OT: Steve Jobs' Walled Garden is Crumbling

[David Sanders]

On 13 May 2010 19:23, Avi Greenbury
<avismailinglistaccount at googlemail.com> wrote:
> David Sanders wrote:
>>>> As for "all Apple products" being awesome - I give you the iPad - a
>>>> big chunk of utterly pointless electronics.
>>>
>>> Isn't this how the iPhone was described on release?
>>
>> Please reply to list :-)
>
> Bah, sorry! Been trying out Thunderbird today and it appears to mostly
> disagree with me on what constitutes 'intuitive' or 'reasonable default'...
>
>> Not really - the iPhone is a neat little device and has a definite
>> purpose (it's a phone).
>
> That's not how I remember it being received. It was definitely viewed as
> a product looking for a market. Sure, it's a phone, but why would I want
> my phone to do any more than that? etc.

I don't think that was the case at all. All of use who've been using
RIM or Symbian devices for years are used to lots of features over and
above a standard telephone - WiFi/Skype/Internet/You-name-it - so it's
only a logical successor. I think it was lucky in some ways for apple
as they got it just out at the time these features were on the cusp of
becoming standard on all phones.

>> The iPad is a solution looking for a problem - too big, too heavy and
>> tooshort on battery life to be a viable e-book reader,
>
> 10hrs battery life? It's hardly too big, either. Really, it's pretty
> good for anything you would use a netbook for that doesn't involve
> (much) text input.
>

Kindle/Sony/Nook etc are all in the region of HUNDREDS of hours. You
can take them on holiday for a week without a charger - y'know sort of
like a replacement for a book. iPad can't compete (and no, being over
10 years old I don't look at picture books so I don't need colour).

It can't print. It has no keyboard. It is not good enough for most tasks.