I edited the post right after posting, iPad is not a tablet-PC.
I agree that iPad is a great everyday device but that doesn't change the fact that 'Post-PC' is a fancy marketing term used by Apple.
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Apple Tops Worldwide Mobile PC Shipments in Q2 2011 with iPad Included
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I edited the post right after posting, iPad is not a tablet-PC.
I agree that iPad is a great everyday device but that doesn't change the fact that 'Post-PC' is a fancy marketing term used by Apple.
Because these reports were created for a specific audience. NPD group supplies retail and sales info, so that execs can make understand more about their market. DisplaySearch supplies their audience with info about display supply chain.
They group tablets with notebooks to help their audience understand can make better decisions and see where the trends are.
By saying 'tablets shouldn't be grouped in notebooks because it doesn't allow me to run a Korn Shell', doesn't help their customers that much.
To Sales execs the iPod don't compete in the same way as tablets and notebooks. It's about making money.
It's only the techies who want a clear or black/white definition of the tables vs notebooks.
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How can it be a PC if it's a Post-PC device?
Because this report is a market analysis and not a semantics argument. iPads and similar devices compete within the PC market for customers. Research has shown that they have had an explicit impact on netbook sales. It's not a question of whether it meets your preferred definition of the term "PC".
The defining factor should be Mobility, not Portability.
I do agree that articles like this really skew the perception of the market, but to be quite honest if you're talking about mobile computing, you're not talking about something that has to be set down to use. Neither laptops nor netbooks qualify since the average user has to put them down on a table to use it. On the other hand, portable computing would include tablets as well as laptops/netbooks. It's a matter of definitions.
The comment that a mobile device should carry a full OS with navigable file system is also in error--at least as far as the iPad is concerned--for two reasons:
Now, whether Apple or someone else allows the common user to access that file system is another story and from what I've been seeing lately, all four platforms, iOS, Android, WebOS and WP7 are all at least nominally hiding that navigation from the average user. That said, do you really want to skew the perceptions even farther, since iOS and Android combined are blowing Windows out of the water as far as "full-featured OSes" are concerned?
I do agree that articles like this really skew the perception of the market, but to be quite honest if you're talking about mobile computing, you're not talking about something that has to be set down to use. Neither laptops nor netbooks qualify since the average user has to put them down on a table to use it. On the other hand, portable computing would include tablets as well as laptops/netbooks. It's a matter of definitions.
The comment that a mobile device should carry a full OS with navigable file system is also in error--at least as far as the iPad is concerned--for two reasons:
- Android is a tablet with a navigable file system and,
- iOS uses UNIX underpinnings which is a full OS with a navigable file system
Now, whether Apple or someone else allows the common user to access that file system is another story and from what I've been seeing lately, all four platforms, iOS, Android, WebOS and WP7 are all at least nominally hiding that navigation from the average user. That said, do you really want to skew the perceptions even farther, since iOS and Android combined are blowing Windows out of the water as far as "full-featured OSes" are concerned?
Because they are counted already. One in the MP3 market and the other in the smart phone market. There is no tablet market at this point. They counted netbooks as computers and I would augured there is a lot of things the iPad does far better. There are people replacing their computers with iPads; they are computers, they may not be as powerful as current desktop computers, but they are far more powerful then computers of 5 - 10 years ago...
Mmmm.... I don't know about that. If it is display trends we're talking about, you would want to properly divide categories. It would be one thing to lump tablets with, say, netbooks since the display size is about the same. But to lump a 10" tablet with notebooks that range from 12" to 17" doesn't make much sense with regard to market trends.
If you are a display manufacturer, you want to know how specific segments of the mobile computing devices market are doing. Especially by size of display.
Very impressive, 
! Meanwhile.....
On the tablet front, quarterly shipments of non-Apple tablets have quickly risen to 5.6 million units, although many manufacturers appear to be having difficulty translating those shipments into actual sales to customers.
That might be Understatement of the Year.
! Meanwhile.....On the tablet front, quarterly shipments of non-Apple tablets have quickly risen to 5.6 million units, although many manufacturers appear to be having difficulty translating those shipments into actual sales to customers.
That might be Understatement of the Year.
From what I've been reading, most of those other tablet brands have been reporting about 400 - 500 thousand shipped--though if the HP tablet is any indication, only a very tiny fraction of those are selling.
Cue the list of twits claiming the iPad is a useless toy. If there were no productivity & design tools, I might be inclined to agree with you. But there are, and many of them are iPad only, for good reason. The iPad is capable of being used as a computer, so it's classified as one.
You can make a list of things a PC can do that an iPad can't.
You can also make a list of things an iPad can do that a PC can't.
iPod touches and iPhones are first & foremost, mobile devices. Not a lot of us take an iPad into our pockets wherever we go.
You can make a list of things a PC can do that an iPad can't.
You can also make a list of things an iPad can do that a PC can't.
iPod touches and iPhones are first & foremost, mobile devices. Not a lot of us take an iPad into our pockets wherever we go.
There are lot of things my iPad can run and do that my old 486 can't run/do, does that mean my old computer is no longer a computer?
Apple themselves must have paid for this "survey". Since when is an iPad or any other tablet, a PC? Gimme a break.
Probably since the term "Tablet PC" was first used a decade ago. The iPad was probably the first tablet NOT to be counted for whatever reason.
Boy that was a lot of whining I just read.
The tablet is a computer. It is personal. It is a PC in the literal sense. The fact Apple has coined the term "post-PC device" to differentiate a more complex reality of "post user file system device", notwithstanding. That makes it a "term of art".
What interests me is beyond the headline numbers. What is the average price point of the Apple vs HP vs Dell vs Acer numbers? What is the average margin?
That's what I want to know. It would not surprise me if Apple had "all of the above", higher unit shipments, higher average price points, and higher margins, all at once.
No critic could look at those facts and not be in awe at the "business acumen" of Apple.
Rocketman
The tablet is a computer. It is personal. It is a PC in the literal sense. The fact Apple has coined the term "post-PC device" to differentiate a more complex reality of "post user file system device", notwithstanding. That makes it a "term of art".
What interests me is beyond the headline numbers. What is the average price point of the Apple vs HP vs Dell vs Acer numbers? What is the average margin?
That's what I want to know. It would not surprise me if Apple had "all of the above", higher unit shipments, higher average price points, and higher margins, all at once.
No critic could look at those facts and not be in awe at the "business acumen" of Apple.
Rocketman
No, just means it's an old computer. That's like saying "there are lot of things my quadcore i7 can run and do that my old 486 can't run/do"
The term "computer" can be easily extended to an iPad, but if you go further, it could also be extended to a $5 digital wristwatch.
Could you give us a few examples of something the iPad can do that no traditional Notebook or Desktop computer can't do?
I thought the iPad is a mobile device. I don't think being able to fit in pants pockets is even an issue being debated?
I'm not saying the iPad is a "useless toy" I actually think it's "almost a computer" It can be very productive and is a great device (which is why, as I mentioned before, it's been so successful) but it just needs a little bit more to be a fully independent computer.
With iOS 5 it will virtually be one, but when you buy one today and turn it on for the first time what do you see?
and where do you have your iTunes? This is my whole point, you need a PC to start using your iPad (at least until iOS 5 comes out.)
Not that any of this matters, I originally missed the point of the article, the NPD group does not separate devices like the iPad from notebooks like the MacBook Air. The iPad is not a PC, but for many people, who cares?
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That's the thought process of the simple mind. Do you think Apple is actually happy about a report like this appearing? Apple doesn't care about bragging, they care about building the best products and making the most money. You make more money when your competitors are asleep. Your competitors keep sleeping as long as they think they are ahead.
When lots of people said "the iPhone will never sell", or "the iPad will never sell", Apple heard "we are not going to build anything that competes with the iPhone" or "we are not going to build anything that competes with the iPad". Good news.
Look what Apple did to Microsoft. Microsoft won the war. And then Apple just sneaked past them, which they could do because Microsoft "knew" they had won.
I'm not a developer or a programmer, so maybe I don't really understand this, but when the iPhone first came out, weren't we told that the phone runs OS X (just optimized and reworked to be used on a touchscreen device with a much smaller screen)? Isn't iOS still based on OS X?
I want to see the results for notebooks-only, where I am guessing Apple does NOT come out on top...
When consumers can buy a $299 or $399 laptop from Dell or HP with a 15" display, and Apple's 15" offerings start at $1800 at a minimum, people are going to avoid buying an Apple notebook. When a notebook costs more than a house payment. it is a serious investment that some cannot justify the investment.
"Displaysearch said Apple shipped over 13.5 million mobile PCs in the second quarter of this year, of which 80 percent were iPads. That pushed HP into second position with Apple sales showing 136 percent year on year growth."
Of which 80 percent were iPads...
When consumers can buy a $299 or $399 laptop from Dell or HP with a 15" display, and Apple's 15" offerings start at $1800 at a minimum, people are going to avoid buying an Apple notebook. When a notebook costs more than a house payment. it is a serious investment that some cannot justify the investment.
"Displaysearch said Apple shipped over 13.5 million mobile PCs in the second quarter of this year, of which 80 percent were iPads. That pushed HP into second position with Apple sales showing 136 percent year on year growth."
Of which 80 percent were iPads...
I would hope not... Apple spent years making the MAC and OSX best PC you can buy - the idea that now it is the same as an iPad with iOS is just nonsense
I don't have a problem having endless charts that do or don't include this or that, but it sounds a little ludicrous because Apple's use of the phrase Post-PC in regards to the iPad.
I think perhaps a less silly sounding way of expressing the same data might have been 'Apple tops shipments of computing products that cost over $x per unit' - which would underline what an impressive achievement that is, rather than get everyone arguing over how silly (or not) it is to include the 'post-PC product in a list of PC shipments.
I think perhaps a less silly sounding way of expressing the same data might have been 'Apple tops shipments of computing products that cost over $x per unit' - which would underline what an impressive achievement that is, rather than get everyone arguing over how silly (or not) it is to include the 'post-PC product in a list of PC shipments.
There's enough info to discern. 13.5 combined - 10.7 iPads = 2.8 million Macs or roughly 20%.
Check the link to the report. It's all there in the first paragraph: