The More I Find Out, The Less I Know
iPad First Reactions
Wed, 01/27/2010 - 19:34 — Shivering Timbers
- I've seen lots of commentary along the lines of "It's doomed to fail because it doesn't have X" (where X is a camera, flash support, desktop-style OS, multitasking support, a hardware keyboard, HDMI output, an open app store, or any of a dozen other features various people consider "must have"). This is wrong. No gizmo can do everything--the question is whether this one does enough.
- The iPad isn't intended as (or even capable of being) your primary computing device. It will succeed if it's a more convenient laptop for casual web surfing. It will fail if it's an iPhone which doesn't fit in your pocket.
- iPad is a clunky name, but so is MacBook. If it succeeds, nobody will care about the name.
- Nine years ago, when Bill Gates announced that everyone would be using Tablet PC's, I don't think he meant "made by Apple."
- I have no idea if the iPad will be useful, but for the price I may be willing to take a chance. I've certainly spent more than this on gadgets which didn't meet my expectations in the past. The $500 price is critical in this decision--if it had been $1,000, I would look at it more like a new laptop than a potentially useful toy.
- Apple clearly intends to upend the accepted practices of user interface design (practices which Apple was instrumental in popularizing). On the whole, this is a Good Thing, since the desktop user interface is (or has become) far to complicated and technical for a large population of users to properly manage.
Comments
It's not doomed, but it could be...
1) You're spot on here. It really depends on what you can do with it - it needs a killer app, but I have no idea what that killer app might be.
2) I'm pretty sure that casual web surfing is NOT that killer app. Just an opinion, but...no. I certainly don't think e-reader is it either. Mobile media device? Dunno. I suspect that the killer app is going to be something we have NOT thought of.
3) Doesn't matter what it's called. Only matters what it's good for. So far - we'll see.
5) I'm not (and I suspect a lot of people are not) able/willing to blow $500 on something without a damn good reason. $250? Yea. (In fact, I just blew $250 on an older Fujitsu Stylistic slate-style PC to use as an ebook reader after deciding I didn't like current e-ink readers). I think $500 is just too much for casual adoption. There may be enough early adopters who will pick it up that it will survive to hit a better price point, but I'm not yet sure.
Thanks!