Herb,
Thanks for posting the video. I am going to guess the reviewer was predisposed to liking the iPad so I am guessing there was some bias in the video but the one thing that was most interesting to me was the fact that the OS on the surface base model took up half of the on board memory. It also appeared that the touch screen wasn't as sensitive because it took several attempts to get it to respond but some of that may also have been related to the reviewer being a bit impatient with his attempts to use it. In a tablet vacuum, the Surface may be an OK first attempt but with all the other choices out there, right now it will have to swim uphill against the competition. I think it will probably sell OK for the first bit when all the Zaxs who hate Apple products buy one but the real tale will be afterwards to see how much general acceptance it will have among the consumer marketplace. I am sure the Surface will have its niche, it will be interesting to see just how big that niche will be. The fact that Apple(and Android in terms of the ecosystem) has a more mature ecosystem as well as plenty of customers who have had iPods and use the iTunes store, Apple has the advantage.
Just some anecdotal stuff.
Watching what my kid's friends in school use in terms of devices, when they are too young for a phone, I see mostly iPod touches. I think it is an important device for Apple because it hooks these kids into the Apple ecosystem and get them used to the Apple OS.
The kids' school have bought iPads.
Talking with my high school aged son, he has told me that most of his friends have either an Android or Apple phone with the advantage going to the iPhone if the kids have smartphones. When asked specifically about the girls he knows, almost all have iPhones. The female nurses I know from work have mostly iPhones if they have a smartphone. I wonder if this is related to the ease of use and that women/girls don't really want to mess with their devices and they just want them to work, which Apple seems to be very good at achieving, sometimes to the dismay of some of the more tech savvy, hands on people/users that are out there?
One other thing that I have noticed. I never really used to be an early adopter for anything tech related, even Apple stuff. Over the past few years, I do find that I am getting things much earlier in the life cycle of the product than I have before. And for the most part, it hasn't been a problem. Apple has at least partially locked down the hood of the car but has left just enough open space to allow the customization that most people will be happy with. I find that interesting.
For all the complaints and issues that Apple has had with their products as of late, it would seem that most things work and work well for the majority of users, early adopters or not. That is not an easy thing to accomplish or do. And despite all these issues, big deals or not, being played out in the press because Apple is now the 800 pound gorilla on the planet, I think the usability issue is the reason why consumers continue to buy Apple products at a dizzying clip. For example, I saw that Samsung's new S smaller phone is selling well and took 38 days to sell the first 3 million I think is what the articles are saying. For the iPhone 5, Apple sold 5 million+ the first weekend and it was considered not to have sold as well as it should have. Now you can say this new Samsung phone is a subset of an earlier phone which is the reason for its sales numbers but I think the numbers presented put things in perspective for me. Even though the share price of Apple has gone down, to me, it would seem the company is fundamentally strong and should continue on this path for at least the next year.
Just my opinion though. Good luck out there.
Neal |
