I’ll admit that I completely missed the mainstream greatness of the iPad. A huge Apple and Steve Jobs fanboy, I ignorantly thought, “Why would anyone want a large iPod with wireless or 3G?” “Boy you’d look stupid holding up a tablet to your ear making a phone call…if you could.” And you can thanks to Skype…plus you can make it a video call. #dope
From the moments the leaks started happening, I was completely dismissive. “How could you improve on the smart phone?” I like small, powerful technology and for me, the smartphone or the extremely powerful, pocketsized computer was/is the killer platform.
What I failed to see was just like the iPhone, the iPad via the iTunes App store would create a new ecosystem of awesome tech apps and a massive new revenue stream. Moreover, there was a substantial mass appeal (understatement given APPL’s profits to date) for consuming and interacting with entertainment via video and games on a mobile tablet.
There are still short comings to the whole iPhone, iPad iTunes ecosystems. It’s a closed, walled garden business model. The iPad UI keyboard sucks and I only started to unlock the iPad’s productivity power when I purchased an bluetooth keyboard…more hardware $$$ for Apple. Flash, better Google doc integration, MSFT docs, additional browsers, downloading non-walled garden apps, etc. would make this a better productivty machine. And yes I’m ignoring the ecological and workforce issues associated with Apple and ALL technology products.
All that’s inconsequential in the face of the iPad’s shear awesomeness as a gaming platform. The games are better and infinitely cheaper than Wii, Playstation, and xBox titles/platforms and most importantly, are in more demand from my kids…
And then there’s the portable media consumption business via books and video. My 70 year old mom wanted a new computer and her only considerations were how much memory she should get with her iPad and which carrier to use. Game. Set. Match.
Typed from my iPad while listening to music my iPhone…#AppleFanBoy
