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Netbook Sales Sag as the iPad Arrives
What Tech Nerds Think About the iPad
The Techies Are Wrong about the iPad
Sure, The iPad Is Cool – But Is It A Real Computer?
Thoughts After A Day With The iPad
iPad Not Charging Via USB For Some Users
Dragon Dictation App Will Turn iPad Into a Cheap Secretary
iPhone Tops J.D. Power Smartphone Wireless Survey Again
iPad's Success Could Boost Acceptance of Apple Tech
Jury Is Still Out, But Mobile Phones Appear To Be Safe
Rare 'Supertaskers' Can Balance Driving And Cellphone
World's Youngest iPhone App Developer?
Irish Civil Rights Group Takes Aim At iPad Launch
Experts Available to Discuss iPad Demand Outpacing Supply
Touch Screens Drive Higher Satisfaction with Both Feature-Rich Smartphones and Traditional Mobile Phones, And Apple Ranks Highest in Customer Satisfaction among Smartphone Manufacturers - J.D. Power and Associates
The Tech Night Owl: iPad Reviews Seem Cut from the Same Cloth
Netbook Sales Sag as the iPad Arrives
"The sales growth of the mini-laptops has fallen sharply as buyers eye more capable portable computers," reports BusinessWeek's Cliff Edwards, suggesting that
Apple's iPad is helping cool the computer industry's netbook fever of the past three years or so, and quoting Steve Jobs's disdainful declamation that "Netbooks aren't better than anything. They're just cheap laptops."
Edwards says PC makers are beginning to worry that a sizable cohort of consumers agree, (or at least are looking for a different technology fix, with mini-laptops "losing their novelty") citing a recent survey finding that roughly 20 percent of potential netbook and notebook buyers are considering an iPad instead of a conventional laptop, and observing that after their meteoric rise in popularity netbooks' may have peaked.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/apr2010/tc2010041_600018.htm
What Tech Nerds Think About the iPad
Gizmodo's Matt Buchanan reports:
The 60 days between the end of January and Saturday have given us, and other really smart people, a lot of time to think about the iPad and what it means.
The predominant strain of philosophical thought amongst pro-Pad punditry is that it's the computer revolution we've been waiting for since the original Macintosh introduced the world to the desktop. It's the computer that's finally going to tear all of that down, a Raskian revolution of the simple, not the complex. Cue Woz, "It's like a restart. We all say we want things to be simpler. All of a sudden we have this simple thing."
Steven Levy, the thinking man's tech writer, says it's the first computer that's really made for the way our world is now....
OTOH....
What people expected, or rather, what they hoped for, was something truly radical, a device they couldn't have possibly imagined. Even people who were at the keynote initially felt a numb sense of disappointment, a dull sensation of having really known all along what Apple would reveal, a hole in their stomach where there should've been shock and delight.
and.....
Once upon a time, Apple made the machines that made me who I am. I became who I am by tinkering. Now it seems they're doing everything in their power to stop my kids from finding that sense of wonder. Apple has declared war on the tinkerers of the world.
To read more, click here.
http://gizmodo.com/5506776/what-tech-nerds-think-about-the-ipad
The Techies Are Wrong about the iPad
The Root's Omar Wasow says:
When the Apple iPad was announced in late January, techies across the Web carped endlessly about what was wrong. It lacked a camera. It couldn't do videoconferencing. The bezel around the edge of the screen was too big. It wouldn't support Flash video. Worst of all, the Holodeck option wasn't truly immersive 3-D with full-on hot tub time-travel functionality.....
....After playing with the sleek tablet for much of the last week, I have no doubt that the techies were wrong and Steve Jobs was right..... the techie obsession with specs and obscure features completely misses how most consumers will actually use the iPad. A small percentage of power users will be disappointed that the iPad doesn't, say, have an HDMI video-out port or that it currently lacks the ability to run multiple applications simultaneously or that it fails to address some other esoteric concern. The rest of us (even most techies) will be thrilled that doing what we want to do on the iPad is generally effortless.....
For the full commentary visit here:
http://www.theroot.com/views/techies-are-wrong-about-ipad
Sure, The iPad Is Cool – But Is It A Real Computer?
The Chicago Sun-Times' Andy Ihnatko says
If you've been honking on and on since January about how the iPad is "just a big iPhone," you'll want to lie low for a few more weeks before appearing in public with your new toy. It takes a big man to admit that he's wrong; I applaud your sentiment.....
iPad is pure innovation - one of best computers ever
iBooks is worth the price alone for iPad as ebook reader
The accessories make the iPad close to complete
ComixOlogy's Marvel iPad app shows promise for digital comics.
Let's move on to the critical question: can we think of the iPad as a real computer? Should your next machine be an iPad instead of a netbook or even a full notebook?
You need to navigate that question cautiously. The iPad is something new. It isn't "a notebook without a keyboard." It's an iPad.....
To read more, click here.
http://bit.ly/9OAPCU
Thoughts After A Day With The iPad
BusinessWeek's Arik Hesseldahl says:
I've had an iPad in my hands for about 11 hours now, and after most of a day spent using it, albeit sparingly, talking about it, and showing it off to colleagues who plowed me with endless questions, I'm ready to say that it's a terrific device that's going to leave an indelible mark on the personal computing landscape.
Yet the point I made in this column ( http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/feb2010/tc2010024_830227.htm ) on Feb 5 still rings true. For every person who's yearned to get their hands on it after seeing it in my hands, there has been another who can't quite get their head around the notion of what an iPad is really for. Some get the iPad intuitively, others think it an unnecessary toy.
For the full commentary visit here:
http://bit.ly/d4eXQY
iPad Not Charging Via USB For Some Users
Gizmodo reports:
Various Twitter users, the team at Consumer Reports and our own Giz editors are reporting problems getting their new iPads to charge via USB. So far, it looks like it will only charge when plugged into a Mac.... Consumer Reports found that PC USB ports, keyboards with USB ports and accessories such as USB hubs dont work......
For the full report visit here:
http://gizmodo.com/5508851/apple-ipad-not-charging-via-usb-for-some-users
For Apple Support on iPad charging see:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4060
Dragon Dictation App Will Turn iPad Into a Cheap Secretary
Gizmodo says:
Too lazy to type? Hands busy with something else? Use the iPad version of Dragon Dictation's popular speech recognition software -- free and available through the iTunes store now.
You can check it out at:
http://bit.ly/9BTpQF
iPhone Tops J.D. Power Smartphone Wireless Survey Again
Macworld's Marco Tabini reports that J.D. Power and Associates has just crowned the iPhone winner of its 2010 smartphone customer satisfaction survey.
Apple came first in four out of five of the survey's categories [except for "battery function"], beating out competitors like HTC, Nokia, RIM, Palm, and Samsung and scoring 810 points out of 1000 -- well ahead of RIM in second place with 741 points.
For the full report visit here:
http://bit.ly/dmfhB7
iPad's Success Could Boost Acceptance of Apple Tech
newsfactor.com's Jennifer LeClaire reports that 71 percent of consumers know all about the Apple iPad - and six percent plan on buying one within a year, with one percent affirming they would purchase an iPad as soon as it's available according to a market-research firm ORC survey, which computes to about one million units initially and about seven million over the course of the next year as opposed to other analysts' estimate of about five million iPad sales in 2010.
A perhaps more meaningful question is whether the iPad will enjoy long-term success, with the ORC study examining types of technology an iPad purchase could replace, and 39 percent of respondents saying it would not replace anything but rather augment existing, systems but a substantial 35 percent anticipating that an iPad could eventually replace a laptop or desktop computer running Windows, suggesting that the iPad as a fresh technology will once again alter the equilibrium of Apple-vs-Windows users.
For the full report visit here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20100401/tc_nf/72528
Jury Is Still Out, But Mobile Phones Appear To Be Safe
Forbes' Vikram Sheel Kumar, MD says:
As it stands today - and let this be the executive summary for those reading this on their phones - we do not have enough years of data to tell whether mobile phones are hazardous to our health. But I would advise you look up before you walk into that glass door in front of you.
These are the questions that we need to ask. Will yapping on a mobile give us brain cancer? Will we become impotent if we leave our phones in our pockets? Does the handset we use make any difference?
Scientists predict it will be decades before we know the answers to these questions. It took 30 to 40 years after cigarettes went mass-market for their epidemiological link with cancer to be established......
To read more, click here.
http://bit.ly/bxywck
Rare 'Supertaskers' Can Balance Driving And Cellphone
CTV.ca News Staff report:
Driving properly while also having a coherent cellphone conversation is pretty much impossible for most people -- except for certain rare people researchers dub "supertaskers."
The problem is most people think they are those supertaskers. Odds are: they're not.
New research finds that only 2.5 per cent of the population possesses these unique skills.
For the full report visit here:
http://bit.ly/dpBK5w
World's Youngest iPhone App Developer?
Forbes' Taylor Buley reports:
There are probably tens of thousands of iPhone application developers out there, but a rare few are as young as 14-year-old Pierce Freeman, a Bay Area eighth grader. Freeman recently saw Apple approve his first app, dubbed CardShare, and talked to Forbes's Taylor Buley about the process....
You can check it out at:
http://bit.ly/9YLeJj
Irish Civil Rights Group Takes Aim At iPad Launch
The Register's Seosamh Fahey reports:
April Fools Apple's iPad launch could be thrown off course by a last minute objection to the device's name by a small Irish American civil rights group.
Boston-based Féach ar na Féilire claims it registered the name 11 years ago for a now-defunct online advice service for Irish Gaelic speaking immigrants in the US.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/04/01/ipad_gaelic/
Experts Available to Discuss iPad Demand Outpacing Supply
[ExpertSource Press Release]
According to a story on redOrbit, Apple seems to be having difficulty keeping up with the demand for the new iPad. Customers who preordered the device as early as March 12 were promised a delivery date of April 3. A Reuters story has reported that the company "might have sold out of its initial inventory" and that some of the more recent online orders will not be fulfilled until April 12.
Analysts have cited difficulties in Apple's supply chain as a contributing factor to the backlog, but also said that several hundred thousand units have already been ordered.
Both Apple and "most" Best Buy stores will have iPads for sale beginning April 3. Models using 3G wireless systems will hit stores in late April.
Says redOrbit, "[t]he iPad is Apple's biggest product launch since its iPhone debuted in 2007. "
RedOrbit
http://www.redorbit.com/news/technology/1842552/ipad_demand_outpacing_supply/
Reuters:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2920561920100329?type=marketsNews
Touch Screens Drive Higher Satisfaction with Both Feature-Rich Smartphones and Traditional Mobile Phones, And Apple Ranks Highest in Customer Satisfaction among Smartphone Manufacturers - J.D. Power and Associates
[Press Release]
Overall satisfaction among smartphone and traditional handset owners whose phones are equipped with touch screens is considerably higher than satisfaction of owners of phones that have other input mechanisms, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2010 U.S. Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study-Volume 1 and the 2010 U.S. Wireless Traditional Mobile Phone Satisfaction StudySM-Volume 1.
Among smartphone owners whose device has a touch screen, satisfaction averages 771 on a 1,000-point scale, nearly 40 index points higher than among those whose smartphone uses other input methods, such as a text keyboard. Currently, slightly more than one-half of owners indicate their smartphone has a touch screen for navigation. While not as readily available on traditional mobile phones, satisfaction on phones with a touch screen averages 756-53 index points higher than the industry average.
"Touch screens are ideal for those using their phone for entertainment, as the displays are generally larger and provide a richer viewing experience," said Kirk Parsons, senior director of wireless services at J.D. Power and Associates. "It is critical, however, that manufacturers meet expectations with regard to providing adequate battery life, as these large displays can drain batteries very quickly. In addition, for customers to have a truly rewarding experience, wireless carriers must continue to provide problem-free, high-speed downloads, as customers rely on them to deliver content quickly and on the go."
These two studies measure customer satisfaction with traditional wireless handsets and smartphones across several key factors. In order of importance, the key factors of overall satisfaction with traditional wireless handsets are: operation (30%); physical design (30%); features (20%); and battery function (20%). For smartphones, the key factors are: ease of operation (26%); operating system (24%); physical design (23%); features (19%); and battery function (8%).
Apple ranks highest in customer satisfaction among manufacturers of smartphones with a score of 810, and performs particularly well in ease of operation, operating system, features and physical design. RIM BlackBerry (741) follows Apple in the rankings.
LG ranks highest in overall wireless customer satisfaction with traditional handsets with a score of 729, and performs well in all five factors, particularly physical design, features and operation. Sanyo (712) and Samsung (703) follow LG in the rankings.
The study finds that both smartphone and traditional handset owners are increasingly using their phones for entertainment and sharing media with friends, family and members of their social network. Among traditional handset owners, 25 percent indicate they frequently send and receive multimedia and picture messages, an increase of 25 percent from just six months ago. Smartphone users are nearly twice as likely to share multimedia messages. In addition, nearly one-fifth (17%) of smartphone owners with touch screen-equipped handsets indicate they frequently download and watch video content on their device, which is significantly higher than the segment average.
The studies also find the following key wireless handset usage patterns:
Global Positioning System (GPS) capabilities are a desired feature among both traditional mobile phone and smartphone users. More than one-third (35%) of traditional mobile phone owners say they want GPS features on their next handset purchase, while 15 percent of smartphone owners say they want GPS.
Younger users continue to be more satisfied with their handset regardless of whether it is a traditional mobile phone or a smartphone. Satisfaction among traditional mobile phone users 18 years old to 24 years old is 35 index points higher than the segment average, while satisfaction among smartphone users within the same age range is 18 index points above the segment average.
Mobile applications continue to enhance the smartphone user experience. Sixty percent say they download third-party games for entertainment, while 46 percent say they download travel software, such as maps and weather applications. Thirty-one percent say they download utility applications, while 26 percent say they download business-specific programs, indicating that smartphone owners are continuing to integrate their device usage into both their business and personal lives.
The 2010 Wireless Smartphone Customer Satisfaction Study-Volume 1 and the 2010 Wireless Traditional Mobile Phone Evaluation Study-Volume 1 are based on experiences reported by 13,590 traditional mobile phone and 4,480 smartphone owners who have used their current mobile phone for less than two years. The studies were fielded between July and December 2009. For more information on customer satisfaction with wireless service, wireless retail sales, cell phone handsets, customer care, prepaid wireless service and business wireless service, visit:
http://JDPower.com
The Tech Night Owl: iPad Reviews Seem Cut from the Same Cloth
As you know, Apple seeded iPads to a select few tech journalists in recent weeks. Two days before the product's official availability at the Apple Store and Best Buy, the fruit of those marketing efforts paid off, in the form of highly favorable reviews that have been plastered all over the Internet.
Here's the URL for today's commentary:
http://www.technightowl.com/2010/04/ipad-reviews-seem-cut-from-the-same-cloth/
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