Unless you’ve lived in a cave over the last couple of weeks you may have noticed that Apple have launched a new product, the iPad. Never has a product got the online community so hot under the collar, people have tweeted, blogged, emailed and socially networked themselves into a cyber frenzy. At the peak of its launch there were over 7400 tweets a minute about iPad, only Obama’s first state of the union address achieved more (9000 tweets/min if you want the stats for the pub).
Many of the world’s technorati have labelled the device just a big iPhone, (here’s the Dom Joly vid to prove it) and there’s been quite a lot of negative comments amongst some of the more notable bloggers and commentators. In some ways I have to agree with them, I was a tad disappointed, when the big reveal came; it does have some fairly significant flaws, lack of flash and multi tasking being the biggest for me. But then again, similar criticisms greeted the iPhone when it was launched, a phone which has only just learnt to do copy and paste. But did that stop it’s uncanny nay, phenomenal rise to success, fame and fortune? Of course not. It rapidly became every discerning media types, (or 16 year old boy’s for that matter) must have accessory of 2008.
So will the iPad follow in the footsteps of its spoilt little brother and be just as big a success story?
Before I talk about why it will change your life and (at least a part of) the digital world here’s the biggest reasons.
First of all it’s new and has an Apple logo on it. Enough to ensure the device is just as shiny and as desirable as its life changing predecessor.
Why is that? Well admittedly I am a self confessed, born again, iBore so probably biased. However we’ll want one because Apple have the unique ability to take an existing idea and make it desirable and more enjoyable to use, in this case the e-reader and Net book. Apple did exactly the same with the iPod and iPhone, devices that in many cases were technically inferior but so much more desirable. Obviously I can’t forget to mention the raging success of iPhone apps but that’s for another day.
So why the hell would I want one? Well here’s a scenario to think about.
Sunday morning
In my house when I’m home my iPhone sits on the arm of the sofa and my laptop (yes, It’s a MacBook) sits on the floor next to the sofa, usually with the power lead trailing. I get up Sunday morning and here’s the order of events:
1, Tea & toast
2, Pick up iPhone – check email and Twitter (bit sad admittedly)
3, Sit down with Tea, get laptop out of bag, plug it in, boot it up, briefly read the news and the transfer gossip (or lack of it Rafa!)
If I put any music or the radio on, chances are that’ll be one of those devices too.
Would that be an easier and much more enjoyable experience with an iPad? Absolutely!
Firstly it’s instant on, so email, twitter and the web becomes so much more instantly accessible. In a way that’s almost comparable to the change from a dial up connection to ‘always on’ broadband.
Then the way the iPad interface works it would be much more enjoyable. Using the web and apps on a tablet using hand gestures is in itself novel. With the iPhone many people already consider the experience of using an iPhone app for services such as a Facebook and LinkedIn is superior to using the website version (Wired article on iPad). The opportunity the interface and interaction provides really opens the door to a world of creativity for developers.
Then there’s apps, Apple already make an iTunes remote app for iPhone so I could even remotely control my Sunday morning tunes too.
Apart from getting marmalade on the screen I’m sold and we’ve only got to 10 in the morning.
Now for the commercial part, imagine for a minute I’m a brand with a product I’d like to advertise. Imagine how much impact a behaviourally targeted and entertaining piece of rich media advertising would have, especially one which I could one-click purchase straight from the ad straight to my iTunes account (I expect most of us usually don’t have a credit card in our dressing gown pocket).
Now that’s hardly a deeply thought through scenario filled with new apps and interactions, of which there will be thousands I’m quite sure. However the key part is how that experience will be easier, quicker and more fun.
Putting aside how that experience works there’s another bigger reason why iPad, e-readers and tablet PCs will be a success. That’s because the might of the publishing world will make it happen. We all know newspaper sales are in terminal decline, so are books depending on which sources you read. For newspapers the internet has pretty much been a disaster, no one wants the printed product, ad revenue is down and no one wants to pay for the content online.
Enter the e-reader – here’s a medium designed for reading news and books digitally. First of all that means no print cost, which for an industry looking to reduce costs that’s perfect. Next, readership will change and chances are increase because Apple and others are going to make it more enjoyable and will promote digital reading as they need you to buy product.
Finally and possibly the best part is the e-reader or iPad is a new medium where we’re all probably going to be more accepting of paying for things, especially if everything seamlessly goes through your iTunes account where we don’t see it. Take the iPhone model where this has already happened, most of us don’t mind spending 59p here and £1.99 on apps and it soon adds up.
If publishers really get their act together and build some apps which make reading a book or newspaper more interactive and enjoyable then things can seriously change. If reading the news in a normal browser is a seriously second class experience a quality app makes strong commercial sense. Revenue wise that goes two ways – 1, Charge for the app - the Guardian hit 70K downloads of their £2.39 app in the first month alone; or 2, Give the app away for free and charge for content, the holy grail for publishers! Spotify will show us whether that model really works.
So is iPad more than just a big iPhone? Well yes, in many ways it is. However a big iPhone with the potential to carve out a space for a new type of device we all want in our lives and a whole new digital channel.
I’m sold, and I haven’t even seen one in the flesh yet! posted by E3 at 18:53
Many of the world’s technorati have labelled the device just a big iPhone, (here’s the Dom Joly vid to prove it) and there’s been quite a lot of negative comments amongst some of the more notable bloggers and commentators. In some ways I have to agree with them, I was a tad disappointed, when the big reveal came; it does have some fairly significant flaws, lack of flash and multi tasking being the biggest for me. But then again, similar criticisms greeted the iPhone when it was launched, a phone which has only just learnt to do copy and paste. But did that stop it’s uncanny nay, phenomenal rise to success, fame and fortune? Of course not. It rapidly became every discerning media types, (or 16 year old boy’s for that matter) must have accessory of 2008.
So will the iPad follow in the footsteps of its spoilt little brother and be just as big a success story?
Before I talk about why it will change your life and (at least a part of) the digital world here’s the biggest reasons.
First of all it’s new and has an Apple logo on it. Enough to ensure the device is just as shiny and as desirable as its life changing predecessor.
Why is that? Well admittedly I am a self confessed, born again, iBore so probably biased. However we’ll want one because Apple have the unique ability to take an existing idea and make it desirable and more enjoyable to use, in this case the e-reader and Net book. Apple did exactly the same with the iPod and iPhone, devices that in many cases were technically inferior but so much more desirable. Obviously I can’t forget to mention the raging success of iPhone apps but that’s for another day.
So why the hell would I want one? Well here’s a scenario to think about.
Sunday morning
In my house when I’m home my iPhone sits on the arm of the sofa and my laptop (yes, It’s a MacBook) sits on the floor next to the sofa, usually with the power lead trailing. I get up Sunday morning and here’s the order of events:
1, Tea & toast
2, Pick up iPhone – check email and Twitter (bit sad admittedly)
3, Sit down with Tea, get laptop out of bag, plug it in, boot it up, briefly read the news and the transfer gossip (or lack of it Rafa!)
If I put any music or the radio on, chances are that’ll be one of those devices too.
Would that be an easier and much more enjoyable experience with an iPad? Absolutely!
Firstly it’s instant on, so email, twitter and the web becomes so much more instantly accessible. In a way that’s almost comparable to the change from a dial up connection to ‘always on’ broadband.
Then the way the iPad interface works it would be much more enjoyable. Using the web and apps on a tablet using hand gestures is in itself novel. With the iPhone many people already consider the experience of using an iPhone app for services such as a Facebook and LinkedIn is superior to using the website version (Wired article on iPad). The opportunity the interface and interaction provides really opens the door to a world of creativity for developers.
Then there’s apps, Apple already make an iTunes remote app for iPhone so I could even remotely control my Sunday morning tunes too.
Apart from getting marmalade on the screen I’m sold and we’ve only got to 10 in the morning.
Now for the commercial part, imagine for a minute I’m a brand with a product I’d like to advertise. Imagine how much impact a behaviourally targeted and entertaining piece of rich media advertising would have, especially one which I could one-click purchase straight from the ad straight to my iTunes account (I expect most of us usually don’t have a credit card in our dressing gown pocket).
Now that’s hardly a deeply thought through scenario filled with new apps and interactions, of which there will be thousands I’m quite sure. However the key part is how that experience will be easier, quicker and more fun.
Putting aside how that experience works there’s another bigger reason why iPad, e-readers and tablet PCs will be a success. That’s because the might of the publishing world will make it happen. We all know newspaper sales are in terminal decline, so are books depending on which sources you read. For newspapers the internet has pretty much been a disaster, no one wants the printed product, ad revenue is down and no one wants to pay for the content online.
Enter the e-reader – here’s a medium designed for reading news and books digitally. First of all that means no print cost, which for an industry looking to reduce costs that’s perfect. Next, readership will change and chances are increase because Apple and others are going to make it more enjoyable and will promote digital reading as they need you to buy product.
Finally and possibly the best part is the e-reader or iPad is a new medium where we’re all probably going to be more accepting of paying for things, especially if everything seamlessly goes through your iTunes account where we don’t see it. Take the iPhone model where this has already happened, most of us don’t mind spending 59p here and £1.99 on apps and it soon adds up.
If publishers really get their act together and build some apps which make reading a book or newspaper more interactive and enjoyable then things can seriously change. If reading the news in a normal browser is a seriously second class experience a quality app makes strong commercial sense. Revenue wise that goes two ways – 1, Charge for the app - the Guardian hit 70K downloads of their £2.39 app in the first month alone; or 2, Give the app away for free and charge for content, the holy grail for publishers! Spotify will show us whether that model really works.
So is iPad more than just a big iPhone? Well yes, in many ways it is. However a big iPhone with the potential to carve out a space for a new type of device we all want in our lives and a whole new digital channel.
I’m sold, and I haven’t even seen one in the flesh yet! posted by E3 at 18:53
