Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPad Drives Apple to Perch Atop List of Top-Selling PC Manufacturers
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
What is going on here? Waiting for the Android folks to offer explanations. This can't be true. Windows and Android are not bags of malware, have stable and robust OS, and perfect in design. Anyone? Hello?
Edit: Spoke too soon. Looks like they are already trickling in to correct us Apple folks on our misunderstanding of Apple's superior products and success.
Main Entry: broken record
Part of Speech: n
Definition: someone or something that annoyingly repeats itself, as a vinyl record with a scratch endlessly over and over
No, I'd advise people to have access to a true computer as the iPad and other tablet computers still arn't fully compatible with the Internet. Yes they do a lot of websites correctly but take BMWs used car website for instance. The iPad does a horrible job of rendering it making it impossible to navigate. The touch interface can make this worse as the flick to scroll and others doesn't always work when a menu is embedded on a page Yes this is down to a need for website creators to allow create web pages that are compatible across both platforms and no I don't think a 'mobile' website version is the answer either as these tend to be compromise and not offer the full fat service of the desktop site offer (in my experience anyway). Some companies offer iPad optimised apps to take full advantage of websites but part of the glory of the www is you can offer a service to everyone through HTML standards rather than making an app for every Eco system!
iPad is a personal computer
Meriam-Webster Dictionary:
"A general-purpose computer equipped with a microprocessor and designed to run especially commercial software (as a word processor or Internet browser) for an individual user."
Wikipedia:
"A personal computer (PC) is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...."
"Software applications for personal computers include, but are not limited to, word processing, spreadsheets, databases, Web browsers and e-mail clients, digital media playback, games, and myriad personal productivity and special-purpose software applications. Modern personal computers often have connections to the Internet, allowing access to the World Wide Web and a wide range of other resources. Personal computers may be connected to a local area network (LAN), either by a cable or a wireless connection. A personal computer may be a desktop computer or a laptop, tablet, or a handheld PC."
Columbia Encyclopedia 6th edition
"Personal computer (PC), small but powerful computer primarily used in an office or home without the need to be connected to a larger computer. PCs evolved after the development of the microprocessor made possible the hobby-computer movement of the late 1970s, when some computers were built from components or kits. In the early 1980s the first low-cost, fully assembled units were mass-marketed. The typical configuration consists of a video display, keyboard, mouse, logic unit and memory, storage device and, often, a modem ; multimedia computers add a sound-reproduction adapter, stereo speakers, and a compact disc (CD-ROM) drive to this configuration so that material can be presented in a combination of animation, graphics, sound, text, and video. Decreases in component size have made it possible to build portable PCs, or laptops, the size of a ream of paper and smaller, and palmtops , which can be held in one hand..."
Meriam-Webster Dictionary:
"A general-purpose computer equipped with a microprocessor and designed to run especially commercial software (as a word processor or Internet browser) for an individual user."
Wikipedia:
"A personal computer (PC) is any general-purpose computer whose size, capabilities, and original sales price make it useful for individuals, and which is intended to be operated directly by an end-user with no intervening computer operator...."
"Software applications for personal computers include, but are not limited to, word processing, spreadsheets, databases, Web browsers and e-mail clients, digital media playback, games, and myriad personal productivity and special-purpose software applications. Modern personal computers often have connections to the Internet, allowing access to the World Wide Web and a wide range of other resources. Personal computers may be connected to a local area network (LAN), either by a cable or a wireless connection. A personal computer may be a desktop computer or a laptop, tablet, or a handheld PC."
Columbia Encyclopedia 6th edition
"Personal computer (PC), small but powerful computer primarily used in an office or home without the need to be connected to a larger computer. PCs evolved after the development of the microprocessor made possible the hobby-computer movement of the late 1970s, when some computers were built from components or kits. In the early 1980s the first low-cost, fully assembled units were mass-marketed. The typical configuration consists of a video display, keyboard, mouse, logic unit and memory, storage device and, often, a modem ; multimedia computers add a sound-reproduction adapter, stereo speakers, and a compact disc (CD-ROM) drive to this configuration so that material can be presented in a combination of animation, graphics, sound, text, and video. Decreases in component size have made it possible to build portable PCs, or laptops, the size of a ream of paper and smaller, and palmtops , which can be held in one hand..."
Would you care to qualify your claims with actual premises and evidence? Or would you rather continue making claims without ever arguing their validity? Constructing valid arguments can be a pretty rewarding experience if you ever bothered to venture down that path.
By switching just 2 words out from your previous statement about why an iPhone wouldn't be included, I made your rant relevant to why people feel iPads shouldn't be included with laptops/desktops as "PC's"...
Get it?
iPad is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price, said Steve Jobs, Apples CEO. iPad creates and defines an entirely new category of devices that will connect users with their apps and content in a much more intimate, intuitive and fun way than ever before.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/01/27Apple-Launches-iPad.html
No where in the press release does Apple refer to this device as a "PC".
If you Google "Can an iPad replace a PC" and you will discover that most articles will agree that it cannot.
If we stretch the traditional definition of "PC" just far enough, we can squeeze the iPad into that category. But in my most humble opinion, the iPad is a supplement to the PC for most users.
There's no sense in bothering with standard definitions. That is not any basis for argument anymore because they simply don'y matter. It's all moot.
Definitions are now being reshaped by consumers themselves, and this filters through to the industry reporting bodies that watch them. Once it enters the mainstream discourse (as it has now) it's there to grow as the people who are buying all these iPads see fit.
Definitions, conceptions, expectations, these all change and evolve.
A MacBook does not have serial or parallel ports, and can't print to the millions of serial and parallel printers sold (much less the teletypes and line-printers that came before). Yet a MacBook is a computer. The market moves on to new peripherals.
Like my MacBook Air. Personal computer or not?
And sometimes it changes faster than those with rigid minds or soon-to-be obsolete business plans think.
Kodak used to do really well in the photo business. They knew exactly what a camera was. (Because maybe the digital photography stuff THEY INVENTED in their labs were just toys, not "real" cameras?)
And I thought you were going to bring up the toaster as a PC argument because some of them have CPUs.
The definition of Personal Computer needs to evolve with the times.
I've worked on some PC's that shouldn't even be called a PC.
Unless you change PC from personal computer to piece of crap.
Unless you change PC from personal computer to piece of crap.
Not exactly sure which part of my post you're saying "no" to, but you've yet to address what many have pointed out. Your arbitrary requirements of what makes a "PC" are not qualified by anything other than your own personal opinion (such as having "desktop website" compatibility). The point is that if you are to suggest these requirements, then elevate them from being merely arbitrary to having some kind of qualification and reason behind them beyond what suits your own opinions of what a PC is. Again, it may not do everything you would expect a "PC" to do as well as you'd want, but that in itself does very little in justifying the claim that it simply is not a PC. It's maybe the case that people who are stuck on the perception of the recent past are struggling to accept the iPad as a PC when more intensive users prefer more power and speed, but again, intensive users often speak of computers that are beyond the realm of "Personal Computer" in the first place.
There's a big difference though. My iMac can easily service my households entire needs, no matter how big or small, it supports multiple users and TRUELY is a house hold computer fit for all the family. The iPad doesn't even allow multiple users with different preferences. I think you have to stretch the pc definition putty far to fit the iPad in. And to me,min my opinion, tablets should be separated from the category of personal computers, just as a high end iMac shouldn't be in the same company as a cheap hp laptop.
You wouldn't expect to see Ferrari drawn into comparison with ford in a models sold per annum comparison would you
We should count ourselves lucky this time that we are not subjected to a plethora of meaningless images depicting words from the Urban Dictionary. LOL!
If you can view adult content on it, and derive pleasure from said content, I guess it's a PC...
Well, with Windows PCs the dinosaur of a dying technology-make room for the mammals- Mac to take over the world from the has-beens soon
Most arguments against the iPad being a PC are silly and based in nothing more than a biased attitude towards a shift in general purpose computing.
This happened when the original Mac was introduced as well. Everyone who used command-line based computers called the Mac a toy because of its graphical UI.
"There's no keyboard"
I'm sure today, if computing went back to the command-line, all the naysayers would refuse to call it a real PC because it lacked a mouse, just as most do today with the iPad's lack of a "real" keyboard.
Input methods do not a PC make. Whether it's a keyboard, mouse, finger, whatever... The PC is not defined by how we interact with it, but has always been defined by how it is used and what it is used for.
Honestly, the Mac mini doesn't come with a keyboard, mouse or display, how on Earth is that considered a computer, if that was your only criteria?
"Well you can only do one thing at a time on an iPad. A real PC would allow me to multitask!"
First of all, for the most part humans do not multitask; I cannot type out an email, read a web page and edit a movie at the same time... my focus has to switch between them. The difference between a windowed based OS and the iPad is that the iPad forces the user focus on one thing at a time, whereas on a windowed OS the screen can be cluttered with other things. So the iPad forces users to switch between tasks to see what's going and Mac OS X lets you glance or move a window out of the way. This doesn't make the iPad any less a computer either. This is simply, different view management.
"The iPad isn't powerful enough to be a real PC"
Well what does that mean? Are not the Apple II, IBM PC, original Mac all PCs? Yes, they were and yes, they are still considered to be so. The iPad is much more powerful than any of these. Power has nothing to do with what defines a PC. If that were the case, netbooks would have to be thrown out of the equation. Most of them were so under-powered when they were first released, they had a hard time playing video at decent rates.
If I had Ubuntu running on my iPad with a keyboard and mouse attached would that make it more of a PC? The hardware is all there to do that.
This happened when the original Mac was introduced as well. Everyone who used command-line based computers called the Mac a toy because of its graphical UI.
"There's no keyboard"
I'm sure today, if computing went back to the command-line, all the naysayers would refuse to call it a real PC because it lacked a mouse, just as most do today with the iPad's lack of a "real" keyboard.
Input methods do not a PC make. Whether it's a keyboard, mouse, finger, whatever... The PC is not defined by how we interact with it, but has always been defined by how it is used and what it is used for.
Honestly, the Mac mini doesn't come with a keyboard, mouse or display, how on Earth is that considered a computer, if that was your only criteria?
"Well you can only do one thing at a time on an iPad. A real PC would allow me to multitask!"
First of all, for the most part humans do not multitask; I cannot type out an email, read a web page and edit a movie at the same time... my focus has to switch between them. The difference between a windowed based OS and the iPad is that the iPad forces the user focus on one thing at a time, whereas on a windowed OS the screen can be cluttered with other things. So the iPad forces users to switch between tasks to see what's going and Mac OS X lets you glance or move a window out of the way. This doesn't make the iPad any less a computer either. This is simply, different view management.
"The iPad isn't powerful enough to be a real PC"
Well what does that mean? Are not the Apple II, IBM PC, original Mac all PCs? Yes, they were and yes, they are still considered to be so. The iPad is much more powerful than any of these. Power has nothing to do with what defines a PC. If that were the case, netbooks would have to be thrown out of the equation. Most of them were so under-powered when they were first released, they had a hard time playing video at decent rates.
If I had Ubuntu running on my iPad with a keyboard and mouse attached would that make it more of a PC? The hardware is all there to do that.
And I thought you were going to bring up the toaster as a PC argument because some of them have CPUs.
The definition of Personal Computer needs to evolve with the times.
I think this is a good point worth stressing. Actually it may not necessarily be the definition itself that needs to change, as the dictionary definitions seemingly encompass the iPad already. What needs to evolve is what some people view as a PC, dictionary definitions aside (as LTD suggested). The iPad's not the same as a notebook or desktop and because of that many people don't see it as a "PC" because they have become accustomed to PCs only coming in those forms and with those functionalities, but things change.
And you have nothing to say about it. If the tech world analysts want to call a tablet a PC they can and you are left out in the cold gnashing your teeth. How does it feel to be irrelevant?
So no one uses windows now, everyone's using a mac?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/06/09/apple_maiden_data_center/
Not true. Anyone who enrolls for a developer certificate (several 100,000 people have) can download source code for some software from github, compile it with Xcode (locally on a Mac, or now with some remote services), and install it on their iPad. Lots of "free" open source apps. No App store needed.
I once saw some iPad app source code with a donate button, so shareware is possible as well (but probably not anywhere near as potentially lucrative as putting an app in the App store).
But you are not the 'NORM' in terms of home use. The norm is what i listed..which are people who check emails, browse the web, occasionally play a game, social network, some word processing for letters, watch movies, music and so on.
And you must have skipped over this part of my post. No one said the iPad was a gaming PC. But the iPad can play games and thousands of them. Your MMOs, high end FPS, and so on make up a small fraction of the game market now, vs the thousands of kid and recreational games out there for tablets/smart phones.
Of course there are home power users and home HC game players that need a more powerful machine.
As for FPS, Apple has already shown that you can do it on an iPad and they even have add-ons for the iPad that turn it into game console with buttons and other things.
Im sure the multiple users will be a feature coming soon but also, the best thing about a tablet is that it can be a personal machine only and is cheap enough where you can have multiples of them in a household, like many do.
At the end of the day you have to really look at the utilization of what is done on a PC. And Apple studied that extensively over the years. And obviously they came to the conclusion that there is a vast difference between power users and everyday users. The iPad works for the majority of everyday users out there. ...it's why it's so successful. It's not just a gadget...that's silly to say and honestly closed minded. I have to shut my co-workers up all the time when they call it a gadget and then I show them what it can do and how businesses are utilizing an iPad. Then they get all quiet and have no come-back.
And everyday, more businesses move towards it because IT IS a COMPUTER which can do almost all tasks that a desktop can for many businesses.
As it continues to evolve, just like the desktop did, it's going to basically end the desktop's existence in the home and office except for those users that need the more powerful workstation. Remember the 1st desktops didn't do much either and the iPad is well beyond that.
Last edited:
In bold, why do we even need to do that? That is one knock against an iPad as a PC to me. You still need a "PC" or "Desktop" to get most things onto the iPad.