I’m not convinced I need one!<\/p>\n
I remember vividly the moment I knew I needed an iPod.\u00c2\u00a0 I was on the back side of Mammoth Mountain, waiting to get on Chair 14, and the guy in front of me had white wires dangling from his ears.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn’t even 2002.\u00c2\u00a0 The device had only been introduced only two months before.\u00c2\u00a0 Been trounced by commentators as overpriced and unnecessary.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you owned a Rio, as I did, and you contemplated FireWire transfer and a thousand song capacity…you wanted one.\u00c2\u00a0 But that day at Mammoth was when I realized I needed one.\u00c2\u00a0 With that desire that makes you run to the store, lay down your hard-earned cash and emerge with a smile on your face.<\/p>\n
Steve Jobs gets the question.\u00c2\u00a0 Of need.\u00c2\u00a0 He lays it right out.\u00c2\u00a0 At the advent of the presentation.\u00c2\u00a0 Even revisits the question again at the end.\u00c2\u00a0 But he just didn’t close me.<\/p>\n
Oh, he had me at the beginning.\u00c2\u00a0 As he did those in attendance.\u00c2\u00a0 Who gave him the anticipatory ovation a rock star gets before he even said a word.\u00c2\u00a0 He wore none of GaGa’s outfits, in fact he wore running shoes and a mock turtleneck, but you knew he had something to say.\u00c2\u00a0 Like our old rockers, first and foremost, we wanted to hear the music.<\/p>\n
But what Steve kept saying was "It works!"<\/p>\n
Okay, you’re Apple, I expect it to work.<\/p>\n
I can see the engineering triumph, all the touch points, the design, even your own proprietary chip.\u00c2\u00a0 But why do I need one?<\/p>\n
Not to surf the Web.\u00c2\u00a0 This isn’t 1995, when most people didn’t have computers and ordered up a PC just to be able to play.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody’s got Web access.\u00c2\u00a0 And so many have smart phones.\u00c2\u00a0 And since the iPad makes no calls, luddites are going to buy iPhones\/Blackberrys\/Androids first.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, the fanatics will have to have iPads the same way they needed Apple TVs.\u00c2\u00a0 But Apple TV never really took off.\u00c2\u00a0 Will the iPad?<\/p>\n
It’s about having a killer app.<\/p>\n
Photos?<\/p>\n
Actually, an iPhone\/iPod Touch is good enough for this, you get the idea, especially at the resolution the iPhone takes pics.<\/p>\n
Apps?<\/p>\n
Well, there is a mobile gaming industry, Apple is positioned as a player, will the iPad emerge as the dominant portable gaming platform?\u00c2\u00a0 Doubtful, it’s just too big.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s possible.\u00c2\u00a0 As for information apps, they work just fine on the iPhone, and don’t you want to use them on the run anyway?\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, whipping out your iPad on a Paris street corner seems like an SNL routine.<\/p>\n
Productivity apps?\u00c2\u00a0 Like iWork and Keynote?\u00c2\u00a0 Love the price, $9.99, but how often do I want to generate a presentation on the fly?\u00c2\u00a0 As for superseding the laptop…\u00c2\u00a0 Well, did you see Steve hunt and peck on the virtual keyboard?\u00c2\u00a0 Maybe he doesn’t know how to touch-type.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, this is a stopgap device, that does nothing better than a laptop at first glance.\u00c2\u00a0 Do I need to surf the Web in my hand?\u00c2\u00a0 My laptop is good enough for that.<\/p>\n
How about movies?<\/p>\n
Yup, you can take the iPad on an overseas flight and watch a movie and not run out of juice.\u00c2\u00a0 So maybe the portable DVD player market will be affected, but I don’t watch flicks on flights anyway, and if I get the urge, what they’re purveying is good enough, long flights tend to have more choice.\u00c2\u00a0 However I do appreciate the cover that turns into a stand.<\/p>\n
It all comes down to books.<\/p>\n
Now the iPad makes the Kindle look like a toy.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s got a better interface, and color.\u00c2\u00a0 But naysayers will state that it’s uncomfortable to read for long periods of time on a computer screen.\u00c2\u00a0 The Kindle’s E-Ink technology is supposed to solve this problem, and it does.\u00c2\u00a0 But the Kindle is not backlit.\u00c2\u00a0 And oftentimes, the best technology does not win.\u00c2\u00a0 People love MP3s, usability is better than CDs, never mind vinyl.<\/p>\n
So now it becomes a battle of price with Amazon.\u00c2\u00a0 Expect Kindle cost to decline, dramatically, very soon.\u00c2\u00a0 But Amazon has one great advantage, the $9.99 price point for books.\u00c2\u00a0 Apple is endorsing higher prices.<\/p>\n
And speaking of prices, buying TV shows and movies never really took off at the iTunes Store, do you really think this device is going to make a difference?<\/p>\n
Where was the Netflix plan?\u00c2\u00a0 Where was the innovative pricing?<\/p>\n
As for saving the media industry…whew, there was no word of that, probably because all the content providers are afraid of playing ball, fearful that Apple will start out as a friend but end up as an enemy, dictating prices, their entire business model.<\/p>\n
The iPad is almost like a computer without software.\u00c2\u00a0 Why do I need one again?\u00c2\u00a0 There’s no MacPaint, like on the original Macintosh.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s nothing revolutionary.\u00c2\u00a0 I give Apple credit for building it, but I’ve got to give them credit for building the Cube too.<\/p>\n
Even the presentation dragged.\u00c2\u00a0 It was almost like hearing the follow-up to a classic album.\u00c2\u00a0 You want the new one to be great, but the more you listen, you come to realize that the first one was unique.\u00c2\u00a0 The iPhone was a breakthrough, the iPad?\u00c2\u00a0 The presentation almost devolved into parody, when everybody kept saying how great the product was.\u00c2\u00a0 Products truly this great sell themselves.<\/p>\n
Maybe if I get my hands on one I’ll change my mind.<\/p>\n
But for now, I’m gonna pass.<\/p>\n
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