Not because they actually make amazing products.

They are another evil multinational corporation; except that their cultlike following allows them to get away with it.

Also its ridiculously over priced because people who buy apple mostly buy it for the name. Because if you have a pc, the hipsters won't think your cool.

To deny that fact is to deny reality.

I'm a PC guy all the way and yesterday I finally ditched the iPhone and my new phone is sweet. I'll never go back as far as I'm concerned.

You sure buy a lot of iPhones.

I've only had three.

I've been waiting for an upgrade and my request went through yesterday and I went and picked up a Samsung Galaxy which is sweet. I'm actually posting this from my new phone right now.

Then claim to ditch it within a couple of weeks after that.

I have faith in you.

I like Droid far better than iOS.

From iPhone to a Droid phone. Galaxy S2 to be exact. It's not the newest phone, but it's certainly an improvement over my old iPhone 3G.

In my opinion it does everything that the iPhone 4S does and was cheaper, too.

Then all the Apple Valentines could be moved there.

post their Apple uber Alles crap.

Be entertained! It's really quite funny.

Apple's Human Interface Guidelines, a little-known document that summarizes the principles that underlie Apple's successful products. Anyone who has any hope of competing Apple will read that book and learn its lessons well.

Now here we are 2012 and Windows based machines are 90% of the market.

Not to mention that Motorola and Samsung have been releasing much better 4G technology than Apple at a way lower price.

Apple is great, if you can afford it and don't mind the weird stores. Other than that they aren't anything special.

but can't afford the ipad price or just don't want to shell out that much money for one.

it's a hundred more than the kindle fire, but you also get a lot more.

or you get one of the discontinued models from another brand.

I also like the fact that apple supports hardware 2 or 3 generations old as well.

When all is said and done, you get a lot of bank for your buck.

A new Apple Ipad (the one that was announced a few days ago) starts at 499. The Ipad 2 is now 399 however.

you can get a brand new iPad starting at $399, the latest model cost more, sure... but my point stands.

Whatever helps you sleep better at night.

Any non-sales person who uses "399" and "499" is a fucking sucker of the first order. It's 400 and 500.

Jesus, we're turning into a nation of marketed to morons.

not sure what you are going on about

Not $100 more as you contend, $200 more. If you're looking to spend less than an iPad 3 while getting better performance, you can get a Transformer or Transformer Prime. Pretty much the sole advantage of the iPad 3 would be its higher resolution screen, but at that screen size, the resolution just goes to waste. And any decent netbook is a good deal more capable than any iPad at less than half the price.

Some apps just don't exist on anything but iOS. The aviation app which is the reason I bought my iPad in the first place, doesn't exist on Android. The other competing app made by Garmin only exists for iOS as well. I suspect that there's lots of specialty apps like these which just aren't going to be ported to Android because most of the market share for tablets lies with iOS.

I don't know exactly how many Android apps are designed for tablets, but I'm pretty sure it's not even in the same ballpark. So yeah Android may have a lot of smartphone apps, and those apps are generally cheaper, but they are lagging way behind in apps that are specific to tablets.

And because the Android OSes are open source, there are far more free applications available for it. And the bulk of iOS's additional apps come from the fact that you might find a dozen tic-tac-toe games on iOS as opposed to maybe 3 or 4 on Android.

The information on this web site is almost a year old, but at that time the NY Times could only find very few Android apps that were optimized for tablets, and that number is somewhat misleading because according to the article some of those apps might run well on one tablet and not another. At the same time Apple at 90,000 iPad apps (they now have over 140,000). So unless there have been a shitload (like 140,000) of Android apps added in the last 10 months, the pickens seem to be a bit slim...
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/01/mystery-how-many-android-tablet-apps/

I would much rather be an Android user, but because the aviation app I use is made for the iPad and the license of the app allows you to install a backup version on the iPhone, my trailer is hitched to Apple for the time being.

However, the web site you referenced deals with total apps, and not the subset of those apps which are optimized for tablets. Using most smartphone apps on tablets just plain sucks. And since the next version of Windows is going to run on tablets as well as PCs, I don't really look for the future of Android on tablets to gain much on Apple's tablet market share.

That way, whatever phone or tablet is your choice in terms of form factor and other features, android apps should work.

However, there's no question that many (if not most) apps are going to work better on some devices vs others. An app primarily designed for a 320x240 screen is not going to look all that good on a 1024x600 screen. Some Android apps can't be resized on some Android devices also, so you might be looking at an app that only takes up a small portion of the screen, which defeats the purpose of having a tablet in the first place. So yes, they should work, but whether they work well or not is a different story.

resolution into account. Again, that was the whole point of an OS that aims to be hardware independant.

Android platform fragmentation (google that phrase) is a huge problem, not just for developers, but also users, as the carriers don't have a excellent upgrade policy like apple has with ALL their devices, providing support even for devices that were sold years ago.

which is a HUGE benefit for any consumer electronics user. there aren't many manufactures in the world that continues to give you new features and functionality, years after your purchase.

FYI

http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/03/06/why-do-developers-prefer-ios-over-android-try-75-adoption-of-ios-5-while-ics-is-stuck-at-1/

netbooks are not even the same category.

Like use a multitude of wired accessories which aren't even available on an iPad. Or upgrade your memory or storage, which you can't do on an iPad. Or use tons of open source software which isn't available on an iPad.

No pun intended

No matter how you try to spin it. You tend to get a good deal more memory and storage space on a netbook for a fraction of the price of an iPad. True, the storage tends not to be SSD like in an iPad, but you can swap out conventional storage for an SSD and STILL pay a small fraction of what you would for an iPad. Hell, even if you are completely sold on getting a tablet rather than a conventional laptop/netbook, you can get a much faster tablet for a good deal less by getting something like a Transformer or Transformer Prime. IPads are pretty much for the Apple faithful and those who know extremely little about tech. Well, pretty much all Apple products are.

Sorry. It just is.

my point is that, the iPads have a very good price point, starting at $399.

that's all.

If it's such a good deal, even starting at more than twice the price of the Kindle Fire, why would you need to lie about its price? I'd still rather have my netbook with 2GB of RAM and solid state drive than an iPad. I can do quite a bit more with it for quite a bit less.

like me who don't need current state of the art gismos - just something to use on there lap while watching tv. Like now for example feet up on the sofa with my Galaxy

So will Microsoft and their new smartphone.

The arguments (hardly) this article makes ends up being:

*There's no way to match Apple's fortune. Only Apple knows how to sell a product for a profit. There's no possible reason to believe otherwise.

*Apple's hardware is obviously better and if Apple doesn't offer it, it's obvious consumers don't want it.

*Only Apple has the technology of Apps. ONLY APPLE. So who would choose anything but an iPad? You're only getting it for the Apps anyway.

*Since tablets aren't a fad like disco, everyone wants an iPad.

*Since a private Army didn't kill Steve Jobs in his secret lair, them Apple's competitors realize Apple's might but are lost in the idea that tablets ARE a fad. Otherwise--Steve Jobs would've died with a gun in his hand.

I'm glad I was born after the death of journalism, or else reading this article would make me terribly depressed.

Oh, wait...

he is one of the best Apple advertisements badly disguised as "articles", writers out there.

That's really all I have, just... LOL

Look, once upon a time Microsoft was invincible, now, thanks to tablets, less people are even bothering with Windows or PCs, period.

Once upon a time, Apple was a joke, now they are everywhere.

NOTHING is set in stone, especially with the fickle tastes of consumers. For all we know, some company is working on something that will make Microsoft and Apple the also rans. As a matter of fact, with a few tweaks, Android may mature into JUST THAT. Especially as it does not force people to learn about windows just to email.

And if not, I am sure somehwere in Texas, California, or even China or India, someone is working on the next shiny path. Tech may allows people to make money, but of all the Empires of goods, it changes the most. To twist about a quote from Charles De Gaulle "The junkyards are full of indespenisble machines."

Possessing a windows based system!

Infidels left behind!

i think it is mostly because they take the UI/UX very serious... they live and breath it, it's the key building block of their DNA. Not to mention that they do both the Hardware and the Software.

i can't think of any other electronics company who comes close to matching the strength apple has in UI/UX.

When that changes, apple will have a real competitor.

It mentions the iPod, but the iPad is closer to the iPhone than the iPod. The iPod does one thing well, but a platform like the iPad does many things, and Apple is getting beat by Android in the phone market.

It will be divided between Windows 8 and Android, but Windows 8 may actually have a chance to succeed there, because if the tablets are x86 based you'll be able to use any software built for that platform, going back decades. I think iPhone isn't mentioned for a reason, once Android overtook it globally (not just in the developed world), it was all over but the crying.

Was Android 60%, iPhone 26%, Now is Android 47%, iPhone 43%.

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2012-01-09/tech/30606530_1_new-iphone-android-sales-verizon-customers

or you could apply the first rule of analysis and make sure you are comparing apples to apples but it is a free world so do as you wish.

For one, that's not the market share in terms of how many people have each phone; it's instead how many were sold in that period. Secondly, it's the month of the release of the first iPhone in a year and a half, and the one after; you would have to extend the period to get a better idea of how the iPhone sales compare to the Android without the effect of the peak of a new release.

or that need is through defining yourself by what you buy.

Apple's marketing has been brilliant

50 years from now people will ponder why we were so fascinated with technology whose screen gets dirty by operating it normally. It will be a relic of a society filled with blind consumerism.

I have yet to see a single non-iPad in the wild besides Kindles, and I don't mean Android Kindles.

iPads aren't as affordable to the developing world as they are to us.

Held by a douche on the subway, chugging Skittles with his feet up on the seat in front of me, taking way too loud with his douche friend about nailing 'chicks' that come as see their band. Complaining about not getting enough money from his dad.

The conductor made him take his feet off the seat.

I truly wish I was making this up.

Now they're talking about skateboarding videos.

Ugh.

So, in reality the penetration of tablets in general is not as I initially claimed. It's probably still a developed world phenomena, but it if does go global it will be similar to the Android smart phone expansion, high resolutions phones with high CPU power sold here, lower resolution, lower CPU power smart phones sold elsewhere. Globally Android smart phones are absolutely dominant, but no one could claim a ASP320-Q was in any way comparable to a Droid Razr Maxx, but for the end user the affordablity of the former makes up for any failings that that phone has. Likewise a NOVO7 tablet would be trounced by an iPad or even an Asus Transformer, but the lesser privileged would use it and appreciate it and be happy that it exists in their price range. And in the end, there are more NOVO7 level consumers on the planet or ASP320-Q level consumers on the planet than there ever could be iPad consumers. It's basic math.

The Kindle Fire does sell at cost, however, but that is itself nefarious since Kindle is doing so to push their media platform, so your mileage may vary.

For what it's worth I've never touched an iPad. I did play with the Kindle Fire at Target though, but their iPads were locked up, no touchy.

But I still won't buy one.

It's primary usage is for entertainment purposes, not business purposes. I just came from a seminar, and I was talking to an IT guy for Cablevision. He was telling me that there are employees there always trying to justify getting an iPad, but there are no justifications for it. The Sr. Cablevision VP is putting an end to this.

And other than those who use FileMaker Go to submit their time sheets I have yet to see anybody do anything useful with them. I would love to just tell everyone to take them home and never bring them back - but there are a grand total of three people with the authority to fire me and all of them are among the iPad enthusiasts.

I have a dell pc laptop. What can the ipad do better or easier than it accomplishes? I've heard of ipads, but have no idea why they are better. I never see them demonstrated on video ads versus the pc, so they sure don't market them as if they are superior. Maybe they are more appealing to young people on the go. I never need a computer when I'm out of the house.

The Ipad I borrowed for a week was a much much better alarm clock than any laptop. Also, It was much better as a GPS, for directions.

I can see how they would be near ideal for traveling. Or for an older person who doesn't really need a whole computer set up. Or for a kid. Or for educational purposes. Anyone who wants it simple and virtually impossible to mess up, might prefer an Ipad to a PC. Or for someone with limited space. I can think of quite a few scenarios. They are no PC. But they do the stuff most people use a PC for. Email, Internet, a few games, maybe some photo editing.

I wouldn't give up my desktop for an Ipad. I dont have an Ipad. Or an Iphone. Or a Mac. But I can see some appealing aspects. I do really like that they do not seem to be as susceptible to heat related degradation as laptops usually seem to be.

Things change...but there is always a leader of the pack and in tech it tends to be a bully. Apple is just the geeky little kid who grew up and subsequently became a nasty bully because it remembers when MS used to give it wedgies.

But it is nice to see Apple showing it's true face in some ways. There is a well-worn tech joke that the only thing worst than a dominant Bill Gates was a dominant Steve Jobs. And now we see why.

Let's look by the sycophantic article and get at the core issue. Once you get by the incremental release of new product, once you look at what is actually going on, this is merely about monopolists and abuse of corporate power in the tech market willingly supported by us.

1) One who cares little for its country of origin or, contrary to Henry Ford's rule cares about the people responsible for its profits:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?pagewanted=all

2) One who wants to amass a huge cash reserve which can be used to apply substantial force to the market to get its way when its advertising and hype won't work.

http://macdailynews.com/2012/02/27/warren-buffett-steve-jobs-ignored-my-advice-to-buy-back-apple-stock/

3) One who uses tax laws to shield its profits with tricks like the "Irish Two Step"

http://www.ips-dc.org/articles/ihate_corporate_tax_dodgers_how_apple_avoids_paying_its_fair_share

4) A company willing to use finances to crush what it cannot crush by it's stunning innovation by locking in vendors.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2012/0127/1224310800307.html

http://news.yahoo.com/apple-tax-reversed-why-few-compete-ipad-price-000600793.html

So go on guys, sing Apple's praises all you want. I see a monopolistic bully no different than the last one

And those who choose to buy their products are doubling down on Google's access to you.

Plus, your 1, 2, 3, and 4 can apply all tech companies.

At least Apple creates hundreds of thousands of American jobs.

Unlike Samsung, HTC and many others.

wow just wow you will believe any nonsense as long as it comes from apple eh?

irrelevant, marketing-driven bunkum.

blech.

Apple has officially acknowledged that iPad stock set aside for preorders is sold out, while noting also that customer response to the device has been "off the charts."

Within two days of the unveiling of the new iPad, new orders of the iPad had already slipped from this Friday's launch day delivery to a ship date of March 19. Apple has since confirmed in a statement that preorders of the touchscreen tablet have run out, as noted by USA Today.

"Customer response to the new iPad has been off the charts and the quantity available for pre-order has been purchased," a company spokesperson said. "Customers can continue to order online and receive an estimated delivery date."

Given the response to the device, Apple is expected to set new sales records later this week when the device launches. Pre-existing records for the Cupertino, Calif., iPad maker were already impressive, as it experienced crushing demand for its second-generation tablet last year, with orders quickly slipping to multi-week shipping estimates. A month after the iPad 2 was released, Apple's then chief operating officer Tim Cook said during a quarterly conference call that "staggering" demand for the device had caused the "mother of all backlogs."

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/12/03/11/apple_says_new_ipad_response_is_off_the_charts_preorders_sold_out.html

It looks like a big ipod touch and there are better mp3 players out there, cheaper too I might add!

and we don't spend any time at all trying to convince the others that they're wrong. Who cares? It's nice that we have choices. My laptop is a Mac, and I use a PC at work. They both get the job done.

...if they would have doubled the price of the Amiga, they'd still be around today, damnit!

PB

The cool is with thee.
Blessed art thou amongst geeks,
and blessed is the fruit of thy sweatshop, Foxconn.
Holy Steve, Father of iGod,
pray for us consumers,
now and at the hour of our poverty.
Amen.

Now that's funny, I don't care who you are.

And I have more Apple stuff lying around here than you can shake a stick at. And the new iPad, due to be delivered on Friday.

But it's still funny as hell. Thanks for the laugh.

I'm wondering if this is sarcastic or for real.

I saw part one of this movie in the eighties. It was just as silly watching both sides trumpet their own innovations, while decrying the immorality, the licentiousness, and the wickedness of the other side. A few from both sides playing it passively telling us how irrelevant the other one is, while taking a drink of one or the other from a sippy-cup and reveling in their made-to-order Madison Avenue branded cynicism; and still others taking an ordered analysis of how the one or the other doesn't fit into their current lifestyle.




Bless their widdle hearts...

Seriously, if they control too much of the market, break the company up. And the first order of business is divorcing control of content from the hardware-producer. Apple doeswn't get to say what a person has on their pad, and can't reject content they think is icky.

They control the vast majority of what we see on the Internet.

Now they are virtually giving away their devices to control the gadget market too.

Let me know when Apple has that kind of overreach.

Why should the device builders be content controllers as well?

As far as your very well warranted google-phobia, I find several acceptable alternatives in the search realm and have never subscribed to any cloud services. My web pages render a bit less spiffily to be sure, but if I were that superficial about the appearance of my software and hardware I supposed I'd be wasting hours posting endless clips about how iPads are going to be unbeatable while simultaneously trying to claim that this will not lead to a monopoly.

I'm not really sure why either monopolist would be preferable.

Let's add Amazon and Walmart, for that matter. Plus banks, media conglomerates, and others that lax regulation allowed to become so huge they have undue power over their market and/or suppliers.

I am merely upset because we've "come together" on a previous thread and now we're back to the SOS again.

Both of them should be broken up. We used to have laws to work against this kind of concentration. We might still have some on the books, but enforcement is such a quaint concept these days.

and I don't ever see that changing. I love my Android phone, and my netbook serves my needs for an ultraportable. I really don't even understand the tablet craze. My phone can browse the web, and if I need more than that, then my netbook is a tiny little powerhouse (it's not Atom garbage).

I'm not going anywhere without either of them anyway, so I really don't see what a tablet would do for me besides annoy me with the lack of a keyboard and pathetic processing power.

I have never seen the reason to replace it, it still works just as well as when I bought it new. They have several generations advanced and the new ones don't seem that much better to me.

I still use an old PC laptop, which is also years old. Don't use an Iphone or any of that nonsense, a cheap basic cell phone is good enough for me. I will admit the new IPad is tempting, even to me, but odds are I won't be buying it any time soon, and will wait to see what the IPad 4 will offer, and then maybe get the IPad 3 cheaper. I guess I'm not the type that has to have everything cutting edge "right now" and can wait, and am happy with what I buy rather than keep buying new models just because they are new.

From the study, we learn that approximately 22 percent of companies plan to buy tablets for their employees during Q2 2012. ChangeWave noted, among those companies, demand for iPad increased to the “highest level of corporate iPad demand ever” with 84 percent planning to make the new iPad their tablet of choice. The increase represents a 7-point jump from ChangeWave’s last study due to the new iPad launch.



http://9to5mac.com/2012/03/13/study-85-of-companies-plan-on-buying-an-ipad-within-90-days/

An oldie but goodie.

http://gizmodo.com/5101110/apple-no-reasonable-person-should-trust-their-marketing

Trafficking stolen materials will do that.

Fleshbot is the most representative of the Gawkerverse.

I have never debated an Apple Cultist that wasn't trying to win by insulting the "other brandname" instead of focusing on the merits.

You are no different. In this very thread you've tried to divert criticism by finding some "other" to blame. "Oh it's Google, Oh it's Gawker..." you say, hoping that the narrative YOU hold about that brand name forms the entirety of a basis for dismissal. I guess that happens when brand identity and personal identity get confused too much. It also explains why it's so easy to press your buttons by simply pointing out something Apple does wrong and why we're treated to your constant stream of "worship the mighty Apple and the awesome power of it's products" posts.

The document linked in the story agrees with the content of the story. No allegations about other misdeeds changes that.

Try again. If you can.

History is full of companies who once thought competition could "never" catch up with them...

I'd never buy an iPad. They're overpriced and my tablet can do everything it does--and do it better.

I'd never buy a



They're overpriced and my



can do everything it does---and do it better.

I'm typing this on it now, in fact

I love it.