Category Archives: Computers & Electronics

HP Touchpad

Computers & Electronics,

The HP Touchpad was HP’s venture into the world of the tablet PC. When Apple brought out the iPad this led to a wealth of new tablet PCs being introduced by various major players in the market. The HP Touchpad was integrated with Microsoft products and was one of the products that Microsoft had in its arsenal for it’s battle against Apple.

Reviews were good for the HP Touchpad and so many people were surprised when HP announced that they would be no longer manufacturing the tablet PC but would only be continuing production to keep up with any outstanding orders.

It may well be that HP will sell off certain parts of the business so that someone else can continue what the touchpad has started but at the moment that is just a possibility. When the financial climate is hard then tough decisions need to be made and it seems that is what HP have done. The tablet PC market is a tough one with a lot of players now so maybe the lack of sales of the HP touchpad have sent ti to it’s death.

In any case it seems that HP will keep making the touchpad until very late in the year (2011) to fulfill the demand and then we will just have to see what happens to it after that.

Apple vs Microsoft

Computers & Electronics,

The big battle out there in the land of super players of the computer world is always Apple vs Microsoft. It seems like people have to be on one side or the other. But more recently the battle lines have been reduced a bit by the huge popularity of the iPhone. For some people the iPhone is their first venture into Apple products. They have not used a mac before and have been solid users of Microsoft Windows on the home computers. But with the advent of the popularity of the iPhone more people are realising that a mac is maybe not such an alien thing as they thought and might be worth a try.

There are many fundamental differences between using an Apple Mac and a Microsoft based computer that for most of your everyday users, who have got used to using one and have found that hard enough, they are not going to learn a whole new set of commands and a different user interface. Most people  in fact do not really need a Mac. In fact I would go as far as saying most people do not really need a full spec computer. How many people do you know that just use their computer or laptop just to check emails, surf the web and maybe create the odd document? It would be interesting to see the statistics on that kind of usage. Maybe that is limited to the older age group and that kind of use will drop out in time. If that is the case then there is an argument to be had that the use of Apple products will increase in time with the users wishing to maximise the available technology.

It would be a bit of a generalisation to say that the majority of Apple mac users are in some way connected to art and design – the Apple system has long been heralded as the best way to view and edit photos, graphic and other kinds of artwork, but as digital manipulation expands, maybe the use of Macs will too.

For Microsoft users there are plenty of programs that may match up to the capabilities of the Apple Mac (although that is disputed by the Mac users) plus with the ‘everyday surfers’ they still have a large proportion of the market, so they should still have a huge user base for years to come. However, the more that people use their iPhones as a computer (and if you can do your email and surf then that is a big bonus), then the use of standard PCs and Laptops may diminish in time anyway and at that point, who will lose the lion’s share of the market?