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Interesting Gizmodo article on the iPad's future
- Thread starter Stirolak26
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Until the iPad can run Microsoft Office and print to any printer it will just be a toy for most.
Why the business world and schools for the most part remain tied to Office is strange but when I show the iPad to those looking for a laptop that is the first question they ask... does it run office, can it print, can you use a keyboard and mouse?
The truth is it COULD do all those things but Apple and MS so far want to keep it in it's place.
Why the business world and schools for the most part remain tied to Office is strange but when I show the iPad to those looking for a laptop that is the first question they ask... does it run office, can it print, can you use a keyboard and mouse?
The truth is it COULD do all those things but Apple and MS so far want to keep it in it's place.
If you think about it, though, nothing microsoft really makes is the superior form of anything to apple and that includes office. All their software is also always poorly coded and deaigned. But they are akways successful still (except with tablets).
Only apple could or would be able to and they would have to accept lower margins, higher R& D for superior os development geared only for ipad (not i anything else) and accept their macbook sales would be cannabilized. But in the long run it may be worth it for them if they establish a monopoly ala microjunk.
Maybe wawcom will help us get there as well:
http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Cintiq-12WX-12-Inch-Display/dp/B00115OFJK
http://www.amazon.com/Wacom-Cintiq-12WX-12-Inch-Display/dp/B00115OFJK
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
I'm thinking about it.....which Apple productivity apps are superior to Office? I guess Keynote would be debatable.
I'm waiting for the interesting Gizmodo article on Jason Chen's future..... in jail. 
Save that, nothing will ever get me to click on a Gizmodo or other Gawker Media link.
Mark
Save that, nothing will ever get me to click on a Gizmodo or other Gawker Media link.Mark
Used to enjoy reading gizmodo but after the whole iPhone fiasco it left a bitter taste. I find engadgets articles alot better written anyway and their comments are entertaining too, flame wars every time.
Seems others are leaving gizmodo too since the redesign:
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/gizmodo.com
...sorry to be off topic OP
Seems others are leaving gizmodo too since the redesign:
http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/gizmodo.com
...sorry to be off topic OP
Meh, I don't take anything Gizmodo says at face value.
Steve Jobs hit the nail on the head - we're heading for a situation where our computers are like trucks; only needed to do specific work that most people don't need to do. Give it ten years, I can see iPads (and - for the sake of being partisan - other devices of that ilk) being most people's primary machine. It's already becoming mine. i only really use my MacBook Pro for gaming and drawing, and a bit of Logic Express. "Truck" work. Everything else I used to use it for - uni work, web stuff, email, Twitter - has been bumped over to the iPad.
Steve Jobs hit the nail on the head - we're heading for a situation where our computers are like trucks; only needed to do specific work that most people don't need to do. Give it ten years, I can see iPads (and - for the sake of being partisan - other devices of that ilk) being most people's primary machine. It's already becoming mine. i only really use my MacBook Pro for gaming and drawing, and a bit of Logic Express. "Truck" work. Everything else I used to use it for - uni work, web stuff, email, Twitter - has been bumped over to the iPad.
I agree. I've used several and they mess up PDF court filings I've tried to print. For business it needs to be direct and seemless, and a word processing app needs to not strip all the formatting and references.
Why do people insist on clinging to this myth that the majority of users want Office compatibility?
Business, currently at least, do indeed need Office but even there Microsoft is bowing to pressure from services like Google Docs and moving the core Office tools (i.e. the subset that 90%+ of users ever actually use) to a cloud service. It's only a matter of time before those services work properly across the board on standards-compatible browsers.
But frankly that's more-or-less irrelevant because the iPad is after a MUCH bigger market than the business market. The home market, the personal use market, the consumer market (for lack of a better phrase) is where the money is these days and its been the main driver behind most of the OS changes we've seen in the last few years. And the bulk of that market don't care about Office, these days they rarely even need printing capabilities as more and more we start relying on electronic communications. For those users they want the sort of productivity tools that we're already seeing starting to come to the tablet market. Image editing, audio editing, easy ways to create relatively small chunks of content for web sites, blogs, social networks and on.
If you do a job that needs a keyboard / mouse then BUY A DEVICE BUILT FOR THOSE TASKS! This isn't complicated, there will always be a market in the foreseeable future for devices with a lot of power, big screens, great quality physical keyboards and input devices that give real granular control. Tablets (and other devices running consumer-focused operating systems, they'll come along) are built to meet the needs of the consumer market and that's a HUGE number of potential users. Yes, those devices will probably spend more time consuming content than creating it but the nonsense that's put around that they are ONLY consumption devices is ludicrous. They're certainly not 'toys' and I'm getting sick and tired of defensive geeks clinging desperately to that fallacy in an attempt to disparage those using them and cling onto their nerd cred.
Oh, and as much as I hate to say this about a Gizmodo piece, it's more-or-less bang-on. Unfortunately you're going to see a really horrible response to pieces like this for the foreseable future as a holy war to make Vi/Emacs look like a border skirmish takes hold.
Agreed.
The new site is hard to navigate and I when I do go to the site, I don't spend nearly as much time there as I used to.
Every time you see a Gizmodo article, remember: Its writers are paid by the post. It's all about quantity.
(So are Engadget's, but somehow they manage to come across as more intelligent and less childish.)
(So are Engadget's, but somehow they manage to come across as more intelligent and less childish.)
Kinda erid to see they were founded by the same guy. Its about the leadership and the writers you have. The engadget writers pander to the average person yet still attracting techies. Gizmodo only loves geeks and hates anything mainstream. Also engadget has a biger budget (engagdet show and podcast) it seems that the engagdet guys. Are better with exclusives and seems to get paid by apple.
Back on topic
other than keynote i think office is better than ilife.
The responses to the article (both here and at Gizmodo itself) are IMHO far more revealing than anything else.
Gizmodo obviously has something of a "love-hate" relationship with Apple. A lot of the anti-Apple crowd held them up as heroes for the "stolen" iPhone 4 fiasco. And about half their editorial staff seem to be dyed-in-the-wool Applephobics. On the other hand, any Apple story - good, bad, or indifferent - is likely to boost pageviews, links, and comments. And if you're in the techblog biz - thats like gold.
To me, the tech-world is divided into two camps: Those that "get" what the iPad, and the whole "postPC" world is about. And those that drone on about access to the file system and Microsoft Office. And there doesn't seem to be any level of computer skill or experience that predicts this. I know guys who've been working with computers since the days of TRS-80s and IBM System/34s who get the iPad. I also know people who've hated PCs their whole life - and THEY seem to get the iPad too. Just in a different way.
Rather than asking WHY Microsoft Office isn't on the iPad - maybe all those corporate MIS people ought to ask themselves a different question: Why is your company paying two hundred bucks a seat for a feature-riddled Office Suite that requires hours of training, and needs to be completely replaced (along with the ~$1000 desktop required to run it) every 30 months?
Gizmodo obviously has something of a "love-hate" relationship with Apple. A lot of the anti-Apple crowd held them up as heroes for the "stolen" iPhone 4 fiasco. And about half their editorial staff seem to be dyed-in-the-wool Applephobics. On the other hand, any Apple story - good, bad, or indifferent - is likely to boost pageviews, links, and comments. And if you're in the techblog biz - thats like gold.
To me, the tech-world is divided into two camps: Those that "get" what the iPad, and the whole "postPC" world is about. And those that drone on about access to the file system and Microsoft Office. And there doesn't seem to be any level of computer skill or experience that predicts this. I know guys who've been working with computers since the days of TRS-80s and IBM System/34s who get the iPad. I also know people who've hated PCs their whole life - and THEY seem to get the iPad too. Just in a different way.
Rather than asking WHY Microsoft Office isn't on the iPad - maybe all those corporate MIS people ought to ask themselves a different question: Why is your company paying two hundred bucks a seat for a feature-riddled Office Suite that requires hours of training, and needs to be completely replaced (along with the ~$1000 desktop required to run it) every 30 months?
I haven't owned a printer in nearly a decade...who prints anymore? Students submit docs through online interfaces. Professionals email presentations to each other. I just don't think printing from my iPad would ever cross my mind in 2011