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Netbook Market Leader Acer Not Planning to Compete With iPad
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At least one CEO has a reasonable understanding of the capabilities of their company. Ballmer could use some tips from this guy.
I could be wrong, but wouldn't flash not interact properly in a touch environment?
Just because a netbook may be more capable with multitasking, a camera, usb, etc doesn't make it a better option for everyone. I'd rather have an iPad and laptop than a netbook and laptop.
I think as it stands, the iPad would get a lot of use in our home. I can't even imagine how great it will be once the developers start releasing apps to take advantage of it's screen size and form factor.
Just because a netbook may be more capable with multitasking, a camera, usb, etc doesn't make it a better option for everyone. I'd rather have an iPad and laptop than a netbook and laptop.
I think as it stands, the iPad would get a lot of use in our home. I can't even imagine how great it will be once the developers start releasing apps to take advantage of it's screen size and form factor.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
Book publishing has a very different economics to music publishing. Books sell in small numbers; even a best seller usually only sells a few hundred in a week (according to Terry Pratchett, trying to find a link to the quote). The margins are, therefore, much lower. In order to justify the risk (in terms of ROI) they therefore sell books on a reverse auction basis, hoping to cover as much of the upfront cost at the start.
Charles Stross explains it far better than I can: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2010/01/amazon-macmillan-an-outsiders.html
There is a link in that article to a breakdown of the costs involved in producing a book, and about how this is an important fight for both the publishers and Amazon since it determines who will bear business risk without flexibility. I highly recommend people read both before commenting on the issue, since I'm sure we all agree that having books continuing to be published is important.
Also, the battle was over having a reverse auction of prices. Whilst books will initially be sold for higher, they'd follow the same dynamic as paper books and have the price reduce over time. Thus, prices would (after a period) go less than Amazon's fixed price.
[EDIT] Oops, coleridge78 beat me to it
hundreds per week? What?
But let's go with that for discussion purposes. Apple has been aggressively pushing for lower prices for iTunes TV show media. Apparently it is not selling very well. So, since it is not selling very well, does the economics of low volume sales also apply there? Should pricing of TV shows be a LOT higher because of low volume of sales.
Also, while there are plenty of books that don't sell well (and plenty of music, movies and TV shows too), bestseller books sell a LOT better than just a few hundred per week.
See for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_books
Taking an exteme example on the other end, it is believe that The Da Vinici Code has sold more than 80 million copies since it hit in 2003. 2010 minus 2003 = 7 years. 7 years times 52 weeks = 364 weeks. 80 million copies / 364 = 219K books sold per week. Now sure, that's an extreme example, but if you believe books sell so poorly (only a few hundred per week), there is NO business there to even wash out costs. $14.99 would make no real difference.
Or more simply: if it was profitable to sell ebooks at $9.99 pre-Apple iPad, it should still be profitable post-Apple. I can't believe in all the buildup to the iPad launch, threads on this very site were loaded with people talking about how much lower books will cost because they won't have to print them, distribute them to stores, etc. And now that Apple appears in support of HIGHER prices, that's taken as right... and the justifications for why start flying.
They won't be using the line "best way to experience the web" in any promotional material in the UK unless they are looking for a fine. No-one can claim anything is "the best" unless they can back it up with objective proof. They might get away with it on the website but probably not if they are selling to the UK market from it.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
OK but 99% or 80% or 50% or 20% of BOOKS are $400 to support his higher book prices argument?
I agree. Here is what the netbook market addresses email and web browsing. The iPad meets that need. AND it looks like an fantastic eBook reader. I'm VERY excited. This device is going to redefine the netbook/ebook like the iPhone did the cell phone/smart phone. Very exciting.
There would have been if they hadn't binned their advertisement. You are thinking of this:
http://iphone.tmcnet.com/topics/iphone/articles/42330-asa-bans-iphone-ad-that-promises-users-all.htm
They also had to change another advert that showed flipping between apps much faster than in real lfe.
My point is pricing of books especially when you factor in textbooks is more dynamic than with movies and music. Hence it seems more reasonable to expect a larger disparity in the prices of ebooks compared to the prices of digital songs or movies.
I don't see a camera or Flash support as key features at all.
I'm just waiting for the developers to take the iPad to the next level. Even the iPhone didn't get interesting until the hacking started. Let the games begin!
Flash is not the future of Internet. Everyone knows that. That's why YouTube, Vimeo and Apple are switching to HTML5. Apple is just helping the push to happen much faster. Now all websites will ditch flash even more.
Camera would have been a good feature, but Apple will hold it off until next time. Can't have a low-cost product with ALL features.
Sometimes is good to look outside the box and into the future.
As a cheap, portable device with a decent screen and real keyboard, to access the internet with, when away from one's main computer.
Netbooks can be had for $350. Where does do Apple laptops start?
Yeah, I'd rather have a 13" MacBook, too. But not for three times the price, and I already have an actual, powerful computer at home.
Well, a small keyboard is better than no keyboard. And the screen size is the same as the one on the iPad.
I am not talking about Apple at all. This has been building for a long time (Amazon has even pulled this trick with another publisher) but only with the Apple store do publishers feel they have a chance of winning the battles. That is the only difference Apple's presence here makes.
Neither Amazon, nor Macmillan, nor Apple are good or bad guys here. They're all following their business cases. It makes sense for Amazon to have total control over their prices when they view themselves as a retailer. Equally, it makes sense for Macmillan to want control over the prices they sell to Amazon at. Apple have entered offering a different business model that suits Macmillan better (and allows them to reduce their risk) by not being a retailer, but just being a distributor (Macmillan becomes the retailer here).
Please read the article, and this second one:
http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/2010/01/31/why-my-books-are-no-longer-for-sale-via-amazon/
They explain, in a lot of detail, the economics involved in publishing and distributing books. Your example above is an outlier, and applies to print not ebooks. Surely as a rational human you want to understand this better before commenting?
Am I the only one who thinks Acer is right and they are not worried nor expect the iPad to do little to no damage to their netbook market.
The iPad is basicly nothing more then a iPod touch with a bigger screen. Yes the bigger screen offers some extras stuff but still you suffer the same limitition of the iPhone/iPod Touch OS and are trapped in apple's sand box.
The iPad is not going to replace a traveling computer because it is just way to limited. It has piss poor way of connecting to USB/SD card. You are still required to carry a dedicated keyboard if you want to get much work done that way and so on.
The Netbook on the other had is a great for business travelers. It is a full flege computer. Yeah it has a small screen but it is the same size a the iPad and a full size keyboard and more powerful OS.
iPad is a consumer level devices. Netbook is a bussiness/Enterprise level device. That is 2 very different markets. The Netbook is not designed to replace a deticated desktop/Main laptop neither is the iPad. Netbooks are designed to make traveling with a computer a hell of a lot nicer.
Lets compare the 2.
Checking Email-- I give that to the iPad.
Responding to Email - Netbook due to keyboard.
Over all email - Netbook
Surfing the internet - Netbook due to flash support
Reading the news - iPad.
Reading books - iPad.
Getting real work done (word documents excel sheets ect.) -- Netbook.
iPad - Consumer device something apple has proven it is damn good at.
Netbook --Enterprise/ Bussiness device -- Something apple has shown time and time again it has craptactor support and does not really even bother making stuff to into that market.
The iPad is basicly nothing more then a iPod touch with a bigger screen. Yes the bigger screen offers some extras stuff but still you suffer the same limitition of the iPhone/iPod Touch OS and are trapped in apple's sand box.
The iPad is not going to replace a traveling computer because it is just way to limited. It has piss poor way of connecting to USB/SD card. You are still required to carry a dedicated keyboard if you want to get much work done that way and so on.
The Netbook on the other had is a great for business travelers. It is a full flege computer. Yeah it has a small screen but it is the same size a the iPad and a full size keyboard and more powerful OS.
iPad is a consumer level devices. Netbook is a bussiness/Enterprise level device. That is 2 very different markets. The Netbook is not designed to replace a deticated desktop/Main laptop neither is the iPad. Netbooks are designed to make traveling with a computer a hell of a lot nicer.
Lets compare the 2.
Checking Email-- I give that to the iPad.
Responding to Email - Netbook due to keyboard.
Over all email - Netbook
Surfing the internet - Netbook due to flash support
Reading the news - iPad.
Reading books - iPad.
Getting real work done (word documents excel sheets ect.) -- Netbook.
iPad - Consumer device something apple has proven it is damn good at.
Netbook --Enterprise/ Bussiness device -- Something apple has shown time and time again it has craptactor support and does not really even bother making stuff to into that market.
HTML5 may or may not be the future, but the thing about the future is, it's not here yet.
You may say "just helping the push to happen much faster", others may say "making no difference whatsoever to the change of some websites that only do video" with such a tiny percentage of the whole browser market that they choose not to support Flash on.
When will this data center in NC go live? iphone OS 4.0? I hope so. If I can store my data simultaneously on my laptop/desktop as well as in the cloud for consumption wherever I am, I will be delighted. I cant wait until memory figures are rendered meaningless!
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
I completely appreciate the concept. But if we're going to rationalize it down to just e-books, then we're not comparing apples-to-apples. For example, one could say that e-books are selling at an extreme minimum compared to- say- e-music. But wouldn't that have a LOT more to do with the availability of music in iTunes for years and years now, compared to the general lack of availability of e-books?
One person countering my argument pitched a $400 book. Is that no an outlier too?
But e-media to e-media. Apparently, e-media TV shows are not selling very well within iTunes. Apple is apparently trying to pitch the industry on LOWER prices to amp up sales of that form of e-media. So, if the answer to low sales volume is lower prices, wouldn't lower prices be better for e-book media too? Or should we apply "economics of TV show production & distribution" to the discussion in support of charging 50% MORE for iTunes TV show media?
I'm actually IN the publishing industry. I work with publishers all of the time. But, while getting to price such stuff as the industry like it can be rationalized to even make perfect sense, why is it just THIS industry where this should apply?
The other e-media industries make very passionate cases about how they (too) should be able to sell their content at the prices they want to charge. When Apple says no, these other industries are couched as greedy, crooked fat cats. When Apple perhaps supports higher prices (directly or by facilitating higher prices via the iTunes store) for the e-book industry though, apparently even a consumer- like me- is wrong to want established prices... instead of HIGHER ones.
Do you not see the problem with that?
Dude I swear that is a keyboad that I see on the ipad video on Apple`s site that they are typing on.
It's an open format, but it can optionally contain DRM. I guess that's so a device can tell you what the title and author are, before it tells you you can't read it.
But virtually all video is flash. And any netbook can play flash content. And even a Mini 5 with OSx86 can play flash content, if you want the "whole experience".
Do ho ho ho.
The switch to HTML5 won't happen overnight either.
I'm beginning to wonder if your posts are serious at all, ever.
My father was reading a recent book on his Kindle yesterday, right next to me. I was reading a book on my iPod, not so recent. Then my sister pulled out her iPod, I think she was reading, but consuming some form of "content" as there's no wifi there. My wife looked annoyed that she doesn't have a Kindle yet, she can't decide, apparently. Maybe she'll look at an iPad, and sell her netbook.
That's 3 out of 4 adults at the kids party yesterday, and the 4th was not left out by preference. But maybe it's just my family that reads digital books.
BTW, I notice you left games out of your "digital content" commentary. Thought you were an enthusiast, at minimum. Games also count as "content" that is typically purchased.
but that requires your carrier around a full size keyboard in a separate device plus having to buy the attachments for it.
The touch screen keyboard is just not going to cut it to replace a dedicated keyboard. Plus it eats up a ton of screen space.