Apple, Android to take out PC sales - Gartner

Tablets, led by the iPad, will cut increasingly into PC sales from this year onwards, according to the latest forecasts from the Gartner research firm.
While the chipmaker  Intel has predicted tablets will expand the PC market, Gartner suggests Apple and Android tablets will displace around 10 per cent of other PC sales by 2014.
Gartner said on Monday worldwide PC shipments should grow 14.3 per cent in 2010 to 352.4m units, but that is down from its prediction of 19.2 per cent growth to  367.8m units made on August 31.
It predicts 15.9 per cent growth to 409m units in 2011, down from its earlier estimate of 18.1 per cent growth.
“These results reflect marked reductions in expected near-term unit growth based on expectations of weaker consumer demand, due in no small part to growing user interest in media tablets such as the iPad,” said Ranjit Atwal, Gartner research director.
“Over the longer term, media tablets are expected to displace around 10 per cent of PC units by 2014.”
Gartner describes media tablets as touchscreen devices running Android, Chrome or Apple’s iOS operating systems and does not include them in its PC figures. It does include tablets running Windows operating systems in its figures.
The research firm says the PC market will be weakened by disruptive forces such as media tablets and next-generation smartphones. Desktop PCs could be hit by adoption of computing in the cloud, with only thin-client “barebones” PCs or refurbished ones needed.
“PCs are still seen as necessities, but the PC industry’s inability to significantly innovate and its over-reliance on a business model predicated on driving volume through price declines are finally impacting the industry’s ability to induce new replacement cycles,” said George Shiffler, another Gartner research director.
Emerging markets are providing growth, but there is a risk consumers there could leapfrog PCs for alternative devices, Gartner says.
To complete the gloom, the research firm says economic uncertainty is making consumers postpone purchases in mature markets and media tablets are “rapidly finding favour with PC buyers who are attracted to their more-dedicated entertainment-driven features and their instant-on capability.”

An iPad Project for a magazine Virgin

 

With any Virgin launch, it is worth looking for the substance behind the hype guaranteed by Sir Richard Branson’s involvement. Tuesday’s unveiling of Project, billed as  the first truly interactive magazine for the iPad age, was no exception.

Joined by Holly, his 29-year-old daughter who is leading the Project, er, project, the bearded balloonist happily played into the hands of reporters who have  billed his pitch for Apple’s tablet as a battle of the billionaires with Rupert Murdoch, whose $30m iPad “newspaper”, The Daily, is expected early next year.
“This is not a battle. This is not a war. It’s about the future of publishing,” he said, before adding the jibe that 30 years of reading Mr Murdoch’s papers convinced him that his title would win “the battle of quality”.
But what does Project offer for what editor Anthony Noguera dubbed the most exciting thing in publishing since Caxton’s printing press? The launch issue, shown off with the usual wifi glitches in a New York hotel, features a flickering cover shot of Jeff Bridges, the Tron Legacy star, who strides on to the first page of an interview which offers more video and audio clips. Other features encourage interaction with the iPad’s touch screen, to colour in a blueprint of a new Jaguar or fly through the streets of Tokyo for a travel article.
For $2.99 or £1.79, readers will (after a 10-minute download wait “on a reasonable internet connection”) get “a monthly magazine that changes daily”, Branson said, highlighting its regularly updated blog and its desire to “crowdsource” comments, editorial ideas and other content. If that sounds like a mess waiting to happen, Noguera says these will be curated.
Project needs the crowd’s help, in part because it has just 20 people, only five of them in editorial roles. The Daily, by contrast, is hiring 100-150 people. “Virgin is a cheapskate,” Branson joked, shortly after dressing up as a mannequin for a photo opp outside an Apple store. Such stunts would encourage many people with iPads waiting under this year’s Christmas tree to buy the app in order to have something to show off what it can do, he predicted.
More revealingly, Noguera said this type of magazine was “far more expensive” to produce than a comparable print title. Forget all the talk about the benefits of not having unionised printers and delivery trucks – tablet-only titles still needed “extremely well-paid” developers and faced the tedious process of redesigning their products for each new device.
Project hopes that such costs will be offset by being charging advertisers such as Lexus and Panasonic a premium for interactive ads you can swipe, tilt and play with, and boasts that it will not carry a single inanimate PDF. “It’s going to make advertising a thousand times more effective than it is now,” Branson said.
But Project is a one-off app up against the likes of Condé Nast, Hearst and Time Inc which are busy translating their well-resourced magazine brands for tablets.  Branson told Bloomberg it would be “great” if Project attracted 50,000 subscribers (one-sixteenth of the number  Murdoch told the Australian Financial Review he needs for The Daily), but his daughter was more circumspect about the size of the market. “It’s quite difficult to put a figure on. It’s virgin territory,” she said.

iPad As A Strike Banner

Probably everybody will agree that iPad is the most popular device among the famous politicians from various countries.

Mayor of NY Michael Bloomberg worships his iPad, and David Cameron, the prime minister of the UK hooked his whole family on the Apple device. Russian political parties also shift to the iPhone’s elder brother, rejecting paper data carriers.

Lithuanian workers in their turn went on a political strike. It might seem ordinary action by Russia’s southwestern neighbors if it wasn’t for an iPad used as a banner.

Apple Launches The IPAD

Safari
The large Multi-Touch screen on iPad lets you see web pages as they were meant to be seen — one page at a time. With vibrant color and sharp text. So whether you’re looking at a page in portrait or landscape, you can see everything at a size that’s actually readable. And with iPad, navigating the web has never been easier or more intuitive. Because you use the most natural pointing device there is: your finger. Scroll through a page just by flicking your finger up or down on the screen. Or pinch to zoom in or out on a photo. There’s also a thumbnail view that shows all your open pages in a grid, to let you quickly move from one page to the next.

Mail See and touch your email in ways you never could before. In landscape, you get a split-screen view showing both an opened email and the messages in your inbox. To see the opened email by itself, turn iPad to portrait, and the email automatically rotates and fills the screen. No matter which orientation you use, you can scroll through your mail, compose a new email using the large, onscreen keyboard, or delete messages with nothing more than a tap and a flick. And iPad works with all the most popular email providers, including MobileMe, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Hotmail, and AOL.

Photos With its crisp, vibrant display and unique software features, iPad is an extraordinary way to enjoy and share your photos. For example, the Photos app displays the photos in an album as though they were in a stack. Just tap the stack, and the whole album opens up. From there, you can flip through your pictures, zoom in or out, or watch a slideshow.You can even use your iPad as a beautiful digital photo frame while it’s docked or charging.

Video The large, high-resolution screen makes iPad perfect for watching any kind of video: from HD movies and TV shows to podcasts and music videos. Switch between widescreen and full screen with a double-tap. Because iPad is essentially one big screen, with no distracting keypad or buttons, you feel completely immersed in whatever you’re watching.

YouTube The YouTube app organizes videos so they’re easy to see and navigate. To watch one, just tap it. When you’re watching in landscape, the video automatically plays in full screen. And with its high-resolution display, iPad makes the latest HD YouTube videos look positively amazing.

iPod With the iPod app, all your music is literally at your fingertips. Browse by album, song, artist, or genre with a simple flick. To play a song, just tap it. iPad even displays album art at full size. Listen to your music with the powerful built-in speaker or with wired or Bluetooth wireless headphones.

iTunes A tap of the iTunes icon lets you browse and buy music, TV shows, and podcasts — or buy and rent movies — wirelessly, right from your iPad. Choose from thousands of movies and TV shows (in both standard and high definition), along with thousands of podcasts and millions of songs. Preview songs before you buy them. Or just sync iPad with the content you already have in your iTunes library on your Mac or PC.

App Store iPad runs almost 140,000 apps from the App Store. Everything from games to business apps and more. And new apps designed specifically for iPad are highlighted, so you can easily find the ones that take full advantage of its features. Just tap the App Store icon on the screen to browse, buy, and download apps wirelessly, right to the iPad.

iBooks The iBooks app is a great new way to read and buy books.¹Download the free app from the App Store and buy everything from classics to best sellers from the built-in iBookstore. Once you’ve bought a book, it’s displayed on your Bookshelf. Just tap it to start reading. The high-resolution, LED-backlit screen displays everything in sharp, rich color, so it’s easy to read, even in low light.

Maps Finding your way is a completely new experience on iPad. Tap to view maps from above with high-resolution satellite imagery, up close with street view, or with topography in a new terrain view — all using Google Services. Search for a nearby restaurant or landmark, then get directions from your current location.

Spotlight Search Spotlight Search allows you to search across iPad and all of its built-in apps, including Mail, Contacts, Calendar, iPod, and Notes. It even searches apps you’ve downloaded from the App Store. So no matter what you’re looking for, it’s never more than a few taps away.