iWhat?

Posted in Latest, News - January 27, 2010 - tim

Wow. Don’t get me wrong. I’m one of the biggest Apple fan-boys out there. But this morning’s announcement by Apple took the rug out from under me.

I don’t remember a major Apple announcement that didn’t make me want to go out and buy something that day. My response to the iPad? Meh.

Now, given my high hopes for a new device category (to in-part save the publishing industry which I’m really worried about – really), and my prediction – from 20 years ago – of what this thing should do, I was – to put it lightly – unimpressed today.

First impressions WTF’s:
- no phone?
- multitasking?
- no camera?
- iPhone apps “pixel doubled”?
- can that bezel get any bigger?
- this is what print looks like in the future? (HTML? PDF?)
- next gen print subscription models (I wanted the NYT 2010 reincarnation so bad …)

I can’t even start on the branding. When I hear new product names my test is to walk around the house talking to myself using the name. Walk around saying “Hey Billy, go listen to your iPod, I’m going to curl up here with my iPad” or “Let’s go to Tahoe! Get the iPod’s and the iPad’s!” and variants thereof. Pretty soon you start to sound like an iPutz. (Remember I’m a fanboy in San Francisco so I have a high tolerance for this.) Consolation prize for naming the reader iBooks (or whatever), but that’s what they should have named the product – not a supporting app.

I’ll be interested to see what the rest of the world says about this. I pointedly wrote this before reading any other reviews. And, as my good friend Joel Hladecek said, “I’ve not been impressed before by Apple announcements, until I got it in my hand …”.

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Comments

  1. While I share some of your “first impression” feelings, I would argue that is more of a function of having such high expectations going into the event. I am a power user of my Kindle (not a DX) and a firm believer that an “intimate” device such as this has a place. For personal media consumption in any format when sitting up in bed at night, sitting on an airplane, sitting in the car waiting for the kids’ practice to finish. This is the form factor of a device that I want to use. I think the interface does a great job of conforming to the user rather than making demands on the user. I think the advantages that this device has is that it is not only intimate, but it is casual. It is not a power tool (MacBook Pro), it is not a personal communication device (iPhone), its a device you can escape with for reading, watching a show, surfing the web, or passing the time. It will become a luxury that we all eventually take for granted.

    Comment by Ron — January 27, 2010 @ 4:58 pm

  2. Way back when mobile phones were still novel I used to talk to clients about the “watch / wallet category”, i.e. what you pick up when you walk out of the house to go anywhere. The most amazing thing about the mobile phone was that it got into that category (which is a hard thing – but highly desirable). In fact, the mobile has now replaced my watch (I don’t wear one anymore) and if we were watching Japan closer over the years (or rather if the carriers in NA weren’t so into walled gardens) the mobile would have replaced my wallet too a long time ago.

    I get this product for leaving it around the house (precisely – as Jobs said – for buying tickets on Fancast in the kitchen), but I want fewer devices to carry around with me – or a net zero – not more. Rationalizing when to carry the iPad with you, against your iPhone and/or your MacBook, gets confusing. As a heavy Kindle user you’re right in the gun sight for this product (and the more I think about the specs, the price and the timing, the more this looks just like a preemptive strike against Kindle before they got critical mass market share).

    So, I get your points. It’s probably a great device for casual reading browsing. But, especially since I don’t see any apps besides iWork basics running here, it’s not going to be able to replace my MacBook in the field – even on vacation. Thus ii’s a net add device – one more device to carry, worry about, charge, synch, etc.

    Price point aside, I wanted (and still hope that) this device would “save” the print industry. But I don’t think just reproducing the New York Times in HTML or PDF for this thing is going to do it. I wanted to hear about premium subscription print content – i.e. something really new – available through iTunes, at music industry redefinition prices, that would re-energize press in general. (I also wanted to see a textbook that provided hope for revolutionizing education.)

    This thing is going to be a success – I agree with you there. It’s just not the complete game changer that Apple has pulled off twice before – the iPod and the iPhone – to ignite the category. We’ve started with a whimper not a “Boom” (what Jobs used to say in his presentations, which I miss…)

    Comment by tim — January 27, 2010 @ 5:16 pm

  3. [...] be clear.  I’m obviously going to buy one of these things like everyone else (although I usually wait for v2, which was a good idea with the iPhone), but it’s going to be interesting to see – [...]

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