Apple Sold More iOS Devices in 2011 Than Macs in 28 Years

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chrisone

yep , they are also talking about changing the Lion OS into a more iOS type of system from what i heard.

ptilsen

Sales volume is one thing, but what about actual profit? Obviously iOS is more profitable than OSX at this point, but I don't think it's at higher-than-Macs-over-all-time levels. Macs are sold at outrageous margins, often over $1,000. Still, Apple's money since the original iPod has really not been coming from Macs.

I dislike any shift of desktop computing towards mobile phone interfaces. I don't want my computer to be more like my phone anymore than I want my phone to be a computer. Whenever I've used an iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android phone for a computer-oriented task (word processing, spreadsheets, photo editing, long emails, serious gaming, etc.), it has been a poor experience. Similarly, using a computer for things like voice chat, quick messaging, simple games like Scrabble, Angry Birds, etc., is actually a worse experience than using a phone. Sometimes, I think tech companies are too quick to jump on trends, and don't really think through the end result.

Novalith478

ptilsen wrote: »

Sales volume is one thing, but what about actual profit? Obviously iOS is more profitable than OSX at this point, but I don't think it's at higher-than-Macs-over-all-time levels. Macs are sold at outrageous margins, often over $1,000. Still, Apple's money since the original iPod has really not been coming from Macs.

I dislike any shift of desktop computing towards mobile phone interfaces. I don't want my computer to be more like my phone anymore than I want my phone to be a computer. Whenever I've used an iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android phone for a computer-oriented task (word processing, spreadsheets, photo editing, long emails, serious gaming, etc.), it has been a poor experience. Similarly, using a computer for things like voice chat, quick messaging, simple games like Scrabble, Angry Birds, etc., is actually a worse experience than using a phone. Sometimes, I think tech companies are too quick to jump on trends, and don't really think through the end result.

I agree. I hate Macs and Apple products in general, but all personal biases aside I really don't want desktop computing to go the way of tablets or phones either. The netbook trend hit a few years ago, and look where that went...I rarely see anyone using a netbook anymore. I don't blame them, those keyboards and screens are way too small to be of use to me. I waste more time trying to read what's on the screen than actually doing work.

tpatt100

Windows 8 seems to be moving towards the tablet look and feel. It's inevitable I remember years ago people saying that laptops would never replace desktops and I thought consumer laptops out sold desktops. For the average consumer tablets can do the majority of what they need done. I pretty much use my iPad for everything except gaming.

iOS has a portal for music,apps and movies so I think profitability probably leans towards tablet and phones being more profitable upfront and over all.

Novalith478 wrote: »

I agree. I hate Macs and Apple products in general, but all personal biases aside I really don't want desktop computing to go the way of tablets or phones either. The netbook trend hit a few years ago, and look where that went...I rarely see anyone using a netbook anymore. I don't blame them, those keyboards and screens are way too small to be of use to me. I waste more time trying to read what's on the screen than actually doing work.

Tablets killed net books.

Novalith478

tpatt100 wrote: »

Tablets killed net books.

This is true, however the tablet craze will die too.

Webmaster

Several articles earlier this month also underlined Apple wants to continue in that direction, "Cook feels like the tablet market could soon overtake that of PCs": Apple Will Skip ARM-based Laptops, Focus on iPad but he should have specifically mentioned "desktop PCs" ( Tablets To Overtake Desktop Sales By 2015, Laptops Will Still Reign )

"Research firm iHS reported that Apple sold a total of 40.4 million units last year, accounting for 62 percent of all tablets sold.", so roughly 70 millions tablets were sold in 2011. Overall PC growth is expected to grow in 2012 with roughly 10%. The tablet market overtaking that of PCs is merely in terms of sales/money, it's not in particular a result of tablets 'replacing' laptops/PCs, if anything it's leading to more Mac sales. As the article the OP posted mentions, 2011 was the best year for Mac sales in Apple history.

I think Microsoft had it almost right 10 years ago with their Tablet PCs, but it should be in "ultra" format and allow me to only take half the screen with me as a tablet or fold it twice to turn it into a phone.

But why sell an all-in-one device if you can sell/push multiple devices to users.

In many ways it's comparing apples (no pun intended) to oranges. A tablet PC is a more "personal" computer than a consumer desktop PC often is (e.g. for the entire family) and more often is limited and intended to use by one person (more consumers per family). Tablets can't offer the same processing power as PCs/laptops (Intel) and that won't change, considering the latter will always have more room for more processing power, something that will remain to be a factor especially with parallel computing.

tpatt100

Novalith478 wrote: »

This is true, however the tablet craze will die too.

Die? and go to what? mobile phone computing is setting the trend. The amount of people using their phones more than their computers is growing every year. I doubt tablets will die they will just continue to evolve. For example if you look at Android phones where you can plug a mini hdmi cable into it and use a bluetooth keyboard it could in theory be a PC.

I am thinking years down the road. PDAs died when smartphones got better. Netbooks died when tablets became better. People said laptops could not replace desktops but for the general population now they can.

alxx

Tablets still aren't there yet in terms of features but moving in the right direction.

The main difference between my 2004 fujitsu st5011 tablet pc and ipad 2 are:
ipad is 1/3 the weight but not as tough
battery life ipad 8 hours vs 2-3.5 hours on win 7
pen input on the fujitsu much better for note taking, diagrams and drawings
and allows me to use it for cad stuff.

Not as easy to do content creation or programming on the ipad but still possible

Can get console cables to plug into routers for ipad Get Console - iPhone iPad Serial Cables and Terminal Apps

Tablets are here so we can use computers where we need to not just sitting down.

SteveLord

iOS is seeing a lot of action in the business world as well....to include efforts and products to manage them.

tpatt100

I prefer iOS for content consumption and when I need to do something really quick. The convertible laptops where you remove the screen will probably replace laptops/desktops some day.