Why Amazon won't launch its own tablet, but will use Apple's

[yvanleterrible]

All in one devices are not always a great idea, example: a big 50 tools Swiss Army knife, the thing's so big you can't fit it in any pocket.
At the opposite of the spectrum; imagine if you needed a computer for word processing, an other for image manipulation and an other for spreadsheets. Wouldn't be practical either.

It's all a question of balance.

[cvkemp]

To me it is what ever works for me or you personally. For me it is a netbook with a 10 inch screen at this time. But what I would really like to see is a netbook size (11.5 inch screen please) convertible, that could be a tablet for reading then flip it around and it is a netbook for typing small messages. The little larger screen would give a keybrd that is very close to full size, and at the same time allow for a little larger battery.
Like I said that is what works for me.
Everyone else has theire own likes and dislikes. I have tried a ereader and it just did not do it for me. I read a lot of pdfs that have more than on column and lots of tables. They get lost when you resize with a ereader.

Chuck

[calvin-c]

For mobility, I prefer an all-in-one device. At home (or in the office) I prefer dedicated devices-because I both have room for them & rarely move them. And because when a dedicated device fails (which all of them do, eventually) I don't lose all my devices-only that one. So, speaking of imagination, if they made 'good-enough' devices that were sufficiently small that I could carry a half-dozen of them in my pocket, then I might switch to dedicated devices for mobility, too. But they don't and, given market economics, I don't think they will. (Although they're approaching it with MP3 players so I could be wrong.)

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by stustaff

"Imagine a device with a camera as good as a Canon, Audio as good as an iriver, phone as good as [insert personal fave phone], games as good as a DS etc etc"
And at a price less than the devices if purchased seperately."

And you said
"I still wouldn't buy one.A super-duper all-in-one device is only a good deal if a) you want all those functions (and lots of people don't), or b) it does a better job (or an equivalent job at a lower price) than one (or more, depending on your individual needs) dedicated device that performs a function you do want."

Which completely missed the point of what I said that such a device would be the 'holy Grail'

I didn't miss the point at all. If all I want is a camera, and a Canon costs half as much money as a multifunction device with an equivalent-quality camera, I'll buy the Canon. If I want a camera and a cellphone, the multifunction starts to look more appealing, since it's about the same price. If I want a camera, and a cellphone, and a game console, it's starting to look like a pretty good deal. And if all I want is a good camera, but get suckered into paying twice as much money for a device packed with useless-to-me functions, as a customer I'm the manufacturer's holy Grail.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by Pardoz

I didn't miss the point at all. If all I want is a camera, and a Canon costs half as much money as a multifunction device with an equivalent-quality camera, I'll buy the Canon. If I want a camera and a cellphone, the multifunction starts to look more appealing, since it's about the same price. If I want a camera, and a cellphone, and a game console, it's starting to look like a pretty good deal. And if all I want is a good camera, but get suckered into paying twice as much money for a device packed with useless-to-me functions, as a customer I'm the manufacturer's holy Grail.

Exactly n[ow your getting it, and who is out there who doesnt have a phone and a camera?

or a MP3 player and a camera?

or a DS and a phone and a PDA

Pretty much 99% of the population will have more than one of those devices and as long as the multifunction meets their needs and is realistically priced eg more than a single but less than 2

then as you said it "starts to become appealing" hence why all the efforts by manafacturers to achieve this.]

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by stustaff

Exactly n[ow your getting it, and who is out there who doesnt have a phone and a camera?

At last estimate, more than half the population of the US.

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by Pardoz

At last estimate, more than half the population of the US.

Many people don't even have computers...

[NightGeometry]

Not really entirely relevant, but two things about cameras.

Real cameras take 120 film, or larger
The best camera in the world is the one you have with you. I use my camera phone occasionally, because I don't *always* have a better camera with me. I normally do, but not always, whereas I pretty much always have my call phone with me.

Personally, I'm an Apple user, and I can't imagine the likely tablet replacing my Sony ereader, nor my laptop. If it is not eye wateringly expensive, and I could get good magazine subscriptions on it, then I could imagine getting one. I would love to have a device that had a bunch of magazine subs on it (I'm thinking photography mags, Wired, the type of thing that current eink devices don't do so well).

Who's hoping that if iTunes does start to include books they are ePub? (Seems reasonably unlikely, but...)

[Daithi]

Originally Posted by NightGeometry

Who's hoping that if iTunes does start to include books they are ePub? (Seems reasonably unlikely, but...)

That's a good question. I'd be real interested in which file formats the new "unicorn" is going to support.

[stustaff]

Originally Posted by Pardoz

At last estimate, more than half the population of the US.

Exactly!

so that over 150 MILLION customers for such a device in the USA alone!

again more evidence for the fact that if someone does release such a device it would have a massive market and probably really make the company that crack it.

the iPhone is probably the best of this(not the best in terms of capabilities or quality but in terms of sales performance) in terms of examples.

It has pretty much done the Phone/PDA/Music player all in one device, and isnt far off adding /satnav to that,hence the massive drops in satnav companies shares they make a pretty much one use device and the time those devices have is running out one by one... the Palm PDA device is pretty much dead(in terms of mass market) and teh GPS as a solo device is on its way, whats next? i suggest it will be the mass market automatic camera.

[calvin-c]

Originally Posted by stustaff

Exactly n[ow your getting it, and who is out there who doesnt have a phone and a camera?

Originally Posted by stustaff

over 150 MILLION customers for such a device in the USA alone!

Depends on the price. Most of that 'potential' market falls into two segments: those who can't afford a phone/camera & those who don't *want* one. I'm not sure you're going to crack the latter segment at any price, and $300 computers don't seem to have reduced the former segment very much, so I'm guessing that you'd need to sell it for $100 or less to reach a significant portion of that "150 Million customers".

The two biggest complaints I've heard about Apple are the proprietary nature of their devices & their high prices. Neither of those is unchangeable, but that's the way I'd place my bet.

[Pardoz]

Originally Posted by stustaff

the Palm PDA device is pretty much dead(in terms of mass market)

In fairness to Palm, PDAs were basically born dead - they never had any serious market penetration (peaked at something like 8% of the population and dropped from there). Basically they were a great answer to a question nobody asked.

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by Pardoz

At last estimate, more than half the population of the US.

Huh?! Not true. Maybe look up this thing called Google....

"The US subscription penetration was approximately 90.4% at the end of Q209. The current rate of net-adds (subscription) is approximately 3 every second (compared to a net gain in population of one person every 10 seconds)."

Smartphone penetration is "29 percent of U.S. adult mobile subscribers (up from 18 percent last year)."

Digital camera penetration in the U.S. reached 73 percent in 2008. Sixty-one percent of digital camera owners made paper prints from their digital images. Thirty-three percent of U.S. households made or ordered photo publishing products in 2008. Camera phones were present in 58 percent of U.S. households in 2008, more than doubling since 2005.

Just wanted to show some correct numbers, although either way, I am not sure how this affects the potential desirability of the Apple tablet.

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by Daithi

That's a good question. I'd be real interested in which file formats the new "uNicorn" is going to support.

Fixed it for ya!