This Tablet Is the Wrong Prescription
—for me
Posted on 29 January 2010
My review of the Apple iPad… in a word… “meh” (with a shrug). — No question, Apple does tech right! The iPad is sure a hit, but it’s not for me (at least not yet).
I’ve seen all kinds of Apple faithful trumpet the strengths and the ‘haters’ slam Apple on the lack of features. Ironically, both are right.
On the down side
It does lack a few things that make it a deal-breaker for me. There’s no Flash so the ‘magical’ web browsing experience will still suck compared with any laptop or desktop. Easily 25% of the sites I visit use Flash so that’s huge. It’s like Ferrari coming out with a killer new car that you can drive everywhere but northbound roads. The price point isn’t $499. It’s nearly $1000 by the time I get a decent amount of memory, 3G connectivity, and a keyboard. It’s too big for my pocket, so it had better replace my laptop so I don’t have yet another briefcase sized thing to carry around.
Apple Innovations Aren’t Always HUGE (and I’m not talking about the Newton)
Folks who hold up the iPhone as a prime example of how Apple is brilliant and ‘haters’ just don’t ‘get it,’ might want to look at another example of Apple innovation that came out since the iPhone… the MacBook Air. I don’t know about you, but I’ve only seen ONE in all my travels in airports, to distant cities, to conventions where people pull out laptops to follow along with Photoshop lectures. I don’t even know anybody who owns a MacBook Air. Do you? It hasn’t been discontinued, but it sure isn’t the monster success I expected it would be. My initial assessment is that the iPad won’t be as successful as the iPhone or as lackluster as the MacBook Air, but it’ll probably fall somewhere in between. As features get added, more people will want one. (Come to think of it, missing features is the core problem with the MacBook Air. If the MacBook Air added FireWire 800, so I could plug in my LaCie Rugged Drive for decent, fast space, pack in 4 or 8 gigs of RAM, throw in the CD/DVD drive, keep the price under $1500, and a faster processor I’d be all over it!!)
The Target Market
So I’m not the target market. I don’t own or care in the slightest way, about the Kindle. I don’t go to the movies and I rarely rent movies to watch. I already have 3 portable devices that give me excellent access to email and the web on the road. I don’t own or even want a Netbook. Look, if I’m gonna carry a computing device in my brief case, why not buck up another couple hundies and get one that can do everything computers do? A MacBook Pro 13″ makes waaaaay more sense to me. — Well then, who is the target market? Honestly, the market is huge without me! It might be a photographer or designer who wants the coolest portable portfolio imaginable. That alone is reason enough for them to buy it. Anybody who owns or wants a netbook of some kind is the perfect target market for this thing. People who own Kindles or who buy and read lots of books are sure to salivate for the best possible ebook experience anywhere. Anybody who needs portable computing power for Office-like activities but couldn’t care less about processor-intense programs like Photoshop. In short, the market for the iPad is huge.
I might just buy one anyway
Okay Larry, you just got through saying you aren’t the target market, why would you buy one after all that? For my wife. Recently my son got some software that requires a Mac to be hooked up to his guitar amp in his room. As a result, he borrows my wife’s laptop all the time. Every evening she has to go into his room, retrieve the laptop and do her email and pay the bills. If she can do email and pay bills with a $599 iPad and we don’t have to buck up a grand for a new laptop for her, I’m good with that!
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4 responses to This Tablet Is the Wrong Prescription —for me
Hi Larry.
Don’t worry—I’ll let you borrow mine at Snack Time.
-Scott
Vice President of Innovation
Palm, Inc.
You can’t fool me. Palm hasn’t had an innovation department since 2002… and even then, there was no one at the VP level working on stuff. They DO have a VP of “iACT” (iPhone & Apple Concept Theft) though. I think he only works part time.
Hey, this is just a first impression review but it’s not even shipping for 2 or 3 months. If this thing lets you shoot tethered or if they add web Flash, or if there’s some kind of functionality that really makes it worthwhile TO ME, I might just buy one at rollout myself anyway.
On the other hand, geek lust may very well overwhelm my senses, so Apple might not need to change a thing. If I saw and played with your iPad for 5 minutes, I would probably find myself convinced that I NEEDED a cool, mobile portfolio… and that calendar!! What a sweet calendar program!!! Maybe I do need one after all.
~Must resist temptation…~ ~iPad forces are powerful…~ ~Must resist geek lust…~
I see this thing being big in schools, especially at the college level. Not having to carry around 30lbs of books is a good thing, maybe being able to take notes right on or in your “book” plus being able to keep all your books for future reference. I see some more college contracts in Apples future.
Larry:
You might not be the target market, but NAPP is
I am copying the comment I just left on Scott’s blog:
Ina says:
January 31, 2010 at 8:30 am
Scott
If I could read your books, Photoshop User and your seminar and Photoshop World handouts on the iPad, it would make me get one ASAP. Please consider electronic distribution for NAPP’s magazines and handouts in addition to the print versions. The seminar and Photoshop World would, of course, be available only to attendees. The ability to access Kelby Training on the iPad (which is a given) will be icing on the cake.
Ina