Things seem to be going really well with Windows 8 but the storms are brewing with Apple this year.
Digitimes is reporting the following:
Apple will ship the so-called “iPad 3” with a full HD display in March and then “iPad 4” – named so by its component suppliers – with killer applications in October, according to industry sources in Taiwan.
The iPad 3 will come with a QXGA (1,536×2,048 pixels) display and longer battery life although its other hardware specifications may not be so amazing as expected, said the sources. But Apple will take the advantage of the iPad 3 launch to slash the price of its iPad 2 to US$399, the sources claimed.
The troubling part of the statement (even though it’s a rumor) is the “killer applications”.
Apple have this way of pulling a fast one and staying way ahead of the competition right when it seems like the competition may be catching up.
Pay close attention to Apple’s moves this year because in a sense this will be a make or break year for the company as far as tablets go (yes I said it – quote me).
Since the passing of Steve Jobs, Apple hasn’t really done that much to excite the masses. Yes Siri is a cool concept and seemed amazing at first but there have been way too many stories about mediocre Siri performance lately.
If they pull out some serious innovation this year with a new batch of Ipads, it will directly affect the perception of Windows 8.
In a very real sense, Windows 8 (on slates/tablets) will be judged in relation to the Ipad 3 or Ipad 4.
Stay tuned.
All Comments
At this point my iPad is a stretch of a substitute for a laptop. It is a love/hate relationship, mostly love, but there is some hate as well. I also have an old Lenovo X61 tablet with Windows 7 on it. I love the x61 and I hate that iPad for making me leave it at home when I need to use One Note or do some other stfuff that only Windows can do…I love not carrying the weight and not thinking about the battery… I’m torn, quite often I take both with me.
Everyone is expecting that Windows 8 tablet will be the tablet to have… well if it is an ARM based device slim, light and slick than maybe and depends what gets cut out from the Wintel OS and what full blown programs will be available. Also I’m assuming the tablet will have an active digitizer pen.
iPad doesn’t have “the office” beside some poor substitutes that can even draw a table and what really frustrates me that it doesn’t have a pen, not a fatty size one that looks like if i’m using a pencil upside down, I’m talking about the real active digitizer pen they use on the tablets.Â
If apple introduces the pen support on their next version of iPad it will become “the tablet” for real. Windows will be screwed. Android already came out with Galaxy Note that has it and if it is made well it may catch like a wildfire leaving both iPad and Microsoft in the dust. Considering where Android was two years ago and where they are today, this is hardly a stretch of imagination.
iPad also needs a better “Office App” and Microsoft not developing a version for iPad left the door open and there is also a chance it is going to gets slammed into their face by Open Office or someone else. Do you really think Windows Tablet will stand a chance then? Sure it will have a market, but it would be similar to Windows Phone market which at this point is a huge uphill battle.
Microsoft will need to make some gutsy moves, but with the billions locked in the projected sales of Windows OS and Office they really need a visionary who can pull it off.
At this point my iPad is a stretch of a substitute for a laptop. It is a love/hate relationship, mostly love, but there is some hate as well. I also have an old Lenovo X61 tablet with Windows 7 on it. I love the x61 and I hate that iPad for making me leave it at home when I need to use One Note or do some other stfuff that only Windows can do…I love not carrying the weight and not thinking about the battery… I’m torn, quite often I take both with me.
Everyone is expecting that Windows 8 tablet will be the tablet to have… well if it is an ARM based device slim, light and slick than maybe and depends what gets cut out from the Wintel OS and what full blown programs will be available. Also I’m assuming the tablet will have an active digitizer pen.
iPad doesn’t have “the office” beside some poor substitutes that can even draw a table and what really frustrates me that it doesn’t have a pen, not a fatty size one that looks like if i’m using a pencil upside down, I’m talking about the real active digitizer pen they use on the tablets.Â
If apple introduces the pen support on their next version of iPad it will become “the tablet” for real. Windows will be screwed. Android already came out with Galaxy Note that has it and if it is made well it may catch like a wildfire leaving both iPad and Microsoft in the dust. Considering where Android was two years ago and where they are today, this is hardly a stretch of imagination.
iPad also needs a better “Office App” and Microsoft not developing a version for iPad left the door open and there is also a chance it is going to gets slammed into their face by Open Office or someone else. Do you really think Windows Tablet will stand a chance then? Sure it will have a market, but it would be similar to Windows Phone market which at this point is a huge uphill battle.
Microsoft will need to make some gutsy moves, but with the billions locked in the projected sales of Windows OS and Office they really need a visionary who can pull it off.
Pay attention Microsoft!!! YOU are 3 years late now and when iPad 4 and Android Jelly Bean tablets are released – perhaps in Q3 of 2012 – YOU will be 6 feet under and for good.  That’s why YOU must release an ARM Windows Tablet NOW!!!!  And if this means releasing WP7-based ARM tablets – so be it!!!  In the present world of technology, where everything moves forward at light speed, even YOUR loyal fan base is starting to get BORED by your painfully slow and boring strategy.  Right now, you have an edge for your creative METRO design on the windows phone – which for me (and a few others) is awesome and is enough reason NOT to file a divorce and to stick with YOU right now.  But even METRO is not getting much attention from the majority and now the vast majority consists of Apple and Google ZOMBIES. What’s really sad – VERY VERY SAD – is that YOUR putting all your stakes on Windows x86 METRO, without any regard for an alternative weapon should Windows x86 METRO turn out “not so cool”. Right now, it is not too late to change YOUR New Year’s resolution but, in 2012 Q3, when Windows x86 METRO rolls out (if not delayed again by your pathetic snail-pace strategy), iPad 4 and Android Jelly Bean will also be out and all attention will be on these two killer tablets – the Microsoft-killing machines. Pay attention Microsoft!!!
Honestly I think that they should released one back in developer preview (for a certian amount of people) to get the crowd rowled up and wait for a release canidate or updated beta which has most if the bugs out to give to the wanting customers. The developer preview doesnt have that many interesting apps on it. Although, IF AND ONLY IF they can release a decent beta and a decent tablet now they will have good chances at catching up to the ipad before the Ipad 3 comes out
Now I’m starting to believe Mr. Balmer’s critics. Â
Is he really the INERTIA MAN?Is he a Droid Kernel with an Apple Heart under a Microsoft Skin.
Bloggers can be visionaries too – and you don’t have to pay them anything.
The longer Microsoft waits to release a tablet the harder it will be for Microsoft to come back. iPad3 is just around the corner and iPad4 is being released in mid-2012. That’s not the only threat: as soon as the new iPad versions are released, the price of iPad2 will go down to as low as $300, perhaps $200. Now that’s just iPad… what about Android? Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) is already out and in a few weeks they will ship new ICS tablets that will cost a mere $99 (e.g. RamOS). Faster android tablets with Tegra 3 and other quad core processors are already available and because they are laptop-convertibles there’s a good chance they will rule the laptop market. Then sometime this year, Google will release Jelly Bean, the next dessert. Google and Apple are already serving desserts and coffee… and Microsoft? Well, it’s still serving appetizers.
ECM2 PUH-LEAZE, if I had a penny for every time someone decided that Microsoft is dead and gone I would be richer then Bill Gates is now. Apple is the one that needs to worry. Without Jobs there to keep them moving foreword,they are going to start to fall behind and very soon after this starts, I would expect them to ask to join Microsoft. And before you say no, Microsoft now holds darn near 90% of every freaking computer out there for programs and operating systems. Apple holds at best 8% That is why I laughed myself silly when I read the claim that Apple was the most profitable company ever (must be an apple user who wrote that lie) as no one with two brain cells to rub together to make a spar is going to believe that a company that has 8% of the computer market share, is more profitable then a company that has 90% of the same thing.
Get real.
“Microsoft now HOLDS darn near 90% of every freaking computer out there for programs and operating systems. Apple holds at best 8%”. The word “HOLDS” is not synonymous with “MAKES MONEY”. True that Microsoft still HOLDS darn near 90% of every freaking computer out there but these computers are old and annoying from today’s standards: it makes no sense to upgrade them every time there’s a new Windows version. Most people are tired of the old habit of getting a new version of Windows or Office for $200-$300 every time one comes out (approx every 2-3 years).  The “APPs AND CLOUD” paradigm of computing has proven to be more efficient, reliable, and economical – that’s why most people are embracing it. At present, the MONEY is in the APPs, TABLETs, and SMARTPHONEs market and the PC market, which has stagnated last year, will only continue to decline this year.  Lets admit it – its a different world !!!Â
PUH-LEAZE…..I have been involved in computers since the fastest computer speed was 4 Baud and a home computer cost you over $8,000 and was a Tandy IBM mash-up. I have been writing code for these computers since 1973, so I bet I have been doing this longer and long before you were a twinkle in your daddy’s eye. I have heard nearly every day since cell phones came out that it would be the death of home computers, and yet they are still selling strong and outpacing tablets and e-readers by over 3 to 1 and this is proven by the Electronics show at Las Vegas. I have been looking for Onuroa Amobi the whole time I have been here in Vegas attending this show. And guess what ECM2….I see home computers outnumbering pads and cell phones and stuff by a factor of 5 to 1 in the show. So tell me again that what my eyes and my vendors show me that computers are FAR AND AWAY from being dead or outpaced by tablets or e-readers. And I as well as most everyone in the show will be laughing at you and your misguided statements. PC World-Maximum PC-Computing-Laptop magazines all agree with me, that not only has the sale of home computers NOT stagnated, that they have increased by 5%. Tiger Direct-Best Buy-Solid Rock Computers and Computer World (all national chains) have stated that their sales of home computers have increased 20% over what they were doing last year, and that was 15% over what they were doing the year before. So dream on if you wish, but please stop posting fantasy statements and expecting people to accept them as fact when they are so easily disproved and shown to be YOUR feelings on the subject and not actual fact. If you tried posting this on some other tech sites I am a member of, you would be roasted and toasted and boiled in your own juices in less then 5 seconds after posting.
Umm first of all, I’ve been in and out of the press room all day. I’m pretty hard to miss.
Second, if everything was so rosy with PC’s vs tablets, Microsoft would not be so concerned about Apple encroaching on ther territory.
I would think they know just a little more about it than you do?
Food for thought…
Ahhh that is the one place I did not check with all the interesting things to see and the amazing new updates that are coming as I wanted to shake your hand and thank you for this blog.
And I agree with you. Makes no difference if you own 90% or 98% of a territory, you would be penny wise and pound foolish if someone coming into your territory selling the same things as you; and it did not concern you. Just like it concerned the big three automakers when the foreign imports started cutting into their business, even a little bit. As it stands, yes Microsoft is concerned about the 4% of the industry they have lost to Apple and Unix/Linux; but to suddenly now sound the death knell of the home PC just because of a tablet(s) is foolish at best and obtuse at worst. In fact if you contact Toshiba or any of their dealers, they will tell you the new laptop they have out that can either be used as a computer, or as a tablet; is selling very well thank you. In fact it is selling far faster then their Thrive tablet as why would anyone want to restrict themselves to one, when they can have both worlds.
When laptops came out for sale to the public, the death knell was sounded for the home pc. When the 17in screens on the laptops came out, the death knell was again sounded for the home pc. When smart phones came out, yet again the death knell was sounded. And it seems that with each new update in coding and product, someone somewhere parrots the tired old refrain of the demise of the home pc. Yet the home pc is still alive and kicking and stronger then ever. Yes the home pc as we know it now will die off, but I seriously doubt that it will die off in our lifetimes or our children’s lifetimes and as such it does no one any good to keep claiming otherwise. If one does not like the home pc, then so be it…but there is still a whole lot of life in that venue and will be for the foreseeable future.
ECM2 PUH-LEAZE, if I had a penny for every time someone decided that Microsoft is dead and gone I would be richer then Bill Gates is now. Apple is the one that needs to worry. Without Jobs there to keep them moving foreword,they are going to start to fall behind and very soon after this starts, I would expect them to ask to join Microsoft. And before you say no, Microsoft now holds darn near 90% of every freaking computer out there for programs and operating systems. Apple holds at best 8% That is why I laughed myself silly when I read the claim that Apple was the most profitable company ever (must be an apple user who wrote that lie) as no one with two brain cells to rub together to make a spar is going to believe that a company that has 8% of the computer market share, is more profitable then a company that has 90% of the same thing.
Get real.