
No Hardware - KevinBongart
http://blog.alexandretestu.com/post/496393076/no-hardware
======
potatolicious
Argh. Nothing against the submitter since this is relevant to HN, but for
those of us who truly feel that every single relevant thought regarding the
iPad has already been uttered and heard, it would do us a huge favor to mark
iPad submissions as such.

I'm a fan of the device, I'll be getting my 3G one soon, but for the love of
all that is holy, make the voices stop!

------
psyklic
>> Hardware is not the center of attention anymore.

The iPad is _all about_ hardware ... all of Apple's products are about making
hardware look sexy and trendy, even without the UI. Apple doesn't mention the
internals because Apple products are often under-powered compared to similar-
costing competitors.

>> The UI is everything

I would say that the _looks_ of the UI are everything, to your average
consumer. As sad as it is, the visuals are what drive customers to new
operating systems (e.g. Aero), new versions of software (e.g. the Ribbon in
Office), etc. Microsoft puts lots of new behind-the-scenes innovations in each
new OS, but nothing sways customers more than screenshots -- often the least
relevant part of the operating system.

~~~
potatolicious
The ribbon is about a lot more than just looks - it finally groups like
operations into clusters that account for Fitt's Law - as does the big
"Office" button on the top left corner now. It's disingenuous to claim that
Office's new UI is primarily a visual facelift - ditto for Aero (again, many
Fitt's Law improvements among other tangible, quantifiable changes).

I think you're infantilizing the consumer too much - your users are a lot more
than dumb bricks that react to "Ooooh Shiny!". When geeks (more specifically,
geeks who have no appreciation for UI) rant about how people buy the shiny UI,
they're not really grokking the fact that people like it not because it spins
and moves, but because it _actually_ better conforms to how they want their
computers to work. Animation between switching windows? Geeks call it eye
candy, I call it necessary preservation of context.

~~~
psyklic
Customers do react to "Oooh shiny!" -- it's a permanent part of our
psychology.

Ask your average consumer what was new in Vista? Aero. What's Aero? Neat
visual effects. What was new in Office 2007? Ribbon. What's Ribbon? It's that
new bar at the top of the screen. Consumers remember the visual changes in
these products best.

Like it or not, those superfluous window animations in Mac OS were exactly
what screamed "creative" and "cool" to a lot of customers, over the then
"business-like" Windows XP. Video games invest in graphics so they can have
impressive screenshots. Office suites tweak their UI so that they can
communicate "new and improved" visually.

Of course there are other benefits than looks. But the looks, the screenshots
are your product's first impression -- if it looks the same as the last
version, people just might not buy.

