Perhaps, however, they are sharing the most brilliant piece of anti-Apple strategy in the past decade.
The fact that both companies announced their discontinuation within a day cannot be coincidence. While both companies obviously acknowledge that Apple got their "next-gen" tablet to market first and has captured the early-adopter market share, this alone would not be a reason to withdraw.
While the basic tenet of competition breeding innovation generally holds true, what happens when there is not a glut of tablets on the market like everyone predicted at CES? If the market doesn't become about tablets filling up the aisles and virtual aisles for the rest of the year, how many people are going to feel like they're missing them? It becomes harder for Apple to market themselves as a "premium" device when they are the ONLY device.
Have Microsoft and HP effectively killed the long-term future of the iPad by not feeding into the market? The historical pre-iPad rhetoric about tablet computers was that nobody really needed one. By jumping into the fray, HP and MS would validate that not only is the format viable, but that it is necessary. When thinking back to the Lenovo hybrid laptop/tablet that looked so cool at CES, I wonder why anyone who is not an Apple devotee would choose to buy a crippled limited device when a fully-functional laptop can be had for the same price?
Instead of tablets, don't be surprised to see lighter laptops with rotating touchscreens at a $499 price point and, guess what, there are "apps for that", including everything you currently have on your computer. And these will all be "laptops" or "hybrids", but they will avoid the tablet moniker like the plague.
The initial wave of iPad sales has run its course. iPhones continue to hold market share because the market has demanded everyone own a mobile device, and if one has to have one, why not adopt the status symbol that is the iPhone? At this point, if anyone stayed out of the cell phone market, the evolution of demand for the devices would ensure multiple manufacturers filling in the void.
The tablet market has not been proven yet, but given every big supplier throwing their hat in the ring with advertising blitzes a-plenty, a demand would start to be created by playing one against the other. While certainly not without risk, a concerted decision by Apple's competitors to leave them completely alone in the tablet market could very well be the iPad killer.
After all, how many people bought a Segway?
Perhaps one of the easiest songs to remember from childhood, and one of the easiest to sing and play (it's only three different notes to perform a simplified version of the classic children's song). Written by Sarah Josepha Hale in 1830, the rhyme was quickly put to music later in the decade by Lowell Mason who added repetition.
The original is a simple tale of co-dependency and a deep-seeded introverted child who is doomed to run a motel under the lingering presence of her deranged father:
Mary had a little lamb, whose fleece was white as snow.
And everywhere that Mary went, the lamb was sure to go.
It followed her to school one day, which was against the rules.
It made the children laugh and play, to see a lamb at school.
And so the teacher turned it out, but still it lingered near,
And waited patiently about, till Mary did appear.
"Why does the lamb love Mary so?" the eager children cry.
"Why, Mary loves the lamb, you know," the teacher did reply.
Regardless of theme and the faux "tradition" of calling it a lilting children's rhyme, musicians have taken to the lyrics like nobody's business... except maybe yours... check them out.
When I bite into your York Peppermint Patty, I get the sensation that I SHOULDN'T HAVE TO PAY $15/DAY FOR WI-FI!
Dear Steve Jobs,
I realize your bound to make money for your shareholders and are beholden to the corporate overlords of profit and loss, but seriously dude!
You call out your bought-and-paid-for guerilla hit squad to bust into some blogger's house and ransack his stuff, all because he wrote some shit about a cell phone that doesn't even officially exist. Sure, he was involved in some shady shit to get it, but just because your acolyte got careless after a couple steins of pilsner, doesn't mean you have to go all ape-shit.
I am regular purchaser of the "i" line of phones and mp3 players, not because they're the greatest things since pita bread, but because I'm a lazy bastard who wants everything done for me and doesn't want to have to think about actually getting complete use from a mobile device.
You see, I just like shit to work. But I also like to try out new things that other owners (not USERS) but OWNERS have done with their devices. So I propose a concept for you.
If you're all hot and bothered that your Appletini-soaked employee was either negligent, drunk or just plain stupid, I can accept that.
If you want to be all pissed off that YOUR prototype had pictures leaked all over the internet for geeks everywhere to react to like a backyard fireworks show, I can accept that as well.
If you want to fire up your private militia/police force to trample on the rights on a blogger (and I won't even make the journalist argument) because someone touched your toy, I may not like it, but I can accept it.
But here's what you have to accept!
When I go out to buy your "next gen" groundbreaking device that adds a couple of features to the old device and is really like last year's Chrysler Cordoba with a new cigarette lighter, it's MINE!
I get to crack it, hack it, smack it, break it up, bust it up, beat it up, and reconfigure it any way I like because I OWN it.
I'm not renting, leasing, or putting it on layaway. I have a receipt in hand, a VISA statement in the mail and if I lose it, it's not you that suffers, it's me. So if I own it, don't start hating when I start jailbreaking.
Because if you start telling me that when I own the next iPhone, you can force me to do anything with it, I'm getting a group of my friends together, and we're gonna imbibe in a few steins of pilsner, and we're gonna buy fake badges at the dollar store, and we're gonna inevitably make numerous bad jokes in reference to Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and we're gonna use Open Office to print up a fake search warrant, and we're gonna invade your Star Chamber in the middle of the night, and we're gonna raid your fridge, 'cause no doubt we'll be hungry.
Are you sure you want risk this eventuality? Are you sure you want to continue to be such a dick?
You're sooo lucky I'm a lazy bastard.
But I'll give someone a dollar to take my place... perhaps Gizmodo will outbid me.
I love soul music of the 1970s. Sure, some of it crosses into funk and R&B, but there's a reason that soul stands apart. Soul helps to define a time and a place, and I hope some of these tracks can do that for you.
Needless to say, the Soul Sounds of the 70s podcasts are NOT Creative Commons like the rest of the lovehatethings podcasts, but I'm grateful for every day I'm allowed to share this music with you.
via youtube.com
While "No Such Thing" by Hal Hartley is not, by far, my favourite film, it's one I'll never forget. I was captured right from the opening monologue which began with, "I'm not the monster I used to be."
Not the greatest monologue in film history, nor the greatest character, but one of the great introductions to a character and an impactful way to introduce that character. If I had seen only this introduction, I would definitely have wanted to see the film after. Lucky for me, I saw it all at once.
While it is not incumbent on a film to be as stark or shocking off the top to attract me, here's a distinct case where an opening monologue, and perhaps an opening line alone, captured me.
A confused exertion about my misgivings over a recent Powerball winner of $258 million. Why do I feel sick that THIS GUY won?
