iPad Day Two: Some Calm, But Not Much
So I've had just under 24 hours to chill from yesterday's semi-hysterical (ok, I'll yank the "semi-") post about Apple's new iPad. Some calm has set in. I still want two. (Actually, three; my wife is going to insist on having her own, I can see already, and she hasn't even seen the Apple demo movie which is well worth viewing.)
There have been quite a few commentators throwing lukewarm water on the iPad. They seem to hate the name (I agree it's unimaginative and will be easy to confuse with iPod) but mostly they see it as sort of ho-hum, underwhelming technology. I guess these people are even more jaded than I am and I've been around this stuff a lot longer than almost any of them. I think the iPad has the potential to be a new channel-definer. And when those come along, the established media and punditocracy can't figure out what to say about it. So they compare it to something that's already out there that's "close enough" to make a comparison fall short of illogical and then belittle the new technology by demonstrating how little it improves on what's already available.
Just by way of a single example (and I realize the danger of anecdotal evidence her) one of the women in my church came to a class last night and her first comment to me (knowing my propensity for tech gadgetry) was, "I'm really glad I didn't buy a Kindle now." She'll wait for the iPad. Why? Because, as she explained it, "I'll get all of a Kindle, all of an iPod and most of a computer in a convenient package at an unbelievable price." Multiply that by a few million. My wife loves using a laptop; in fact, a MacBook is the only computer she owns. She won't junk it for an iPad but I guarantee she's going to spend more time using the iPad. Why? Because she loves to work in strange sitting positions where she can relax while she does things. The MacBook, like all laptops, doesn't lend itself well to that usage because of the angle between the keyboard and the display. With the iPad, that problem goes away. She'll curl up with her new iPad and fall in love with it in less than an hour, guaranteed. Multiply that by a few hundred thousand.
I am intrigued by the possible impact of iPad and its iBooks store on Kindle and Amazon.com sales. For one thing, do you suppose the Kindle iPhone app will be allowed by Apple to run on the iPad? if it is, will Amazon continue to make it available now that Apple is a major competitor? If so, what will the fact that I can choose, on a single device, whether to use the Amazon store or the iBooks store, due to pricing? Will we see store-specific bargain offerings? I don't think iPad kills Kindle (though it may well destroy the Kindle DX) for two primary reasons: (1) e-ink is more readable and much more gentle on battery life than anything Apple could do via iTunes for books; (2) Amazon has amazing clout with publishers, who can be successful without Apple's support but who desperately need Amazon.com to get even a whiff of success. I predict some interesting drama there...unless Jeff Bezos and Steve Jobs cook up a deal together.
Lots more thoughts running around my head this morning but I'm out of time and the blogosphere probably needs a break from iPadMania, so I'll just leave at this for now.
Wow.
