The iPad Mini launch was not the sort of event one would have thought would disclose much about the future of tech or the strategic positioning of that industry's avatars.
The product itself is essentially derivative and its introduction was not considered on a par, technologically or existentially, with either its telephonic or tablet-sized predecessors.
So the ferocity of the uproar that has erupted around it is revealing. Otherwise careful, sober tech executives taking wild rhetorical swings at each other! Companies and their fans attacking the very integrity of their opponents' vision! What in the name of unvested stock options is going on here?
The answer appears to be both competitive and futuristic. Apple launched a product directed at the market for smaller tablets that Amazon, Microsoft, and latterly, Google were already staking out as a counterweight to Apple's lead in full-sized iPads. This has two immediate effects: the first is that it depresses sales of products those other companies were counting on due to the product dedication of Apple's obsessive fan-boys (and girls). The second is that signals Apple will do whatever it can to disrupt competitors' market plans - and will do so with relative impunity whenever it feels the need or want.
More significantly, however, the intensity of the battle suggests that the leading companies in this field are all headed for the same proverbial high ground: mobile computing on a larger, more powerful platform than that offered by the smart phone. The PC may or may not be dead, but its utility is clearly under assault. Phones are getting larger, tablets are getting smaller. That can only lead to one logical conclusion. The average person may not need all the power a PC has but she does need internet access, email, and the ability to gather information, assemble it in a comprehensive - and comprehensible format - and then deliver it where intended.
The Mini and its confreres appear to be an evolutionary stage. Their yet-to-emerge younger brethren will be smaller still but just as powerful if not more so. This, then, is a symbol of the future, and there is only room for so many players. JL
Addy Dugdale reports in Fast Company:
The iPad Mini has really set the cat amongst the pigeons, with two rivals launching attacks on Apple's newest product. Amazon has used its front page to claim that its Kindle Fire is cheaper, better, and high-deffer than the Mini, while Microsoft called it "a $329 recreational tablet." It's unlikely that Apple gives two hoots about the digs: the Mini has sold out of all models, with shipping times pushed back to two weeks.
The third horseman of the Apple-calypse-- that's Google-- has dropped the price of its 16GB Nexus 7 to $199. Today's launch of new Nexus devices in New York has had to be postponed due to the incoming Hurricane Sandy (although Office Depot is already displaying the availability of a 32GB version, the wraps of which were due to come off today).
Tech nabobs are normally keen to rise above the sniping, leaving that to the fanboys and girls in the comments of online reviews, but Steve Ballmer, Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos, and Windows President Steven Sinofsky have all spent the past few days swinging wild punches at their opponents' offerings.
And finally, there's the Barnes & Noble Nook. By and large it's been keeping itself above the fray, but today it seeks to conquer a new territory, with a pair of e-readers available in the U.K., along with a supporting website. B&N tablets will be available in Britain from next month.
Joining the gang against Apple, Google has revealed its new lineup of devices. Alongside a cheaper Nexus 7 (which has had a new storage option at the top end of 32GB and new HSPA+ mobile data speeds) there's the new Nexus 10 tablet and the Nexus 4 smartphone. The Nexus 10 has a high-res screen with 2560 by 1600 pixels, Android 4.2, a 5-megapixel rear camera and NFC. Priced at $399 for the 16GB model, this is a shot right across the iPad's bows. The Nexus 4 is an LG-made phone, with a quad-core CPU and a 4.7-inch screen and wireless charging.
Since Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 event, it's also fair to say Google's trying to steal a bit of Microsoft's limelight. And vice versa, of course.
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