Google's Android is Eating Apple's Lunch

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

Employers should stop hiring idiots.

Some of those 'idiots' might be brilliant engineers, top lawyers, salesmen or even brain surgeons.
Computers are tools. People need to know how to use them to accomplish the tasks they need to get done, they don't need to understand how they work. To anybody outside of IT, computers are no more interesting than photocopiers. You just need to learn the right combination of buttons to push to make it do what you want. (And on today's modern multi-function devices, that can be a task in itself.)
I can drive a car, but I couldn't strip a gearbox. Does that make me an idiot?

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by kennyc

And since this thread has veered off in this direction I'll take this opportunity to say -- this is exactly why Apple limits its options to few and simple and attempts to control things -- in order to limit need to train users etc. If there is only one way, one app to do something, it simplifies support across the board.

And in a display of unusual harmony, I will agree with one of your statements about Apple

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

Some of those 'idiots' might be brilliant engineers, top lawyers, salesmen or even brain surgeons.
Computers are tools. People need to know how to use them to accomplish the tasks they need to get done, they don't need to understand how they work. To anybody outside of IT, computers are no more interesting than photocopiers. You just need to learn the right combination of buttons to push to make it do what you want. (And on today's modern multi-function devices, that can be a task in itself.)
I can drive a car, but I couldn't strip a gearbox. Does that make me an idiot?

And once you learn, you see no reason to learn another sequence to do the same task, and pay somebody for the privilege...

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

Some of those 'idiots' might be brilliant engineers, top lawyers, salesmen or even brain surgeons.
Computers are tools. People need to know how to use them to accomplish the tasks they need to get done, they don't need to understand how they work. To anybody outside of IT, computers are no more interesting than photocopiers. You just need to learn the right combination of buttons to push to make it do what you want. (And on today's modern multi-function devices, that can be a task in itself.)

Knowing to use Excel to open spreadsheets does not equal knowing how computers work. Someone who's job involves working with spreadsheets should at least know to use Excel, not Word.

Originally Posted by murraypaul

I can drive a car, but I couldn't strip a gearbox. Does that make me an idiot?

This isn't the right analogy to the example that Graham gave. If someone goes to the repair shop saying that they can't start the car and it turns out that they were pressing on the brake pedal instead of the gas pedal, I would call that person an idiot.

[cfrizz]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

Aren't they just slowing down the migration cycle as was done before.

Computers are pretty good these days. The programs are pretty competent. I can see folks just sitting awhile, for years before moving to do something.
Indeed they just miss entire cycles.
For example, I missed Vista, and probably will miss W7. My desktop is 14 years old. I am looking into "Chromebooks."
Apple, I only fool with for friends or relatives.

Is there some hot expensive technology out that I can't resist? Nope. (I just bought a used $36 Droid 1 for use as a tablet.)

I am becoming a "bottom feeder."

This is basically where I am at. I have had about 7 pc's. The one before I got this one 2 years ago was about 10 years old, it ran Windows XP had MS Office 97 on it. When I got this one with Windows 7 I had to purchase a new MS office since 97 wouldn't load, but at least I didn't have to pay $400.00 bucks for it. the Student Home edition only cost about $50.00. It gets the job done.

I will keep this until it starts to give out which if I'm lucky will be 10 years from now.

Yes these companies do everything they can to make you upgrade often, but only if you let them. I don't give a rats ass what they want, I only care about what I need and want and if it's not broke it's not going anywhere. My upgrades happen on MY timetable not anyone elses!

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by cfrizz

This is basically where I am at. I have had about 7 pc's. The one before I got this one 2 years ago was about 10 years old, it ran Windows XP had MS Office 97 on it. When I got this one with Windows 7 I had to purchase a new MS office since 97 wouldn't load, but at least I didn't have to pay $400.00 bucks for it. the Student Home edition only cost about $50.00. It gets the job done.

Someone seems to have installed Office 97 on Windows 7:


Those who want to try installing should probably read this first: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978591.

[holymadness]

Speaking of enterprise, Barclays buys 8,500 iPads.

At ZDNet, Zack Whittaker specuiates that this is only the beginning of a wider rollout of the iPad within Barclays - that it wouldn't buy such a comparatively small number (he estimates the hardware cost at around £4m, which sounds reasonable, and points out that training costs might be substantial too) without having broader plans.

Certainly that fits with what I've been hearing from sources in banks, who aren't enamoured with Microsoft's approach (which they see as money-grabbing - based on the cost of licences - and slow, based on the fact that Windows 8 is only now arriving).

As Whittaker also points out, the iPad is at an advantage here for precisely the reason that so many internet commenters like to complain about it vis-a-vis Android tablets: lack of expansibility (such as memory card slots) and access to the file system. Without those, an employee can't stick a bit of storage into the side of the device and siphon off a ton of data; and with the lockdown offered on iOS devices (including encrypted content), it has all the things that reassure the necessarily paranoid in any bank's IT department.

[afv011]

Originally Posted by holymadness

Speaking of enterprise, Barclays buys 8,500 iPads.

And American Airlines buys 17,000 Samsung Notes.

Source

The Dallas-based air carrier just shared a plan to outfit all of its flight attendants with Samsung Galaxy Notes beginning later this year. The rollout will continue through the middle of 2013, at which point each of the airline's 17,000 cabin crew members will have their very own "tablet," which they'll use to manage flight manifests, track premium passenger meal preferences and monitor weather and gate information in real-time, on WiFi-equipped flights.

[holymadness]

Originally Posted by afv011

And American Airlines buys 17,000 Samsung Notes.

Source

Good pickup for Samsung. A ways to go before catching up, though.

Device activations for Apple iOS devices in the enterprise still account for more than twice that of Android, according to the report, led by the latest smartphone model, the iPhone 4S.

To give you a sense of the competition, Apple's original iPad (the device is now on its third generation) and iPhone 3S (the third generation of five so far) were still being activated more than all Android devices save for the Galaxy SII and Droid Razr.

http://www.zdnet.com/in-enterprise-a...ds-7000001556/

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by holymadness

Good pickup for Samsung. A ways to go before catching up, though.


http://www.zdnet.com/in-enterprise-a...ds-7000001556/

That report must be quite old -- iphone 4s and ipad3 are not the current models. And I guess you are the last person in the world who doesn't know that. Not to mention that back then the S3 apparently wasn't even out yet. In other words, back in the stone age.

[holymadness]

Er... July of this year? Four months ago.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by holymadness

Er... July of this year? Four months ago.

Well, since then Apple lost about 10% of the tablet market and who knows how much of the phone market (Samsung's S3 outselling the iphone in Q3).

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

I was implying "Why do you need to choose, when you can have both?"
<Snip></Snip>
Just use both. Train people for both. Tell them that files for one activity are to be opened with OpenOffice and files for another activity are to be opened with LibreOffice.

I'm guessing you have never been on the sharp end of tech support.

Pick an average business user, open Word, hide the formatting toolbar (Old school) or the font toolbar (New School), tell the user to make something bold, watch them phone tech support.

I've held off installing anything newer than office 2003 here at work because the GUI is too different for people to use.

Unilever (Big company - huge) is just now starting to roll out Windows 7 (From XP), it literally takes several months to get a new piece of software approved for roll out around the company (Massive testing to make sure it plays nicely with everything else)

[MovieBird]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

Pick an average business user, open Word, hide the formatting toolbar (Old school) or the font toolbar (New School), tell the user to make something bold, watch them phone tech support.

If they don't know ctrl+B by now, well, they deserve to be laughed at. The only command I can think of that I use more in Word is ctrl+c or v.

This is like taking away a roofers framing hammer, and having him unable to pound nails with a claw hammer. Not ideal, but you can still get the job done with a minimum of fuss.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by MikeB1972

Pick an average business user, open Word, hide the formatting toolbar (Old school) or the font toolbar (New School), tell the user to make something bold, watch them phone tech support.

Is this average business user capable of reading? Because even if you hide the toolbar there is still the very clear menu. Also people should have noticed that you can select text and then right click and get full options on what you can do to the text.