Tablet/Apps fad
- Started
- Last post
- 34 Responses
- Boz
So I'm sitting and thinking, are tablets and apps a new technology bubble that's going to burst.
Will the fad go away, thousands of startups who make these "apps" go under when web apps / mobile browsers get better (be it through Flash or HTML5/JS/CSS3)..
It's so funny to see everyone making tablets which are in most cases a totally casual electronics device that you use while taking a shit or sitting in your living room and are basically useless for anything else. Yet they are all rushing to make them like idiots as if they will replace anything, as if they will replace a true laptop for work or anything where you actually need to type.. It's so funny when you see tech companies spinning in a circle by releasing and announcing tablets with keyboards and whatever.. Hey idiots! A tablet with a keyboard is called a LAPTOP. You are inventing shit you already invented. Instead, invest money and make laptops like Mac Book AIR or that new Samsung with maybe slick touch screens.
I wonder if we will see another crash with all these products as well as all the new startups who make native apps in the next 2-3 years. Dot com bust repeated :)
I wonder if, as web tools (such as Flash/AIR, HTML5, CSS, JS) become even better, when everything is hardware accelerated, when we get even more sophisticated web frameworks, we will see the reality kick in and wonder why the hell did we even go app route? Because you were idiots and listened to Steve Jobs?
I just have this feeling in my gut..
And, before you say, hey Boz, but why did you bother learning Obj-C or Java or whatever language you learn today to build apps, I think people should do that, no matter what the outcome will be, because you adopt to the current times to make a living and it never hurts to know things but this doesn't change that feeling i have that web apps not app stores, or tablets are the savior of tech industry.. quite the opposite, I think it's a distraction from the real progress.. where we use the power of internet to build applications once to run on different devices as engaging experience but it's still a pure web app, independent from Apple's rules and policies or Google's for that matter.
I might be wrong though.. wouldn't be the first time I was wrong.
- autoflavour0
i use my ipad pretty much daily..
and i doubt i would ever take it to the toilet.- you are missing out big time.Boz
- missing out what? i have a imac, macbook, ipad and iphone. the only fucking thing i dont have is apple tvautoflavour
- and before you call fan boy. the Imac only does video, the mbp is for work, iphone is a phone and ipad is midi controllerautoflavour
- plus easy way to look at the web. fuck flashautoflavour
- < Worst attempt to avoid the 'fanbook' accusation ever.
= )Horp - or missing out taking it to the toilet? cause it already stinks like clubs from when i take it to playautoflavour
- you ever tried editing full HD on a first gen macbook pro?autoflavour
- the giant apple logo tattooed on my ass should be evidence enough im a fan boyautoflavour
- I like magazines in the toilet.mg33
- guess most porn sites require Flash right?clearThoughts
- that's what I was referring to when I said he was missing out.. then he went on justifying himself why he loves Apple :)Boz
- < that last post of mine was in regards to mg33Boz
- By the way, what's difficult about Flash?CyBrainX
- I'm sure enough porn sites moved to h.264 for this not to be a flash justification.Amicus
- ernexbcn0
All I know is a lot of tablets are coming out that not even make a dent to the iPad ONE and the iPad 2 is imminent.
- ernexbcn0
Also: if you want a Macbook Air just buy one. They are still making them, you know.
- akrok0
hey boz..oh wait. couldn't say that. never mind. move along.
- abettertomorrow0
I think it safe to say iPad is a huge success. Galaxy Tab looks like a decent sized success. But I think you have a point, just like every other trend, people tend to overdo it. I doubt 90% of the new models out there will take off.
- The tablets are probably a fad, but not apps since they also work on phones.CyBrainX
- Galaxy Tab has a 16% return rate hahaanimatedgif
- Horp0
Boz, I have that feeling too, very strongly.
Reading "First as Tragedy, then as Farce" by Slavoj Zizek, which is partly about the nuclear core of capitalism being one of creative-destruction... about how the dotcom bubble burst and the sub-prime bubble was immediately launched off the back of it to feed off the burst's energy and soften the blow, and how now, without any major leap forward on the cards, it will be necessary to create another artificial collapse to allow the rhythm of create-destruct-create-destruct to continue as it needs to.
- abettertomorrow0
BTW, I think the reality underlying a lot of this is that regular PC sales are essentially stagnant these days. These companies need something to sell people to stay in business, and they have an easier time selling smartphones and tablets than boring old PCs:)
- You seem to be justifying the fad though. PCs are just more necessary than tablets.CyBrainX
- fyoucher10
I use my iPad everyday for RSS news mainly, when I'm in bed. It's also my secondary email device when I'm not in the office. Plus, I like reading books with it. Other than that, everything else is pretty shit imo with the exception of games.
But I think you're completely right. I wouldn't use it for real work. Nothing beats a good ole separate keyboard. Once web apps become more instantaneous and bandwidth becomes something silly fast, I don't see the purpose of an 'app' if you can do everything in one app -- your browser.
They're definitely all hyped right now b/c it's a 'new' technology. They have these 'convertible' tablets which are like a tablet / notebook where the screen detaches from the laptop to create the tablet. I think those will eventually be what the common laptop is.
Apple will put the iPad into a MacBook Air and call it Air Pad.
- Milan0
When I was just a little girl,
I asked my mother, "What will I be?
Will I be pretty?
Will I be rich?"
Here's what she said to me:"Que sera, sera,
Whatever will be, will be;
The future's not ours to see.
Que sera, sera,
What will be, will be."
- Dodecahedron0
i definitely think tablets and mobile devices as they're being produced now with apps etc have more real commercial relevance than laptops. These are like digital appliances not "computers" and thats what the capitalistic pig dogs are interested in.
- autoflavour0
i am curious about smokescreen.. and how apple will try and deal with it.
- Too limited to matter I thinkabettertomorrow
- There's also Cloudbrowse. I don't know why people don't know about this. http://www.alwaysont…CyBrainX
- GeorgesII0
I love Android,
but when the Ipad 2 comes out, I'll probably buy it for my wife.
- abettertomorrow0
I think iPad model has staying power, in ways that might be less obvious to people like us. I bought an iPad when it first came out cause I was curious of the hype. After a couple months I realized I wasn't using it much so I sold to my sister, who is not a technical person at all.
She ends up using it a lot, mainly for surfing the web and navigating places and basic stuff like that. So I think for a non technical audience these devices do have a big future. For techies like us its more like a fun novelty.
- duhsign0
all these gadgets and technologies are the next bubble to burst. Once people see how much of their lives get sucked into the tech vortex and how little the benefit is then you will start to see a backlash...already during 08/09 cheaper/simple living came to the fore and the story behind it is enjoy life more turn off all your sh!t. add in some kind of game changing crisis and the end of digital is near : ) purely speculative and mostly kidding but....
- this will never happend,
people realizing how much their life is inutile, that is.GeorgesII - I think that if theres a data crisis, all digital media erased at once by one massive event. Then the huge losses that result could turn the tide...duhsign
- < Print dinosaur spotted. "This internet thing is just a fad" etcanimatedgif
- this will never happend,
- Miguex0
What you need to understand is that tablets are in it's own category, between laptops and smart phones, once YOU make that decision, everything is smooth sailing from there.
The reason so many manufacturers are jumping on the tablet wagon, is because there is a HUGE demand for it. The vast majority of people don't need a mac book pro to check facebook that is ridiculous, people started to realize that and think, ok, this thing does email, does facebook, it doesn't cost as much as this:
http://www.apple.com/macbookair/…
and has the same capabilities.I was just reading today that smartphones sales just went over the roof making it a worldwide choice over laptops, more people buy smartphones instead of laptops, so the market exists.
Now, the subjective part:
I always thought, man the ipad is such a piece of shit, is like an iphone that won't fit in your pocket, maybe I still think the same way, but when you compare it's price over a laptop (with equivalent user experience, that is) why would you make the decision to buy a mac book pro, just to show of to people when you can do the same with an ipad, for less many and more wow factor? in the end, you are only going to use it for facebook and email right?Don't think of it replacing a computer, but instead a device less powerful that does only the bare minimum at a more economic price.
- Rand0
ipad + toilet = match made in heaven
- moldero0
silly wabbits, iPads are for kids.
- gramme0
I think we're in the very early, writing-on-cave-walls-with-anima... stages. I think those of us who are designing apps will look back in 10 years at what we're making now and think "mein gott – what a ponderous load of garbage." The same thing happened with the web. I'm not saying the tablet is anywhere near as important as the web, but I do think it will be with us in some form for a long time. That is, at least until we're navigating interfaces in the air through radio waves and computing devices of any kind become relics.
- evolution, eh?Milan
- except for the guys who coded angry birds, they will look back and say 50 million downloads, $1 a goautoflavour
