Yesterday my friend Keith asked me for my thoughts on the recently announced Apple iPad. If you haven't heard about it yet, here is a promo video for it:
Essentially it is a portable internet tablet that Apple is releasing in two months, starting at $499 USD. Apple is of course saying it is magic and is very excited about it. Yet most of the reviewers I have heard are disappointed at the least and think it's not impressive at the worst. My thoughts?
I too was disappointed. And it's not just the, ahem, unfortunate name. The rumor mill was going wild and I think that I was expecting more. Built in phone, camera, GPS, etc. Essentially it is just a bigger iPod touch with a slick new operating system. I have seen Apple make a few blunders before and although rare, it's possible that this is also one. But I think it will be at least modestly successful. What makes me think that? It's because there is room to grow.
Once this tablet has:
-a camera or video camera
-built in phone capabilities
-a lower price
then I think Apple will sell a lot of them. Right now everyone is complaining but once the price lowers it will be much more compelling. It's not for everyone but it will be right for some. And so I think it will do at least OK commercially and possibly (in an updated and more price aggressive form) do very well. It may also evolve into something else, something with a more tasteful name. So there you go, there's my predictions. What yours?
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5 comments:
Haha, "It just feels right to hold the internet in your hands" .
All I have heard from people about this product is negativity. But I don't really share that. I think it is a great product. I know Apple created it to compete with the Sony Reader and the Amazon Kindle (whether they admit that or not), and I think the iPad is a far superior product. A similar Kindle is 490 and a similar Sony Reader is 400, and all they are just for reading books! I was looking into getting one for Eric for his birthday. But I don't want to pay that much for something that can just read books! Personally, I would pay an extra 10 bucks to have internet, email, pictures, movies, games, AND books on it!
Interesting how you choose to answer my email in a blog post ;)
Funny, I thought the price point was one of the surprises about the device. Apple is known for it 'premium' price. I was expecting more into the $899 starting price and up.
I just think after 13 years of hype (with the last 3 years kicked into over drive) Apple didn't have a chance to meet our expectations ;)
Lindsey, the IPad is LCD backlit. I've heard that it can be hard on the eyes when reading for longer periods at a time. Where the Kindle and EReader are not back lit. But you can do so much more with the IPad.
I think they should have had a camera on it (at least one but should have been two).
But I was reading an article that summed it up. This first version will sell to all the die hards. Then the version 2 (out next year most likely) will have the bells and whistles that the die hards will buy again and everyone else will buy in.... they know what they are doing ;)
So the question is Mark, are you a die hard?
I think the real way to market this puppy would be to give it a built in webcam; even without phone capability it could be used via Skype as a way to have easy and convenient face-to-face video conversations. Rather than sit at your computer, you can relax on the couch with your iPad in hand, chatting away just like they do on Star Trek, face-to-face.
I admit, I'm intrigued by it, but not $500 intrigued (though I admit that's cheaper than I thought it'd be). I'm not sold on that touch screen keyboard either; I can't see it being as easy to use as a real one.
I think that if it had a camera or video camera or phone it would be akward to use because of it's size. How would you hold it? The Skype thing would probably be a good idea though!
I am actually looking forward to owning this product. Apple was under a lot of pressure of create this product and I think they did it quite well. The Ipod touch also was criticized when it was released and now it is regarded as the best mobile music device ever. Who knows, we may look back and think about how wrong we were about the Ipad.
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