Apple iPad – A Microsoft Allegory (Part 1)
Kudos to Apple on a fantastic product launch! I give props where it is due and they really did create the perfect storm for the “product of the decade." All the elements were there. The years of anticipation, the official fake price leaks quoting $1000, the subsequent surprise price of $499 that sent stocks jumping, and the amazing marketing videos that illustrated the design challenges and goals of this new device, all needs were fulfilled to catapult the product into the hearts and minds of the consumers.
And then the blink of an eye, the event was over. An eerie void clouded the blogosphere and news sites as people struggled to form a simple opinion for which Apple is notorious for evoking. Love. Magic. Revolution. No, these were not the words used for this chapter in history. It did not take a genius to realize that the product was a “giant iPhone,” but was it more? Calling it a giant iPhone just seemed too simplistic and all questioned whether Jobs had an angle that none could see.
Slowly by slowly, blog editorials began emerging from the silence enticing readers with imagery, screenshots, and videos. Apple updated their website like a well oiled machine and people were consumed with emotions, but still no one could really form a clear opinion. Engadget, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Mashable, and GigaOM were all split amongst the staff. Even in the land of Twitter, a giant war brewed as as 145,000 “twits” chose factions (Mashable).
“An opinion has to be formed. A consensus must be reached!” thought the technical community. Darkness. The masses grew impatient. Without the foresight and clarity of the journalists to navigate the maze of truth, the once proudly naif people rose up to challenge what Apple had told them.
Chaos begot chaos and when the voices of a million avatars could seem to grow no louder, a champion emerged. Unity.
Even those that wanted to defy could not help but be persuaded by the supreme [psuedo] logic of the Third Reich.
Will the backlash subside, or will it brew and be enshrined in the HP Slate? Time will tell. One thing is for certain, on Jan 27th, the world has changed. The game has changed for the better.
In the immortal words of CharlieX, in response to @Chaosdevine, “this is so meH.”
Comments
- Anonymous
January 29, 2010
The two things that could easily make this be the market leading tablet are
- The average consumer who knows nothing about computers will love it. It looks great in the hand compared to a netbook
- The interface is made for the form factor. In my ideal tablet it would run Windows 7 underneath but would have a killer multi-touch UI designed for the hardware. Kind of like what HTC did with their WinMo phones.
- Anonymous
January 29, 2010
Microsoft is still not getting the point, but that is ok, Sun Microsystems did not get it either, and they had many years of loses, and now they are Oracle. Unix was much more powerful than Windows 3.1, multi user, multi tasking, file system, programming language, you name it they had it, except a good user interface, Windows 3.1 had an amazing UI a that time, we all switched for the UI and because it runs on less expensive machines. OS 2 was powerful, Windows 95 crashed many times, but Windows 95 was faster, and way better UI, so OS 2 developers went to Windows or Linux. There are many Office Applications out there, but we still use Microsoft Office, very fast, and beautiful UI. iPad is the Windows of today, look at the animation, the smooth scroll in lists, the user controls, the zoom and rendering of text, the performance, ... you name it they have it; look how small the device is, how limited the CPU is, and how fast it performs comparing to Widows. All this is missing from Windows!!! you cannot even rotate a windows tablet without pressing tons of buttons and getting everything to slowly repaint :-) We got 3 iPods at home, and now we are planning to get 4 iPad, one for every member at home, and yesterday at best buy, I was looking at the Mac section instead of the PC section, admiring the user interface. Microsoft today in 2010 is IBM back in the 80 and 90, they missed the point, we wish you good luck with Windows.