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What the hell is going on? This week MS and HP both announced that they are canceling their table computing development programs. Presumably and almost assuredly these announcements come as the post game blues settle in and both companies realized they lost the championship this year (3 years in a row actually) and Steve Jobs has just quarterbacked the most impressive Business winning streak any of us has seen in a long time and is in the running for best CEO ever.
Apple's story is not traditional, it is epic, and they have single handedly convinced industry after industry to do to themselves, what no one could make them do. "Give Way" and cannibalize your profits for a bite at a whole new way of doing business or Steve will take your first born son.
I know some of you are saying "oh, what pitiful stuff" and if it were any other company I would say you're right, but with Apple, it's real and you know they have come to win.
In related news this week, Apple announced the sale of 1mm iPads over the last 30 days. Perhaps that was the impetus of the MS and HP to bow out of the tablet game for the short term.
HP, with it's recent acquisition of Palm's webOS, have seen the light and taken a page from Apple, hardware alone is not enough to win over a user. Hardware gets the consumers attention, but the magic is in the OS and software. And with Palm's webOS, HP gains a solid foundation to build a viable alternative to the iPad. Let's hope the core Palm engineers stay with HP and they can build something comparable and get in back the game. However, I need to mention, the triple threat of Apples very fast in-house processor with excellent battery and power management software will make it very hard for anyone to match the iPad spec for spec on paper or when consumers holds one in there hands.
If a manufacturer tries to up spec the iPad with a screen, it will cost more. If competition tries to increase the speed, they will kill battery life. If they increase the battery life it will be significantly heavier and uncomfortable to hold for long periods. The iPad is a brilliant product, with brilliant market and price position. A niche, need I remind you that Apple created out of thin air.
For the next year I think the iPad is king until some technological advance allows for either significantly more processing power/watt or a higher density energy storage is developed that allows 10 hr performance despite a more powerful and less efficient processor. The screen is a non issue. at 720p (full HD) and with full multitouch capability it's as unassailable as the ramparts of Edinburgh castle. The real secret of the iPad is it's weight, at around 1.6lbs (0.73 kg), the majority of the weight is in it's batteries hidden behind the screen. It is my opinion that users will simply not accept a hand held computer that weights over 1.6lbs for the foreseeable future. Don't belive me? Take an iPad to bed with you and try reading an ebook. You quickly realize, learning to hold an iPad is part of the learning curve and then the second thing you will notice is, if it were any heavier, you would not use it at all. Again, perfect market position. Apple discovered the upper bound of acceptable weight for the case, then maxed out the one component that is pretty much a static variable for everyone, battery technology. leaving the competition no where to attack except on processing power and efficiency, which Apple has begun to master as well (see Apples new A4 chip). It makes my head spin how good Apple is at seeing the way forward thru the technological limitations of hardware and the power of third party software.
I am make it no secret I am impressed with Steve Jobs and Co. but I think they could use a little competition. I mean seriously, there is not a single company that can catch Apple's momentum right now. Not google and certainly not MS or Nokia. It's just not fun being the best by this much of a spread. Or is it Steve?
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