Sounds nice, but the way the market in consumer electronics is going, it's about time for Apple to do something disruptive. This seems like a "me too" move, unless it has features we don't know about.
How is it going?
>it's about time for Apple to do something disruptive
How many disruptions do people need? The iPad is 2 years old!
Some people get bored so easily they won't be satisfied until we reach the Singularity!
In terms of screen size, everything is shrinking. 10 years ago, the hottest product was the LCD panel TVs. Consumer electronics were reaching new heights with bigger and bigger screens. The LCD TV/PC market is now saturated. Almost any CE company can make a decent LCD/PC, but making a great smart phone, not just in terms of hardware spec, but UI/UX is much more difficult because of the space constraints. HP got their asses handed by the market with Palm (remember that?) but they still recognize that mobile/smaller screens are the future. Now CE is trending towards wearable computers. People want information at their finger tips, they also want a flawless Siri/Google equivalent. In about 10 years, CE will be reading our minds and voice/keyboard entries will be seen as a barbaric task. Devices that need power will be charged using solar or wireless charging. (why are we still plugging things into walls?) Google is doing interesting things with Glass and self-driving cars.
>it's about time for Apple to do something disruptive
Apple is trending towards a great design firm with a tech focus. There are no bleeding edge products in their product portfolio.
Apple could disrupt the market by entering into emerging CE categories like 3D printing, wearable computers and robotics. I've seen some amazing products built by startups, if Apple invests their $100 billion cash reserves to into these categories, I can see them lasting another 30 years before teleportation and intergalactic travel become the norm.
The iPad mini, meh.
> There are no bleeding edge products in [Apple's] product portfolio.
I see these as two different companies having different ideas about what to do with unreleased products - Apple hasn't even announced an "iPad Mini" which is apparently starting production, and Google has announced products with a time-to-market measured in years (if they ever arrive).
I don't know what "big ideas" Apple's working on because they've decided not to tell us, but I at least give them the benefit of the doubt that by the time we see discussion about a product, it's much more likely to be released, and soon.
While I mostly agree, the average CE customer probably already knows what a iPad mini looks like. Google Glass is something that is foreign to the same person and Google is educating potential customers about their product. Apple doesn't need to do that and that is why they are doing well in terms of monetary value. Self-driving cars cannot be kept secret because of all the government regulations and road testing, which involves exposure to the public.
Just from my own experience, Apple hasn't impressed me from a technology standpoint on the past several products released. Specifically:
- The "new" iPad
- iPhone 4S
- iPhone 5
From a monetary and stockholders standpoint, they have been absolutely dominating the market. Apple stores make over $6,000/sqft, Tiffany's is 2nd with $3k. [1]
> I don't know what "big ideas" Apple's working on because they've decided not to tell us, but I at least give them the benefit of the doubt that by the time we see discussion about a product, it's much more likely to be released, and soon.
It's a double edge sword, they keep everything under wraps until they have something to show, but the build up of anticipation doesn't usually meet my expectations. e.g, #shutupandtakemymoney.
I think sooner rather than later, the rest of the public will catch on and demand more innovation from their CE manufacturers.
[1] http://www.asymco.com/2012/04/18/apple-stores-have-seventeen...
A well built Apple branded tablet with iOS (and all the apps) for under $300 might not be technologically interesting, but it will immediately outsell everything because everyone's aunt will know exactly how it works and every app you've heard of will work with it.
ICS/JB are fantastic, but I'd predict that iOS's sheer familiarity will win out for most consumers. It's not really much of a prediction since Apple's so handily owned the 10" tablet market despite an abundance of competition.
I don't see how Apple is going to price this effectively without cannibalizing their own markets. I guess they could switch up the 5th gen pricing but they JUST announced it, and it would come across as a cheap trick to move the rest of the 4th gens at full price.
An iPod touch is an absolutely awful substitute for a 7" tablet. The two are not comparable and totally different products.
Beyond the consideration that pocket computers make lousy solutions for the things tablets do, and tablets are lousy at the things you want a pocket computer for.