Sniping at Apple (the IPad)

Microsoft Strategy Chief: Tablets May Just Be A Fad

Excerpt:

The Sydney Morning Herald reports that Mundie is more bullish on smartphones, which he thinks will become the "most personal computer."

He drew a distinction between mobile devices like smartphones -- which are used when you're literally in transit moving -- and portable devices, like notebooks, which you have to stop and set down before you can work with them.

He called the iPad an "in between" device and said "Personally I don't know whether I believe that space will be a persistent one or not."

Later he elaborated that tablets "are not very good for creating things" and are mainly being used for consumption, not creation of content and said "I don't know whether consumption things will remain a category by themselves or not."

Dell exec: iPad too costly, closed, complex

Excerpts:

“I couldn’t be happier that Apple has created a market and built up enthusiasm but longer term, open, capable and affordable will win, not closed, high price and proprietary,” Lark told reporter Lisa Banks.

Lark was particularly pointed in his criticism that the popular tablet doesn’t work for enterprise users.

“Apple is great if you’ve got a lot of money and live on an island. It’s not so great if you have to exist in a diverse, open, connected enterprise; simple things become quite complex.”

...

Lark’s other central rip against the iPad was price.

“An iPad with a keyboard, a mouse and a case [means] you’ll be at $1500 or $1600; that’s double of what you’re paying,” he said. “That’s not feasible.”

Comment: Apple has the knack of defining the category. Was so with the point and click, GUI operating system interface (which took more than a decade for Microsoft to catch up with Apple (Windows 7 finally a great operating system that matches OS X)), the music player (Zune is dead); the multifunction phone (IPhone), and the IPAD.