I’ve been thinking more about the iPad, and I believe I have a better grasp on the intention behind the product. It doesn’t make it a more attractive product for me. But at least now I can see the intended market for it. And why the iPad might turn out to be a massive hit.
Here’s the deal. The Macintosh has traditionally been a great product for producing creative content. Writers, artists, musicians, film makers, photographers all have a variety of reasons for loving the Mac platform. In particular, Mac OS X has a really sweet spot between simplicity and power that appeals to creative professionals, people who create content.
And that’s not what the iPad is for. The iPad is intended to be the ideal platform for consuming creative content. Read books, listen to music, watch YouTube videos, surf the web, read email… the iPad should be very good for those. And, because the iPhone OS (guess we have to come up with a better name for that, huh?) is much simpler and more limited than the Mac OS, it’s a hell of a lot harder to break. Think about all the time you’ve had to spent doing tech support for Mom, Grandpa, etc. The iPad should be an ideal product for that family member who knows jack squat about computers, who isn’t producing content, who merely wants a rock stable, reliable, very easy tool for viewing and consuming content.
Okay, I get it now.
Took me long enough. 🙂
The lack of Flash support seems like a problem, though. That, and the lack of a USB port.
But no multitask? No music+books? That’ll keep my Mom (and others) away…(admittedly, Ma turned to music when her cataracts got bad….)
Ok, that makes some sense. But did you figure out why they named it the single most idiotic choice on the list? Cause I still don’t feel better, and I want to feel better. Fanchix are still pissed.
The rationale behind the name escapes me. About the best theory I’ve heard proposed is that it plays nicely off the iPod brand, but that explanation is weak, at best. Maybe all the other names had intractable legal challenges? Though other companies have a claim to the iPad name too, so it’s not like that name will escape legal challenge.
The iPod name is just as curious (what the heck is a “pod” and what does it have to do with music?!), but doesn’t have the same associations with menstrual products. The name is just odd.
And I continue to stand by my original ergonomic complaints about the iPad. Laptops have poor ergonomics, at best, and the iPad makes a laptop look brilliant by comparison.