Apple iPad, PC Makers and Battery Life - Lost in Space and The AppleByte

The Best laid schemes o’ mice and men

Gang aft agley

An’ lea’e us nought but grief and pain,

For promised joy!

Burns, To a Mouse

It seems that with the dust settling after the successful launch of the Apple iPad 2 on Wednesday March 2^nd 2011AD, Apple iPad Day, a few feathers have been ruffled in various camps. This as PC makers, startled by the success of the USA$999 Apple MacBook Air as chronicled in the Geezam Blog article entitled “MacBook Air and FLASH-based Harddrives - The Quest for Instant On”, have yet to begin to really respond.

This product, originally debut in 2008 with a 64GB SSD and a hefty US$3000 price tag, has apparently become a gift from the Tech Gods to the regular Joe, with the dramatic price drop to the affordable US$999.

Respond they must, to the coming onslaught of SSD (Solid State Drives) that the Apple iPad and Tablets circus are now making popular and affordable that has the potential to make them extinct as originally opined by a slew of articles so numerous I have to put them in a numbered list:

1.      “Tablets will displace PC units; Time to pick winners and losers”, published November 29, 2010, 8:24am PST By Larry Dignan, Between the Lines - ZDNET

2.      “Gartner: Tablets, Economy Taking Bite out of PC Sales”, published November 29, 2010 by PC Magazine

3.      “Tablets taking a bite out of PC sales: Gartner”, published November 29, 2010 by AFP

4.      “Watch out, PC: The Tablet cometh”, published November 29, 2010 by Ben Patterson, Technology Writer, Yahoo! News

All pointing to research by analyst Gartner, who appears to be on point for the analysts in Silicon Valley!

It has also made the PC Makers such as Dell take note: people demand better battery Life from their gadgets as opined in my blog article entitled “Dell Inspiron Duo and Solid State Drives - Charles Darwin and the Survival of the Fittest” which can be achieved using SSD (Solid State Drives.

Thus aside from my opinion, it is now heartening to see evidence now emerging in the news of the acknowledgement of the PC and Laptop Makers such as Hewlett Packard and Dell of the equation made famous in my blog articles:  SSD’s = Lower operating temperatures + better performance at lower processor speeds.

In the article by CNET Blog Network Writer Brooke Crothers entitled “Laptops play catch up to the iPad, Xoom”, published March 5, 2011 7:12 PM PST by Brooke Crothers, Nanotech - The Circuits Blog, CNET News, strong evidence is presented by Gartner (again on point!) in a Research note released Wednesday March 3^rd, 2011AD, a day after the Apple iPad 2 launch on Wednesday March 2^nd, 2011AD suggesting that the Laptop and PC Market is behind times as it relates to making Social Networking friendly, Internet-Anywhere Streaming Media electronics devices.

Gartner also was the one who highlighted, via mathematical projections, a coming shortfall in the demand for PC’s in 2011 by about 5.4%, a possible herald to the coming of the much hyped “Post-PC” era that Laptops were supposed to have bought into the fore.

Customers, realizing their power, have (possibly…hopefully?!) apparently chosen to punish Silicon Valley for its lack of foresight and listening to them, the customer, by turning up their collective noses at the current PC offerings in the future.

Vox Populi, Vox Dei, Silicon Valley!

Indeed, it would appear that this coincidental piece of research may, really, be only spotting the tip of a larger iceberg of the insatiable demand for quality PC performance that thus far, only Netbooks, Tablets, e-Readers and anything Apple Inc made, seem to be able to deliver.

Suddenly, the center of the universe is no longer the Windows-based machines made by Dell et al , but Apple Inc, now the number three (3) PC maker in the world, thanks to a technicality a la Apple iPad. Full details of my opinions of the success of the Apple iPad 2 and its huge potential come London Olympics 2012 can be perused in the Geezam Blog article entitled “Apple iPad 2 - Dual-Core Easy Skankin'”.

Even venerable Tech giant Google Inc and the soon-to-debut-in-the Summer-of-2011, the Google Chrome Cr-48 smartbook is ahead of the curve! Yes, that’s right folks, the media- shy Google Chrome Cr-48 smartbook made by Acer, Samsung and Intel for the processor (suggestion: Sandy Bridge and ThunderBolt et al Google?!).

The Google Chrome Cr-48 smartbook, which apparently was modeled off the older version Apple MacBook Pro plus SSD and cloud-based Google Chrome OS, are WAY, WAY ahead of the dunces in the Silicon Valley classroom curve as stated in my blog article entitled “Google Chrome OS and Open Source - Star Wars A New Hope” despite being merely a rehash of an old idea, that being the NC (Network Computing).

Additional suggestion for the Google Chrome Cr-48 smartbook: DMFC (Direct Methanol Fuel Cells) as stated in my blog article entitled “Chrome OS Cr-48 and the Mobion Fuel Cell Generator - Green Lantern”.

Now the Apple iPad has brought the focus firmly where it should have been for years: battery life. Sporting 12.6 hours of battery life while playing full HD Video, the only Tablet on the market that even holds a candle to the Apple iPad is the thicker 10” Motorola Xoom, ranging in at second with 9.3 hours of battery life while playing full HD Video.

So says CNET Editor Eric Franklin in a battery (pun intended!) of tests that CNET Labs is now subjecting the various Tablets that are out in the wild as stated in the article “CNET tests Tablet Web speed, battery life”, published March 6, 2011 11:59 AM PST by Eric Franklin, Crave - CNET News.

Hint to CNET Editor Eric Franklin: please add a column for “weight” and a column for “accessories” for the Tablet-phoebe, still on the fence as to whether the Apple iPad can replace their Laptop or PC, a task the “accessories” would accomplish.

This an opinion I even expressed to a bunch of Shurpower Engineers back in April of 2009, describing a device of similar design to the Apple iPad, effectively my prediction (or design?) of the future. Ditto for the other Tablets, as their names sound rather familiar……….hmm.

Expect this rather short list to get really long by the end of 2011 and leading up to 2012, as the demand for streaming of media content from the London Olympics 2012 will create a market space for all successful Tablet makers.

For now, the Apple iPad has that potential space locked. What with its lighter weight of 1.33lbs, 8.8mm of technology goodness for easier gripping as detailed in my blog article entitled “Apple iPad 2 and the PC Future - Doomsday in the Battlefield”.

Great for standing and viewing on the bus, in the car to keep the kids occupied; that sort of “Streaming Anywhere” concept!

Doesn’t matter if it is over a Telecom Providers 3G or 4G Network or Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n), the main thing is the battery life and the weight, as I have been saying about Laptops and PC for years prior to the launch of the original Apple iPad.

Plus with Wi-Fi (IEEE 802.11n) roaming technology in the wings with research and testing being conducted by Ruckus Wireless as stated in my blog article entitled “Telecom Providers, 4G and Wi-Fi Roaming - Ruckus Wireless and the FireStarter”, the Network you are on, like the Qualcomm chipset enabled Apple iPad 2, may be irrelevant in the future.

Looks like the PC and Laptop Makers have heard the masses, based on the incredible response to the Apple iPad 2, set to makes it US (and international?) debut on Friday March 11^th  2011.

Heck, if you bought the First Generation Apple iPad within two (2) weeks of the launch date, you can get a US$100 refund on your credit card purchase as stated in the article “Apple cuts original iPad price”, published Wednesday March 2, 2011 6:03 pm ET by Molly McHugh, Digital Trends. Expect a roaring trade-in business prior to Apple iPad Day Part II on Friday March 11^th  2011.

With no pre-orders before the ominous date, debuting on both Telecom Provider Verizon, a CDMA Network) and Telecom Provider AT&T (a GSM Network) and Apple Inc. maintaining the same exact prices as when they launched this PC Revolution on Saturday April 3^rdand Sunday April 4^th 2010, expect too, VERY long lines, even in the cold!

The PC Makers meanwhile appear Lost in Space (1998), apparently unwilling stowaways on a journey to find a more habitable planet to transplant humanity now addicted to the mantra of “better battery life” and “improved performance” thanks to Apple and it’s usage of SSD’s.

The US of A and Internationals are now wanting another bite, The Apple Byte Style ………of the Apple!