iPad or iFad?
Touted by Apple as a “magical” and “revolutionary” product, the iPad, a.k.a. the “Kindle Killer”, received a mediocre reception when it made its debut in January.
To all those shoulder-shruggers, I urge you not to forget that the iPod was hardly a smash hit when it arrived on the market back in 2001; however, in less than 9 years, Apple has sold over 240,000,000 iPods — that’s almost 2.5 million a month! (Nothing to scoff at when their most popular models start at $149.)
But is the iPad much more than a large screen iPod Touch?
Technically speaking? Eh. Sure, it’s got access to the iBook Store *yawn*, but other than that it’s the (much) larger screen that’s its selling point. (There is the new A4 processor designed to make it zip around the web, but the fact that you can’t do things like run Adobe Flash files cancels that out for me…)
So, is it much more than an “iPod Touch Plus”? To most, it doesn’t seem that way; however, even if such is the case, it doesn’t seem like such a bad idea to add another flavor to Apple’s sleeper hit. According to Business Insider, Apple reported sales of the iPod Touch grew 55% in December 2009 over the previous year. Personally, I don’t think it’s any mistake that the iPad and the iPod are separated in spelling by only one letter.
So What’s Next? The Future of the iPad
As we move forward with the iPad, it will make its place in the market not from achievements of its remarkable hardware technology, but due to the strengths of Apple’s marketing machine. Much like many iPhone / Mac-lovers have come to learn, the seamless integration of desktop and portable hand-held devices is like angels’ singing. iPad 1.0 is Apple’s planting of a seed.
The strength of iPad 2.0 will be in being able to load, edit, and share vacation photos with friends and relatives by having them ‘magically’ appear on their handy devices when they turn them on. ‘Revolutionary’? Potentially…it’s clear that’s the next obvious step. The real questions is: What other tricks does Magician Jobs and his team have up their sleeves??
2 Comments
1 Jen wrote:
The biggest and only detractor for me on the iPad is the lack of Flash.
I get Jobs’ position on it being inferior, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s everywhere!
2 Martin wrote:
*nod* I’m in the same boat with you–it was hard for me to find things to be critical of (and not expose my gushing love for Mac.) I really think it’s legacy will be how it affects the way people do business/communicate, though.
Btw, I’ve read that XHTML 5 may provide a viable alternative to Flash! Would be nice to have such effects on my mobile iProds. :-)
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