Do you want to work, or play?
John Fortt, co-host of CNBC’s Squawk Alley, in responding to Steve Jobs’ 2010 claim that in the computing world future PCs would be like trucks, clearly defined the problem with that somewhat misguided vision. In his article, The PC: Suddenly, Surprisingly Alive, he said,
Jobs was right, but not in the way most people thought. PCs are trucks, like, SUVs. Smartphones are the cars. Tablets, however, are bicycles: Most people buy one and use it for fun, but not for taking the kids to school, commuting to work, or helping a friend move. Unless you’re a computing hipster, tablets aren’t for the heavy lifting of productivity.
Tom Warren’s article that echoes the above has the sub-title, The iPad Pro won’t replace a PC just yet. Warren also drives home the point of the minimal usability of the iPad and supports that idea with market stats when he says, “The stats don’t lie, and Apple’s latest financial results show that Mac sales are up 3 percent and iPad sales are down a staggering 20 percent.”
Back to you Jon. As Jon Fortt said on CNBC, the world hasn’t exactly been clamoring for a “bigger, heavier and more expensive” iPad. Then he tweeted: “I’ve tried using an iPad as my primary PC for 2 years. Hasn’t worked well. The PC’s not dead. Might made a comeback.”
And in Dylan Tweney’s review titled, Has Apple Made a Rare Misstep with the iPad Pro, we find this astute observation which says it all.
Mossberg, while saying that the iPad Pro is not for him because it won’t substitute for a laptop, goes on to say that it can’t really be compared to its most obvious competition (and inspiration), the Microsoft Surface Pro 4, because the Microsoft product really is meant to serve as a laptop.
Wait, what?
It’s almost as if these guys expected Apple to work some kind of magic to keep them from having to make a decision: Do I want a tablet or a laptop?
So there it is. Final conclusion? When you want to play, the iPad comes to mind. When you want to work, it’s the PC. Makes me think of the Ram Truck commercial. Get the job done!
