19 comments

  1. Physically, it’s little more than a 10″ iPod Touch and lacks many of the features fanboys had imagined it would hold.
    But just as it was iTunes more than iPod that redefined music and the App Store that allows the iPhone to have a strangle on the competition, it’s the content deals and the iBook Store that changes the game.
    I won’t be in line in April when they’re released. I’ll wait until the hardware catches up.

  2. As a former Apple employee I’m biased but aside the name I think it’s a terrific looking device. But how consumers respond will be the true barometer of success.
    The presumption is that the iPad will raise the bar for eBook readers like the iPhone did for mobile devices. Reality is sometimes different but who would bet against Apple?
    As someone who works in publishing, I think greater competition, innovation and products is critical for the health our industry.

  4. I LOVE Jony Ive’s enthusiasm about industrial design. He’s been in a number of Apple’s recent videos and its totally infectious, how interested he is in elegance. The iPad certainly is elegant.
    They’re right that this is a new category. I’m not certain that the game the iPad is playing even exists yet. It’s not an iPod, it’s not a traditional computer. But it’s not a crossover, really, not the way it’s being explained.
    It creates a unique problem for people selling it, this multifaceted design. At the risk of self-promotion, I tried to dissect what I expect my pitch will have to be on my blog. The bottom line is, I expect we’ll see a lot of people buy the iPad in error, just as we did early netbooks. Until people get used to the idea, they’ll buy it for the wrong reasons.
    You’re only a game changer if you’re replacing something. The trouble is the iPad doesn’t replace any devices, but it may change our personal game by replacing a lot of our processes. If we can figure out how it’ll do that best.

  5. I think it’s a place holder, not a game changer. But I do think Apple is wise to try to leapfrog ahead in figuring out the next era of content distribution. And elegantly, as always.

  6. Very slick device, and nice, efficient marketing effort too! iPad will benefit from:
    1) Audience trained in the language of Apple multi-touch devices
    2) Audience used to interacting with iTunes store and apps store
    3) Audience used to working on a data appliance, not a computer
    Me? I’ll not buy a first gen unit, but will seriously look at a 2nd gen.

  7. I think it’s a game changer for Amazon, especially at the price point they’re introducing at. However, it’s not a big game changer in the market. It’s Apple so it will definitely sell to a certain market but I don’t think you’ll see the broad use like iPhone. I just don’t think the market between smartphone and laptop is that huge. Can it compete against netbooks? I think it definitely can but needs some new features in the OS, like multi-tasking. So game changer? Not yet but don’t count out Apple to redefine the game.

  8. I’ll wait till 2nd or 3rd gen. Until it’s a true substitute for a laptop, I don’t need one. And I still like paper books. Bet you do too Mitch – more in it for the author. And just out of interest, when did Jonathan Ives become Jony? Did I miss something?

  9. very attractive, not sure that it is more than a larger itouch. I do hope that ibooks becomes available in Canada. I’ve paid the price in the past for being an Apple early adopter. I’ll certainly wait for the 2nd or 3rd generation.

  10. Right now it’s a big iPod… That said and maybe I’m nuts but I can see this being the begining of NOT an eReader but maybe the next xbox/playstation. One Bluetooth control in a teens bag an friends got potable gaming. Everyone knows video games are one of the fastest growing markets so why not.
    I’d personaly would love to see mac take the keyboard half of there MacBook Pro and combine it with the ipad. Let me leave home with an ereader/app unit or take both halfs and leave home with a laptop. That way I can either have ipad is or full version with a simple conection of the two halfs.
    Slightly disapionted but not surprised. So now I wait for gen2.

  11. I think all of you are missing the point on this…..
    When you actually look at all the things you can do with such a convenient device, email, publishing, presentation, games, music, videos etc., you effectively have a scaled down version of a laptop with convenience. It can do all the things we are accustomed to doing with a computer. This will open the floodgates for developers because know you have a platform that is more ergonomically designed and gives more space to work with (I alluded to this in prior post, smartphones being too small). All this thing needs is an ear piece and off you go with a phone, hopefully!
    My dream is for apple to open this up to everyday people who can make their own apps and enjoy in creating things and possibly have another revenue stream come in the door. If someone can figure out a way to develop apps without having to use xcode, I think there is a huge market for that. Imagine we all become developers?
    Newspapers, magazines, etc., will now get a new lease on life, this will change everything, trust me! People who are complaining about not have features are the ones who don’t recognize what this platform will bring. It’s not meant to replace a laptop, so don’t expect the same hardware. Rather it might just change how you think about your work and whether you actually need a laptop. Also, I can see the educational market really adapting something like this in schools, a perfect fit no doubt.
    I’m really excited about this and will purchase 1st gen., because it will suit my needs. Best thing yet, look at what they have done to the price of iwork. $9.99 for each app., no longer do you need to spend hundreds of dollars on software. This is going to create a whole new breed of software and open the floodgates for developers and hopefully consumers as well.
    Just my two cents…

  12. I have to say that I am underwhelmed. I still don’t think Apple gets social media. No ability to connect with the community around the content I am consuming.

  13. Nope, sorry.
    Unless I missed it, the i-pad doesn’t have the phone yet. Didn’t see a camera on yet either for video conferencing
    When it does, then you’ll have the full mobile office experience and THAT will be the game changer.
    Right now, its a nice, expensive leisure toy.

  14. Game changer? I’m not to sure, at least for version 1. I agree with JCroft in his post on the matter. The iPad is about the content consumer not us content creators.
    To us it lacks feature to the normal person its perfect. No confusing plugs and it does exactly what most people want.
    We will always have desktop and laptop computers until brain implant come around. But that’s not what the iPad is. Its not a content generating device, its not a laptop. It was not made to be everything. It was made to consume content.

  15. At first I thought, no big deal.
    But then, $499. Interesting. You’ve got my attention.
    Then when watching the above video all I could think of was my 74 year old mother who is constantly online emailing her friends, surfing for toys for my kids or playing simple online games all while sitting in her living room keeping one eye on the tennis match playing on her 50″ Sony HDTV. She owns a 3 year old Dell laptop that takes at least 5 minutes to boot up and about once a month, her tech guy (me), has to run CCleaner and other utilities to get the machine up and running again. And did I mention that my dear mother is impatient. She’s the type of person that will hit the enter key about 20 times trying to get her computer to work faster.
    Strange but true, after typing the above paragraph she called and asked me if I saw that $400 iPod thing yesterday and wanted to know if she should get one INSTEAD of a new computer.
    I rest my case.

  16. In typical Apple form they brought out a nice device but could have added more.
    I view it as an e-reader with internet connectivity. Which is probably it’s niche, be it small.
    There could have been a camera, ability to run more than one program at once, flash (I heard that’s a pain), etc.
    I’ll stick with my 13″ laptop and wait for the iphone to come to Verizon.

  17. You missed it… but then again, so did a lot of folks. The IPad doesn’t have a phone – but it does have WIFI and optionally 3G… so it can have Skype, or any other VOIP app that you can run on it.
    AT&T may not let you run VOIP over 3G – but the IPad is not limited to AT&T, and it’s only a matter of time before somebody will push the fact that THEIR network will allow VOIP.
    So, now we have a small, lightweight platform to do ANYTHING that can be done via a web browser, plus check email with an IMAP client, AND run any of 144K existing iPhone apps. But the two killer areas will be the full color ebook reader (even better if Kindle books can somehow be ported over), and the new IPad development space. Look for some amazing apps to be developed for the IPad – and gone are the $.99 iphone apps. This platform will ROCK.
    Home Automation? A/V Control (Boxee anyone)?
    It sucks that it doesn’t do multi-tasking, but maybe we’ll see that in 2G or 3G…

Comments are closed.