Tim Cook At Apple iPad Event: Apple Is 'Fully Planted In The Post-PC Future'

SAN FRANCISCO — In announcing the new iPad, Apple CEO Tim Cook described a "post-PC" revolution that surprised even the company.

"The momentum behind iPad has been incredible and has surprised just about everyone," Cook said, adding later that the device is "outstripping the wildest of predictions."

Cook said Wednesday that Apple sold 172 million "post-PC" devices last year, which comprised iPods, iPhones and iPads. The company says that in the last three months of 2011, about 85 percent of its revenue came from those devices.

Apple has sold more than 55 million iPads, including 40.5 million last year.

Apple revealed a new iPad model Wednesday with a sharper screen and a faster processor. It goes on sale next week.

The popularity of smartphones and tablet computers have hurt sales of traditional computers in the U.S. and other industrialized countries as consumers delay replacing their desktops and laptops.

Other manufacturers have come out with their own tablet devices with limited success. According to IHS iSuppli, Apple had captured 62 percent of the worldwide tablet market last year. Samsung Electronics Co., maker of the Galaxy tablet line, was second with 9 percent, followed by Amazon.com Inc., maker of the Kindle Fire, with 6 percent.

Cook says Apple sold more iPads than any single vendor sold traditional PCs in the last three months of 2011. Apple sold 15.43 million iPads in that quarter. Research firm Gartner estimates that the leading vendor, Hewlett-Packard Co., shipped 14.7 million PCs worldwide in the same period. Some 92 million PCs were shipped by all vendors in that time frame.

Tablet sales could pick up when Microsoft Corp. unveils a new version of Windows before the holiday shopping season. There will be a version of Windows 8 that will run on tablets.

HP and other PC makers are also hoping Windows 8 will boost sales of traditional PCs.

Microsoft began letting consumers try out the new system last week following an unveiling at a wireless trade show in Barcelona.

Comments

[Rgo]

11:06 PM on 03/08/2012

HP has one person that writes the story and another for a catchy title.

One reviewer on TV called the new iPad the iYawn. So, for a lot of people who have bought two of these things already; they maight call it the iPass.

[Larry Luntsford]

07:34 PM on 03/08/2012

What does the home page teaser headline "New iPad 3 Fails To Wow Consumers" have to do with this story?

[Teri Springer]

04:27 PM on 03/08/2012

Hmmmm....I click on a link for a story entitled: New iPad 3 Fails To Wow Consumers

So where is the story about the un-wowed consumers and why they aren't wowed??

[Mike Ruland]

03:01 PM on 03/08/2012

I love Huffpost.
However, some of the ledes don't seem to fit the stories to which they link as seems to be the case here. This happens fairly often and I wish they would make the ledes more relevant. It is so confusing when that happens.

[mlowry]

12:20 PM on 03/08/2012

While reading an article today on the Huffington Post, I saw a link on the side of the page entitled “New iPad 3 Fails To Wow Consumers.” I found it a bit strange that someone had had the courage to writing an article on consumer response to a product that will not be available for another two weeks.

Foolishly, I clicked the link and read the article. The minuscule article, sourced from AP contains nothing that comes close to being consistent with the title of the link.

This is HuffPo at its worst.

[FDRbyGodDemocrat]

01:01 PM on 03/08/2012

No, this is accurate. Pre-orders after announcements are usually huge. Truth to tell, this version is not significantly better to pull in the numbers that previous iPads did. Not that it's not great, I love my iPad 2, but I didn't hear anything yesterday that's going to make me trade mine in for the new one. I'm happy with the speed and screen quality I have, and while the new one is better, it's not enough to make me plop down $829 for a replacement.

[mlowry]

02:37 PM on 03/08/2012

Maybe the iPad 3 failed to impress the anonymous author of this AP article. We have to wait at least a few days before saying anything about what consumers in general think about the new iPad.

And anyway, that’s beside the point. The article says absolutely nothing about consumer reaction to the product. The click-bait link entitled “New iPad 3 Fails To Wow Consumers.”—still present on HuffPo—is deliberately misleading.

[Onutz]

03:30 PM on 03/08/2012

((it's not enough to make me plop down $829 for a replacement.))

But it's PERFECT for first time iPad buyer's like me!

[Anthony Dodd]

02:25 PM on 03/08/2012

You noticed that too?

You know what's FASCINATING if you think about it? How The Huff does not allow its users a voice regarding The Huff itself. Comments like these seem to be utterly ignored -- as if we the visitors and contributing members are valueless.

Apple, for instance, has many open doors of criticism. The Apple Community Boards are a place where customers can have their say about disappointing products or software or bugs or whatever.

The Huff? Who asked us what we think.

[mlowry]

02:46 PM on 03/08/2012

Well, that’s a bit of an oversimplification.

Apple will remove any comments they deem critical of the company’s policies, but they certainly monitor the forums to keep abreast of new product problems and the mood of customers.

Here at HuffPo, the comments are very seldom removed for criticizing the company. They’re just ignored.

Which do you prefer? :)

[Gary McCart]

08:09 PM on 03/08/2012

Haha are you serious? Apple has the most closed eco-system of any tech company. They seem to be oblivious to even the most ubiquitous customer complaints. Remember how long it took to get copy/paste in iOS? Having open doors is dandy, but with Apple you'll generally find an empty room on the other side. But when people are buying your products in droves, where's the incentive to truly innovate?

[Not2Normal]

05:45 AM on 03/08/2012

I love my iPad and use it almost exclusively instead of a computer now.

[Adam Betz]

12:49 PM on 03/08/2012

Theres really nothing wrong with the iPad (or any tablet, for that matter). I always say the device must be suited to the task at hand. If all you do is surf the web, browse photos, play casual games, or anything social-media related, I'm sure the iPad is great.

I've played around with my wife's iPad (2nd gen), and its entertaining for a bit, but mainly I see it as a toy.

[DarleenMB]

12:57 PM on 03/08/2012

Yeah, that was what businesses said 30 years ago about the mouse. unhuh.

[Darrin Bell]

02:09 PM on 03/08/2012

I love Apple products, but I have to agree with that. I'm an artist, I use my Macbook to create content. Unless they add a pressure sensitive screen and let me use a stylus and a full fledged version of Photoshop to replace my Macbook/Cintiq setup (something I doubt they'll ever do), it'll always be just a toy to me and I just can't justify the price tag.

[moflard]

05:02 AM on 03/08/2012

I have a strange feeling that this "post pc world" will end up being similar to the previously much vaunted "paperless office."

[Pectin]

09:59 AM on 03/08/2012

That's because you don't understand what it means.

[moflard]

10:42 AM on 03/08/2012

Ah another fanboy assuming anyone who disagrees or is cynical about Apple MARKETING can't understand it. So sad.

So what trauma left you with such a damaged psyche that your self worth is now dependent upon the ownership consumer goods?

[Adam Betz]

12:29 PM on 03/08/2012

So True. I mean, seriously ... when's the last time you were in any kind of office building, and they had an actual Desktop machine and monitor somewhere in there? People just don't get it.

[shewolf2002]

10:22 AM on 03/08/2012

uh-huh. I'm not giving up my laptop.

[mrblifil]

11:46 PM on 03/08/2012

The Apple business model doesn't require that you do. Most new users will happily take on a $500 iPad over a similarly priced laptop, because Apple products work, whereas tons of laptop designs rake the user over the coals, both in cheap materials, poor ergonomics, and crappy operating systems. 4 years ago people said "I'm not giving up my Blackberry..." Times are different now.

[theawesomejamie]

11:53 PM on 03/07/2012

I'm curious, do Apple design and program their new innovative* products on so called post-pc devices? My guess is all of the work is actually done on actual computers and not iPads, which are essentially digital photoframes with a web browser built in.

*By innovative I of course mean "catching up to the rest of the market while presenting it as a new idea"

[Not2Normal]

05:47 AM on 03/08/2012

IPads are hardly "digital photo frames with a web bowser built in" ... If you think that, you either don't own an iPad or you aren't using it to it's full capability.

[theawesomejamie]

06:55 AM on 03/08/2012

I'm actually using my first gen iPad now, so that covers the web browsing bit. Hmmm, what else to do? I know, look through my photos!

There are of course other things I could do on it, but I'd be wasting my time. My laptop or phone are the devices I use to do anything even remotely useful. The iPad can do some things my laptop can do....just worse, slower, more tediously, without Flash.

It does look pretty though.

[Tumbriller]

09:49 PM on 03/07/2012

I can't hold my PC in one hand and write on it with the other.
Can I write on the iPad?

[becky bradshaw]

07:48 PM on 03/07/2012

More than 1650 man-hours were invested in the decision to title the latest gizmo as the "New iPad". The second choice was the "HD iPad", and third was "iPad 3".

The decision was problematic since eventually, there will probably be another product release. Logically the next product will be called the "Newer iPad", and the one after that, the "Newest iPad". It gets dicey after that.

[elblanc0]

11:47 PM on 03/07/2012

Rumor is the next one will be called "The iPad You Don't Yet Have" and the next one "The iPad You Don't Know Why You Need...But You Do!"

[SickHippie]

11:38 PM on 03/08/2012

"People don't think it be like it is, but it do." - Oscar Gamble

[DRaymond]

07:00 PM on 03/07/2012

Mac users should be worried.

Meanwhile Microsoft is saying that the tablet is just another form factor for personal computing and that tablets no more issued in a Post-PC era than laptops did.

[Pectin]

09:57 AM on 03/08/2012

"Mac users should be worried."

Nope. Not at all.

[Adam Betz]

12:40 PM on 03/08/2012

You're more on to the truth than most.

Tablets are in no way going to "replace" laptops or taditional computers. Even the classic desktop machine is in no danger of being replaced, despite what tech journalists and talking heads claim - there is just too much utility and practicality in a workplace environment. I would much rather use my Desktop machine to get work done vs. a brand spanking new tablet or laptop - the eye strain alone would make using the device unbearable!

Its all a matter of function and the best device suited for the task at hand. When I do work, play games, or any kind of task that requires either accuracy or raw computing power - I'm going to use my office desktop workhouse. For casual computing and internet browsing at home, I have a laptop. When traveling or I just need to quickly look something up, my iPhone is very handy. None of them replace the other, they just complement each other.

[mrblifil]

11:50 PM on 03/08/2012

It was also once suggested that iPhones would never replace Blackberrys.

[GPaugam]

06:02 PM on 03/07/2012

There will always be PCs...how will you be able to upgrade you iPad??? You can't. Like everything Apple makes...its trendy and fashionable to its followers...thank goodness for competition and Google(Android) 5 years from now, you'll be trying to sell your iPad for $50 bucks cause it grown obsolete, if not sooner.

[Not2Normal]

05:53 AM on 03/08/2012

I hardly use my iPad because it is trendy and fashionable ...??? I use it because it is fantastic to be keyboard less and mouseless, and not have to hassle with openning it up and trying to juggle the 90 degree angle of keyboard and screen.
I was skeptical about the iPad, until I tried one out. It was the original one, which is the one I am writing this with right now. I skipped iPad 2, but will probably get this new one ... Learned a long time ago not to jump on each new thing Apple puts out.

[Gudrun]

10:20 AM on 03/08/2012

I'm in the same boat, have the iPad 1, but I am looking at this new one closely!

[deucejuice]

11:29 AM on 03/08/2012

You don't need a pc to upgrade an ipad.

[Barbarian At The Gate]

05:55 PM on 03/07/2012

Apple dropped the "Computer" from their name when they stated they were a "digital convergence" company. Now their iPad, iPhone, iPod are "Post-PC" products. Just more marketing gimmicks. Angry birds is the number one free and paid app for Apple "Post-PC" product line. Is the future of the computer world supposed to be "Angry Birds"?

[Not2Normal]

05:56 AM on 03/08/2012

There are over 200,000 Apps.

[XTC123]

05:45 PM on 03/07/2012

Nice product shame it is made in China thank Apple when they sent 400,000 plus American jobs overseas.

[Plasticist]

05:41 PM on 03/07/2012

Post PC pads are pre-post-touch screen. I can only LOL at how behind tomorrow's times they truly are.