Will Windows 8 save Christmas?
PC shipments slogged along during 2011 and will continue to do so this year. IDC says growth was a paltry 1.8 percent last year and will be a tepid 5 percent in 2012 -- tepid considering the year-over-year comparison is weak. Bob O'Donnell, IDC's veep of Clients and Displays at IDC cites the oh-so obvious reason: "Many consumers are holding off making PC purchases at the moment because tablet devices like Apple's iPad are proving to be a powerful distraction".
But he qualifies: "End user surveys tell us that few people consider media tablets as replacements for their PCs, so later this year when there is a new Microsoft operating system, available in sleek new PC form factors, we believe consumer interest in PCs will begin to rebound". Do you believe him? Pardon my skepticism. I don't.
'Siri, who is Frank M Fazio?'
I'm appalled by the sudden feeding frenzy about the Siri lawsuit, which was filed last week but only big-time hit the mainstream news yesterday. Now the damn thing is everywhere, and I've been asked to jump on the meat wagon and write something, too. Siri is the iPhone 4S "personal assistant".
It's all so pointless, going after Apple for beta software, about which advertising states "sequences shortened" for Siri's responses. New Yorker Frank M. Fazio is suing Apple because he bought a 32GB iPhone 4S from a Best Buy in Brooklyn on Nov. 19, 2011. Gasp, "plaintiff was exposed to Apple's representations regarding the Siri feature" -- that is according to the legal filing. Siri's alleged crimes: Failing to understand Fazio and giving him the "wrong answer". Apple's alleged misdeed: Misleading and false advertising.
If your Android is one of 1,000, you can stream Netflix
Who says Android device diversity is bad for developers? There has been lots of blabbering on the InterWebs about fragmentation and how it hurts Android compared to iOS. Not at Netflix, which claims support for about 1,000 different Androids. Yowza!
Fragmentation is real. As of March 5th, 93.9 percent of the install base was on Android 2.x -- 62 percent on Gingerbread (v2.3.x) and 25.3 percent on Froyo (v2.2). Newest version, Ice Cream Sandwich (v4.x) accounts, for just 1.2 percent, and that's nearly six months after release.
Laptops and tablets are on a high-speed collision course
As tablets become more popular among consumers, our functionality requirements also increase. The rise of this sector contributes to the blurring of the lines between notebooks and tablets, says NPD's Ross Rubin. Things will only get murkier when Windows 8 releases later this year, its Metro interface built with touchscreen interfaces in mind.
NPD and Rubin see the entire industry encroaching on one another's turf. Android has found its way onto dual-boot devices like ViewSonic's Viewpad tablet. On the flipside, Windows 8 makes it enticing for manufacturers to add tablet-like features as the OS was built with mobile in mind.
Hmm, a 16" freestanding USB-powered monitor for $99. Don't mind if I do.
Since I am a full-time multi-display PC user, using a standard, single-display notebook on the road always makes me feel like I'm working with one hand tied behind my back. I've grown so accustomed to the additional screen real estate that it has become integral to my work flow.
If you look through my history here at BetaNews, you can see I've tried many of the mobile solutions designed to bring extra monitors to the mobile office…portable mini-monitors, tablet-based screen extenders, and so forth. Unfortunately, none of them have stuck.
Enterprises want iPad
Microsoft had better hop to it and release Windows 8, because iPad adoption among enterprises is way up -- and that's without Apple really trying to sell tablets there.
Bolstering a January IDG Connect Study, ChangeWave finds that one in five businesses will buy a tablet next quarter, with the majority overwhelmingly planning on iPad. That's 84 percent, up from 77 percent in November. Meanwhile, interest in all competing tablets declined.
Rest in Peace, PC: 1975-2014
Today, Gartner made a bold prediction about changing computing eras, claiming that the cloud will replace the PC as the "center of users' digital lives" by 2014. Welcome to the cloud-connected device era.
The implications are staggering, if Gartner is right, and keep in mind the firm's core customers are enterprises not consumers -- hence the audience for this staggering prediction, which isn't so unbelievable. Computing and informational relevance has been shifting away from the PC to cloud-connected devices for nearly a decade. I started earnestly talking and writing about it in 2005, when still an analyst at Jupiter Research. Like other trends, this one started slowly and now accelerates quickly.
The netbook lives!
Sales may be down, but don't write off the netbook yet. It's still a viable form factor for Windows PCs. Netbooks have a few key advantages going for them, and computer manufacturers should just stop and take a moment to consider them.
The three mobile PC form factors are netbook, notebook and tablet. I own all three now, and I like each one for different reasons. As a software developer, I saw the need to move away from the desktop and to finally get mobile. Since mobile PCs are the future, I felt this was the year for me to get some portable Windows computers so I could better test my software on these form factors. It's not rocket science: There's a big difference between laptop and desktop user experiences (there will be even more so with Windows 8). I needed to see how my software feels on these devices.
In defense of netbooks
This morning, Gizmodo’s Brian Barret posted "Remember Netbooks? No One Else Does, Either" In the post, Barret cites recent data from ABI Research that indicates the rise of tablet computers at the expense of netbooks: "Media tablet shipments surpassed netbook shipments this quarter, reaching 13.6 million units, compared to just 7.3 million netbooks. Netbooks had previously led the way with 8.4 million shipments in 1Q11, compared to just 6.4 million media tablets".
Barret takes this research as an opportunity to gleefully dance on the grave of the netbook computer, stating that it is now "very hard to find a compelling argument as to why you'd prefer one [a netbook] over a tablet". I disagree.
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