If you can imagine an iPad the size of Apple’s largest iMac, with the iOS multi-touch interface plus the power of OS X, then you can imagine the next generation of computing.
You’ll use it tilted at an angle on your desk like a drafting table. Or, you’ll tilt it up for TV or presentations, or flat for using it as a table. Or you’ll use it as a coffee table or a kitchen counter top. The point is: You’ll use it.
Apple has a gazillion patents for their version of this technology. Microsoft has already promised a consumer version of Surface. The third generation of desktop computing (after command line and GUI generations) is coming.
But Google has already announced the operating system for their giant desktop multi-touch PC of the future.
Google announced and shipped an upgrade to Android (version 3.1), plus announced a future version of Android that will ship later this year (code-named Ice Cream Sandwich). Together this news represents the first desktop consumer multi-touch system ever announced. The now-shipping version has resizable windows for widgets and USB peripheral support, wireless control of household appliances and the ability to accept Kinect-like gesture commands.
These capabilities are ho-hum for 10-inch tablets, but killer features for desktop touch tablets.
More importantly, Google says the version available later this year will work seamlessly on all screen sizes. They say it’s the end of Android fragmentation.
The question for the comments area below is: Will Google’s hardware partners beat Apple to market with desktop touch tablets in the same way Apple beat Google with mobile tablets?
Go here to read the details.
(Photo courtesy of Evoluce)
105 responses to “Is Apple Falling Behind Google for the Future of Computing?”
Companies can announce whatever they want. Real artists ship.
Well they DID ship the version that supports USB peripherals and user-sizable widget windows, desktop touch-tablet friendly features that Apple has NOT shipped. So….
Only Apple knows!
I’m sure they’ve thought of this kind of stuff and/or worked on it, and as with everything, being first to do it means less than being the first to do it right. This all boils down to execution.
Typical vaporware. Ask Microsoft about this term.
Ugh. No. Large-scale, desktop form factor doesn’t work ergonomically for touchscreen devices. Simply put, your arms get too tired after holding them up all day. There are already touchscreen PCs available that have bombed. If this kind of computing is the future, it will stay on tablets, or at the very least laptop-sized tablets.
“The point is: You’ll use it.”
I don’t know. I think touch is something that’s going to get built into a lot of devices, but I think we’ll use it in different ways. Tilting my iMac to use the surface as a touch screen is a very different experience than holding an iPad in your lap.
Touch is great for something iPad sized but when you’re asking people to work on a much larger surface area it seems a little silly outside of games. It’s not the most ergonomic method. I can move a mouse pointer a lot easier with a mouse or a Trackpad in less time.
It may look cool, but there are more issues with large touch surfaces than “gorilla arm”.
Mike Elgan? Is this the same genius who proclaimed that Microsoft’s Zune “scared Apple to the core” and that Apple needed to learn some lessons from Microsoft such as the importance of pen input for tablet computers and the successful big-assed table Surface computer? The guy who claimed that Leopard was a knockoff of Windows Vista? The same guy who writes for “visionary” publications Ike Computerworld, PC Mag and Infoworld?
In the interest of full disclosure, readers should be aware that this guy’s tech cred is in the same league as Paul Thurrott, Rob Enderle, and John Dvorak.
It matters little who is first to market. It depends on the ecosystem to support it. Apple already has the majority of developers, and is enjoying huge economies of scale, which is allowing it to keep prices below competitors’. In the Home, it already has the media ecosystem — games, movies and music. Amazon is the only company that can compete on the content level. In the enterprise, Apple’s weakness is enterprise sales and support — but the iPad is already making massive inroads thanks to the CEO backdoor, and Apple is reportedly hiring RIM staff like crazy.
After watching google IO and their plans with the homenetwork and and Android, I think Apple has real contendor.
You people are brilliant! I noticed Google saying that Ice Cream Sandwich works on all phones, tablets, and upcoming form factors. Thay also said they’re already working on several products of the new form factor.
It usually irks me when someone beats me to the punch, but you nailed it. When did MS announce Win95? About 1993? Doing that killed any chance we had to try OS/2, and we were stuck with Win 3.11 for almost 3 more years.
Almost everyone has learned to ignore vaporware from MS; are we really going to fall for it from Google?
It’s very clear that this is where the future is gearing towards. Touchscreen surfaces. Though touchscreen technology has been out for many years now, we all know who strongly put it on mainstream. And no, it’s not the LG Prada, hahahaha.
Apple will continue to be highly influential in dictating what’s the next touchscreen trend for many years to come. It will be a while after another company will take over Apple’s place as the trendsetter for touchscreen devices. And I really doubt that if it would be google.
These touchscreen PCs you mention are not the design that Elgan is talking about. Voice and other tech will minimize the need of touch.
That being said I think Elgan is thinking way too far ahead. None of these mobile OSes are even close in functionality to a desktop OS. This is something that is ~10 years out considering that it would be professionals who would mostly use this device and they need a fully capable OS.
ridiculous link-bait.
My sentiments precisecly. Oh, so precisely. Especially concerning Thurrott, Endere and Dvorak. I still see these three Stooges get ink from otherwise reputable print and visual media who seem not to know better.
You are totally wrong.
“Gearing towards?” Write mich?
Google should not be compared to Microsoft in terms of vaporware. Microsoft is the king of vaporware. No one else will ever come close. Google can be expected to delay a little, but most promised products do seem to appear.
…in beta form (unfinished/not completely working), until they’re killed at some random point in the future.
(BTW, I am not a MS fan either.)
Thanks. Here’s Mike Elgan’s junk Zune artcile you mentioned: http://www.macworld.com/articl…
in which Elgan expertly puts “iTV set-top box” and “ship later than Vista” in the same sentence.
Leander, why did you hire Elgan, a concern troll, who spews so much bad information?
Silly blog post. The “future of computing” implies productivity usage — which is utterly impossible on a large format touch display. That’s the reason Apple is avoiding these products — because they don’t work for any broad market usage, only for narrow niches, such as information displays or (some) games. Anyone up-to-date in the industry knows this — as should you.
Oh, please! No one would even be thinking about a touch interactive OS if it wasn’t because of the iPad’s huge success
Oh, please! No one would even be thinking about a touch interactive OS if it wasn’t because of the iPad’s huge success
Avoiding these products? Apple is betting the entire company on multi-touch and iOS. Please go read the link I put in the post on Apple’s patents!
of course the apple fan boys come to the rescue and totally deny anything even though the proof is there. such as Apple being behind the curve in the smart phone war against android. theyre already losing that war. if they dont ship up it could potentially happen to Mac OSX. Open your eyes and be open to all parts of technolodgy, even if they may not be apple.
Gearing towards = to a direction. Comprehension problems?
Precisecly? You mean “precisely” right? Lol.
Google….no os experience, no platform building experience (& this already shows), no customer support experience, no marketing experience, no retail experience, no UI experience, no hardware experience, etc., etc., etc. you just don’t gain all that over night.
Hey spelling nazi, it is just a spelling mistake.
You are kind of hilarious to pick on such petty stuff when there are bigger things in life.
When I wrote the offending column five years ago, iPods were Apple’s most profitable business. Microsoft had the theoretical capability to make Zune succeed (which I specified in the column). Naturally, Apple took this potential threat very seriously. They would have been irresponsible not to. I specified concrete steps they took, which I believed were reactions to the launch of the Zune. It’s all in the column.
It turns out that Microsoft totally screwed up the Zune, and in hindsight we all now know Apple had nothing to worry about.
The headline of my column triggered an emotional reaction by a lot of people who associate Apple with their own personal identity. This emotion blinded people to the reasonable argument in the column. If you like, you can pretend the headline is “Why Apple is taking the Zune seriously,” and re-read it. You’ll probably agree with it. (ObamaPacman was kind enough to provide a link below.)
Specifically, a blogger named Daniel Eran Dilger was one of those offended, and wrote a ridiculously over-the-top personal attack. He even Photoshopped my face with a dunce hat, and associated me with his roster of villains.
As a result, now even five years later, people still try to invalidate my arguments based on Dilger’s personal attack (which was full of errors, by the way).
I write four or five columns or blog posts a week. The overwhelming majority of my columns and blog posts about Apple are very positive, namely because I think Apple’s iOS vision and execution has been dead-on.
Yet one column with an offending headline written five years ago is used to invalidate my entire career.
How weird is that?
Meanwhile, an ad hominem attack (attacking the person, rather than the argument) is the most common fallacy of argumentation. It’s invalid. If you have any disagreement with what I actually wrote in this post, I’m sure we’d all love to hear it.
“
Touch is great for something iPad sized but when you’re asking people to work on a much larger surface area it seems a little silly outside of games.”
Isn’t that the same thing everyone said about the iPad upon its impending release? I remember a lot of comments like, “oh look, a giant iPod touch.”
While it’s impossible to say what the future will bring, it seems pretty clear that a lot of new, previously unthought-of applications for such a platform could potentially emerge…like manipulating 3D objects with multi-touch gestures. And I would imagine that moving to a touch-based system doesn’t mean that you would completely eschew the ol’ keyboard and rodent.
You know Mike, I like your response here. You have every right to set your readers on the proper path of correctness. I read these various forums rather religiously and find the posters can’t just share some interesting reflections, but rather they have to make all kinds of negative slurs and actually mean statements. They act like they are all so knowing about business matters, operational factors and why everyone else is stupid or the like. I know the media has to try to be sensational or no one will look at it. I guess it is just the engineer in me that likes precision and directness without all the garbage.
Much like the nexus was going to beat out the iphone…
They have something like this in the Microsoft store in Mission Viejo Mall in California…. Actually looks verrryy similar to this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…
typical android fangirl stuff. How on earth is iPhone behind? Brief answer it isn’t. Making breakthrough tech isn’t about ticking off items on a a spec sheet (ie 4g). It’s about bringing real usability to people.
I use Android and IOS and frankly Android is a joke with regards to usability. Andy has basically conceded that for now android is only appealing to tech geeks, but that in the future it will become user friendly. We shall see.
LMAO! I suppose you’d be even more impressed if they used floppy disks and a stylus too!
Did you read the article you wrote? The idea that a larger touchscreen display (ie 25+ inches) is the future of computing doesn’t seem right to me either.
IOS is grand on smartphones and tablets, and gesture recognition is a powerful tool that is here to stay. A giant flatscreen that is a desk might work for some people (ie graphic designers are drooling), but it isn’t an efficient or useful item in the consumer or business arena (read too expensive).
Who knows what’s coming, but I would guess that projected displays with gestural recognition are likely to be more mainstream in the near future then this concept.
Hi Leander! Hiring RIM staff? Whatever for?
Mike, I referenced several of your brilliant observations, not just one. To suggest that Apple was even remotely worried about the Zune is laughable. This had nothing to do with hindsight. If anything, Jobs must have been rather surprised at just how poor Microsoft’s answer to the iPod was, especially considering their vast resources and shameless habit of copying Apple’s designs. Your other typical comments, like saying Leopard was a copy of Vista, really puts you in a special category of shill that begs to be ridiculed.
I don’t always agree with everything Daniel Eran Dilger writes, or fails to write, but the guy is known for backing up his positions with reams of statistical and historical data, and looking back I can’t recall any instances where he’s been laughably wrong. This is more than I can say for your work.
I’m not bashing you because I disagree with something you wrote, or because I take offense at any criticisms of Apple. It’s really just your sheer cluelessness that offends me – the utter lack of any redeeming qualities in any of your work.
Maybe he was just amused at the imprecision of the spelling of that word in particular and wanted to share the joke. Some of us like our humour droll.
I’ll see your first two points and raise you a “And who does it better”
Sorry but everything that I’ve messed with from the world of Android seems rushed and half baked. Over and over I keep thinking they should have worked on it another 3-4 months before even talking about it.
Apple might be frustrating with their quiet but personally I think it’s better to take time to do things as right as possible and not speak until it’s time to release (or time that someone else like the FCC is going to leak it and you can’t stop it).
So because Apple doesn’t announce things a year in advance they are behind Google (or anyone else). Sorry but that seems like laughable logic to me.
If anything, that headline is back ass wards. The future of computing seems to be the drop it in a bag tablet paired with a home computer. And right now, the ipad is the winner on that tablet part of the equation. No one else has managed to release a tablet that has made a dent in the ipad sales or demand. Even if you put all the released tablets together, their combined sales is only perhaps 5% of the ipad 2 sales to date even with the jerk around on supply.
As for the patents, keep in mind that they don’t necessarily reflect Apple’s plans for the future. They are merely ideas, ideas that are often tested and rejected. But someone might be nutty enough to go for it so Apple can at least make a bit of money to pay back their R&D off the licensing those loons will have to pay. Even Charlie Sheen would say that that tactic is winning.
Can you point to the article where I said Leopard was a copy of Vista?
He forgot he wrote this hit whore article because, well, he is a goog whore.
These blogs just show how much mac is a cult. Mac is all about controlling your experienced based on what they think is important. If that’s what you want, fine. Attacking people for their original thoughts whether correct in you opinion or not is just immature. And by the way, If you can’t see the major flaws in mac how can you claim to have the insight to see the major flaws in other technology. All of them have plenty. By the way, I like my mac. But I also still like pc. and I’ve used I phone and Android. Android is much more user friendly. For now at least. Mac will never “Take Over”, most people do not make enough to keep feeding their bottom line for a product that may be physical elegant but isn’t as durable and cost much more for the same thing. Bring on your unfounded insults :)
Disingenuous reply, Mike. I clearly said “a large format touch display.” Now it’s clear you truly are simply trying to force a point.
Crickets.
You wrote: “Your other typical comments, like saying Leopard was a copy of Vista,
really puts you in a special category of shill that begs to be
ridiculed.”
Not only is that not a “typical comment,” but it’s something I have never said or written. You made that up.
It’s obvious that you’re totally unfamiliar with my work, yet you feel comfortable saying you’re offended by “the utter lack of any redeeming qualities in any of your work.”
Can you explain this?
I’m always surprised by resistance to the idea that desktop computing will soon become touch-screen-based. Maybe you naysayers can help me understand this resistance.
WIMP computing (windows, icons, menus, pointing devices) have been with us for 35 years, and the whole model is totally stale. Mice are stupid. Keyboards haven’t been improved since the 80s.
Do you believe this old-and-busted model will be here forever, never to be replaced by a third generation of interface?
If you do think it will be replaced, what will replace it? Why won’t it be replaced by the MPG (multi-touch, physics and gestures) model that thrills us on iPhone, and rocketed Apple to global tablet dominance with the iPad?
These toddlers and children who are obsessed with the iPad — what kind of desktop computing do you think they’ll want to do?
Help me understand this.
So Google ANNOUNCES something and that means Apple may be falling behind Google for the future of computing. Say what?
Has Google every announced something in the past that has, you know, underwhelmed? Like Google Web Accelerator, Google X-File, Google Catalog, Google Video, Google Answers, Google Coupons, Google Voice Search, Google Viewer, Google Checkout, Orkut, Google Wave, Wiki Search, Google Audio Ads, Dodgeball, Jaiku, Google Notebook, Google Page Creator, Google Buzz and Google TV?
Has Apple ever come late to the party and still done pretty well? Like with MP3s, Phones and Tablets?
My criticism of your article has nothing to do with Google or with Apple. My criticism of your article is that it lacks any historical, logical or rational foundation. Announcing a product is not the same thing as shipping a product. Shipping a product is not the same as having success with that product. Having success with a product is not the same thing as leaving one’s competition behind. Reasoned speculation is one thing. Speculation without foundation is another thing altogether. It’s not worth the time it takes to write and it’s certainly not worth the time it takes to read.
Let’s wait for Google to ship the product and see what kind of success it has, if any, and what kind of response Apple has, if any, before foolishly and irresponsibly entering into conjecture on it’s impact on the “Future of Computing”.
“I’m always surprised by resistance to the idea that desktop computing will soon become touch-screen-based.-Mike Elgan
I don’t know the future of computing, but ergonomics and “Gorilla Arm” suggest that vertical touch based systems are not the way. http://www.catb.org/jargon/htm…
It’s interesting how critics of others would never put their own necks on the line for fear of receiving the same ridicule.
As much as I would hope Google would achieve such an auspicious venture and beat Apple, because I’m so tired of hearing about Apple, I think as soon as Apple releases any new tech (even if it’s high-tech toilet paper) people will flock to it as if their lives depended on it. If the next generation of the Android OS is as good as Google is claiming it to be then they might have a shot. However, as much as I love my Droid, I often find the Android OS’s little quirks to be quite annoying.
***** These blogs just show how much mac is a cult. *****
That suggests a *great* name for a blog…. ; )