Gruber got it wrong (this time)

I’m a big fan of John Gruber’s blog Daring Fireball, yet I’m confident that he missed a pretty important point this time. Regarding an rumored Microsoft presence at the upcoming iPad 3 event with an equally rumored “Office for iPad” app he wrote:

I’m not saying it’s impossible, but if Microsoft does get a demo slot on stage during the iPad 3 keynote, Microsoft would be getting much more out of it than Apple.

IMO this is viewed too much from a geek perspective. For real world companies an “Office for iPad” would be big deal. The industry outside IT is looking closely into business use of iPads. Microsofts comittment would mean a lot for Apple here, though it would be just a step towards a solid business strategy. The main obstacle still(?) is the limited options to distribute software to specific clients and partners.

HP and Dell just reported sinking numbers for their PC business, change is coming.

iPad 3 Expectations & Tablet Market 2012

A new iPad from Apple is expected in the next months. What does it mean for you?

iPad 2 Expectations

On Wednesday, March 2nd, Apple has invited to a media event where it will announce the iPad 2 – just smack during CeBit. Here’s what I expect, and what I don’t expect:

Final words about the WeTab

The WeTab was a tablet computer announced to be delivered even before Apple’s iPad in Germany, based on a Linux system. It was supposed to be an alternative publishing solution as well, so it got a lot of support at least from the German press, who are looking for alternatives to Apple and Amazon when it comes to electronic publishing.

After some delays it was delivered last week, and despite mediocre press the week before launch I took the opportunity to see the device myself. It’s hard to believe that they released this like it is. It is the ultimate storm.

Current State of “iPad Killers”

Well, it looks like the iPad will stay more a less alone in their segment for a couple more weeks than expected. Last weeks brought a couple of new developments that were not playing in their favor.

iPad Killer for Geeks

After the iPad announcement there was – and still is – a lot of geek talk that this thing should support Adobe Flash, and that a 16:9 screen ratio would have been much more interesting. Meet the JooJoo, aka CrunchPad. The most interesting thing about this device review in Engadget is not the poor execution of this ”iPad Killer“, but that they found the 16:9 ratio very bad for browsing and reading, and Flash indeed a serious impact on battery life – bringing battery run time from a mediocre 5 hours down to a measily 2.5!

There’s a key issue with Flash which will impact all Linux/Android devices: Only Adobe can make it faster. The only decent implementation of Flash today is on Windows. It’s a huge performance hog on OS X, Linux and any mobile OS, and so drains the battery of any mobile device quickly. Adobe has to work hard on this to make it into the mobile space, or many sites will look for alternatives to deliver their content.