Yet another Apple product event. Yet another Apple product event with nothing innovative to announce. The fanboys got themselves all hot with anticipation but Apple’s event today was even duller and emptier than the last one.
Apple had so little to announce that they spent half their time on describing a new method of making cases. Jesus, even Microsoft has not been reduced to that.
What next, will they have a juggler come on stage? How about a few tunes from the Apple Pipe Band.
Apple seems to have run out of steam and out of ideas.
Jobs was asked why they were not announcing an iTablet [a netbook sized device with a touch screen]. He could not see the need.
“That’s a nascent market that’s just getting started, and we’ll see how it goes,” Jobs said.
Poor Jobs doesn’t he get it? Dude, the cloud is the computer. The most important trend today is mobility. People want to be able to access the internet while they are on the move. They do not want to carry a heavy laptop and they want to have an easy to use interface.
Nascent market? “Currently, nine out of the top 10 best-selling laptops on Amazon are netbooks. Over 2008, manufacturers shipped 10 million netbooks. And looking farther ahead, ABI Research forecasts that manufacturers will ship 200 million ultra-mobile devices, including netbooks by 2013 — which is about the same anticipated size as the entire laptop market worldwide.” Link
Actually, I think Jobs does get it and it scares him. What’s the future for a company selling expensive laptops when people actually want £300 netbooks. I also think the reason why Apple has not produced an iTablet is that Jobs is afraid that it would cannibalise laptop sales. An iTablet would have to be priced in the £400-500 range, no matter how cool its design. That is not good business from Apples POV if customers buy a cheap Apple iTablet instead of an expensive Apple laptop.
I have just bought an Asus PC1000. It weighs less than the Apple Air, it has a ten inch screen and it runs Linux. It cost under £300. It has a solid state memory and a long lasting battery. When I add a 3G modem stick I will be able to access the internet anywhere. It does not have a touch screen but Asus is planning a model that does.
I also have a large screen desktop and a laptop. When the desktop goes it will be replaced with something similar. When the 6 pound plus laptop goes it will not be replaced. It now falls uneasily between the desktop and the netbook. It is not as usable as the 24″ screen desktop, nor as portable as the netbook. I don’t need it any more.
