MacBook Air Eating into iPad Sales? Productivity Might be King After All

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15 Nov, 2010 3:00 pm

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Nice to see some people are finally seeing the light.  Tablets are good content consuming devices but the reality is that they aren’t very good at content production.  Many the business traveller have tried to replace their laptop with their iPad. What they haven’t realized is that swelling pain in their neck from being hunched over writing notes iPad in lap just isn’t ergonomic.  There are certain time when a traditional screen and keyboard are just more productive.

Rodman & Renshaw analyst Ashok Kumar cites anecdotal evidence that some consumers are taking a look at the new MacBook Air and deciding that its more complete functionality makes its a better option despite its slightly higher cost. What consumers are interested in is the keyboard, higher resolution display combined with the USB ports makes the Air suited for content creation. Quick emails are fine on the iPad but extensive writing is highly problematic.

Kumar also discusses some information from suppliers that that production of the iPad might not be as high as some other analysts predict. According to Kumar two million iPads are produced each month which is 1/3 less than some analysts projections. We won’t know until January how well the iPad has been selling, but it just goes to show you that for some content creating is in fact king.

Via Tuwa


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  • Anonymous

    It’s called ironic. Imagine if Apple came out with an even cheaper 11 inch Air. Hmm. Yeah, we all know what would happen.

  • http://twitter.com/jessebandersen Jesse B Andersen

    I tried the 11.6 inch Macbook Air today. It’s an excellent netbook that is overpriced, but it’s so sexy slim, beautiful screen, awesome keyboard, the best touchpad I have used. I’m usually critical about Apple products, but this one really got me excited.

    I used to have an iPad and really couldn’t do much with it unless I bought attachments like the keyboard + dock. The default iPad is also very limited with the apps that come with it. Simple programs to perform certain tasks that can be found for free for Windows and Linux systems must now be bought. The Air can steal a lot of sales from the iPad. Especially for people want to produce content… it’s still a limited so 1080p HD video editing is not going to happen in the Air. I wonder if programs for 3D game creation like Unity run well on the Air… Gotta go youtube it.

  • aftermath

    What is the meaning of any of this?

    “Tablets are good content consuming devices but the reality is that they aren’t very good at content production.”

    Seriously? Tablet functionality and tablet computing is ALL about productivity. My J3500 can do creative/productive things that no clamshell or touchscreen slate can hope to emulate or even approximate unless you add a graphics tablet input peripheral from a company like Wacom. It’s productive enough that I can’t meaningfully perform my business responsibilities without it. Of course, just because my tablet is amazingly productive, that doesn’t mean that it’s not a great content consuming device. It can play 1080p video and has a high resolution display that can be seen in at any angle and in any lighting condition (no Pixel Qi required). However, even a plain old laptop is a better content consumption device than a silly touchscreen slate.

    I’m sorry, but calling the iPad a tablet does not change the fact that it’s a touchscreen slate. It offers no tablet functionality. A rose by any other name…For that matter, touchscreen slates aren’t good content consumption devices. The fact of that matter is that content consumption is about the only thing that they can do, so of course relative to all of the other functionality that computers can have they don’t, these are “good” content consumption devices. However, in absolute terms, they are terrible and easily bested by more traditional computers or more powerful slates and tablets. The only thing that an iPad offers is portability, and of course the Air is good there too. There should be no surprise that the Air is competing for iPad sales. Market research has already confirmed that Apple product purchases have everything to do with brand perception and almost nothing to do with anything else, especially nothing technical. Thus, iPod, iPad, iPhones, and Airs are all down there for people who want something from the Apple branded “portability bin”.

  • Anonymous

    I have no life, but you have made my day. Calling the 11 inch mac air a “netbook” is wonderful. Indeed it is a premium netbook. Let’s all rejoice. Join hands with Sascha. Let this be a new beginning in this journey we all call netbooks…

  • Jeeves

    I remember when the iPad tablet was said to be eating into MacBook Air sales so of course the other direction is also true. Even with Apple’s fairly good OS, the slate isn’t much different than the iPhone (Android tablets are worse where they’re exactly the same as a smart phone).

    Anyway, it makes sense that people who want to be able to do more with a device would go for a full desktop OS over a tablet with a limited mobile OS.

  • jb82

    correlation does not imply causation.

    Quite simply the ipad has had its mighty assent with sales and is now in a cruising phase.

    The Macbook just launched is now ascending.

    Doesn’t mean the macbook causes the ipad to slow down!

  • http://www.netbooknews.com Nicole Scott

    The iPad will slow down. The fact that other tablets are entering the ecosystem simply makes it a fact. But for the dedicated Apple Fan boys there is now a viable product to turn to. Netbooks will always have a space in the mobile computing ecosystem for the exact reasons stated above. Now Apple has a product that we can say the same thing about.