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Bill Gates on iPad: "It's a Nice Reader, But..."

As an outside salesman, I am thrilled that I will be able to have all my catalogs in PDF form with me with a client without having to break out the laptop.

I look forward to having a nice folio with my trusty pad of paper and iPad as the only thing I have to carry on calls.
 
ericinboston said:
That's 1 reason, out of many, why Windows is still the most used.

I'm not jumping up and down saying Windows is the best thing on the planet...I'm saying it has the most marketshare and has had it for decades. Even with great licensing deals, if Windows stunk, people would move on...and vendors like Dell and HP would have to make decisions if people stopped buying Windows-based computers.

Apple's OS/Mac has gained some marketshare in the past 2+ years (part of that reason is the opportunity for people who didn't want Vista to try Apple...but I'm not going to claim that was 100% of the reason like others will here) but it's still below 10% marketshare. Just stating facts. Not saying Apple's OS is bad. I, personally, would LOVE to see the Mac/OS achieve 15% or 20% marketshare...but I doubt that's going to happen by 2012 (if at all unless Apple is willing to make some game-changing decisions).

-Eric
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This is getting old.
 
ericinboston said:
I agree...if Windows has hundreds of thousands of problems, why has it consumed 90%+ marketshare since 1994 in both businesses and homes? Forget the monopoly comments and conspiracy theories...if the system stunk, nobody would use it...Apple (and others) have had plenty of Windows versions to try to sink (Win95, Win98, Win98SE, WinME, WinNT, Win2000, WinXP, WinVista, Win7) over the decades and yet Windows is still far the most used OS in the world by consumers and businesses. Windows, since basically Win95, has been a very easy OS to use. Sure, like Apple OS it's not perfect...it's had its bugs or limitations...so does every other piece of software written since 1964.
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Actually one of the biggest advantages of Windows is that it takes care of both home and business environments. Microsoft truly cares about providing useful tools to administrate large companies networks AND provided high end graphics support so that it is interesting for playing games at home.

T.
 
I think iPads are kind of neat looking, but there are things I'd far sooner spend the money on. Not to say I'm not open to being convinced otherwise when I see one in the flesh, but I'd still rather have an iPod Touch.
 
Here's my take on this:

The media has gone absolutely crazy lately, reporting on things that are hip and cool, until our ears start bleeding.

With how secretive apple is about their products, they're being stung by this media frenzy.

First, the media hyped this product up to the extreme. It wasn't Apple. They've done the same thing they have for all of their products; keep it hush hush.

Then when it was released, it was knocked for being nothing more than a big iPod touch, and therefore, it isn't "cool."

But all these people who are ripping it are going to visit an Apple store, see one in person, and be blown away.

The device is going to sell itself. It's going to be a hit. Especially at that price point.

Just watch. You'll see.
 
*LTD* said:
"So, it's not like I sit there and feel the same way I did with iPhone where I say, 'Oh my God, Microsoft didn't aim high enough.' It's a nice reader, but there's nothing on the iPad I look at and say, 'Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.'"

"There's nothing that the iPod does that I say, 'Oh, wow, I don't think we can do that.'" - Bill Gates, September 02, 2004


bill+gates.jpg
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It seems Mr Gates my be more familiar with the Apple product line up than you are. You do realise the iPod and the iPhone are different devices right? He stated that he was not overly impressed with the iPod. And really okay that's fine. But he felt the iPhone was something that was impressive and that MS got caught flatfooted on. I'd totally agree. I mean it's not even like he said he was unimpressed with the iTouch but was with the iPhone - he was comparing two quite different devices. Nothing hypocritical there.

Oh and I'm loving that there were about 10,000 messages complaining about the iPad after the launch on this an many other Apple centric forums but when Bill Gates says simply that he is not impressed (not that he thinks it's crap and not even that he does not think it will sell) that everyone get's up in arms.
 
Let's Check The Track Record

MS under Bill didn't have a great track record for "vision".

Think I'll put my chips on Steve's table.;)
 
Povilas said:
Desktop OS? You will go with that? Desktop OS is not optimised for Touch interface. If you try to optimise it for touch you will evantually will be looking at something like iPhone OS.
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Windows 7 was built for tablets, every version. It's optimized for it. I cannot even begin to explain how beneficial it is to have the same OS on a Table that's on your PC.
 
inlovewithi said:
I got that idea from visiting this site, with so many comments that repeat everything they hear in the Apple commercials.
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Sound more like you don't know much about MS Windows. I for one make money off how bad that OS runs, so stop trolling and giving real reliable data of how MS Windows 7 is a stable and better OS. I use it for gaming and for the most part it runs as it should as long as you are careful.

But even today I had to do a repair call after a client installed some hardware themselves and it cause Windows 7 to crash. I was not had to bring it back, but things like this are just not tolerated on Mac ecosystem. I for one expect my Mac's to come up every time I do anything with them, and if I install software or hardware I expect it to not crash and have to spend time figuring out that some DLL has been changed or some registry information has been altered and now Windows gives errors or crashes. Noob.

For me the 64gig iPad has to be like the iPhone and Snow Leopard, no down time I am not saying it will never have something go wrong, but I expect like my heart to keep beating no matter how hard I push it.
 
Pen, Keyboard? Where is this guy from?
We're already in 2010, not 2002. He needs to suck it up and admit that these are good devices, that others will soon follow.
Jealous mann.
 
UmichAg said:
There's so much potential with this device, yet Apple limited its functionality.

For example, why not give it a stylus so that students could write/draw notes while in class or for artists to create a drawing?
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Erm, there are stylus' offered today for the iPhone so I'm sure that someone will offer them for the iPad as well. If you want an app to do that (with a stylus) then I don't see why someone couldn't build it.

My issue with this concept is the screen and the touch technology fine grained enough to handle the accuracy needed? Using a finger is far different than a fine pointed device.

If the iPad has any such limitations then so be it (finger only), but I didn't get the sense from the demos and follow-up that this was the case.
 
For once I agree with Gates.

He turned Microsoft into a massive company - 15/20 years ago, his ideas shaped computing. And then MS lost it. Times moved on and they didn't.

I think the iPad is Jobs beginning to lose it.
 
Cboss said:
Students in science or math classes would like to be able to write on their computers. I've tried taking calculus notes, chemistry notes, etc. on my laptop and it just doesn't work. I've switched to just a paper and pencil because it works much better.
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I've been out of school for over a decade now, but I never understood why a lecture hall needs to be filled with 200 laptops. Following a lecture and referring to the textbook while taking notes with pen/pencil and paper seems vastly more effective to me than typing on a laptop. It's so much easier to pack useful information into your notes when done on paper. By that, I'm talking about things like diagrams, adding emphasis, showing relationships between different ideas in the lecture, equations, etc.

Maybe lecture notes are posted online before class nowadays, and students are just following along on their laptop. Like I said, I've been out of school for a while :) Still, I preferred taking my own notes anyway. I learn better when I write things myself.

A good tablet computer? Maybe that'll work.
 
was the iPad really a ripoff of the iPod Touch?
or did the iPad concept (touch screen) come first and Apple didn't see a business case for it (no app store concept, no user base to leverage, battery life)?

that is, did Apple release the touch screen/gesture concept as an evolved iPod/iPhone to leverage the established iPod user base because it made more sense?

(remember the app store concept, wasn't around so just a touch screen tablet has limited use).

Just asking... I see some comments of apple being 'lazy' and was wondering/speculating what the original strategy of releasing a touch screen gesture interface was.

I read comments in response to Bill's comments of 'the ipad ain't all that much'... I agree if you compare it to the Ipod Touch... but _if_ the iPad was to be released first wouldn't it be receiving the same response as the iPhone/iPod Touch ?



(sorry, maybe more suited question on different thread)
 
Shintocam said:
Oh and I'm loving that there were about 10,000 messages complaining about the iPad after the launch on this an many other Apple centric forums but when Bill Gates says simply that he is not impressed (not that he thinks it's crap and not even that he does not think it will sell) that everyone get's up in arms.
Click to expand...

Nowt more amusing than watching the fanbois get their panties in a bunch. Most of them probably didn't even read the post...they saw the words 'Bill Gates' and went off on one!
 
ericinboston said:
And what are you doing on this board? Typing. What about when you reply to emails? Go into your online banking to make changes? Type in a new web address? Write up a quick Word or Excel doc? Title a filename? Chat with an online friend? Create a new folder on your hard drive?

Typing is gonna be here for a long time. I understand nobody has used/touched the iPad yet so we can't really comment on the virtual keyboard.


-Eric
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That's why I use a netbook. I think I would not use an iPad to interact on a message board but I will have to see what the input is like on it first before making a judgment on that. Most people on the forums are lurkers (about 12:1 currently) so like I said, most people just consume.
 
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