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These days, with new tech products regularly being released and an almost limitless number of websites dedicated to them online, it’s no surprise that the internet is brimming with reviews of the latest technology. Trying to decide which new smartphone to purchase? There are many people online willing to offer you input and advice. Looking for laptop reviews? A quick Google search will bring you thousands upon thousands of results.
Of course, this saturation of information is largely a good thing. Without ever seeing a product, the consumer can learn all of its specs, see pictures of it from every angle, and gauge the opinion of both normal customers and technology experts. A person with very specific interests or needs can almost certainly find someone out there who directly addresses those issues. From a free market, capitalistic, consumer-oriented perspective, the mass of available online reviews is incredibly beneficial.
In the midst of the much-anticipated release of Mac OS X Lion this morning, Apple has also made some changes to their hardware side of the Mac. Changes such as removing the optical drive on the Mac Mini, some spec improvements to both the 11-inch MacBook Air as well as the 13-inch MacBook Air, and they added a Thunderbolt port onto their Cinema Displays. What Apple didn’t advertise was the removal of the plastic MacBooks off their website.
Apple confirmed the removal with Engadget, and the polycarbonate laptop has officially been discontinued. The cheapest Mac laptop you can get is the 11-inch MacBook Air with a 1.6GHz Core i5 CPU with 2GB of RAM and 64GB of storage. The 11-ich Air sure is sexy, but the small screen and limited power could be a problem for some users. The polycarbonate MacBooks had similar specs to the base 13-inch MacBook Pros, which were a good bit more powerful than the base 11-inch Airs, which is why I’m still not too sure why Apple has pulled the plug on the plastic MacBooks, especially since they were once the top-selling Mac.
It seems like only a short time ago Google announced the pilot program for the CR-48 notebook computer; the first consumer device to ever be made available for the general public. For those of you who don’t remember, Google announced in early December that the progress in the highly anticipated Chrome OS had finally gotten to the point that the operating system was finally at a point where it could be used in more real-life situations. However, instead of simply asking users to install Chrome OS on their existing computers, Google opted to send out notebook computers sporting the promising operating system to a lucky 60,000 participants.
Now, three months later, it has now become apparent that all of the CR-48 test devices have been sent out, and anyone that was supposed to receive one has already gotten their hands on it by now.
IDC, a well-known and trusted data analysis firm has recently gathered enough evidence that they say concludes the prediction that the production and sales of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers will surpass that of traditional computers in 2012 – and even as soon as 2011.
A similar conclusion drawn by marketing firm Gartner late last month stated that the mobile market was going to expand at higher rates than the PC market, meaning that the sales of mobile devices would have a higher increase than that of computer sales. However, Gratner’s statement wasn’t as bold in stating that the market for mobile computers would grow to surpass traditional desktops and laptops.
When Apple first announced the iPad earlier this year, many critics acclaimed that the device was going to fail, calling it nothing more than an enlarged iPod Touch. However, since April of this year the iPad has had a tremendous success; selling twice as many units on its debut day than originally expected, and has continued to have steady sales a time has progressed. The success of the iPad has been one of the contributing factors in crippling the once-promising netbook market, and has inspired other traditional PC manufacturers to enter the tablet market as well. This has been a major indicator that the focus on tablets by both the PC manufactures and consumers has been increased, while traditional computer systems have been left in the dust.
Today, Gartner – an analytical firm that specializes in the technology field – drew a conclusion that based on the current trends of the PC and tablet markets, 2011 will see higher sales of tablets; sales that will cut into those of PC’s. What does this mean? While PC’s will still have decent sales numbers, the growth of the tablet market will be greater than that of the PC market.
