Apple’s iPad and Apple’s Secret Weapon
Like everybody else in the world, I was tuned in to Steve Job’s launch of the Apple iPad yesterday, and I have to tell you—I am incredibly impressed. My wife saw the video yesterday afternoon on Apple’s Website, and totally unsolicited she sent me a text that read “I want an iPad!!!!!!!!!!” (My wife so does not get geeked out by gadgets, so this is bigger than it sounds).
However, as expected within just a few hours of the announcement, some blog sites were already picking it apart, pointing out which features it doesn’t have, and what it was missing, and why it’s going to be a failure, and so on. Just like they did with the iPhone.
People were coming out of the woodwork to tell you all the features the original iPhone was missing, like no copy and paste, short battery life, no physical keyboard, no voice command, it’s geared only for consumers so no business users would consider it, it’s too expensive—there are lots of cheaper alternatives, and so on.
Of course, everything they said was missing from the iPhone was true, and you could buy phones all day long that were cheaper, had physical keyboards, longer battery life, voice control, and so on. But the iPhone didn’t become a success because of what it does. It because a success because of how it does it. People who only look at feature lists always, always, miss this. It’s not about features, or the iPhone would never have made it.
Matthew Lynn, a Bloomberg news columnist, said in a article shortly after the original iPhone’s introduction:
“Apple will sell a few to its fans, but the iPhone won’t make a long-term mark on the industry.”
He’s a feature counter, and he has lots of company. You’re hearing from a lot of them today.
They may as well comes to grips with it—-the iPad is going to be huge. Game changing huge! I haven’t personally talked with a single person yet who said they don’t want one. But that’s not why it’s going to be huge.
It’s going to be huge for a phenomenon that I’ve seen happen again and again, year after year. When Apple comes out with a new product, it always looks pretty cool when you see it in their TV ads, and on the Web, but when you actually see the product in person at the Apple store, and you get your hands on it—you fall in love with it. Apple stuff just looks incredibly cool in person. It’s Apple’s secret weapon.
And if last quarter was any indicator, when the iPad ships, nearly 50 million (that’s right—-million) people will see an iPad in person at their local Apple Store in the first 90 days after it launches. Yup. This going to be huge!
By the way; if you think it should have had a built-in chat camera, or a phone, or run multiple applications, or have notifications, or cost less, or any thing that kept it from being as great as you thought it should be, don’t buy it. It’s that simple.
For a detailed first take on the iPad, visit Terry White’s Tech Blog (link). When it comes to Apple, Terry is absolutely one of the most insightful people in the entire industry, so it’s always great to hear his take on it.
Anyway, I can’t wait to get mine (and apparently, I’d better pick up one for my wife, too). :)