Thu, January, 28, 2010 at 12:50 PM in Tech « iPad - I missed the point. »
Yesterday, I said I was underwhelmed. I think a lot of other people were too. Many people probably had grandiose expectations from a company and visionary the likes of Apple and Steve Jobs, and many people assumed the new iPad would be a revolution in computing that would make us all ditch our netbooks and laptops; it clearly does not.
No, the iPad is probably something akin to what Jef Raskin had in mind when it comes to the human interface to a computer.
Is the iPad powerful? Questionably. Flexible? Definitely not. Adaptable? Not without Apple’s say-so.
Much of the detraction I hear about the iPad is that it can’t do x, or that it will never be able to do y. Here’s where I (and it seems many other people) are missing the point. It’s not supposed to.
Steve Jobs clearly places the iPad in a space that is not yet defined and a supplement to the other technical devices we use. It’s not meant to replace the laptop, and by correlation the cheaper, less powerful laptop we dubbed the netbook. The iPad is aimed directly at a new target audience.
Reader Comments (1)
I think a lot of people were just overly hyped about this product. Everyone was reading rumors that it would do "x", "y" and "z" of their dreams and then it didn't turn out that way.
It's high expectations led everyone to be underwhelmed, as you said. I really think a lot of people expected it to be a laptop killer. I just expected it to be that device I picked up off the couch when I needed to surf the net really quickly or check my email and am too busy or lazy to go to the iMac, or find my laptop and it's 8 miles of cord and charger.
Anyway, obviously the iPad is not for everyone. Not to mention there will always be a large group of people who are the opposite of Apple fanboys. Those who will disregard and put down everything Apple makes simply because Apple made it, without even giving it a chance.
However, I'm not here to convince anyone to buy an Apple product. I love them but I don't expect everyone to love them as well. To each his own. I just feel that perhaps a lot or at least a small majority of people will change their tune once they actually get to play with one. It may not be practical to have that third device, but when have humans done anything because it's practical? :)