To Save The iPad, Apple Needs To Copy Microsoft

Apple needs to copy Microsoft to save the iPad? Uh oh, thems is fightin' werds. I'm sure iPad owners are going to have something to say about that.

Apple might be able to sell more iPad Pro tablets than Microsoft shifted Surface units -- IDC estimates numbers in the region of 2 million for the iPad Pro compared to some 1.6 million for the Surface -- but with iPad sales falling, Microsoft may hold the key to the future of the iPad.

The iPad Pro outsold Microsoft's entire line of surface products just by itself, never mind all the other iPads.

It takes a lot of maybes and PR spin to make that look good for Microsoft.

Yakk said:

The iPad Pro outsold Microsoft's entire line of surface products just by itself, never mind all the other iPads.

It takes a lot of maybes and PR spin to make that look good for Microsoft.

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lol pretty much what I was thinking

Yakk said:

The iPad Pro outsold Microsoft's entire line of surface products just by itself, never mind all the other iPads.

It takes a lot of maybes and PR spin to make that look good for Microsoft.

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It's an easy sell for Apple crazed people. But it's just an iPad, nothing more. Same old. The Surface is much more expensive and a full "desktop" PC in a tablet. So, it's nowhere near the great feat you are preaching.

dceremuga said:

It's an easy sell for Apple crazed people. But it's just an iPad, nothing more. Same old. The Surface is much more expensive and a full "desktop" PC in a tablet. So, it's nowhere near the great feat you are preaching.

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I'm not preaching anything, I'm just reading from the article.

Yakk said:

The iPad Pro outsold Microsoft's entire line of surface products just by itself, never mind all the other iPads.

It takes a lot of maybes and PR spin to make that look good for Microsoft.

Click to expand...

Apple has been slowly suffering under poor leadership since Job's passed away. They did a great job of cultivating a rabidly loyal fan base, but those fan bases don't last forever if your products start to fail on delivery.

Right now, its apples software that is falling apart. Yes to us techies we can point out all the ways an apple product is inferior to others, but that doesn't matter to Jane and Joe consumer. What does matter is the end user experience remains consistent or better than prior products, and that is not happening with Apple software.

Personally, I think Apple was Sony in the early 80's, now they are becoming Sony in the 90's.

This is just history repeating itself (i told you so...). In the 80's Steve Jobs developed a truly innovated interface and than did nothing... Microsoft picked up the ball and ran with it.

In the 2000's Steve Job developed a truly innovated interface and than did nothing... Microsoft is picking up the ball and is running with it.

Without Steve Jobs Apple is nothing but pretty devices for technophobes.

It's not just the iPad. All of their product lines are stagnating. Save for the MacBooks and the Mac Pro, which don't need drastic changes between iterations other than spec bumps, everything else has seen little to no change in the past 5 years.

They can only slim up and beef up the cameras on these things so much before people lose interest. The iPad has remained exactly the same since it's introduction and the only two things that have changed are iOS (basic updates since its introduction like multitasking, etc..) and it's size. Those two things have taken, what...5 years to 'refine'?

They need new ideas quick. And not reactionary ideas like the failed watch.

http://wmpoweruser.com/windows-tablets-took-11-market-share-in-2015-mainly-from-apple/

When people mention that the iPad Pro outsold the Surface line it's important to remember that all Windows base non-Surface branded tablets and 2 in 1s out sold both the iPad Pro and Surface line. The matter at hand here is that the iPad just came off it's worst year ever and Windows tablets their best. Indeed by the predictions of many the iPad and Android tablets should have killed Windows tablets by now.

The tablet market was simply misjudged in 2010. Tablets had been around a long time before the iPad, and while the iPad revolutionized tablets, it did so by leaving out a number of features that had a long niche following with tablet users. A digital pen for instance. I've long drawn flack from people about the usefulness of pens in the keyboard era but that have a lot of use in situations where keyboards simply don't work. They can be extremely practical on a large tablet. And it looks like that's what many others are realizing now.

The iPad is great for what it is but it's focus was primarily on consumption. Yes, it can be used for productive purposes but that's not really what it's strength is. The iPad Pro does go some way to addressing productivity but for it's price, we shall see. The iPad Pro wasn't out that long last quarter so it's sales should pick up, though probably not in the quarter after the holidays. I think that mobile OS tablets are going have a hard time beating x86 Windows in the productivity and flexibility market. They do hold a significant advantage in tablet and touch apps, but then that's what phones are for.

Steve said:

Apple needs to copy Microsoft
Apple might be able to sell more iPad Pro tablets than Microsoft shifted Surface units -- IDC estimates numbers in the region of 2 million for the iPad Pro compared to some 1.6 million for the Surface -- but with iPad sales falling, Microsoft may hold the key to the future of the iPad.

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The key being a recognition that people who like things portable may also like to be able to create.

But they've already copied Microsoft......

In order to save something, it has to be in danger. The iPad has always been an expensive toy. It still sells, therefore no real danger.

Dv8ted21 said:

In order to save something, it has to be in danger. The iPad has always been an expensive toy. It still sells, therefore no real danger.

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way Apple designed it and they designed iOS, its a danger to itself in diff ways. no reason to upgrade since ones after one most people have are marginal updates, and with each OS update slowing down and lagging older models kinda pisses people off that their perfectly good hardware is being made worse and worse each year by Apple.

Dv8ted21 said:

In order to save something, it has to be in danger. The iPad has always been an expensive toy. It still sells, therefore no real danger.

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The IT blogosphere loves a sensational headline. The iPad is still the #1 tablet brand and makes a lot of money for Apple. But all is not well when you have a 25% drop in sales year over year, it can't be ignored and some understanding of what's going on here is a question you know Apple had to have asked themselves.