That's not a high margin business model. But it is a valid one. It's also the model which supplies computers to most of the population. Its the model which has brought down the price of computers year after year.
It does't inspire cliche images of technological innovators 'building-the-future' by "skating to where the puck will be" but they are an important part of the landscape. To me the tech map looks great right now. Better than ever. We have real competition among OS makers. We have serious innovation in devices. We have competition between chip makers. Competition between commodity component manufacturers is pushing prices down.
Sony, Asus, and Lenovo are doing their part. Repackaging the innovations of last year for the mass market at half the price. They're an important part of the mix.
It's great that Google are trying this new stuff with ChromeOS. It's great that Apple is out there creating new products and setting the standard in industrial design. But we don't need all companies to be Apple.
To assert that, from a business perspective, that the "puck" that Google (or Apple) worry about is ludicrous. These two companies do not even compete on the same rink. Their competition is asymmetric. Apple's profits come from 'high margins at retail, paid up front'. Google's profits come from 'the consumer is the product, the advertiser is the customer'.
It is fun to try to compare the micro-actions of these companies, but it is not business or strategy analysis.
- Google is vertically integerated, at least to as high a degree as Apple is with Macs
- Google is trying to sell a physical product at high margins
- Google is heavily rumored to be setting up its own retail presence
Honestly, you'd think that at least when we're discussing a $1300 laptop, the lame "you're the product" cliche could be avoided.
Reference?
The Chromebook Pixel is still heavily geared towards Google's services, be it Docs or Storage. 1TB of Google Drive storage currently runs $600/yr if you get it by itself which comes to a $1800 subsidy for a $1300 laptop!
That either means their Drive storage is horribly overpriced, or that they're heavily subsidizing the Pixel.
You'd think so but especially not here, everything you do will be "seen" by Google. So, you'll be paying $1300+ for a browser and be tracked massively by Google to "serve you better ads." Yay!
http://www.techradar.com/us/news/pc/computing/toshiba-launch...
There, a laptop with only SSD in 2007, which is over 5 years ago. Who was skating where now?
I mean 125% on Windows has now essentially become a requirement to use Windows on any monitor made in the last few years, and we're almost up to the point where 150% is required. However the problem is that 150% seems to break MANY Windows applications (both third and first party).
I'm really hopefully that when displays become just slightly higher resolution we will see some third party software which can "scale" Windows up so that it works the same as Retina displays on the Macbooks do (i.e. real resolution and relative resolution aren't locked together).
I think Chrome OS needs a great virtualization solution - just how chrome handles PDFs and Flash fairly well. I want to be able to open a "windows" tab or an "ubuntu" tab, use them normally.
unless you want Google to host the VMs as well. That could be interesting.
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/chrome-remote-desk...
It works from two instances of Chrome, which could be on any platform (not just Chromebooks).
For example, I want a machine that is reliable (both in software and hardware), fast enough for my purposes and with good usability.
The only point where the Pixel scores in that is their 3:2 screen, that make much more sense than those crazy widescreens.
Except it has. I've been using it like that for 7 years on my lounge TV which is scaled to 175%. On my old Z series for 3 years which had a high PPI screen before anyone else was pushing that way (colour rendition suffered a bit I felt).
The problem is lots of software doesn't play well, they use dodgy code, assume its always 96 dpi screen. Even VB devs given twips managed to mess it up with hardcoded assumptions all over the place.
However, all the main apps I use support it, if one doesn't well you can set that apps option indevidually.
- Laptops with ssds start at 6000 nok (1057 USD).
- Laptops with IPS screen start at 6000 nok (1057 USD).
- Small screen (11.7") laptop with IPS & full hd (189 dpi) & SSD starts at 9795 nok (1718 usd).
- Macbook retina 13" starts at 11490 nok (2015 usd).
A year ago there were hardly any laptops with IPS screens or cheap laptops with SSDs. A lot has changed. I still love my retina macbook pro 15".
"A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be." - Wayne Gretzky
Fun fact I learned recently about guided missiles (I have diverse interests), modern ones don't adjust to aim directly at the target, they adjust to keep the target at the same relative angle (the same position on the imager). This has the effect of leading the target and flying an intercept course instead of a following course, which is more efficient and effective.
Stay in CBDR for long enough and you're pretty much guaranteed a collision.
"The Sidewinder also included a dramatically improved guidance algorithm. The Enzian attempted to fly directly at its target, feeding the direction of the telescope into the control system as it if were a joystick. This meant the missile always flew directly at its target, and under most conditions would end up behind it, "chasing" it down. This meant that the missile had to have enough of a speed advantage over its target that it did not run out of fuel during the interception.
The Sidewinder is not guided on the actual position recorded by the detector, but on the change in position since the last sighting. "
Most people are fine with their 24inch display sporting 1920x1200 resolution but then suddenly on a 13" notebook or even a smartphone 1080p isnt enough ? Its ridiculous!
I have used a Macbook Retina and to me it was not much of a revelation. Yep, the display is nice, text is super sharp and everything is crystal clear but i didnt have the feeling that i would absolutely need this, and i would consider myself a hardware geek and pro user.
So I don't understand the purpose of a hi-res "cloud" laptop. The hi-res screen is ideal for high-end photographic and video work--the two areas of content creation that are still struggling to move to the cloud.
MS behaved as if they can ignore the display progress forever, and now it's finally bites them and their minions in the rear, which is lovely.
However, it's really nice to have them as a luxury "standard". It's been too long that computer displays have been held back by 720p/1080p inertia.
Huh what? A lot of ultrabooks have only SSDs, has the author been in coma for the last year?
Sony has a Vaio Duo 11" with a 1080p display. Lenovo and Asus also have or are about to have high density displays.
All in all, an empty uninsightful fluff piece.
Also, please get some contrast and test how your blog looks on the machines that aren't (retina) Macs.
Also not true. Perhaps it doesn't work perfectly, but it's there, to say it "..has never supported high DPI displays.." is just completely wrong.
Not on a 24" screen, but 11" at 1080p is pretty much there.
