The Great Tech War Of 2012 | Fast Company

The Great Tech War Of 2012

By Farhad Manjoo

Article location:http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/160/tech-wars-2012-amazon-apple-google-facebook

October 17, 2011

Tags: Leadership, Innovation, Management, Careers

From left: The late Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Larry Page, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. | Photos courtesy of David Paul Morris/Getty Images (Jobs); Justin Sullivan/Getty Images (Zuckerberg); Chip East/Reuters (Page); Mario Tama/Getty Images (Bezos).

Gilbert Wong, the mayor of Cupertino, California, calls his city council to order. "As you know, Cupertino is very famous for Apple Computer, and we're very honored to have Mr. Steve Jobs come here tonight to give a special presentation," the mayor says. "Mr. Jobs?" And there he is, in his black turtleneck and jeans, shuffling to the podium to the kind of uproarious applause absent from most city council meetings. It is a shock to see him here on ground level, a thin man amid other citizens, rather than on stage at San Francisco's Moscone Center with a larger-than-life projection screen behind him. He seems out of place, like a lion ambling through the mall.
"Apple is growing like a weed," Jobs begins, his voice quiet and sometimes shaky. But there's nothing timorous about his plan: Apple, he says, would like to build a gargantuan new campus on a 150-acre parcel of land that it acquired from Hewlett-Packard in 2010. The company has commissioned architects--"some of the best in the world"--to design something extraordinary, a single building that will house 12,000 Apple employees. "It's a pretty amazing building," Jobs says, as he unveils images of the futuristic edifice on the screen. The stunning glass-and-concrete circle looks "a little like a spaceship landed," he opines.
Nobody knew it at the time, but the Cupertino City Council meeting on June 7, 2011, was Jobs's last public appearance before his resignation as Apple's CEO in late August (and his passing in early October). It's a fitting way to go out. When completed in 2015, Apple's new campus will have a footprint slightly smaller than that of the Pentagon; its diameter will exceed the height of the Empire State Building. It will include its own natural-gas power plant and will use the grid only for backup power. This isn't just a new corporate campus but a statement: Apple--which now jockeys daily with ExxonMobil for the title of the world's most valuable company--plans to become a galactic force for the eons.
And as every sci-fi nerd knows, you totally need a tricked-out battleship if you're about to engage in serious battle.

"Our development is guided by the idea that every year, the amount that people want to add, share, and express is increasing," says Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. "We can look into the future--and it's going to be really, really good."

To state this as clearly as possible: The four American companies that have come to define 21st-century information technology and entertainment are on the verge of war. Over the next two years, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google will increasingly collide in the markets for mobile phones and tablets, mobile apps, social networking, and more. This competition will be intense. Each of the four has shown competitive excellence, strategic genius, and superb execution that have left the rest of the world in the dust. HP, for example, tried to take a run at Apple head-on, with its TouchPad, the product of its $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm. HP bailed out after an embarrassingly short 49-day run, and it cost CEO Léo Apotheker his job. Microsoft's every move must be viewed as a reaction to the initiatives of these smarter, nimbler, and now, in the case of Apple, richer companies. When a company like Hulu goes on the block, these four companies are immediately seen as possible acquirers, and why not? They have the best weapons--weapons that will now be turned on one another as they seek more room to grow.
There was a time, not long ago, when you could sum up each company quite neatly: Apple made consumer electronics, Google ran a search engine, Amazon was a web store, and Facebook was a social network. How quaint that assessment seems today.
Jeff Bezos, who was ahead of the curve in creating a cloud data service, is pushing Amazon into digital media, book publishing, and, with his highly buzzed-about new line of Kindle tablets, including the $199 Fire, a direct assault on the iPad. Amazon almost doubled in size from 2008 to 2010, when it hit $34 billion in annual revenue; analysts expect it to reach $100 billion in annual revenue by 2015, faster than any company ever.
Remember when Google's goal was to catalog all the world's information? Guess that task was too tiny. In just a few months at the helm, CEO Larry Page has launched a social network (Google+) to challenge Facebook, and acquired Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion, in part to compete more ferociously against Apple. Google's YouTube video service is courting producers to make original programming. Page can afford these big swings (and others) in the years ahead, given the way his advertising business just keeps growing. It's on pace to bring in more than $30 billion this year, almost double 2007's revenue.

Google founder hopes to prove he's ready to be CEO

Google founder hopes to prove he's ready to be CEO
AP via Yahoo! News

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer – Fri Apr 1, 4:48 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – Google co-founder Larry Page is known for his vision, passion and intelligence.

Yet there is a fair amount of concern that Page's other known traits — his aloofness, rebellious streak and affinity for pursuing wacky ideas — might lead the company astray. Page takes over as CEO on Monday as fast-rising rivals and tougher regulators threaten Google's growth.

Investors used to Google Inc.'s consistency in exceeding financial targets worry that new leadership will bring more emphasis on long-term projects that take years to pay off. And many people still aren't sure he has enough management skills to steer the Internet's most powerful company.

Page already has learned that smarts alone won't make him a great leader. Although Page impressed Google's early investors with his ingenuity, they still insisted that he step down in 2001 as Google's first CEO. He turned over the job to Eric Schmidt, a veteran executive who began working in Silicon Valley in the early 1980s while Page was still in grammar school.

Page's admirers say that at 38, he is more mature and less apt to be chronically late to meetings or tune out of conversations that don't stimulate his intellect — habits that he fell into during his first stint as CEO.

'There are parts of being CEO that don't fit Larry's personality,' said Craig Silverstein, the first employee that Page and Google's other founder, Sergey Brin, hired when they started the company in 1998. 'You wear a lot of different hats when you're CEO. Some of them are very interesting to Larry and some of them, presumably, are less interesting.'

True to his taciturn form, Page hasn't said much publicly since Google made its stunning announcement in January that he will replace Schmidt as CEO. Google said Page wasn't available for an interview.

Page, though, has left little doubt about his top priority: to dissolve the bureaucracy and complacency that accompanied the company's rapid transformation into a 21st-century empire. Google is expected to end the year with more than 30,000 employees and $35 billion in annual revenue.

In Page's mind, the 13-year-old company needs to return to thinking and acting like a feisty startup. Rising Internet stars such as Facebook, Twitter and Groupon, all less than 8 years old, are developing products that could challenge Google and make its dominance of Internet search less lucrative.

Page has drawn comparisons to two high-tech geniuses who are even more accomplished: Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs. Like those two pioneers in personal technology, Page invented and cultivated a product that changed the world.

But Page has yet to match them in this respect: as CEOs, Gates and Jobs brought out the best in the companies that they created, delighting stockholders as their investments soared.

Page doesn't fit the CEO mold, even by the standards of Silicon Valley's free-wheeling culture. He dropped out of graduate school at Stanford to start Google and doesn't have a business degree.

Science and technology, though, seems to be in his DNA even though he grew up in Michigan, where automobiles rule.

His late father, Carl, was a computer scientist and pioneer in artificial intelligence, and his mother taught computer programming. Page began working on personal computers when he was just 6 years old in 1979, when home computers were a rarity. The geeky impulses carried into his adulthood, leading him to once build an inkjet printer out of Legos.

Page relishes challenging the status quo and encourages his employees to do so, too. Those who know Page suspect he picked up the anti-establishment mindset as a boy who attended Montessori schools, which discourage structured curricula and encourage independent activities.

Page has wanted to control his own destiny — and legacy — since reading a biography of the inventor Nikola Tesla before he was even in high school. Tesla wasn't rewarded or widely recognized for his breakthroughs in X-ray, wireless communications and electricity. Page didn't want that to happen to him as an entrepreneur.

For that reason, Page embraced the chance to be Google's CEO when the company started in a rented garage not far from the company's current headquarters in Mountain View, Calif. It also helps explain why he and Brin created a separate class of stock with greater voting power so they and Schmidt could remain in charge after the company went public in 2004. Page's stake in Google has made him one of the world's wealthiest people with an estimated fortune of $20 billion.

Although the contours of his personality and background are known quantities, Page remains an enigmatic figure on Wall Street.

To some, he remains best known for uncompromising idealism, reflected in his embrace of his company's 'Don't Be Evil' motto and his pledge to never cater to investors' desire for ever-rising quarterly earnings at the expense of long-term investments.

Page already raised concerns by pushing Google into renewable energy and robotic cars. Those who know him say he has discussed even more far-flung projects behind closed doors.

'Sometimes his ideas are just way out there and you're kind of like, 'Wow, that came out of left field,'' said Ethan Anderson, a former Google product manager who now runs Redbeacon, a startup that operates a search engine for finding neighborhood businesses.

Uncertainty about whether Page will be as interested as Schmidt in appeasing Wall Street has contributed to a 6 percent drop in Google's stock price since the CEO change was announced Jan. 20. The technology-driven Nasdaq index has added 3 percent during that time.

BGC Financial analyst Colin Gillis doesn't believe it's a coincidence that Google revealed it would hire more than 6,200 employees this year — a 25 percent boost, and the most in its history — less than a week after it announced Page's comeback as CEO.

'Don't be surprised if Google's spending goes up, even it means its earnings per share might go down,' Gillis said.

Page's supporters believe Google's current market value of about $190 billion will climb even higher under his leadership. That would mirror what happened after Jobs finally got his chance to run Apple in 1997 after a decade in exile. Since then, Apple has brought out the iconic iPod, iPhone and iPad devices and created more than $300 billion in shareholder wealth.

But the returns of company founders haven't always been triumphant. Consider Yahoo Inc. co-founder Jerry Yang's second stint as CEO from June 2007 to January 2009. Yahoo's stock fell 56 percent during that period, larger than the 41 percent drop for Nasdaq. Unlike the rest of the Nasdaq, Yahoo shares aren't close to rebounding to their June 2007 levels.

Hoping to smooth the transition to a new CEO, Google is keeping Schmidt, 55, in a prominent role as executive chairman and chief liaison with lawmakers and regulators around the world. That's an important job as Google faces growing scrutiny over its ambitions to use its dominance in search to enter new markets. Brin, 37, intends to focus on long-term projects, leaving Page to manage Google's daily operations.

'I am quite convinced that this change will result in faster decision-making, better success for the business and ultimately greater value for the shareholders,' Schmidt told The Associated Press after Google announced its shake-up in January.

In the past, the three made key decisions by committee, though Schmidt was the one responsible as CEO. Schmidt guided Google through an uninterrupted stretch of prosperity that has topped the performances of other technology trailblazers, including Apple and Microsoft, at similar stages of their corporate lives.

Page is better prepared to be CEO after a decade as Schmidt's apprentice, said Douglas Merrill, who worked with both executives before leaving Google in 2008 as vice president of engineering.

'Larry has grown over time,' Merrill said. 'He has learned how to make projects work. He has learned how to make sure things happen on time and in a predictable fashion. Larry is a sort of a learning machine.'

___

AP Technology Writer Rachel Metz in San Francisco contributed to this report.

Google founder hopes to prove he's ready to be CEO - Yahoo! News

Google's Android is No. 1 smart phone platform

NEW YORK (AP) -- A research firm says Google Inc.'s Android has become the world's No. 1 smart phone software, surpassing Nokia Corp.'s Symbian operating system based on shipments in the fourth quarter of 2010.
Canalys said Monday that shipments of Android-based smart phones hit 32.9 million in the last three months of the year, while devices running the Symbian platform fell slightly behind at 31 million worldwide. Apple Inc. was in third place with 16.2 million units.
The overall smart phone market soared 89 percent in the fourth quarter, to 101.2 million units shipped, Canalys said.
"After a difficult 2009, the speed with which the market has recovered has required real commitment and innovation from vendors and they have risen to the challenge," said Canalys vice president and principal analyst Chris Jones in a statement.
Google first rolled out its free Android mobile software in 2008 on HTC Corp.'s G1 smart phone. It has since expanded to more than 170 phones and a number of tablet computers. The company said last week it is getting closer to releasing a version of the Android software meant for tablet computers, one that will include a fresh look and updated Web browser and keyboard.
Google's shares slipped 68 cents to $600.31 in morning trading, while American Depositary shares of Espoo, Finland-based Nokia climbed 10 cents to $10.66. Shares of Apple climbed $1.31 to $337.54.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/110131/us_google_android.html?.v=1

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Research in Motion Continues Its Inevitable Downward Descent In Both Equity Value and Market Share | zero hedge

RIM = RIP ?

Sounds like TAPS in the background....

Between the pressure on the corporate side of the business from governments who want access to all the data passing through the blackberries in their countries, and the real risk of migration by consumers to the iPhone and Android OS, the future doesn't look too bright RIM...

see the article below from zerohedge.com

As Research in Motion Continues Its Inevitable Downward Descent In Both Equity Value and Market Share, Investors Should Tweak Their Assumptions Accordingly

Following up on my Research in Motion commentary in This Quarter Offers a Lot of Challenges for Smart Phone Vendors with Fruit in Their Names!, I’d like to comment on potential future paths for the company. From what I see from their public announcements, I remain as unimpressed now as I was just before (After Getting a Glimpse of the New Windows Phone 7 Functionality, RIMM is Looking More Like a Short Play) and after (RIM Smart Phone Market Share, RIP?) the OS6/Torch launch. The tricky part is that RIMM is now starting to look rather inexpensive relative to consensus earnings and historically projected growth rates. This is where a little strategic foresight comes into play. I have made available for download (for all paying subscribers) the Mobile Operating System Market Share Model which illustrates, on a very granular level, the market share movements (gains and losses) of the major mobile OS providers.

Research in Motions recent equity share decline stems not only from market share loss, but from the apparent lack of a clear cut and believable plan to stem that market share loss.

Thus the downloadable OS model design is to congeal data garnered from Gartner, Bloomberg, Neilsen, Canalys and other sources in order to realistically track movement in the mobile OS space. Since this model actually deserves a post of its own, I will simply pull out some pertinent charts that pertain to RIMM.

Research in Motion, is still currently the market leader in terms of share, but is losing both demonstrably and rapidly in new users. As a matter of fact, if the recent historical trends persist, this is the last quarter that RIM will be able to claim the top of the market title as Android looks well situated to claim that crown.

As can be seen from this chart, Android is just about there. Apple will probably show better numbers in Q3 with additional evidence of iPhone 4 adoption as well.

We, at BoomBustBlog actually believe that RIM is poised to lose market share (particularly the consumer market where it enterprise stickiness can’t come into play) quite quickly and radically due to dissatisfaction among its user base combined with technically far superior handsets in the iPhone and Android camps.

So, although RIM is looking quite cheap now, it is quite possible for it to look much cheaper. The question is how does this market share loss factor into its equity valuation. That is why I have supplied our Professional and Institutional subscribers with the plug and play RIMM Multivariate Valuation Model. By plugging

in the latest trends gleaned from the Mobile Operating System Market Share Model, a much more clearer and reliable picture can be had concerning RIMM’s situation.

Additional writings on Research in Motion:

• Many More Black Eyes for the Blackberry? A Complete Forensic Analysis of Research in Motion
• The BoomBustBlog Multivariate Research in Motion Valuation Model: Ready for Download

• RIMM Forensic Analysis and Valuation – Professional & Institutional
• RIMM Forensic Analysis and Valuation – Retail
• Smartphone Market Model – Blog Download Version

As Research in Motion Continues Its Inevitable Downward Descent In Both Equity Value and Market Share, Investors Should Tweak Their Assumptions Accordingly | zero hedge

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What Goes Around Comes Around to Google (AAPL, GOOG, MSFT, ORCL)

What Goes Around Comes Around to Google

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2010/08/13/what-goes-around-comes-around-to-google.aspx

Anders Bylund

August 13, 2010

Way back in 2007, when Sun Microsystems was still a stand-alone business and Android a mere glimmer in Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) eye, Sun had a problem with the way Android built on the Java software platform. The problem was fragmentation: Android doesn't run bog-standard Java code, but instead translates programs written for that platform into its own format, which is then executed by the Dalvik virtual machine that is the cold, robotic heart of any Android gadget. At the time, Google waved away the objections like Obi-Wan waving his droids through a storm trooper checkpoint: Android is part of the solution to Java fragmentation, not the problem -- Sun should love Google for replacing Java with its own far-reaching standard. Sun never made any official stink about it again, even though Google's reaction smelled like the insides of a dead tauntaun. Until now, that is. Sun parent Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) is now suing Google for patent infringement, claiming that: "In developing Android, Google knowingly, directly and repeatedly infringed Oracle's Java-related intellectual property." Oracle is looking for treble damages ("triple" in legalese, not the other half of "treble and bass") and wants to stop Google from shipping, selling, or promoting Android. That would certainly hurt Google. This lawsuit was a bit of a shock to me, because I assumed that Google had made the problem go away by some sort of proactive action. But the legal complaint states in no uncertain terms that Google lacks the licenses required to use Java in this way. This case echoes of a long-running action Sun carried out against Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) last decade over strikingly similar problems. Mr. Softy ended up paying $1 billion in damages for that one, and Oracle would probably love a settlement of that scale again. I'm guessing here, but it would make sense for Google to settle this affair quickly and quietly -- pay up a license fee for the right to use and modify the Java platform and then go on with business as usual. There is an alternative development framework available for Android programmers, based on the much more bare-metal C/C++ programming language. Going to that model exclusively would require hordes of Android developers to learn a new and arguably more difficult language. That would be a serious roadblock in the race to outgrow the Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPhone store in application quantity. Java has been released under an open-source license after all -- excluding the mobile version. Oracle's stock is falling harder than Google's today. Are investors worried that Oracle alienates its own worldwide developer base here by raising thorny and nearly forgotten licensing issues? Discuss in the comments box below.

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What Goes Around Comes Around to Google (AAPL, GOOG, MSFT, ORCL)

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Observing Ramadan? There's an app for that

Observing Ramadan? There's an app for that

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
11/08/2010

Ancient traditions of Islam go high-tech.

PATERSON, NJ — The most ancient traditions of Islam are going high-tech, with a slew of modern offerings for those observing the holy month of Ramadan, which begins this week.

Cell phone applications such as "iPray" or "iQuran" offer a beeping reminder of requisite prayer times, while the "Find Mecca" and "mosque finder" programs help the Muslim traveler in an unfamiliar city find the nearest place to pray.

"When I saw these applications for the first time, I thought: this is amazing," said James Otun, who has several Islamic applications on his Apple iPhone and iPad. "Whoever came up with this idea: God bless him or her."

The applications aren't just for Ramadan; there are Islamic-themed programs that help users find the nearest Costco offering foods prepared according to Islamic dietary rules, learn the correct Arabic pronunciations in a daily prayer, or count how many pages of the Quran they've read that day — all on a mobile phone.

There also are applications, or apps, for the holy books of several other religions, from the Catholic Holy Bible to the Bhagavad Gita, a sacred Hindu scripture.

The first time Sumeyye Kalyoncu heard the Adhan — or call to prayer — through surround-sound speakers on her iPhone dock, she was overcome with nostalgia for her native Turkey. Such applications are especially popular in the US, Kalyoncu said, as US mosques do not broadcast daily calls to prayer from external loudspeakers, as they do in Muslim countries.

"These are traditions and these have been in our lives for ages, like almost 15 centuries, so they seem very old," Kalyoncu said. "I think this is like combining together the technology and the things that we do daily."

Kalyoncu uses an iPhone app called iPray Lite, keeping track of requisite daily prayers with a program that simulates the clicking sound of prayer beads or the turning wheel of a handheld metal counter Muslims use to keep count of prayer repetitions. Using headphones, the 24-year-old says she can now fulfill her daily spiritual obligations by counting prayers on her iPhone on the commuter bus to Manhattan from her Edgewater home.

Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said the company doesn't track the more than 225,000 apps for its phones by category so she doesn't know how many are Islamic-themed. The programs aren't just offered by Apple; Nokia has a Ramadan suite for its cell phones that consolidates everything worshippers need to know to observe Islam's holiest month, in which Muslims worldwide observe daily daylight fasting.

 Some apps are free. Those that are not generally range from about 99 cents to $2.99, although some are more expensive.

The dates of Ramadan still are determined by the lunar calendar, and calculations can differ among Islamic communities around the world. In North America, many Muslims will mark the first day of Ramadan on Wednesday.

Otun, a technology aficionado, says the apps he uses on his iPhone and iPad make him a more observant Muslim. From the beeping reminder to stop and pray during his busy schedule running a limo service, to an app that tells him which nearby restaurants serve food prepared within Islamic guidelines, Otun says there's no longer an excuse to live an unobservant life.

"If you forgot to pray, you might not be responsible, because you're human; you forget and you can make it up later," said Otun, 35. "But not now that you have those apps, that might change things in God's level."

 Otun's favorite application, called Find Mecca, is a compass-like program with an electronic indicator that changes from red to green when you've reached the requisite prayer angle of 58-degrees, Northeast, to ensure you're facing Mecca from any location — a requirement of all Muslims when praying.

Otun said he was amazed to see an image of Mecca on his cell phone screen for the first time, and to realize he could carry a library of religious texts with him everywhere.

 "iPhone makes you emotional," he said. "I can't carry 10,000 pages of books, now, you have it in your phone — it's priceless."

Observing Ramadan? There's an app for that

5 Things the Next Generation Apple (AAPL) iPad Must Address | Wall St. Cheat Sheet

Today TechCrunch put out an article asking “Did the iPad Preemptively Kill the US Tablet Market?” And I feel compelled to respond with a resounding “I hope not!”

I am the consummate early adopter of technology and already have a Mac Pro and until recently had an iBook laptop (ole trusty finally broke down after 4 years of aggressive use). For quite some time I have loved Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), as both an electronic innovator and a stock.

I had been eagerly anticipating the iPad’s release, as its announcement perfectly coincided with the untimely death of my aforementioned iBook. In anticipation of the release, I decided to pass on the Barnes and Noble (NYSE: BKS) Nook I had won in a charity poker tournament and even bought the Western Digital My Book World 2 Terrabyte wireless external hard drive as my future data storage hub.

What I expected was a device that could function as a computer itself. Not something to complement my existing computing capacity. No. I wanted a tablet that could do everything that my iBook could do. When Apple announced the iPad in late January, I was instantly disappointed. My initial impression was that Apple’s goal was to create a pretty awesome tablet, while simultaneously preserving its capacity to upsell new Apple adopters to the Mac line of computers. Awesome alone didn’t cut it for me.

Clearly many consumers did not share my disappointment, as sales have soared past most expectations. However, that does not change the fact that there is significant room for improvement in the tablet market. Without further ado, here are the 5 things the next generation iPad must address to turn me into an eager buyer:

5. The lack of open source software.
This has been cited a problem for Apple since the early days of the company. While the Internet has helped eliminate some of the questions about software access for computing, the apps market is a feature attraction of the new mobile computing market. Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android has opened itself up to anyone to build an app, whereas Apple has set barriers to entry for its market. This has been a major factor in Google’s increasing momentum in the smart phone market and has the potential to do even more damage when it comes to Tablet Computing.

4. No changeable battery.
This has been an area in which Apple has fallen short for some time now. The iPad, like the iPod does not have a replaceable battery. While this isn’t much of a hurdle for a music device, for a computing device the story is quite different. There are numerous reasons why one would want the ability to quickly and easily insert a new battery in a “computer replacement” product. It’s far easier to go a day or two without an iPod than it is an iPad.

3. There is no scalability to the hardware.
To someone who wants more RAM on their iPad, Apple said: “no, not an option.” To someone who wants more hard drive space, Apple again said “no, not an option.” Considering how standard the SD card has become, why is it that Apple couldn’t build that capability into the iPad? There are now super-sized SD cards available for all sorts of portable technology, yet the iPad, which aims to be the most important tool in an individual’s mobile electronics arsenal, falls short of impressing. To be a true computer replacement there needs to be some kind of user-friendly scalability. Adding an SD card is simply too easy to pass up on.

2. There’s no USB drive.
Many people run third party hardware through their computer. Some may want a USB mouse, others may want to connect their digital camera to their computer for uploading pictures. Sure the future is in wireless transfers, but right now USB is an important reality for computing. There are countless reasons why someone might want that kind of access, yet the iPad has not a single USB port at all. USB is such a ubiquitous technology across electronic platforms that it’s even included in most new HDTVs as a standard feature, but not the iPad!

1. The inability of the iPad to function independently of a computer.
In many ways, number 1 is the culmination of all the previous critiques. The thing is, in aggregate, the iPad cannot replace a computer, it can only work along side it. Sure there are plenty of uses for the iPad independent of a computer, but in reality, it’s capabilities have been limited by Apple as a company making a conscious choice to limit it. Should Apple preclude competition from entering the iPad market, then they would have great authority in maintaining these limitations; however, should innovative competition emerge, the pressure on Apple would increase substantially to improve their own product (just see the DRM debate).

Disclosure: Long AAPL, GOOG

5 Things the Next Generation Apple (AAPL) iPad Must Address | Wall St. Cheat Sheet

A sleek looking iPad.