Apple's Cook and the iPad versus PC question

I couldn't believe my ears at the All Things D conference, the annual powwow of tech and media tycoons.Maybe I had too much sparkling water and shaved prosciutto at the oceanfront reception.

But sure enough, last Tuesday, Apple's new chief executive came right out and said the iPad isn't a personal computer."In my view, the tablet and the PC are different," Cook said to hosts Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher.

Nobody paid much attention to that line. It was the backswing for a slam aimed at Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 tablets.

It may seem obvious tablets and PCs are different, but I'd argue that most people aren't so sure. For many, it's been an open question since Apple introduced the iPad in 2010. This ambiguity helped Apple straddle the markets for mobile devices and PCs, broadening the reach of its wildly successful tablet.
Cook's predecessor, Steve Jobs, was coy about the distinction at first. He let pundits, fans and buyers work through the question themselves.
Apple's news release at the first iPad launch called it a device "for browsing the Web, reading and sending email, enjoying photos, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading e-books and much more."
That's mostly what people do with PCs, and the iPad is like a computer, so it was natural to see it as a sort of PC.

Early reviewers nudged this along. Drawing on the old Apple vs. Microsoft storyline, they suggested the iPad could take the place of a PC.
This added to the appeal of the iPad. People shopping for a PC they'd use mostly for the Web and entertainment saw Apple's gorgeous tablet as a nice alternative.
As more people saw the iPad as a newfangled PC with productivity potential, companies bought them for employees. Sales snowballed.

This happened during a low point in the PC sales cycle, after the Windows 7 launch in 2009. Sales of the new iPad soared as PC sales slowed, and pundits began questioning whether Microsoft was finally losing its dominance of the PC market.

Jobs ran with it.
At the All Things D conference in 2010, Jobs said the "post PC" era had begun, a phrase he used again to launch the iPad 2.Nowadays, everybody's a tech enthusiast and gadgets are the elixir of youth. Yet few have time to keep up with all the new products and sort out their different capabilities.

Jobs made it simple, implying the iPad is the computer of the future. It's kind of true.As a bonus, it also sounded like a death blow to his nemesis, Microsoft. Especially if you took "PC" to be his shorthand for Windows-based computers.
Many people still wonder if their next PC should be an iPad.

Adding to the confusion are productivity apps and accessories for the iPad, such as external keyboards. These add-ons turn the iPad into a quasi-laptop.
Research firms aren't helping. Some declare the iPad to be a PC and count it in tallies of PC sales. Others classify tablets separately.

This will get more confusing in the fall, when PC makers unveil Windows 8 systems, including some that look just like iPads. More than 100 different models are in the works. A number of these will be thin, glass-fronted slabs with touch-screen input. Some will function like traditional PCs and have Intel hardware, while others will be based on mobile chips like the iPad's. Also coming are new hybrids that convert from laptops into tablets.

Microsoft and its partners hope to produce systems that are fast, light and easy to use like an iPad, with the flexibility and variety people expect from PCs.
So it's time for Apple to start clarifying what's what. I think that's what Cook was doing, when Mossberg asked about the new competition from Redmond.

There were no more sly hints about the iPad displacing the PC. Cook drew a sharp line between tablets and PCs, saying the former are "not encumbered by the legacy of the PC." Instead of blending a tablet with a PC, Apple made something new and different, he said.

"I think convergence is great in many areas, but I think that products are about trade-offs, and you have to make tough decisions, you have to choose," he said. "And the fact is, the more you look at a tablet as a PC, the more the baggage from the past affects the product."

Swisher asked, why still have a PC?"Because I don't see the tablet replacing the need for all PCs, or all Macs -- I don't mean to imply that at all," Cook said. "What I see is that the tablet for some people takes over what their PC was about for them. It will probably also extend the purchasing cycle for others -- where they'll say, you know I want both but I've got to budget, and so I'm going to buy this tablet more often than I buy my PC or my Mac in some cases."

I guess things are moving so fast we flew right through the post-PC era and into the PC-plus-tablet era.We'll find out this fall whether Microsoft has too much baggage to ride this train.

This article comes from: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/technologybrierdudleysblog/2018350652_apples_cook_on_ipad_versus_pc.html

iPhone 5 Will Be 'Completely Redesigned,' Resemble iPad: Analysts

A “completely redesigned” Apple iPhone 5 will arrive in October, according to analysts with Piper Jaffray. There have been a lot of conflicting reports about when the new iPhone would arrive but the analysts are “confident,” in their time frame, according to the May 21 research note.

Jefferies analysts also released an Apple-related note May 21, and together the two reports offer a picture of what’s to come from Apple and what’s likely to be phased out.

The launch of the iPhone 5—as the newest model is expected to be called—will represent the biggest product launch of the year, as well as the biggest device upgrade cycle “in smartphone history,” wrote Piper Jaffray analysts Gene Munster and Douglas J. Clinton.

More specifically, Munster and Clinton added:

We believe the iPhone 5 will have a completely redesigned body style, which may more closely resemble the metallic rear panel of the current iPad. We believe there is a 50 percent chance the new phone has a slightly larger 4-plus-inch screen. We believe larger screen size is one of the few areas in which Android devices have been able to compete.

The iPhone 5 will also, they added, include 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) technology, an upgraded processor and memory, and a higher-megapixel camera.

While inventories of 28-nanometer chips are limited, Munster and Clinton expect Apple will receive “favorable treatment” and receive access to what’s available, likely selling 49 million units in the December quarter. However, should parts supplies delay the smartphone, the analysts expect Apple fans, unswayed, will wait out the delay.

“We believe it would be unlikely that a consumer would choose to buy another phone if they are unable to get an iPhone 5 due to short-term supply constraints, given past launches with limited supply,” according to the Piper Jaffray report.

The iPhone 3GS, meanwhile, will be discounted and pitched to a new fan base.

“We believe Apple has signed an agreement with a leading distribution and logistics company [that has been] tasked with penetrating the prepaid markets around the world as well as expanding channels for the iPhone 3GS in the developing world,” wrote analysts with investment firm Jefferies.

This would help to plug a revenue hole while consumers twiddle their thumbs into October or possibly beyond.

Presumably for the U.S. market, they add that Apple is in the process of repricing the 3GS so that it can be purchased with no subsidy for around the $200 price that the iPhone 4 sells for with a contract.

Apple is additionally expected to soon debut its new Apple TV. Speaking at a Fast Company event this month, Apple board member and J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler said Apple will “deal with the living room in the near future.”

Likely unendearing himself to the Apple core team further, Drexler added that he didn’t envy Apple CEO Tim Cook.

“The best job to have is to take over a company that’s doing poorly,” he said candidly. “Never take over a company that’s doing great!”

This article comes from:http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/iPhone-5-Will-Be-Completely-Redesigned-Resemble-iPad-Analysts-174315/

iPhone: Apple to boost screen size in next version

The new iPhone screens will measure 4 inches from corner to corner, one source said. That would represent a roughly 30 percent increase in viewing area, assuming Apple keeps other dimensions proportional. Apple has used a 3.5-inch screen since introducing the iPhone in 2007.
Early production of the new screens has begun at three suppliers: Korea's LG Display Co Ltd, Sharp Corp and Japan Display Inc, a Japanese government-brokered merger combining the screen production of three companies.

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It is likely all three of the screen suppliers will get production orders from Apple, which could begin as soon as June. That would allow the new iPhone to go into production as soon as August, if the company follows its own precedent in moving from orders for prototypes for key components to launch.
Apple's decision to equip the next iPhone with a larger screen represents part of a competitive response to Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.
Samsung unveiled its top-of-the line Galaxy smartphone with a 4.8-inch touch-screen and a faster processor earlier this month.
With consumers becoming more and more comfortable using smartphones for tasks they once performed on laptops, like watching video, other smartphone manufacturers have also moved toward bigger displays.
AESTHETICS AND DESIGN
A likely shakeup in the design of a larger-screen iPhone could go a long way in boosting its "wow" factor, convincing fans to trade in their old iPhones for new ones, said Shaw Wu, an analyst at Sterne Agee.
"Not only do users pay for features, but they also pay for aesthetics and design. That's as important, or more important, than features," Wu said. "People love the current design -- but it's 18 months old."
The latest iPhone 4S was introduced in October of last year and essentially has the same form factor as the iPhone 4, launched in 2010.
Samsung, which this year became the world's largest cell phone maker, sold 45 million smartphones in the first quarter, and sales of the Galaxy phones outstripped the iPhone.
Apple was not immediately available to comment.
This article comes from:http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0517/iPhone-Apple-to-boost-screen-size-in-next-version