The iPad came to the market last Saturday and as always with the Apple marketing came the big lines and small tents that never seen a camp site but the Apple stores. There are the people that want one right away and want to be the first person to own the new shiny device from Apple and there are the people that are willing to wait a month for the device with 3G instead of just WiFi only. The iPad is an interesting concept, a bigger iTouch that can be used as a replacement for your Netbook, Kindle, iTouch and portable DVD. The perfect companion Apple suggests and markets.
Apple did a great job, in my modest opinion, marketing this device, yet I believe they left the casual laptop buyer behind for now, I’m willing to bet they will start targeting to the people that buys a home computer every 3 years as the best device to have around the house, many people that is not into technology does not know much about the iPad yet.
For people that purchase a computer, a laptop or desktop for the house, they only use it for the Internet and normally word processing, with the release of iWorks for the iPad, provides those consumers all the features they need and want. Email, word processing, Internet and their little games that comes with the OS. As well a easy way to purchase and install new applications without having to know much about computers. A very attractive solution, the question and problem is how is Apple going to reach that market? Expect a huge campaign to convince those customers to purchase an iPad instead of a home computer similar to the iPhone campaign.
I can also see Apple targeting those devices to schools and students as well as teachers, if they can accomplish that, convincing that there is a story and benefit for schools to go that route. I remember the days that Apple provided many free computers for schools. Still I don’t see my kids using the iPad to do their homework just yet.
As always with Apple, you should wait for the second release of the device if you want to get more for your money, with the iPhone the first generation, came the high price of $599 and got drop to $399 after a few month. When the 3G came along, the price was $199 for a very powerful device with better battery life and 3G connection instead of Edge. Same story comes with every release of their devices. The second generation is always much better and much cheaper.
With the iPad, Apple position their price pretty low, compare on past campaigns, did Apple learn their lesson? Maybe, yet I’m expecting a price cut before the end of the year or better yet an upgrade to the device after all the users feedback is collected.
I believe an iPad with multitasking and Adobe Flash is expected. The question here is, are we going to see an upgrade on the hardware as well? Front and back camera? No doubt Apple has left many feature out of the iPad, probably due bringing it to market to do the best Apple does, see the user reaction, collect the feedback and then create the device they can sell better. Many speculations raised before the news of the iPad, the user demand for gestures was the common one. Now the iPhone 4.0 will be released on April 8th, a phone with better hardware allowing the user to do much more, hopefully coming out with multitasking, that means they already were planning that for the iPad 2.0? Apple has been working hard with their iPhone OS that runs as well in the iPad, I assume working in a multitasking version for devices with that power to compete against the Android from Google.
In my opinion, consumers should wait to buy an iPad until the iPhone 4.0 gets announce and expect that any improvements to the iPhone 4.0 will be inherit on the iPad 2.0. Right now until April 8th the features on the iPhone 4.0 is just an rumors and expectations. My guesses here for the iPhone 4.0 are:
- A complete iPhone Operating System with multitasking that will run only in the new device, not old devices.
- 512 MB of memory RAM instead of the 256 MB
- A new Maps application with GPS turn by turn not based on Google Maps.
- Better battery or at least battery life ( they always said that with any device )
- Adobe Flash support for the Safari browser.
Microsoft Silverlight support for the Safari browser. ( I hope you ain’t holding your breath for that one) - Breaking away from AT&T and bringing 4G cheap on the new device as well as CDMA to support Verizon Wireless.
I know that I’m going to be one of the people to wait to see how things pan out with the iPad as well as the iPhone 4G, those 2 devices are well connected at Apple, the development of one, made the second possible. Apple wasn’t developing the iPad until the iPhone came out, after all the hard work they put into building a human interface operating system for a phone, they decided they will use the same OS for the tablet they always wanted to release. The success of the iPhone OS gave Steve Jobbs the perfect candidate for the development of the tablet, same OS, new hardware.
Remembering the past I was one of the people that purchased the classic iPhone for $399, not the $599 and I still got it wrong. I don’t want to make the mistake again. I’ll be waiting until this summer, not that I expect Apple to drop the price by summer yet Wife’s birthday is then and the perfect excuse for one ;-) Because I only want the best gadgets for my wife.
Cheers
Al