The iPad Effect

They did it… Apple finally released the tablet so many have been craving for so long - the iPad.

The reaction from the majority of the geek community has been what I would expect it to be - a blend of outrage and frustration. The expectations were so high that it would have been impossible to make that group happy. That group wants every device to be able to do everything their workstation can do whether it’s a smart phone, a laptop, a netbook or even, yes a tablet. That group is typically more interested in the device and its capabilities vs. the user experience and the content.

This might come as a surprise to some but… Apple doesn’t cater to the geeks. They don’t want to service a niche market, especially one as demanding as the geeks. They want to ship products that both my young son and my grandmother can pick up and use… because that will result in the broadest market penetration. $$$.

At its face, the iPad is very much a ‘larger iPhone or iPod touch’. It’s certainly got some more juice than either of those devices, sporting Apple’s own processor that they’ve labelled the A4… but the user interface is very much that of the iPhone. Steve Jobs had an awesome quote on Wednesday at the keynote event:

“Another thing we’re so excited about is that because we shipped over 75 million iPhones and iPod touches, there’s over 75 million people that already know how to use the iPad.”

Brilliant, right? Why would they deviate from a user interface that has now become second nature to that many people? I know of 5 year olds that have iPod touches and easily navigate it to surf the internet and to play games. People are comforted by what they know and are accustomed to… and typically fear change. The irony here is that the same notion that helped Microsoft maintain such a stranglehold on the operating system market (Windows) for so long will now help Apple dominate this “new” segment of the market.

What impresses me the most? It has to be the price point. Everyone anticipated a starting price of $999. That definitely would have made it a niche. At that price, this is an exclusive gadget. At $499, there are so many more opportunities for this platform. At $499, there will be interest in a variety of verticals like education, healthcare, and retail to name just a few. The icing on the cake for the enterprise to adopt the iPad is the iPhone SDK. Apple has really “teed it up” for application developers to build kick-ass applications for the iPhone, iPod Touch and now the iPad. Now it’s possible to build pretty rich and immersive applications for this product at a fraction of traditional business application development costs.

Anyone who has been reading this and who knows me is probably saying to themselves “um… Jim? You’re a geek, dude.” I’m not so sure anymore. In the last couple of years (since my ‘switch’), I’ve become much more interested in my content and having easy access to it than the piece of computer hardware I have to use to get at it. I’ve become fascinated with things like Google Docs that let me get at content I care about regardless of where I am or what device I’m using. I think that’s why I like this product as much as I do. It’s inexpensive, simple to use and will let me easily get at what I care about - the internet, my music, my videos, my calendar, my e-mail, my contacts… All of which would be synchronized with other Macs in my house. iPad breaks? Buy another one, sync it with iTunes once and I’m ready to rock again.

Will I buy one? I can definitely see that happening, although not in the near future (We aren’t high on disposable income these days!). The one omission that I really would have liked to see here was an integrated webcam. The thought of lounging on the couch and video conferencing with friends and family in such a portable way really would have put the product over the moon for me. Maybe we’ll see that in revision #2?

What do you think?