
IPad: Giant Meh - revorad
http://mattmaroon.com/2010/01/28/ipad-giant-meh/
======
rythie
He wasn't exactly bowled over by the iPhone either when it came out:
<http://mattmaroon.com/2007/07/13/iphone/>

Also, it did sell more than 10 millions units by the end of 2008
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IPhone_sales_per_quarter_s...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:IPhone_sales_per_quarter_simple.svg)

~~~
olefoo
So the real question is, is he a reliable counterindicator?

~~~
stcredzero
Reliable contraindicator:

Apple comes out with something attempted by the Wintel cabal 4 to 5 years ago.
(The Windows Tablet also had magazines and many other parallels with iPad.)
However, Apple does it with a much better design, presentation, and end-to-end
experience.

Techies who use tech so easily that they don't _need_ the above so much
proclaim that such things were already around, we can get better spec devices
that do the same thing for cheaper, etc. (I call this the CmdrTaco syndrome.)

My prediction: this is only the first step. The functionality of the
Newton/Microsoft Courier is the way forward. Integrate a camera with the
thing, and we'll have augmented reality in a practical way. (One that doesn't
make you look like a Cyberpunk RPG nerd in public.) I can imagine executives
keeping their personal assistants on tap through iChat with this thing. I can
imagine the same executives sitting in meetings with this propped up on its
docking station/stand like a teleprompter, their staff listening in, and
popping up relevant information for them. (And if someone develops a software
bluetooth keyboard/touchpad App on the iPhone, they can do discrete chat under
the table to ask their staff specific questions.)

Actually, integrate _two_ cameras with the thing, so you can iChat and stream
the video of the meeting/presentation.

Apple should do some Bonjour integration with Keynote, so that you can do a
low-bandwidth sharing of _someone else's_ currently playing Keynote
presentation on a different through iChat by just pressing a button. The
presenter could flip a setting and multicast the slides. Anyone on the same
WiFi subnet could then share it with iChat partners automatically.

------
Hoff
There was an HN discussion recently on what you understand and know and
assume, and extending that expertise out into areas where You Have No Clue,
and how that goes badly wrong for smart people.

iPad isn't aiming for us members of the nerd herds that are using laptops and
netbooks and for whatever reason we're hauling them around; it's not a laptop
replacement. Duh.

It's an eFrame for your desk that you can do stuff with.

It's a data entry device for the back of an ambulance or in an ER.

It's a device that can replace a rack-n-stack LCD console in a server room, or
that can sit on an operator's or guard's desk or maître de's podium, showing
status.

It's a device your mom can use for pictures of the kids, and for hosting
cookbooks and recipes in the kitchen.

Add a cash drawer via that dock connector and...

Its an instant and portable Point-of-Sale device; the Apple folks will have
these all over the Apple Stores just as soon as they can.

It's a dorm TV.

It's for a bunch of tasks we haven't even yet thought of.

Most of us nerds suck at this non-nerd UI stuff. And we can assume that what
we want and what we understand and what we need is what everybody wants. And
that isn't necessarily reality.

Whether Apple hit their target markets here remains to be seen. But I can see
use.

~~~
GBKS
Very much agree with your statement. I can see a ton of use for this device, I
think it's another great step towards integrating the web and computers into
daily activities and non-desk-work environments.

Specs alone just aren't the way to win people over or to judge a device like
this. The experience matters and the iPad offers an experience custom-tailored
to tables, unlike other slates where Windows 7 is slapped on without
modifications.

------
simonw
It's a lot of fun reading posts like this and mentally replacing any statement
along the lines of "existing tablets do this already" with "existing MP3
players do this already".

~~~
allenbrunson
yes. and to go after another one of matt's points, i doubt the people at
nokia, motorola, et al were all that scared of the iphone in the beginning,
either. ed colligan, then the ceo of palm, famously said "We've learned and
struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC
guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk
in." no matter how cool the iphone might have seemed, they just couldn't
fathom it doing well in the tightly-controlled mobile space.

having said all that, i agree with matt's main point. i'm a little
underwhelmed with the ipad as well. the scuttlebutt was that apple had tried
making tablet computers for years, but jobs always torpedoed them with "what
is this for, other than reading the web on the can?" since they were finally
releasing a tablet, i figured they had thought up a compelling use case, other
than reading the web on the can. personally, i'm not seeing it.

seems foolish to bet against jobs, though. if he thought it was a good
product, i think it might catch on.

colligan quote here: [http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/9110/colligan-laughs-
off-...](http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/9110/colligan-laughs-off-iphone-
competition/)

~~~
tolmasky
That quote from Colligan is from _before_ the iPhone was announced. Matt's
entire point was that _after_ it shipped it was clear to everyone that this
was the future of phones, and that other cell phone makers were scared.
History has shown that that is precisely what they believed because 3 years
out every mobile phone maker has an iPhone clone. On the other hand, Matt is
saying that _after_ the iPad was announced, most mobile PC makers did not
think to themselves "how on earth are we going to go up against this" (whether
they are right or wrong is of course another story). I agree that its not like
every tablet/netbook owner now wants to throw their tablet away and get an
iPad (the way a lot of phone owners wanted to throw their phones away and get
an iPhone), however this _may_ be because their simply aren't a lot of
tablet/netbook owners or its a young market or whatever.

~~~
cpuddle
"...most mobile PC makers did not think to themselves "how on earth are we
going to go up against this""

What I've been hoping ever since yesterday is that someone should release an
"iPad" with a heavily customized open source OS on it. Add some Amazon
integration (ala iTunes for books/music), customize the main apps to suite the
form factor and a semi-open repository/app store for extra apps.

I'd buy it in a heartbeat.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
Several such machines were demo'ed (usually by chip-manufacturers) at CES
earlier this month. The marketing blitz around the iPad makes it much more
likely for someone to take these and build an actual end user product.
Possibly your telecoms provider would want to sell you one with a contract and
their branding.

There appears to be a distinct lack of touch based 'remixes' of Android or
Ubuntu though.

------
IgorPartola
Same story as with the iPhone. When it first came out I laughed out loud: $600
for a locked in device with a crappy network? No thanks. Guess what my phone
now is?

I think the conventional wisdom for Apple products can be applied here: don't
buy the first gen device. Think about it this way, right now the iPad starts
at $499. I mean that's almost two netbooks... On the other hand what if the
next generation one is 2-3 times cheaper, with a better screen, etc. Where I
wouldn't buy a $500 iPad, I might consider a $200 iPad.

~~~
revorad
Don't hold your breath for a $200 iPad. Apple will most likely add more
features to the lineup, but keep the prices the same. That's why I still can't
afford a single Apple product.

~~~
IgorPartola
True, they do tend to keep the price and add features. IPhone was an exception
to this rule though.

------
pmorici
"Anyone who has an iPhone, Android, or WebOS phone will tell you that web
surfing on it is somewhat painful. Far less so than on the Treo 650 we had
previously, but still no picnic. There’s all this pinching and swiping. It’s
kludgey. Even the sites and apps designed for it entail fat-fingered misclicks
and slow page loads."

I don't know if he owns an iPhone but he's wrong about web surfing. I often
wish I could navigate on my desktop they way I do on the iPhone. Double tap to
zoom is a killer app.

~~~
ZeroGravitas
The problems mentioned there 1. small click targets, and 2. slow page loads
are instantly and trivially fixed by a big screen and faster hardware.

I'll also note that despite the multi-touch hype I never use the pinch gesture
while surfing the web on the iPhone, the auto-zoom double tap works in
basically every situation.

------
stcredzero
From the post: _It’s no more convenient than a laptop. You can use it pretty
much only when and where you could use a laptop._

A bit hasty there. This is something that you can actually carry around like
it was a Frommer's guidebook. Put a camera on this form factor, and you have
the potential for some _really_ kick-ass Augmented Reality. That's _not_
something you can do with a Laptop. (Unless you're willing to look _very_
dorky. <http://amzn.com/B001G713NO> )

With such a light form factor and a freaking _month_ of standby, you can treat
this thing like a journal or a sketchpad. At $15 a month, college and high
school students can actually afford to connect this through 3G. (If Apple is
smart, they'll student discount this thing like mad!) You can basically
replace your phone use with Skype IMs for paging and do your heavy voice
communications when you get to a cafe with WiFi. Not something that I would
want to do. But my broke-ass violinist bandmate working at a technical
bookstore? Yes, he'd do that in a heartbeat.

If Apple can take a cue from Facebook and co-opt the College crowd, the High
School crowd will follow, then everyone else. We'll have angsty teens writing
on Facebook walls from cafes, posting their Brushes sketches, Skype calling
their girlfriends.

------
ugh
The iPad might be a lot more like the original iPod rather than like the
iPhone. I don't think Creative or Nomad were cowering in fear after Apple's
presentation in 2001.

The Apple of 2001 is certainly not the Apple of 2010, so it won't be all that
similar, but relativly slow yet steadily accelerating uptake coinciding with
constant evolutionary revisions seems plausible.

The only difference is that in 2001 not many cared whether the iPod would
become a success or not. Apple was still the Mac company, that's no more the
case today. If the iPad uptake is relativly slow we will most certainly see
dozens of "iPad dead" articles within the first month the device starts
selling.

------
bshep
I would buy one if(any of these):

1) I didnt own an iPhone

2) I didnt own a MacBook Pro

3) It had at least 1 camera

4) It was hackable or could run any OS X app

5) I could use it for general purpose storage

Maybe iPad 2.0 will have some of these, as someone posted above... I think
this is just a first step and future versions might have some of the above.

------
david927
Isn't it ironic that everyone thought that the iPad was going to bury the
CrunchPad, but the CrunchPad was vastly superior in every way -- and cheaper.

~~~
jm4
The iPad is still going to bury the CrunchPad. First of all, no one outside of
geek circles has heard of the CrunchPad, TechCrunch, Fusion Garage, Juju or
whatever the hell other name that thing is going by these days. Whether it's
superior in every way or not couldn't be any less relevant when hardly anyone
knows anything about it. Is that thing even going to see the light of day? If
so, does anyone know what it's going to be called or where it can be bought?

~~~
david927
The CrunchPad is dead: I used past-tense.

But no, the iPad is going to bury itself because it's locked-down and feature-
anemic. Any competitor can beat this, and many are coming.

~~~
jm4
I agree with your assessment of Apple's tablet, but I think you underestimate
their position. The vast majority of consumers simply don't have the awareness
of such issues to even care. To a degree, the same criticism applies to the
iPhone and it's been an overwhelming success. Competing with Apple is no small
task. Features aren't enough when they have market share, mind share, are able
to set trends and have a marketing department that has convinced the world
they are the only company able to do the things they do.

~~~
david927
You're right, of course. Market share and mind share are important. But this
is something new, and products like this _have_ to go through the diffusion of
innovation from early adopters to get to the early majority and I personally
know of _no_ early adopter who is happy with this thing (all of whom had an
iPhone when it launched, etc). The word among early adopters is "bullshit". I
don't care who Apple is, or who they think they are, they can't beat that.

