My Thoughts on Technology and Jamaica: Apple iPad 2 and PC future - Doomsday in the Battlefield

Friday, March 4, 2011

Apple iPad 2 and PC future - Doomsday in the Battlefield

It is the child of avarice, the brother of iniquity, and the father of mischief

George Washington, Letter to Bushold Washington

The Apple iPad 2 has landed folks! The Geezam Blog made a splash of it in the article by Kelroy of the Geezam Blog entitled “Apple iPad 2 ups the Tablet Game” with a follow up article on the product soon to appear later on the Geezam Blog assessing the competition. What competition? Good question indeed!

But back to the Wednesday March 2nd Event! Apple CEO Steve Jobs was there and he was smokin’! Gaunt and thin, despite at times appearing a bit ungainly on his feet and a bit out of breath, he was still in good form, delivering the presentation of his life as stated in the article “Apple's Jobs puts on lively iPad 2 show”, published Wednesday March 2, 2011 11:35 pm ET by Gabriel Madway and Alexei Oreskovic, Reuters. Some bed rest would do Steve Jobs some wonders though!

But the Apple iPad specs speak for themselves as stated on Apple’s own website entitled “Apple iPad 2 - Technical Specs”, viewed Thursday March 3 2011, Apple when compared to the original Apple iPad: Dual-Core 1GHz A5 processors twice as fast but equally energy efficient, 8.8mm thickness down from 13.4mm and 0.23lbs lighter, moving from a hefty 1.56lbs to a featherweight 1.33lbs.

Though not the first to do Dual-Core, they are the first to ship in volume as per the edict of CEO Steve Jobs, despite other smartphones and Tablets having Dual-core chipsets as stated in the article “Apple's iPad 2 Makes Dual-Core Mainstream”, published March 2, 2011, 12:45pm PT by Stacey Higginbotham, GigaOM.

The US$800 Motorola Xoom (has no Wi-Fi Options and you have to send it back to get a LTE upgrade!) as stated in the Geezam Blog article entitled “Motorola and the Xoom - The Empire Strikes Back and the gaming and Ecosystem ready HTC Flyer as stated in the Geezam Blog article entitled “HTC Flyer - A Tablet for Gaming are examples that readily come to mind.

Even after going on a diet, it STILL puts up the numbers: ten (10) hours on a full stretch of 720p videos and Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) usage and days of Standby time! Wow! If that doesn’t make your day, then how about 30-pin connector dongle for HDMI (High Definition Media Input) support! Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) Hotspot support! A Magnetic cover design that wakes up the Apple iPad 2 on its removal! Nine (9) time better graphics rendering, making the Apple iPad great for gaming!

Still the same Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) and Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) + 3G models: Choice is important to Apple Inc from the get go, as, unlike the competitors, who wish to lock you into a contract, Apple Inc. sells the Apple iPad like a PC.

To wit, the prices for the Apple iPad 2 remain the same as the original Apple iPad when it launched Saturday April 3rd and Sunday April 4th 2010 as stated in the article “Apple iPad 2 - Apple Store”, viewed Thursday March 3 2011, Apple. The Apple iPad 2 also debuts on Telecom Provider Verizon and Telecom Provider AT&T at the same exact low prices on both, subject to the vagaries of the pricing of a Data Plan.

Even better, Apple Inc has dropped the price on the original Apple iPad by US$100 as stated in the article “Apple cuts original iPad price”, published Wednesday March 2, 2011 6:03 pm ET by Molly McHugh, Digital Trends. If you bought one within two (2) weeks of the launch day, which is Friday March 11th 2011, you can get a refund and purchase the Apple iPad 2!

Sweet Apple Cider!

Sorry Apple Lemmings and sheep: no ThunderBolt, now being sported on the MacBook Pro 13”, 15” and 17” as stated in my blog article entitled “MacBook Pro and Intel LightPeak - Thunderbolt and the Fantastic Mr. Fox”. No USB port either as after all, everything that connects to their RAM (Random Access Memory) and SSD (Solid State Hard-drive) has to go though their proprietary 30-pin connector. Definitely NO SD Card support and Flash support, which is fine, as I hate viruses and love Safari!

There also appears to be no word on NFC (Near Field Communication) in the Apple iPad 2 as opined in the article “iPhone 5 and iPad 2 could make Credit Cards Obsolete”, published Friday February 25 2011, NewsFactor, Yahoo! News, leaving me to speculate that it may be practical only for the Apple iPhone 5 (like duh!).

But what was that last comment about “Apple Inc. sells the Apple iPad like a PC”? This was based on a comment that CEO Steve Jobs himself made about the Tablet PC being extinct as stated in the article “Apple's Jobs: The Tablet PC 'crashed and burned'”, published March 2, 2011 9:01 PM PST by Brooke Crothers, NanoTech - CNET News.

This may be very true, as speculation from the analyst Gartner is suggesting that the Apple iPad and its Tablet ilk are set to seriously displace computers as stated in the article “Gartner prophesies Apple's Post-PC era”, published March 3, 2011 8:52 PM PST by Brooke Crothers, Nanotech - CNET News.

The article “Apple's iPad 2 Reignites Post-PC Discussion”, published Mar 3, 2011 1:30 pm By Agam Shah, IDG News, PCWorld provides more ammunition for the conflict on this BattleField, Jodine Sparks Style (girl you SERIOULSLY need a website!). The Tablet as a choice to replace the PC in much the same way people were opting for Netbooks over Laptops and Laptops over PC’s at one point in time, albeit these are projections-based reasoning and not absolute proof.

This according to analyst Gartner who are prognosticating a day late (coincidence?) with regards to the future of the PC industry based on projected PC shipments. They say a max of 387.8 million units is expected in 2011AD, an increase of only 10.5% compared to 2010AD.

The problem? The projected growth as predicted by their extrapolate graphs for PC sales was 15.9%, thus suggesting a slowing down of the growth of the PC market, a marked 5.4% slowdown, based on projections, of course!

If this holds, then my own prognostications in my blog article entitled “Tablets and the Future of the PC - Jurassic Park and License to Kill” may be coming true by latest 2015AD.

Long live the Tablet!!

But what of the Apple iPhone? Is Android OS set to kill off the Apple iPhone? Stay tuned form my next blog article on this subject………

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