2010: the year of the iPad / iSlate / Apple tablet (Apple haters move on please...)

[Superphil]

I choose Sony for comparison as they seem to have a good range of quality products which are well respected by many, also chucked in a "cheapo" Dell to compare to the iMac. As I said before, Apples prices do compare with similarly specced quality items, I doubt they would ever want to be cheapest, but their products are more often than not very well designed, specced and more importantly, very capable and competent at what they do. I am no apologist, but they have consistently raised the bar, and few have been able to match them, let alone improve on them.

iPod Nano (with video camera) 8GB, £115.00.
Sony Walkman 8GB (NWZ latest model, no Camera), £110.00

iPod Touch 32GB, £229.00
Sony Walkman 32GB (NWZ latest model, no internet, no games, no email) £290.00

iPod Touch 64GB, £299.00
Sony Walkman 64GB, Oh, they don’t do one.


iMac 21.5”, 3.06Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4GB Ram, 500GB HDD, £949.00
Sony Vaio. 24”, 2.93Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4GB Ram, 500GB HDD, £1049.00
Dell XPS, 24", 2.53Ghz Core 2 Duo, 2GB Ram, 320GB HDD, £1279.00

Not really a lot in it as far as I can see when trying to compare like for like.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

The rumour mill is cranking up again, with lots of noise around a mid-late January announcement, with the toy launching sometime in Q2.

How very exciting for all of us!

Er, sorry to be such a GIRL here, and it looks lovely, but....what exactly IS it?

 

[Bry Nylon]

I think it's a mouse pad?

 

[Superphil]

I love my Apple products, I really do, but I disagree strongly with that sentiment. Buying an Apple product involves paying a premium price. If the Macbook Pro on which I type was a regular PC it would have cost c£500-£600. Being Apple flavoured means it is £900.

Now you see, I consider that very close to being comparable, but then again, I don't think you would get a top quality (Windows) laptop of a similar spec for £500

There is no way on earth Apple will be pitching their tablet into the marketplace at a netbook pricepoint. Bet you a pound.

I would be suprised if it was pitched much above the price of the very best Netbooks out there (£350-£400ish) unless of course it does a whole lot more than a Netbook does, which of course it probably will do. I expect it to have no comparable competitor to start with, so yes, it probably will be apparently "expensive" but it is going to be all about what is does and how it does it.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

I think it's a mouse pad?

I'm torn between a luxury chopping board, or a very expensive coaster.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Or even just an absolutely MASSIVE iPhone?

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

I love my Apple products, I really do,

So do I. Everything about them is beautiful, from the very minute you open the precision made and wonderfully designed box.

 

[beorhthelm]

I would be suprised if it was pitched much above the price of the very best Netbooks out there (£350-£400ish) unless of course it does a whole lot more than a Netbook does, which of course it probably will do.

but its not a netbook, its a tablet. how much are they? fair bit more i recall. i've always loved the idea of the tablet, if only you could write on it then have an application that then stores all writing as image, so no need for note book anymore. but the netbook actually seems a better idea currently, especially with the price and also the small size. i really think itablet will struggle to have an impact like other Apple products unless its cheap (but then competing with iphone) and has a killer app like the aforementioned writing. simply touch sensitive isnt going to cut it.

 

[Cian]

Look what Apple did for the smartphone market. Completely transformed it and made the rest of the competition look rubbish.

Except it absolutely didn't, except to the fanbois that lap it up. First iteration of it was a laughably poor heap which even a £60 PAYG Samsung / LG / Nokia S40 phone made "look rubbish".

Two hardware revisions and a whack of software changes later it still doesn't make the competition look rubbish.

 

[Husty]

I choose Sony for comparison as they seem to have a good range of quality products which are well respected by many, also chucked in a "cheapo" Dell to compare to the iMac. As I said before, Apples prices do compare with similarly specced quality items, I doubt they would ever want to be cheapest, but their products are more often than not very well designed, specced and more importantly, very capable and competent at what they do. I am no apologist, but they have consistently raised the bar, and few have been able to match them, let alone improve on them.

iPod Nano (with video camera) 8GB, £115.00.
Sony Walkman 8GB (NWZ latest model, no Camera), £110.00

iPod Touch 32GB, £229.00
Sony Walkman 32GB (NWZ latest model, no internet, no games, no email) £290.00

iPod Touch 64GB, £299.00
Sony Walkman 64GB, Oh, they don’t do one.


iMac 21.5”, 3.06Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4GB Ram, 500GB HDD, £949.00
Sony Vaio. 24”, 2.93Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4GB Ram, 500GB HDD, £1049.00
Dell XPS, 24", 2.53Ghz Core 2 Duo, 2GB Ram, 320GB HDD, £1279.00

Not really a lot in it as far as I can see when trying to compare like for like.

I like the way youve chosen one brand there to comapre it to, Sony are also well known for charging an unwarranted premium, but atleast their PCs use an operating system worth the disk its printed on. Their walkmans have maintained a sound quality far superior to that of an ipod so actually do warrant the premiums. (Sound Quality > Crap Cameras). All in one windows PCs are an emerging market and until factors such as manufacturing costs drop, there will obviously be a higher price.

Apple iMac - 21.5-inch: 3.06GHz, 4gb memory e.t.c. as you listed. £949

Now forgetting places like PC World/Curries, you can pick up this for the same price.

Intel Core i7 920 D0 2.66GHz @ 3.80GHz Quad Core DDR3 System [] Extreme Performance

- Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz Overclocked to 3.80GHz!
- Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5 Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
- Corsair XMS3 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 (1600MHz) Tri-Channel
- Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 CPU Cooler
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM
- LG GH22NS40 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black)
- Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply
- Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound professionally hand installed by our technicians

Wont make sense to most people but the basics:

Quad Core @ 3.8ghz 6GB Ram 1TB Hard drive 22x DVD Drive, A Real graphics card not one designed for a laptop, e.t.c e.t.c e.t.c

 

[Mellotron]

So do I. Everything about them is beautiful, from the very minute you open the precision made and wonderfully designed box.

Haha this thread must be absolutely KILLING certain posters on the forum.

For the record, I absolutely love Apple products. Always a fantastic level of quality. That Steve Jobs quote is spot on. You get what you pay for.

 

[Mellotron]

Except it absolutely didn't, except to the fanbois that lap it up.

= 33,745,000 sales so far. So just a FEW "fanbois" then eh? It's spelt fanboYs, by the way.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Haha this thread must be absolutely KILLING certain posters on the forum.

For the record, I absolutely love Apple products. Always a fantastic level of quality. That Steve Jobs quote is spot on. You get what you pay for.

Totally agree

And the quality is everywhere, from the box to the manufacturing to the design to the user friendliness to the technology inside. 100% quality.

 

[willyfantastic]

apple computers are ridiculously overpriced for what you get inside. might as well just buy a pc and install the OSX software on that instead (which is do-able)

i cant see the need for the islate personally, altho i do really like their ipods/iphones etc, never been a fan of their computers

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

never been a fan of their computers

weirdo

 

[Superphil]

I like the way youve chosen one brand there to comapre it to,

I thought I made that clear in my post why I chose them.

Sony are also well known for charging an unwarranted premium, but atleast their PCs use an operating system worth the disk its printed on.

Totally agree, which is why if I had a MAC I would run Windows on it.

Their walkmans have maintained a sound quality far superior to that of an ipod so actually do warrant the premiums. (Sound Quality > Crap Cameras).

With any device playing MP3 the quality is not going to be HiFi. To say "far superior" suggests you have compared the two closely, I haven't, but I have read that there is an improvement with Walkmans, but not so much as to say "Far Superior".

All in one windows PCs are an emerging market and until factors such as manufacturing costs drop, there will obviously be a higher price.

What? Apple have been making them for years, just because PC manufacturers are so far behind is not an acceptable excuse as to why they are only now realising that their customers want this type of thing, and charging too much for it. As for cost, you are correct, and of course the Apple product has also dropped in price over the years.

Now forgetting places like PC World/Curries, you can pick up this for the same price.

Intel Core i7 920 D0 2.66GHz @ 3.80GHz Quad Core DDR3 System [] Extreme Performance
Wont make sense to most people but the basics:

Quad Core @ 3.8ghz 6GB Ram 1TB Hard drive 22x DVD Drive, A Real graphics card not one designed for a laptop, e.t.c e.t.c e.t.c

Exactly the type of PC I have. But the whole point of this thread is about the product, how it looks, how it works, how it fits in with your environment, your lifestyle, how it suits what you need to do. And Apple aces that, the Dell, Sony and others compare well. The others, like this item you have pointed us to simply are boxes, with processors and drives, with separate ugly screens, mismatched keyboards, cluttering up your desk/table/ giving you parts and components you don't want or need. Taking up space, with noisy fans, 3rd party add ons, card readers, DVD drives etc. The iMac offers an alternative that many want, and it does the things it is built for spectacularly well, movies, music, graphical work etc.

For the record I have a Quad Core 64bit Windows PC (just upgraded to W7 Ultimate), 8GB RAM, loads of drives and devices, and I am quite satisfied with it. I had an original iMac, never got on with it, but if I had the cash, I would probably go for a new iMac.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Oh stop crapping on in Geek, chaps, and tell me what this thing IS?

 

[Billy the Fish]

Oh stop crapping on in Geek, chaps, and tell me what this thing IS?

Seconded.

Seriously, what are the practical uses for it that most people can't already do on an iphone or a laptop?

Apart from saying look at me I've got the latest gadget, what are people actually going to bother carrying that aroud for?

 

[Lady Whistledown]

I'm guessing it's some kind of computatron, right? Share the news with us non-believers, that we too may rejoice.

 

[Bozza]

Oh stop crapping on in Geek, chaps, and tell me what this thing IS?

1. The thing in the picture is an artist's impression - no-one knows just what Apple's tablet will actually look like.

2. ...and no-one know actually what it will really do.

3. ...or cost.

But, yes, it will be some sort of computing device that will sit somewhere between the iPhone (and iPod Touch) and the Macbook (an Apple laptop).