I know Apple loves to introduce exciting technology, but they're still a company and market strategy plays a major role in their decision making.

Well, I don't know... Your point makes sense, but on the other hand, I've been following the 'iPad story' quite closely and the most striking aspect of it is that Apple itself had no idea what it was onto, hence their permanent struggle until last quarter to have enough supply to meet the demand. I guess what I'm trying to say is that their decision making is not really influenced by what's happening on the market.
Tech pundits have been calling for Apple to release a netbook for several years and they didn't do that, although I believe they could have come up with a decent 'netmac' and make some nice profit (arguably they eventually did it with the MBA 11", but after the Netbook frenzy had been killed off by iPad, however the MBA price point has nothing to do with what we have in mind as netbooks).
Apple is much more driven by the urge to do something elegant than just something that will sell. For example, look at the TV: not really a great commercial success but a product that's fairly well design and can stand by itself economically, therefore they keep it up. iPod Touch too: arguably it's cannibalizing iPhone sales but it's a wonderful product and Apple maintains it although its sales seem to be declining.

 

[MacinDoc]

So this week, Microsoft previewed Windows 8, which supposedly can run on ARM-based tablets. Great. And if it were able to run legacy Windows applications it might pose a real threat - but it doesn't. If it were available for OEMs to use today, it might pose a real threat. But its at least a year away from shipping. A year in which Apple will probably sell another 50-60 million iPads.

Actually, at this time, Windows 8 cannot run on ARM. MS is apparently working on it, but has announced no time frame in which to expect this to happen. We don't even know if Windows 8 on ARM will ever be more than vaporware. I would suspect that in any case, it is probably even more than a year out at this time, at least for ARM.