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Should I get an iPad 2 or iMac?


Roscignos

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Had a run into Burma today, they were flogging copy iPad2s, first asking price 2400B.

They came with a little case and a remote keyboard.

I was quite impressed actually, it was quite fast. When it was turned on something about "android" came up so it's obviously not running on anything Apple.

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Apple and Samsung's symbiotic relationship: Slicing an Apple | The Economist

 

Slicing an Apple

 

How much of an iPhone is a Samsung?

 

APPLE doesn't make the iPhone itself. It neither manufactures the components nor assembles them into a finished product. The components come from a variety of suppliers and the assembly is done by Foxconn, a Taiwanese firm, at its plant in Shenzhen, China. The “teardown†graphic below, based on data from iSuppli, a market-research firm, shows who makes what inside the iPhone, and how much the various bits cost. Samsung turns out to be a particularly important supplier. It provides some of the phone’s most important components: the flash memory that holds the phone's apps, music and operating software; the working memory, or DRAM; and the applications processor that makes the whole thing work.

 

This puts Samsung in the somewhat unusual position of supplying a significant proportion of one of its main rival's products, since Samsung also makes smartphones and tablet computers of its own. Apple is one of Samsung's largest customers, and Samsung is one of Apple's biggest suppliers. This is actually part of Samsung's business model: acting as a supplier of components for others gives it the scale to produce its own products more cheaply. For its part, Apple is happy to let other firms handle component production and assembly, because that leaves it free to concentrate on its strengths: designing elegant, easy-to-use combinations of hardware, software and services.

 

Stranger still, Apple sued Samsung in April over the design of its Galaxy S handset (a smartphone that bears a strong resemblance to an iPhone) and its Galaxy Tab tablet computer (which looks rather like an iPad), claiming that they copied hardware and design features from Apple products. Samsung retaliated by counter-suing. In the latest twist, Apple has just gained injunctions to prevent the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Tab in Europe and Australia. But the two firms' mutually beneficial trading relationship continues.

 

The second part of the graphic shows that, beyond manufacturing and component charges, the lion’s share of the iPhone's $560 price tag goes to Apple, though just how much it spends on software development, R&D, marketing, shipping, packaging and so forth is unclear. But Apple now commands the largest slice of the handset industry's profit share, so its margins are still impressive even when these costs have been taken in account. Apple also became the world's largest supplier of smartphones in the second quarter (see chart), with Samsung in second place. And on August 9th, on the same day as its victory over Samsung in the European courts, Apple even briefly surpassed Exxon Mobil to become the world's largest company by market capitalisation. So although Apple does not actually make the iPhone, it certainly makes a lot of money from it.

 

Stranger still, Apple sued Samsung in April over the design of its Galaxy S handset (a smartphone that bears a strong resemblance to an iPhone) and its Galaxy Tab tablet computer (which looks rather like an iPad), claiming that they copied hardware and design features from Apple products. Samsung retaliated by counter-suing. In the latest twist, Apple has just gained injunctions to prevent the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Tab in Europe and Australia. But the two firms' mutually beneficial trading relationship continues.

 

The second part of the graphic shows that, beyond manufacturing and component charges, the lion’s share of the iPhone's $560 price tag goes to Apple, though just how much it spends on software development, R&D, marketing, shipping, packaging and so forth is unclear. But Apple now commands the largest slice of the handset industry's profit share, so its margins are still impressive even when these costs have been taken in account. Apple also became the world's largest supplier of smartphones in the second quarter (see chart), with Samsung in second place. And on August 9th, on the same day as its victory over Samsung in the European courts, Apple even briefly surpassed Exxon Mobil to become the world's largest company by market capitalisation. So although Apple does not actually make the iPhone, it certainly makes a lot of money from it.

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Next month the Toshiba Thrive comes out with user-changeable batteries and support for an SD slot (and a little heavier). If it stacks up would be my pref. Waiting to see the reviews.

 

Sorry to quote myself. Lame. It's a correction. The Toshiba Thrive is out now. Showed my ignorance again, read several pieces on it earlier in the year and knew it was coming out late summer, didn't realize it was already on sale. Next time I need to a bit of cursory research. Incidental - it's rated about the same as the Galaxy Tab overall.

 

I'm going to hold off till after New Year and see what comes for the holiday.

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OK. I sent the tablet reviews and opinions to my neighbour who is Dutch and knows everything.

He is a dedicated Apple man and spits on everything non-iPad2.

 

Some of his reply....

 

it is more expensive than the real thing, you must work with the terrible Honeycomb version of Android which is not optimized for tablets. It is plastic, a slower Chip, less memory and a 1 inch smaller screen

 

There is no way in the world these knock offs going to pose a threat to Apple. Given their 70% marketshare and sheer size nobody will be able to get to the price point that apple can offer. The problem with all these manufacturers is that they still do not get the concept of a tablet.

 

By offering all kinds of useless extra's like full size ports, they will slow down the OS in such a way that users will throw it out after two weeks. People get sick and tired of working with a tablet that becomes unresponsive. Multitasking is not really working on a tablet.

 

It looks nice on the picture, holding the plastic toy in your hands for a price tag that is more expensive than the real thing is really something else.

 

I have deleted the more offensive parts of his Toshiba/Samsung opinions. B)

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Hi,

 

"He is a dedicated Apple man and spits on everything non-iPad2."

 

I think that line made all that came after useless :)

 

No offence, but I'll take CNet's opinion over your neighbors. They considered the Galaxy Tab pretty much on par with the iPad2. And for me the lack of USB / Flash is a complete deal breaker.

 

Sanuk!

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Why consumers won’t buy tablets (unless they’re iPads)

 

Summary: Why can’t non-iPads sell? Because the consistent marketing experience from Apple is something that competitors simply cannot reproduce.

 

Can anybody besides Apple can make a tablet that can sell? That question rises yet again with word that the HP TouchPad is not selling well. If this is true, it puts the TouchPad in the same camp as all other tablets except the iPad. The line from the movie “if you build it they will come†has been proven conclusively to not apply to tablets, as HP is now discovering.

 

Why can’t non-iPads sell? It’s not like products such as Honeycomb tablets or the webOS-based TouchPad aren’t acceptable to the market. They may not match the iPad in every area but by and large they are mostly functionally equivalent. It seems that all of the tablets don’t appeal to the same market that is attracted to the iPad, which continues to sell as fast as Apple can make them.

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