Do you think Apple's launch of the Ipad and the not so great response could actually affect it's decline?
Apple is likely to sell hundreds of millions of iPads. It is the first truly personal computer, and unless they do something monumentally stupid, they will own the world. It will be interesting to see how it impacts iPods below it and laptops above it.
We'll see that at the next earnings announcement. Speculation is about prospective outcomes. Apple still got the iMac, iPods, iPhones and music downloads in its product line. The sum of them is what makes the company. Not just the iPad.
A computer that doesn't run OSX. So I can carry a giant crippled iphone to run my iphone apps, but I can't make voice calls? I carry a macbook pro and an iphone with >80 apps. I wouldn't carry an ipad w/service if they were free under a 2-year commitment. The redundancy is not needed, IMO. They're cannibalizing: http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad-3g-service-plans-on-atandt-30-for-unlimited-data/ I think this will be shown, to use your words, to be monumentally stupid. Let's revisit this thread in 3 months and see how it goes.
The device I see as redundant, for most people, most of the time, is the laptop. I do expect netbook and laptop sales to get dinged by iPad sales. To that extent, we are in agreement.
I am a fanboy, so great if they do well. You seem like one as well, so it's all good. I just can't see carrying it as a hard-core user. I realize I may not be the targeted-demographic. It's certainly a Kindle-killer with the no-commitment data plan. I see some significant cannibalization coming. People on the fence for the iphone still need to make calls. I can't imagine making a call from a slate. I can sling video under 3g from my desk at work, receive calls and VPN into my desktop that's running pokerstars. All of this will be available with the ipad too, but I am not a typical user and refuse to carry a tablet that doesn't run OSX.
I am a "hard-core user", too. It will be interesting to see how all this plays out. My expectations are all IMO, etc, and I am always interested in hearing the counter arguments. Best of luck in the markets!
Well the people I've spoken to, who are hardcore Apple fans, are laughing at it. As is most of twitter. I'll use that as a bellwether.
It is not a personal computer. It can't even fricking multitask! Have fun doing research and typing out your document. It is truly the Vista of Apple.
The problem as I see it is simply that you're leveraging the appstore for those who don't already own the iphone or touch, as they would not be early adopters due to redundancy. It fills the niche between iphone and macbook, but most of us own both. I can't foresee my brother, who is a casual user, buying an ipad to complement his iphone (PC user). At the other extreme, I have a mac pro, imac and macbook pro at home, and see no upside to running Real Racing or Shredder Chess at 9" diagonal on the subway. The iphone is the perfect media device because of its size. I can access a TB of lossless audio with Orb and stream any torrent with Airvideo. This thing is about as game-changing as MSFT surface.