Tablet Day

Comments (Archived):

1. My assumption on most people will keep the tablet near their couch, bedside, kitchen, toilet etc and rarely take it outside their homes. May be car backseat for family travels.

   1. This is my plan…depending on how this thing turns out.

2. I think the kitchen area is grossly under served by electronics – cooking, family scheduling, etc… basically the refrigerator magnet replacement – I suspect the tablet will fill this void if priced right.

   1. replacing the magnets on the fridgenice

   2. Absolutely. Writing, editing, blogging and cooking non-GMO from scratch all at the same time (and watching the trending tweets and favorite blogs). Way under served…..I’d vote for a refrig touch screen app.

      1. non-GMO, that’s where it’s at.

   3. It is- the reason- waterproofing and splatterproofing. The thing has to be immune to being dropped and toeing hit by very hot, near flashpoint grease.

3. This will definitely be a voice device to some people. Some will use Skype, Google Voice, and various text to speech software. I can see some using it for video conferencing and keynote presentations as well. And finally, I would not be surprised if it uses voice commands for ease of navigating and discovery. I think it’s safe to say nowadays that anything with a wifi connections is a voice device.

   1. So true. But voice doesn’t mean phone anymore

      1. Weirdly, my dad said the same thing this morning because he’s getting a new phone…huh. (My cellphone broke, I’m getting his, he’s getting an android phone and all he is concerned with is does it have a slide out keyboard and does it have a large screen because he has transition lens.)

         1. Getting older is a bitch on the eyes and everything else too

4. It all comes down to price point.If it’s $1,000 device people put on their $5,000 elliptical trainers the tablet is in trouble.If it is $199 it will be a huge hit.The one thing I am sure of is that the price will drop radically in 6 months or less after apple ekes the extra margin out of the fanboy crowd.

   1. Apple doesn’t have a big track record of radical price drops – do they?

      1. I am not sure if you are being sarcastic.Apple always hugely overcharges on their latest devices. They dropped the price of the iPhone $200 2 months after launch. Soaking the core Apple fans is their SOP.

         1. It’s going to shoot them in the foot later, especially if someone can figure out how to the exact same thing with a small keyboard attached, or if e-ink gets even slightly better.

   2. Haha, great point Erik.

   3. I agree with you.If the concept catches, the prices will plunge and mass adoption will build the economics of the device’s business model and consequently drive more content.However, I really love the ‘Apple’ show that comes with each new device. He’s the last and the greatest of the tech showman. I can’t help by enjoy the bravada of it all as honestly no one else can launch like this any longer.

5. Well the question remains if the Tablet will be the best device for available things, or will it enable new things that are impossible without it.

6. anyway, Apple is second to none in PR

   1. I’ve been studying them forever. They are beyond PR. Jobs shares his vision and more than anyone, captures the behavioral change that the device empowers. Note Apple ads over the years. Few words. People images. Lifestyle change.They create markets through the power of a shared vision.They’ve become the master of lifestyle marketing pushing way beyond what started with cars and then sports.

      1. It like voodoo magic.I admit to being jealous.Maybe if I can get past believing it’s supernatural I can learn a valuable lesson.

         1. Most of us let our customers help us define the value of our products and the essence of our brands. We do this in the open, in real time, in a social way.Apple pulls it from Job’s head, in isolation. It’s hit-or-miss, but when it hits its magic.What I learn from Job’s is the power of a sparse and crisp image, regardless of how it is derived. When it is true and the market decides this, it defines the brand and that power drives market adoption.Sorry, I’m a brand and distribution marketer by DNA and applaud excellence even it the methods are not ones I subscribe to 😉

            1. Nothing to be sorry about Arnold. Enjoy your dissection of the potent features of great marketing.

            2. Thnx. I’m passionate on this subject and spent a lot of time building and understanding brands and markets.

            3. You two are fun to watch. I do that all the time

      2. I agree. They are beyond PR. And maybe you spot their next target: cars.

         1. TVs

            1. Yup, that might be it.

            2. or maybe nothing. the casinos are finally showing signs of returning to reality. can crapple survive what’s coming? doubt it. sooner or later their tyrannical strategy is going to be outperformed due to its economic unfeasibility. they’ll be out-opened, and then its game over.

            3. There will always be a market for a device with a brilliant UI that just does what it’s supposed to do. That’s Apple. Their Hype Machine doesn’t hurt them either, but they excel because they identify with what people want and they give them just that, but in a beautiful package that’s easy to use and pick up on. They prove that simple can be both functional and trendy.

7. I’ve got device fatigue.I do always love watching one of the greatest salesmen in the world pitch his latest wares.

   1. Thanks for calling attention to the master of “reality distortion” Steve Jobs. I should watch purely for educational purposes, but most of the marketing magic has already happened. The pitch will be a mash of sound bytes “remarkable. Outstanding. Amazing. Wonderful.”Long term real value outsells the master marketer. Truth trumps fiction. It’s why the race to be part of value creation is so compelling. A little bit of truth in a world full of fabrication.

      1. truth ftw!9/11 was an inside job,kid mercury

      2. Whoa my good friend Mark!Since when does great salesmenship or great marketing = distortion?Jobs sells vision and a future. Sometimes he wins, sometimes not, but market adoption is by dint of value, not by the force of the pitch. The pitch and the vision is just the tip that cracks the ice and sets the scene and shares the vision. At the end true value wins but it is not antithetical to the marketing or the vision.

         1. But Apple’s marketing is incidious. They first infected my good friend, then virally infected me with the promise of a PC in my hands.But I own this machine as much as I own my home. I pay property taxes for the right to own my house. I pay control tax for the right to own my smart phone. Yeah it has incredible features, but I’m not even a fully priveleged administrator on the device without voiding the warranty (jail breaking).What’s up with the app store bottleneck, why can’t we easily get apps from outside the official constricted channel?I’m conflicted on Apple’s marketing. Agree it’s potent, but I believe it is disconnected from user value.Also a little grumpy my fiancé is having trouble at her job (her department got laid off but she was kept on), and we really want to move out to the west coast as soon as possible. But our wedding/honeymoon/job search/home sale are between us and that goal.

            1. I’m with you on this point mark and its why I am on android

            2. When 4G get’s a little more mature, I’ll certainly move to an android mobile.

            3. Hey Mark.I’m conflicted but differently. I believe that open is always better when it works and a huge proponent of the democratization of systems and data as you know. And I’m with you on the app bottleneck as well. But I’m in awe at what Jobs has done. And regardless of the ‘closed’ system, his devices do empower a mass audience to live with technology in new ways. Iphone. Macbook have changed the landscape of the user base.And regardless of where we sit philosophically on open/closed, the true test of value is the user. Mac/Iphone users in a technically closed environment, in a closed social marketing infrastructure, become the marketing and sales force for the company. At the end of the day, if people are happy with products and ‘sell’ them to their friends, hey they are happy and kudos to the company that can do that.Let’s agree to disagree on this one.

            4. I’ll agree to disagree, but only by degrees of awe in what Apple has accomplished.There is a market that isn’t comfortable with administrating their own devices. And they have certainly been provided enormous user value (they trust Apple, that’s pretty amazing).I’d like to change the way people feel about controlling their technological destiny. I want them to trust themselves.

            5. Point well taken and well articulated Mark.I’m challenged and will do some rethinking.Thnx.

            6. I’m with you Mark.I’m still stuck on ITunes and why i don’t “own” my music.I was in an Apple store the other day and asked one of their scientologists (dont even try and tell me that its not creepy cult like talking to these folks) why i could not own my music since i had “bought” it. I mean “really” own it – and i was treated like i was the FBI showing up at juniper creek.Apple makes wonderful products. Amazing products. Apple is too often caught up in its own haze of product awsomeness to realize that some of what comes with it is flawed.and forget selling the new things in boston – you may double your sales of your music devices – but IPAAADS?

            7. Wait we still don’t own the mp3 we grab from itunes? I grabbed a bunch of mp3s from Amazon without a hitch.If there is some DRM Can you still burn a music CD (virtual disk ISO) and rerip it back?

      3. You forgot “magical” LOL 🙂

   2. A great performer is a gift to watch and enjoy. I’m with you on this.

      1. If you watched the video I posted yesterday, I compared acting, selling, and entrpreneurship. Jobs embodies all of them. He’s one of the best ever and maybe the best ever

         1. That’s another conflict for me. Even if I don’t agree with the newsworthiness of marketing, or the closed nature of Apple Inc, as a guy who wants to build a great business I have to extract every ounce of knowledge I can from Steve’s stage magic, presentation, and reality distortion field.All of that is founded on the fact that he absolutely loves what he’s doing, because the moment he doesn’t, he’ll move on. He’s free to do whatever he feels will make the most impact. On the flipside, if he’s not free to pursue what he most believes in, what’s the point of it all? Is Apple Inc a form of prison, shackling his creative abilities from other great work, could he be doing more elsewhere?

            1. Just read “the presentation secrets of Steve Jobs: how to be insanely great in front of any audience” and it was awesome. Broke a Jobs keynote into pieces and reconstructed it from the ground up. Well worth any entrepreneur’s time…http://www.amazon.com/gp/pr…

            2. Thnx. I just bought this for my Kindle.

            3. LOL – The irony!

            4. That’s a great suggestion

         2. Yes, you did call it.He’s the best I’ve encountered. There are rare human beings in different fields that drive change through the force of their vision and personality. I’ve been lucky to have him as inspiration in my career.

8. No doubt Apple’s announcement will dominate any and all tech headlines today. While the ‘Apple crowd’ may (will) be quick to adopt, it’ll most likely take some time before any tablet becomes a ‘standard’ or grab the same steam that mobile computing has gotten this past year. Agree with Erik … the price could make a huge difference in how fast this latest product becomes an outright win for Apple. If Apple truly wants the lions share of the PC / mobile market, it’s time for them to start considering a vehicle to allow a ‘few’ clone manufacturers out there.

9. Fred biggest announcement with the tablet that won’t get much attention… the TV tuner. Hope when they announce it some people think of me and what someone who started building production for the interfacable tv from the couch 7 YRS AGO might make. <evil grin=””>

   1. sorry Fred after I left the big guys behind I have had a long road and not many to gloat that I made the right decision ten years ago.. really 7 ..the day after Rosenberg’s team asked me my input and the storyline suddenly became the storycube…and everyone said…it’s about platforms ..not the content integration in production. Today is probably the first of the last days of that ideology.

10. “Et tu brute?”Marketing hype isn’t news but all my favorite super human filters are stuck on the apple commercial channel. Steve Jobs never asked me what tech I needed next, so why should I morph my life around a new apple store/product/widget?If apple let me better design and share(OPEN) my own products and services it would be different.

11. It’s interesting to think about having to carry around two devices…seems to make a strong case for someone releasing a dedicated, and tiny, phone…something like the bluetooth ear bits, but that is actually the phone (not just a connection to the phone)…then for things like dialing, etc. it can communicate with an app on your other device (so essentially it’s the same thing as what’s out there now, but the handheld device isn’t the phone it’s just a control device, the headset is the actual phone)…would help keep the device count down (an ever increasing problem)…OK enough random rambling from me for today 😉

12. I want to consume only 100% synthetic foods. I don’t trust “natural” food, it’s too expensive, bug ridden, or coated with pesticides.

    1. you know what they say: if a bug doesn’t want to eat it, neither do i.

       1. Hehe, seems my comment jumped from under KidMercury’s non GMO post.

    2. lol….well monsanto is busy legislating organic farmers out of existence, so your utopia is coming closer to reality! 🙂

       1. ;)my utopia is truly optimal freedom for all people. In that juggling world of fun (hurts my brain imagining sometimes) both non GMO and “monsanto” – monopoly! would be viable choices.Btw Dave winer is blocking me on Twitter, wonder what I did to trigger the big B

13. I used an iTouch in that way for a while but eventually tired of always needing wifi and opted to park it in our family room where it does a fantastic job of being a keyboard, mouse, boxee

14. to your point about using one device as a phone and one as a mobile data/e-mail/apps device, i think there will soon be a fundamental shift in how people think about phone and voice communication. ultimately, voice is all bytes and data. so soon enough, early adopters will have 1 device, unlocked, with a data plan only, using skype/vonage or some voip-based service for calls but spending most of their time using wifi/wimax/3g data service for the mobile web.must say that, like everybody else, i am very curious to see what apple comes out with. if it just as much as replaces the kindle, i am going to give it a try!

    1. Agree about voice being just bitsI use voip at home and just have a data lineThat’s kind of what I was getting at. Can’t wait till wireless carriers sell data only sims

    2. In my view it is surely a Kindle killer.The Kindle just got the death pill and it’s the Apple Tablet 🙂

15. In the beginning JOBS said… “A computer is a bicycle for the mind”. Today, JOBS reveals the sacred tablet, declaring it to be a ‘skateboard for the soul’, he will showcase the first product from the (soon to be very lucrative) tablet accessories market… a skatboard ‘Fab-Tab Sleeve’, and demonstrate how users can send a Tweet with their toes as the watch Apple TV, citing an increase in productivity while reducing green house emmissions, as he rides off-stage; returning moments later with a surf TaBoard.

    1. 🙂

16. We’ve found an iMac works great in the kitchen, fridge magnet and all.

    1. We use a macbook

17. Speaking of underserved industries that could use this type of device:1. Medical/Healthcare2. Education3. Logistics/Transportation4. Military/Police5. Other Government (DMV, etc.)The least common decision denominator for these: price. That’s where Apple is weakest.

    1. Many of those industries have been using tablets for years. When UPS delivers a package you sign on a tablet computer.The apple store itself has been using tablet computers for years (running someone elses OS).

       1. You’re right. Some tablets are already in use. But the UPS tablet looks like a simple $50 machine with an extremely limited UI and a high level of durability – kinda the opposite of what Apple will offer.My point is that the Apple tablet isn’t a good fit for the industries that need this technology the most.

          1. Who is this useful for? What is this useful for?

             1. It’s not really meant to be carried outside of the home or work-area. It looks great and seems to be very multi-media friendly. I doesn’t have a keyboard so input of written data will always take longer than a regular keyboard.It seems like the only target market is for households like Fred’s. Upper-middle and upper class households with the hunger for another gadget to potentially mount in their personal gym.

             2. you know it!

             3. …and fanboys of course.

18. I think the Apple i-tablet will also appeal to a new segment of users that haven’t even adopted a PC yet. That opens up an entirely new market segment, in addition to the tech savvies. My hunch is that Steve Jobs wants to influence education and how we learn about things, and to some extent, this will affect the publishing/book industry. My guess? $699 (or somewhere between an iPhone and an entry level MAC).

    1. Schools can’t buy Kindles at $249 because they’re too expensive. I don’t see how a $699 device will get traction in education.

       1. Nonetheless, I stand my ground on the pricing. I don’t see them cannibalizing the iPhone on pricing. (engadget leaked an $800 price point)

          1. I agree. I think they’ll talk a good game about education, but I think given the price point it will be mostly talk.

             1. You are both right but no one understands the value of getting their products into the education market more than Apple.

          2. Way lower it turns out

             1. Yup. $500 out of the gate is a killer move.

             2. These are commodity items, especially in the face of Chrome OS. They’re going to have to drop hardware prices for the end user because apparently a machine on Chrome is so in the clouds that it is apparently un-alterable when it comes to very deep issues such as viruses.A lot of the costs that come with a computer therefore go away (such as maintenance). And hardware, as we well known already, is a commodity. They’ve been pushed to a very awkward place.The new new question I have is how do you develop in this new environment? Like where do you store the stuff you are working on if you don’t want to tell anyone?

19. I still want a smarter way to get data in (aka keyboards) I don’t care if it tiny, I still think it’s a necessary condition of life with fingers.Other than that, it’s not like we’re seeing God.

20. “But if it turns out, as I suspect, that I’ll prefer to lug around the Google phone, the Apple Tablet will fit nicely on my elliptical trainer.”The couch and the gym… perfect analysis.

21. So good he bought two!http://img.dailymail.co.uk/…

    1. The Wi-Fi didn’t work so he had to climb up

    2. Well done Carl. Very funny.

    3. That pic made my day, Carl!!! Totally LMAO’d – thanks for the comic relief. Whew, such excitement around the latest gadgets!! heh!

22. The iPad will revolutionize the way AT&T fails

23. Here’s the best coverage I found.

24. The iPad is great, but it’s best use will continue to be reading avc.com!

    1. I sure hope disqus works well on it

25. Next to come: the iWife, iKids and the iFriend, the intermediate devices between work and sleep.

26. 17 of the top 20 amazon laptop top sellers last year were netbooks. The 3 other were Apple products. The iPad is a great way to re-design netbooks, specially given that they were able to keep the price low. If you look at MP3 players, phones, Apple is really good at getting growth market and win by designing a superior product. On the other hand, Apple TV has shown that creating a new market/user behavior is much harder.

    1. I’m going to ask you straight out: What behavior? To type with your fingers on a touchscreen at blazing speeds (at what angle? How are you going to hold it? it is with one hand you plan on typing with?)

27. I can’t believe I am saying this, this is by far the stupidest idea from a UI perspective I’ve seen in months.http://www.shanacarp.com/es…It’s just a big touch screen. So what?

28. Think (eg) of HP printers and ink cartridges.Lock them into the hardware platform and forever more sell them the peripherals/consumables they need. But only from us.In this case, Apps (primarily).I recall being at a Sun launch many moons ago – when Sun was still cool, that long ago – and Scott Mc when pressed on SPARC lagging vs PA-RISC matters answered (not verbatim, but as well as I can recall – you will get the gist): “Well, Sun doesn’t have the luxury of making xxx millions profit per annum from a consumable item, hence we’re a little behind with SPARC vs PA-RISC …”Apps are the new ink cartridges.Just cooler.

29. I will buy two for our house, like I bought 2 iPod Touch and 2 Kindle, and I think it has an excellent shot of becoming my main browsing device. Living in China, I’m mostly excited about the prospect of being able to get magazines and newspapers on the day of release on it, in color and with a decent screen size.However, I have a big gripe with it: the absence of Flash support. We know Jobs hates Flash, and supporting Flash would give people less incentive to buy apps on the App Store, but it’s a blow to all web and social games developers. The iPad would be a great device for online and social gaming but, without Flash support, only native apps will be running on it. And, with the constraints on microtransaction and currency usage that Apple imposes on App Store apps, there’s slight chance to integrate those apps fully with their Facebook counterparts, with regards to monetization.A great device, but a missed opportunity for web gaming, until Apple adds Flash support and/or allows complete integration of external currency systems in App Store apps

    1. No farmville on the iPad? Bummer

       1. Clearly, the real issue is the lack of Bejeweled Blitz 🙂

          1. i met with a woman yesterday who is addicted to that game

30. I’m not going to lug around the iPhone AND the iPad, but I can see that as soon as they enable multi-tasking it is quite likely I will be carrying around the iPhone and iPad but leaving the MacbookPro at home! Now we’re talking.

31. I agree that the usefulness of the iPad is questionable, but at this point it is very hard to bet against Steve Jobs and Apple. This was a very calculated move, and I am sure it will fit in nicely with their view of the future and how they want Apple to fit into it.

32. I love my iPhone and still haven’t seen a competitor to beat it yet all round, having said the Nexus isn’t with us yet in the UK. However I don’t think the iPad will have the same success but do think it will be successful.The iPad will be great for consuming content, I consume a lot of content on my iPhone but can see the attraction of a larger screen to do that. It is more of a couch device but I can see the attraction of that, more and more frequently I will look up something on my iPhone on the couch whereas I used to do that with a laptop. I’m not thinking of it as a netbook or mobile phone competitor I think it will have more appeal around the house. I think the concept of the device is great but it is a market that microsoft and google should be able to easily enter if they can partner with manufacturers to provide a device that looks sexy and has a decent UI.No flash and no multi tasking is a big no no on a device like this, a much bigger deal than on a mobile. I want something that is more compatible with a pc, I can live with the fact that an iPhone isn’t but am not so sure about the iPad. For me openness is more of an issue here.Om Malik said in his blog about the iPad: “…I’ll go out on a limb and say that today may be the day we start to rethink how we build web sites”He’s bang on, these devices are really going to change website design imo. I don’t need a keyboard for alot of web browsing and browsing using my figures instead of a mouse is really intuitive to me as an iPhone user. If I’m using an iPad type device to surf then I will want websites to be as slick as the iPhone apps that I’m used to, whether that experience is delivered via Flash or HTML 5.0 I don’t know or actually care.

    1. I love what On Malik said! There is a good amount of belief that one day web apps will replace the need to do native apps. HTML 5.0 could be the much needed answer to write web apps that work across all smartphones.

       1. Om is right. But its going to take reliable consistent high bandwith mobile connectivity

    2. The iphone changed a lot about website design tooWhen we did the avc redesign my main goal was that it look great on an iphone, android, and bberry

33. I still can’t get past the iPad name. So unlike Apple. Must see this MadTV skit from 2-3 years ago: http://bit.ly/gU8Q6. When I get mine, I’ll also stock up on iBuprofin.

34. Pretty sweet device. But what I really crave for is the same hardware, and a full blown OSX, that would totally rock. And it would play Netflix too…

    1. flash on the iPad would be game changing

35. Like everyone else, I was impressed by the base price, but now I realize this is more blue smoke and mirrors (to extend the “magic” metaphor), since 16 GB is really not practical for a device meant to manage video and photo files.You could buy the adapter for your USB thumbdrive, but c’mon.The big deal about the iPod is the Apple A4 processor, which from what I see on people’s hands-on videos is blazingly fast.

    1. Yeah, but it’s just a Nvidia Tegra 2 rolled from scratch from everything I’ve read. If that’s the case, THAT’S not even as big a deal as we thought.

36. catching up on my reading for the week – after a few days have passed since the announcement. I am struck by how focused the publishing industries are on the new software and devices. They should be thinking more about what they are going to try and sell, what it is worth, how they will price it and how they will extract monetization from any potential payers. Instead of hoping that iTunes will figure it out for them and take 30% for doing so, they should look to the social gaming guys for insight. I discuss this concept in this post/video: http://www.mediabistro.com/…

    1. so true.i don’t think devices are game changing for them if they have a browser onthemi read on the iphone and android via the browser, not via appsi would imagine i’ll do the same on the iPadso how you extract value is more important than the hardware your content isoni think social gaming and virtual currencies are among the most elegantforms of freemium out there

37. When he introduced the iPod hifi in 2006 it was like boom boxes never existed.Steve hypes everything, people remember the successes.

38. you’re doing a great job bashing crapple in this thread, erik. thanks for that.

39. I give kudos for accomplishments not potential.I find the hysteria a bit much.

40. Too much like religious fervor and not genuine appreciation.

41. I agree with you Ryan, particularly because of the price point. I do think a tablet would be a great way to consume content (magazines, newspapers, and blogs) and perhaps even communicate via Twitter and other social nets (anything not requiring too much typing). That said, the lowest priced version is currently being reported at $599 and I cannot see buying one when I already have my laptop which does everything I need. For me, the Apple Tablet doesn’t add $600 worth of value to my consuming and communicating experiences. Still think it looks awesome though!

42. A big iphone. That’s how I described it in a meeting today. I’m sure that’s not accurate

43. That’s my take on it as well.

44. I was expecting more. The “wow” was the price not the product, and to make it useful the price goes WAY up.No one will want the $499 model.16G of storage when you’re touting HD video?No camera.3G is an extra $130.

45. I liked the way Jobs narrowed down the focus of the IPad. He said that it is in between the smartphone and the Laptop and gives the best browsing experience.

46. Yes but this won’t resolve it.

47. I think the goal is to leverage the Store.I don’t think a camera may be necessary. Unless it is facing you or can flip over.It’s a high end consumer item.

48. I think the real problem is it is not sure what it is.If it hits $199 and comes with a wall mount I’ll buy 3 of them (wifi only).

49. I think you are only partially correct on that. Some of the not knowing isok. There is a reason the term “killer app” exists.I haven’t heard of the emergence of a “Killer App” on the IPhone. I’veheard of Apps with Millions of Downloads, but nothing that makes the IPhonein and of itself necessary and reveals the true nature of haptictouchscreens as input.Scaling up to a larger size makes the point more obvious because when youwant to sell to more people you have to question whether touchscreens (whichhave a huge vision component) will allow people to complete a large varietyof tasks once that program is invented, some of which are undiscovered. (Just because a vase is meant to hold flowers does not mean you cannotdrink water from it)Granularity comes from either showing off a large deal of complexity, orfrom creating so much simplicity that the user is forced to come up withnearly infinite uses. This is sort of in the mediocre category when itcomes to granularity.

50. After seeing the thing and reading about it I am even more certain that it will be a great computer for my morning go on the elliptical