

The iPad Is For Everyone But Us - jazzychad
http://flyosity.com/ipad/the-ipad-is-for-everyone-but-us.php

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fnid2
This is apple, once and for all, signaling to the world, that the people who
make computers do cool things, the developers and the savvy, are not the
market. It's too small. No one knows how to make computers do cool things, but
lots of people want cool computers.

I, for one, take this as a blessing. If you are technically savvy, it's in
your best interest for companies like Apple to lull consumers into a sense of
satisfaction. Your job, as a programmer, is to avoid all things consumer. Your
job is to do the hard stuff. If you're using facebook, you're wasting time. If
you're _building_ facebook, you're making tons of money.

This has been coming. The writing has been on the wall. The app store tragedy.
Hard for developers, easy for consumers. The developers, as always, are the
ones jumping through hoops. Change the color, add this, add that, i want it
this way.

So the devs say ok and do it. That's the way it has always been and
increasingly into the future, it will be more typical. Developers work harder
so everyone else can work less. That's the way it should be.

~~~
ZachPruckowski
Apple's goal is to sell the iPad to people who already have a desktop, but
don't feel like they need a full-blown laptop.

For people who want a full-blown laptop, Apple still sells those. If they made
a $800 iPad fully capable of replacing a $1200 MacBook, they'd be in trouble.

~~~
wtallis
No, they wouldn't be in trouble. The laptop form factor will always have the
advantage of a physical keyboard and higher performance or battery life as
compared with the iPad form factor. $400 sounds a bit smaller than the
expected Apple markup to get those two advantages, which probably indicates
how much more miniaturized the iPad components are compared with the MacBook.
If you compare the iPad to the MacBook Air, which is similarly miniaturized,
you get a $700 disparity, of which about $500 can be attributed to the
difference in form-factor and the resulting expectations, and about $200 of
which go to performance and storage improvements that aren't consequences of
the relaxed size and weight limits.

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antirez
If you ask me this new model of computing is mainly interesting for Apple
because they like their 30% earning. In fact there is nothing preventing you
from doing simple to use smart computer than when you press Ctrl+L+A+M+E open
an terminal where it's also possible to do more interesting stuff.

Or a smart computer where I can save an image from a web page and later email
it. Or a smart enjoyable computer that allows me to change ebook reader and
still open /My/Ebooks to read all my old stuff with it.

The iPad has usability limits that are a direct consequence of the fact that
Apple want to _control_ what you can do whit it, because more control, more
$$$.

I don't want a world where most of the computers can't be used to write code.
My dad taught me BASIC when I was 7 because we had computer at home, and this
computers where _build_ to write programs, attach it to the power line and
what you see is a BASIC prompt.

Don't have to be _so_ exasperated today of course, but the iPad has all the
potential to make computer users more stupid.

What we really need is a decent competitor, able to do cool computers without
the aim to control the world.

~~~
cpr
Sorry, Apple's not making much money off the App Store nor the iTunes
music/video store.

They're a hardware company--that's where they make their money.

~~~
legooolas
How many songs have they sold at a 30% cut from the music store again? I can't
find anything right now to back this up, but my gut feeling is that they make
a _lot_ of money from the software side, and they're going to keep pushing
that because there's a lot more profit and (again, I suspect) lower costs.

If I find some numbers to back this up then I'll post them...

Edit:
[http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/article/Apple-Q3-2009-by-t...](http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/article/Apple-Q3-2009-by-
the-numbers/1248218543) (Q3 2009) shows $958m from Music and $528m from
software, services. This isn't as much as from hardware totalled, but those
numbers and the iPhone numbers are the only ones with growth. They're going to
keep growing as they put more hardware out which can buy music, videos, apps
etc from their stores.

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webwright
I'm not sure about this. Computers are versatile things and there is a LOT of
specialized software out there. My mom has quilting software that she loves.
She'd have to give that up unless the iPad quilting market gets big enough. My
Dad has GPS software he uses for fishing. How's that going to work? Both of
them print like crazy. My dad doesn't like games except the rare first person
shooter.

This MIGHT be Joel Spolsky's 80-20 problem (
<http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/12/09.html> ). If you make the 20%
of features that everyone wants, you have something that's sufficient for NO
ONE.

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nanijoe
I use an MBP, but my 3 year old does not...I can see the iPad keeping her
occupied and me happy on long trips.

~~~
aaronblohowiak
yes, and no dvds to scratch when you buy movies. I wish the iphone had better
parental controls, so you could flip on a child mode and hand it over when in
line. since ou can't override the button, there is no real way to provide this
functionality, either.

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rajuvegesna
I agree here. I wrote a similar post this morning with the same point.

[http://rajuv.com/2010/01/28/ipad-is-the-computer-for-rest-
of...](http://rajuv.com/2010/01/28/ipad-is-the-computer-for-rest-of-the-
world/)

"This is a device I can hand it my grand father and he won’t have much trouble
using it. Compare this to handing him a laptop and training him about how an
OS works, what a drive is, what a file system is, why he needs an anti-virus
software etc. Ease of use is the key here. Infact, we have seen this with
iPhone already. Every day I see many 2-3 year old having absolutely no problem
using the device. That makes a HUGE difference.

In a country like India, there are over 500 million mobile phones. But there
are less than 15 Million computers (connected to the internet). Why is this
the case? One of the reason is, PCs are complicated to use/learn for non-
techies. I think this device can address a broader market as it hides the
details from the user."

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voxcogitatio
I disagree with the main premise: That as long as you provide the "90%
functionality" (i.e mail,chat e.t.c), no casual user will miss the last 10%.
Sure, most of the time this will work fine, but occasionally people want more.
Maybe upload a video to youtube, or chat on that new up-and-coming social
networking site? "The user" is not quite so simpleminded as some here seem to
think. More importantly, since the web market can change so fast any static
set of features could get sidelined by a new application/web page et al, and
it's very hard to predict in advance what the user will want. Therefore, one
makes devices that can do everything. This is not an anachronism, it's the
only logical solution to a market that changes too fast to lock people in to a
very small subset of a computer.

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freetard
I'd rather just use a chrome OS tablet, at least I don't have to connect it to
a computer in order to update/sync/install stuff. And all the apps are web
based so even if I need to use a regular computer I still have access to all
my apps and data.

~~~
nico_h
\- With a Chrome OS Tablet, ALL your data lives in someone ELSE's cloud
(unless you synchronize it with your computer).

\- If that floats your boat, it was pointed out in one of the earlier front
page links that you can do that too with this new iTouch device. It uses an
advanced HTML5 compliant browser called Safari. It will even save your web app
frontend with its own icon on the main screen, giving it the same user
attention privileges as any normal app.

~~~
freetard
> \- With a Chrome OS Tablet, ALL your data lives in someone ELSE's cloud
> (unless you synchronize it with your computer).

Wrong, with HTML5 offline storage you can keep all your data offline on your
own machine too.

> \- It uses an advanced HTML5 compliant browser called Safari.

I think most people on hacker news know that safari and chrome share the same
webkit engine, thanks for the news though :p

> It will even save your web app frontend with its own icon on the main
> screen, giving it the same user attention privileges as any normal app.

But this kind of device is not for me (see the link), it's for people who
don't know much about computers or don't want to deal with one.

The problem with the iPad is that you still need to own a computer and know
how to use iTunes to sync/update your device. So my friends will still need me
to help them with itunes (I know my mom would). With the chrome os tablet, I
can just get one for my mom because it syncs and updates itself automatically
so she'll never need to call me to ask "how that thing plugs into the computer
again" and why itunes is asking her to "sync or delete my whole photos
collection" or "why itunes doesn't work anymore? it says I need to download
200MB of update, is that a virus or can I go ahead?" etc.

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conorgil145
I see the point that he is trying to make in this article about the iPad's
intended audience, but I think that the iPad is still a disappointing device.

If someone needs a computer for typical tasks such as Chatting with friends,
Sending and receiving email, Listening to music, Watching videos, Playing
games, and Browsing the web, then they should just get a netbook for ~$300. A
netbook is still highly portable and can do all of these tasks at a cheaper
price.

~~~
jstevens85
While a netbook may do all of those tasks, it doesn't do them particularly
well. The iPad will turn on instantaneously, will be easy to use, and apps
will be optimised for the screen size. The biggest problem with netbooks is
that they run OSs and apps that have been optimised for much larger displays.

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oldgregg
Yes, normal people who... Chat with friends WHILE writing an email? Browse the
web WHILE chatting with friends? Plug their USB digital camera in to upload
photos?

~~~
jsz0
How can you write an e-mail and a chat message at the same exact time?

~~~
brettnak
The gmail web interface? It might require a complete mental context switch,
but it does not require closing of one program and opening another, then back
again.

~~~
biafra
That would work on the ipad too, wouldn't it?

But I too, think that the missing multitasking is a problem for this device. I
think this is something Apple will change soon. They will not change their app
store policy. This is the main reason for me not buying an ipad.

But what bothers me the most is that they could close also the Mac-Platform.
Then I would have to leave it. And that makes me sad.

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antidaily
The end of the desktop OS.

~~~
pyre
The Last March of the Ents

~~~
wildjim
Cobol's last gasp...

~~~
alex_c
Netcraft confirms it...

~~~
verisimilitude
This thread is worthless without pics.

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bliss
BUT... I do those things too and don't mind buying a general purpose device to
achieve them... Doesn't mean I need to give up my laptop, desktop, server,
phone, abacus. You're allowed to have more than one gadget, in fact, do you
know what? It's positively encouraged. I honestly don't get all the hate.

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roach
I disagree. I think the iPad is perfect for reading Hacker News and PragProg
e-books and I can't wait to get one.

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beamso
That the rebuttal for pointing out flaws in the iPad is simply to say that one
is not the target market for the device is ridiculous.

