Apple copies PCs yet again

[Imran Siddiqui]

They are (male) computer nerds. The only ones with worse handwriting are doctors .

[Agathon]

None of you has still solved the basic problem. Tablet PCs have been around for years now, and they have still failed to penetrate the market despite loads of advertising (I've seen plenty) and even a really cool product placement in Collateral. A few people – science lecturers and engineers use them, but no-one else gives a toss. They've been out for years now and have failed to expand beyond a limited user base.

There's an obvious reason – most people don't want to spend a fortune on added functionality that they don't really need. The makers of Tablet PCs would do well to offer something that wasn't just a glorified legal pad, and so would Apple if they have decided to join this losing club.

Also, in response to his "Palm Pilot" concerns. Some people may like a regular laptop-ish set up when, say, typing up papers or playing games.

Why not buy a laptop with your Palm Pilot then? Plenty of folk have both. Why lug a laptop to a lecture when you can just take a PP that fits in your pocket?

I'm just reporting what I see around campus. The PP at lectures thing has taken off in the last couple of years,

[Asher]

None of you has still solved the basic problem. Tablet PCs have been around for years now, and they have still failed to penetrate the market despite loads of advertising (I've seen plenty)

They've had a considerable price premium until recently. Some of the biggest brands (ie, Dell) don't have a tablet PC out yet. I don't know why you think there has been, but there certainly has not been "loads" of advertising. I've seen one or two print ads in Wired, but that's about it.

And I'm not sure your experience of what students in a philosophy lecture use for notes is really all that useful for a discussion on tablet PCs.

[pchang]

Originally posted by Agathon
That's not the real world. Your job has little to do with the sort of thing most people do for a living.

This coming from a philosphy academe is almost too much to bear

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Agathon

Not everybody just writes words for a living. Some of us need to diagram and do math, which is hard to do with a keyboard.

Most people don't need to. Given the quality of the diagrams I have seen drawn on tablets, I don't hold out much hope. Ten bucks says that the majority of drawings done on tablets today are humorous doodles of women's breasts.

But I guess in your neck of the woods people like to do pretty drawings rather than meaningful use of language.

Wait... looking again at your thesis, I'm not sure why you would care about meaningful use fo language.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Agathon
I find it puzzling that Apple would make a tablet, since it is such a niche thing.

pure sig material

[Asher]

In related news, Windows Mobile 5.0 was just announced (aka, Windows Mobile 2005).




Along with it came some new products:

[Asher]

SMS support.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Asher
I meet with my software engineering group in our lab. We're given the specs from our "customer" for the solution they want. We're then at the point where we need to design a system, componentize it, form teams and assign them appropriately.

Guy with the tablet PC opens up OneNote and the group huddles around the screen, and we begin to make some fundamental design decisions. Diagrams are drawn -- we start brainstorming and assigning components into packages, which are then assigned to teams. But we change our minds the more we think about it -- he can just click and drag to rearrange parts of the diagram cleanly at will.

That is an extremely strange way of, uh, "software design."

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Asher
Ugh. No.

Uh, yes.

It doesn't matter if you are using data flow, UML, or something else, pieces are bog standard. It's simple to connect them like lego, or Visio if you prefer.

[Spiffor]

If tablet PCs are really made for drawing, I expect Apple to do well on that market. Many artsy types prefer Apple (I am under the impression that Apple has the lion's share of the artsy market), and I suppose they have a better knowledge of the needs of the artsies, as well as a better marketing toward them.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger


That is an extremely strange way of, uh, "software design."

Err, no, it's not.

I guess Extreme Programming and the Extreme Programming/Waterfall hybrids are too new for you to understand?

[Asher]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger Uh, yes.

It doesn't matter if you are using data flow, UML, or something else, pieces are bog standard. It's simple to connect them like lego, or Visio if you prefer.

As someone who has done many, many, many UML/data flow/program flow diagrams (I'm a software engineering concentration), I know how much of a pain in the ass it is.

It's necessary for formal work, but for quick brainstorming of informal ideas (read: not UML diagrams), it's painfully slow.

I don't know why you and Agathon are even bothering to argue this. It's easier to draw informal diagrams freehand than it is to use some tools that try to approximate the same thing.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Spiffor
If tablet PCs are really made for drawing, I expect Apple to do well on that market. Many artsy types prefer Apple (I am under the impression that Apple has the lion's share of the artsy market), and I suppose they have a better knowledge of the needs of the artsies, as well as a better marketing toward them.

They're not made for the artsy people. I would actually say they're aimed more at the science/math/business world than art...needless to say I'm not surprised that Agathon and Urban Ranger don't crasp the usefulness of it -- Agathon being an artsy instructor in academia and Urban Ranger being an IT-monkey. Try doing integrals on a standard PC.

Tablet PCs are not places for you to draw pretty pictures, they're for diagramming and freehand note taking primarily. Agathon is intentionally trying to confuse people by mentioning drawing pictures with them...

[Asher]

By the way, Dell is launching a 19" widescreen laptop next year... http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000463042992/

I remember when Apple launched the 17" widescreen (till too big IMO), everyone made a big deal about how Apple was first...