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First iPad Reviews Are In

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zridling:
I love Stephen Fry. Like most Apple folks, they're consumed with novelty. I have a professor friend who, like Fry, has bought every single thing Apple has ever made. He has entire rooms of his house filled with old Apple hardware; he could open a museum. And he's spent his entire annual salary doing it year after year. He's definitely had fun, but just as I don't want to be tied to Google or Microsoft, I also don't want to be chained to Apple's latest whimsy. A private college here in Missouri just announced that all incoming Freshmen this fall will receive iPads. Bad idea to hitch your academic life to proprietary software (and hardware)!

superboyac:
I think the thing with Fry and the other Apple fans is that they don't care about the same stuff that we care about.  I think Fry understands perfectly well that the ipad isn't a particularly "new" technology.  The argument with Apple is always that they make it so easy to use...for NORMAL people...not us!  We are all powerusers here.  We go in and get our hands dirty.  We know all sorts of geeky details about everything.  We are different than the normal joe walking around with an iphone.

I know these apple fans, they're no dummy's.  They are intelligent, rational people.  They just don't care about all the stuff we care about.  They don't go on software forums, they don't know or care about DRM, they don't think about Sony vs kindle vs ipad.  They know Google, but they don't know HTC.  They don't know what IPS is.  This is total geek stuff.  This is our world.

The ipad is designed for them.  And let's remember, WE are the minority by quite a bit, not the other way around.  So if Jobs, who is a brilliant marketer, is going to cater to any group, it's going to be them.  So, whether the ipad doesn't have USB or is going to eventually lock their data into the Apple proprietary world...these thoughts don't even cross their minds.

All they know is the ipad is cool, it's sexy, it behaves sexy, it's easy to use for them, it doesn't make them feel dumb like when we (the geeks) talk to them about the dangers of DRM and not having a removable battery, etc.  And they are right.  The ipad is sexy.  I wish the poweruser-friendly products would put a little more effort in their interface and making it sexier and easier.

Anyway, that's the way I see it.

JavaJones:
What's interesting to me - and this is probably just symptomatic of a 1st gen Apple product - is how, despite the polish and "sexiness" and "ease of use", some *very fundamental* and absolutely *non-geeky* things appear fundamentally broken on the iPad. Looking back at history, it may have appeared that way with the iPhone 1st gen too. Things that have already been mentioned in this thread like the atrocious handling if iWork documents sync, or the necessity of connecting to a primary computer system to even use the thing (forget about it being a great system for "grandma" or "average user" unless they already have a different PC, so let's drop that argument!). Not to mention the apparent issues with weight and ergonomics.

So here's my thought: The Apple Faithful and general tech enthusiasts buy enough of the 1st gen products and are willing enough to overlook the flaws and talk them up, and Apple is willing to stick around for the 2nd gen, that by the time 2nd gen does roll around, the general public wants one too, and by then some more of the kinks are worked out, and so it can be much more successful. This is true of many big companies and their products of course - the notorious Microsoft 1.0 avoidance advice comes to mind. But it's interesting if you think about it applied to Apple, that perhaps they are only as successful as they are because their first gen products *don't* immediately sell 10 million copies...

- Oshyan

cmpm:
Stuff like this is coming up already for the ipad.

http://www.nirmaltv.com/2010/04/08/free-video-converter-for-ipad/

Convert things to ipadable.
Need one for docs and pdfs and ebooks and more....

wraith808:
<snip />
Looking back at history, it may have appeared that way with the iPhone 1st gen too. Things that have already been mentioned in this thread like the atrocious handling if iWork documents sync, or the necessity of connecting to a primary computer system to even use the thing (forget about it being a great system for "grandma" or "average user" unless they already have a different PC, so let's drop that argument!). Not to mention the apparent issues with weight and ergonomics.
-JavaJones (April 08, 2010, 02:48 PM)
--- End quote ---

I think that their 1st gen products are historically usable, but not as polished as their mystique has made it out to be.  Look at the 1st gen iPod... it was an interesting idea, but nothing that I wanted.  But since it was usable in it's niche, they made enough money to stick around for a 2nd gen.  I think that they depend upon that, truthfully.  They have been unable to compete with Microsoft in the short game, so they've focused on the long game, and done a pretty good job of it also.

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