“There are a few similarities between Wednesday’s Apple announcement and the blockbuster movie ‘Avatar.’ They both cost many millions of dollars and took many years to produce. They both required vast amounts of technology to build, and of course they will both make hundreds of millions of dollars for their respective companies. But they will also share another category: too much hype before their launch, and a result that comes across as intriguing and entertaining, yet sadly anticlimactic,” Nick Bilton reports for The New York Times. “If you travel back in time a few months before both ‘product’ launches, there was a tremendous amount of overexposure and bloated expectations.”
“So what happened to “Avatar?” We don’t know if it will change the movie industry forever, but as of Monday, it is the highest-grossing movie of all time,” Bilton reports. “As for Apple, in the case of its iPad announcement, the excess coverage and secrecy went too far… Apple, perfectionists when it comes to releasing products that begin with an ‘i’ and end with ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs,’ let the hype get out of hand. And the iPad left Apple’s investors underwhelmed, and generated questions and disappointment from many technology writers.”
Bilton reports, “If we can put the advance hype aside for a moment, did Apple release a game-changing device in terms of hardware? No, not really — they released a big iPod touch… [but] if we take a step back and look at the software, Apple has released a game-changing device.”
“Just wait until developers dig into the available screen real estate and the capabilities of the multitouch technology. I’m confident there will be games, newspapers, magazines and numerous applications that will wow the naysayers and follow through with some of the features we imagined this device would offer.
“There is a lesson here though,” Bilton writes. “Maybe we, the media, let things go too far?”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We’ll look back on some of the more pessimistic iPad reactions with incredulity someday soon. Like Bilton, we expect iPad to be a game-changing device that’ll disrupt many industries, from publishing to the PC industry itself. As we warned in the days leading up to Apple’s iPad unveiling: Anticipate Responsibly™. Not many took our advice. The same thing that’s happening now with iPad happened with the iMac, Mac OS X, iPod, iTunes, iTunes Store, and iPhone. We all know how those turned out. Someday soon we’ll look back at the iPad naysayers and laugh.
I initially rejected the iPad. Then I slept, dreamed of one in my hand, played along with it… now I can’t get that feeling out of my head.
I NEED ONE… NOW!!!
I remember being scoffed at when I purchased my 1st Gen iPhone for $500. Now these same people are the ones that either have an iPhone or bug me with questions about it because they are going to get one soon. I will be getting a 1st Gen iPad and as I did with the iPhone I’ll just keep selling it and use the money for the next gen.
“Apple iPad: What’d ya think, it was going to cure cancer?”
No. Just do (in) windows a bit more.
You should also mention Apple stores
I can’t wait to see what people produce for the ipad because that is when we start seeing what it can do.
iPad = Internet Personal Access Device
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/PADD – Perhaps Apple really likes Star Trek!
I want one and here’s why. My kids have taken over the family computer and all I want to do is be able to check my e-mail and surf the web. I have an iPod touch, but it’s sometimes too small to see things comfortably. I think people like myself will be the primary market.
Apple’s been eating the PC Industries lunch for years…Now it’s time for Dinner!
The Padd from Star Trek. That’s where the name is from.
I’m not a trekkie fan but I googled Star Trek and pad and what do ya know. Many photos of what looks like early versions of the iPad.
Back to the subject:
Even if Apple included a Transporter device in the back of it, people would still bitch.
Typical Apple product launch.
1) Rumors and anticipation
2) Letdown, pissing, and moaning
3) Realization and enlightenment
I think Steve is right, touching the iPad will be worth thousand words. It’s a game changing device. Fake geeks don’t get it. Nowadays a twitter user is a geek!
The iPad is breaking new frontiers. When I read the macdailynews live coverage of the event I also thought, so what? A big iPod touch. But after watching the keynote, I understood the iPad is aiming a new target. It’s a consumer product. How many people understand the finder and how it works. With the iPad you have the first computer without a finder. It makes the access way simpler. I think of my 80 years old aunt using her iPhone but lost in front of her Mac. She can’t organize a properly her mac, setup new mail account and mail is too complex to use. But she plays games on her iPhone. I expect the iPad being her next tool… Mine too!!!
After you pick one up, let’s just see how fast you can put it down!
Apple did nothing to fuel the hype besides sending out an invitation to an event, an invitation that wasn’t even explicit about what was being announced. All of these drumbeats were pounded out by a frothing tech media, mostly whoring for hits.
As far as reigning in hype, Apple couldn’t give out less information. Good luck reigning in the actual reason for the elevated expectations, Nick: you and your kind.
The real problem is the Internet. It is too easy to setup a news/opinion site. With so many sites, people with keyboards (call them what you wish) need to fill space and attract clicks to get paid. So they write fictional pieces and call them analyses or whatever. In order to get noticed, they become more creative with their fictional pieces.
This ties into the second, even bigger problem. People believe what they read as though it is factual and invest (gamble) their money based on fictional information. And then panic they when the truth comes out.
Great theater for the well informed. Otherwise, otherwise.
We won’t be doing the same things only four times the size, but new things.
A Plus no one has mentioned (Windows Tax):
For all those NetBook owners who need to spend a weekend backing up their settings, documents, address book, bookmarks, etc then finding the CD, finding the CD drive, reformatting the drive, reinstalling XP, reinstalling virus detector, then putting it all back together – buy an iPad and Apple can do it all for you in minutes (if it is even necessary).
I expected at least the ability to run Pandora while browsing the web. I mean is that seriously too much to ask? There are smartphones with half the power, run by companies with less
than half the talent and operating systems with half the capability that can run upwards of 50 simultaneous apps at the same time. And the iPad can only manage one?
I don’t know about everybody else asking for webcams and HDMI out or what the fuck ever, but my expectations were fairly simple for a device of the iPad’s caliber. Not to mention the iPhone 3GS and iPod touch which should also possess the capability to multi-task.
Those who make excuses for Apple today would laugh Microsoft out of the building if Apple made multi-tasking a priority for portable devices and Microsoft produced Windows variants that could only run one app at a time. We’d never hear the end of it. MDN would be sure to snarkily include it in the MDN Take of every post that mentioned those competing products. Hypocrites, the lot of you are.
If iWork can email/share its documents directly as PDF or Office format(.doc, .xls, .pp.) that would be a huge benefit as you could continue to work in the iWork formats.
I think Apple has put in the Core functions that developers can program to, without the frills. Then they will examine what lasting items we complain about then bring those out as a software update (e.g. multi-tasking) or a new model (e.g. camera) in Jan/Feb 2011.
Well said. Before the actual announcement, hard for Apple to say less than nothing.
Actually I expected a lot more. I fell for the hype hard, I thought we were getting the fancy new multi-touch gestures that came close to Minority Report. That’s really what I was looking forward to and it didn’t happen. But you don’t see me getting pissy over that because I created those ideas, I am the one who allowed my imagination to run wild. So I just got over it.
But running more than one app at once?That should be a given. It’s not some outlandish fantasy and it’s pathetic that Apple can’t deliver three years after showing us the iPhone for the first time.
iPad will be The 21st Century’s Electronic Coffee Table Publication and Clutter substitute.
Say goodbye to the clutter of multiple magazines – They all be available in the iPad,
Photo albums – consolidated ad gloriously presented and organized in the iPad
Merchandise and Shopping Catalogs that are strewn everywhere in the house – gone and efficiently presented and searchable by keywords
TV Guides- Gone and now in the iPad
This is where Quatro’s technology will filter monitor and collect royalties for Apple and allow user filtering and regulation to avoid spam like invasion of unscrupulous advertisers
Living Room Clutter will be reduced , not to mention how much paper will be saved, etc…
The only problem will be, how do you pry the iPad away from one family member to another? Maybe families will have to get 1 for the kids and 2 others for the parents….
On the other hand, any vendor that has a strong enough interest, may subsidize and give away promotion serving iPads if they can squeeze a one or two years subscription out of you…Again this is where Quatro comes to into the picture…
iPad is the Digital Multi Publication for every household in the 21st Century.
Okay. Got it. You want multi-tasking. We all do. Shut the fsck up already. Get to work so you can buy the iPad like we all know you will.
I am not sure exactly what technology would have satisfied people, its always best to work within a practical framework. It is the software that will use the potential of this device especially if the unseen hardware in the form of the A4 and its offspring is as good as expected. This will give a whole new range of software developers (and small existing ones) the opportunity to produce new ways of doing formally desktop/laptop functions and that will be massive. No one has said it but companies like Adobe and indeed Microsoft should be very worried, the rules of the game they dominate have just been completely revised and their bottom lines could suffer considerably. Even when the iPad is on sale much of that potential will be seen if the iWorks apps havn’t done so already. Lets see then how the bloated and ludicrously expensive software of the big boys look in that new world. Going to be more fun than people comprehend at the moment.
I was not expecting to cure cancer but I definitely expected a camera, and an option to get out of a “widget” mode and run regular applications!
At least the iPad isn’t an overbloated anti-American, anti-military, pro-environmental whacko piece of crap like Avatar. It just runs nice little apps at a nice price.
@loloontheair
that’s crap bud. The finder is simple. Setting up mail and other things on the mac is sweet and easy. You want complicated? Windoze and MS Crap mail, exchange. The mac is so user friendly it blows me away when people complain about it’s use being hard.
While the iPad can’t do multi-tasking they’re not designed to replace laptops: they each have their uses. For now, those who want to hear music and write on their iPad can simply take any iPod and an iPad along on the trip. But if the Pad will let me use it as a phone anywhere in the world, by adding a SIM card, then how could I not want one? The Pad is a multi-use, not multi-task, device. It opens up new possibilities that did not exist before. Light weight and speed thanks to the A4, for example.
Jesus Christ… why don’t you just marry Pandora already? You’re like a fucking broken record.
Or here’s an idea, why doesn’t Pandora build a Web browser into it’s app so you can browse the Web while listening to music? RadioTime does that, and it works great. There are solutions around such things. Maybe you should put your blame on Pandora, not Apple, because the moment the apps start bogging down system memory and screw up performance running simultaneously, then you’re going to blame Apple. There is a fix for the Pandora issue, but Pandora isn’t addressing that.
You won’t get multi-tasking until they’re ready to unveil iPhone OS 4.0. The new version of the SDK gives developers enough to allow them to use the extra real estate and new UI widgets.
I’d expect new functionality to appear in the summer with the new version of the iPhone.
Slightly surprised they didn’t include a web cam though, seems a perfect fit for the device. Maybe in version 2?
You know what? Screw all these pundits and two-bit Internet article writing whiny hacks.
I’d pay good money for an in-depth review of what the creative, entrepreneurial, innovative and forward thinking APP DEVELOPERS think about this device.
What’s more, next time there’s a list about hopeful features for the next device/operating system, I’d be more interested in hearing their views than the aforementioned hacks and pundidiots, because they have proven quite clearly they have no idea what they’re talking about.
Just to comment – it’s interesting to see how people react to their expectations. I wanted this, I wanted that, it should do this, blah, blah, blah.
OK, fine, if you don’t like it, don’t buy it. No one is holding an RPG to your head and reaching for your wallet. Cast your vote by not giving over your cash. Moreover, if it’s REALLY not what YOU wanted, BUILD you own! This is one company’s idea on what they think people will want (myself included), but they can’t please everyone.
Nut up or shut up. If you don’t like it, don’t buy it, or build your own and impress the rest of us.
@R2;
If you at least read a single article about smartphone battery life on the phones that multitask, you’d not face nearly the ridicule you now do.
Simple fact of the matter is, a responsive device that can quickly load Apps lasts far, far longer than one with 50 Apps doing nothing but chewing CPU cycles in the background.
Also, continuing to lie, saying that “Apple can’t deliver multitasking” seriously hurts any credibility you imagine you have, because even middle schoolers with iPhones know perfectly well iTunes runs in the background while Safari browses.
Apple CHOOSES to restrict multitasking, they do it for their own reasons, but to lie again and again that the devices CAN’T multitask makes you look idiotic.
More idiotic, yes, than even your usually factually incorrect anti Apple diatribes.
The line everyone is forgeting.
I can hear the whining already.
“BUT WHAT ABOUT VERIZON?!?!?!?”
I’m gonna guess since apple just worked with AT&T;again on a monster deal (Yes that data plan is a big deal) it shows their relationship isn’t as strained as these analyst has made it out to be. So yes get over it. NO CDMA products coming to apple. Skate where the puck is going. GSM AND LTE are backwards compatible easily AROUND THE WORLD. I’ll argue about LTE on verizon later down the road.
A device the doesn’t require computer literacy shouldn’t have multi-tasking. With it comes a task bar to ID background tasks which makes no sense to MOST people. Those tasks which are often idle, consume precious memory which is limited for longer battery life. Finally, background music IS a feature that most target consumers want.
Good system design is about limited complexity and including those feature with the greatest benefits to customers. Apple does that extremely well.
I am an avid reader. I am retired and have plenty of time on my hands. I also have a friend who lets me use his house in Italy. I’ve never gone because I would have to take a suitcase filled with books. No more. iPad. Here I come!
By the way remember you have to build from the ground up. Give it its time and watch this thing wow the world like the iPhone.
R2, Some people bitch if they are hung with a new rope.
STFU. If you don’t like the iPad don’t buy one, nobody really gives a rats A hole what you think, troll.
It’s a giant freakin iPod Touch… RETARDED. If they would have put a legitimate version of OS X on it, then it would have been an attractive product. What were they thinking????????????
@ Zuno
You nailed it on the head in three easy steps.
As always, It’s the Software, Stupid! I’m not too excited about the iPad right now, but I can see that it’ll be great when native software emerges.
@R2…geez thanks for the unwarranted insult. Generalize much?
This is V1 of the iPad. Like the iPosd and pphone and even the Mac, it will change with time depending what Apple sees that the bulk of the people want. If you try to please everyone you fail.
I want multitasking on my computer because I WORK on it. My iPod and an iPad is more for entertainment with a lower level of work. Multi-tasking is of much less importance when you have such an interface and when you are being entertained.
Maybe if you played a little more you wouldn’t be such an insulting grouch.
… iPosd and pphone
Sorry…I stutter when I write :0(
This thing will evolve with time. Just like the iPod, the iPhone and the Apple TV. Heck even the Mac is evolving. What Apple is doing with OSX is like 5 years ahead of Windows, and that is being generous.
Disagree, having iWork apps with no M$ office is a killer, and in fact, will be a drag on business iPhone adoption I believe. This reinforces IT mantra about Apple being a “Proprietary System”
The lack of writing capability kills it for students (Math / Science majors).
Very disappointing.
I can see it as a cheap 2nd computer to do e-mail and web browsing only. But as all my kids will soon have their own laptop, I don’t see this being something I purchase.
Happy with my ‘old’ tech, a G4 gigabit ethernet tower, up until just a few months ago, at which point Apple put the LED backlight into the iMac, which is the feature I told myself would be necessary before I bought one. Now, when you consider that this is like the fifth generation of the iMac, that, um, took awhile. The G4 still chugs away, though. I suspect I’ll be waiting for about the third iteration of the iPad, as I’m not made of money. Which means not just for Apple stuff. I still get all the Bang and Olufsen catalogs, too….
@re tard id “If they would have put a legitimate version of OS X on it, then it would have been an attractive product. What were they thinking????????????”
The Mac system and UI (computer, monitor, keyboard, mouse, document/application separation) and it’s Windows copies have been the way we use computers for over 25 years. Did you think this is how we’d use computers forever?
When asked about the future of computing, I recall Steve Jobs saying something like: It’s too hard to deploy the future on existing sysems. The change would be disruptive. People don’t like change.
IMHO, Steve is introducing the future computing experience a bit at a time, finding out what works and making it better.
Start with a cell phone. A small screen, no mouse or stylus, no visible file system, just multi-touch. Tie it to internet stores to get rid of disks, drives and boxed software. Add gestures to trackpads on MacBooks. Add a multi-touch mouse for iMacs & Pros. Introduce the iPad at a must-have price to create a critical mass of users.
Cameras, etc, will be added when the essential component prices come down. A new form of multi-tasking and document sharing will come about just as a new form of “just done right” copy/paste showed up.
Then this new computing experience will move up the chain. There’ll be larger, more capable iPads, probably replacing MacBooks while MacBook Pros and Mac desktops slowly incorporate the multi-touch experience.
“What were they thinking?” They’re thinking they’re introducing tomorrow’s computer experience right under your nose. Don’t like the iPad? Then don’t buy it. Keep using your MacBook and your iPhone. Your iPhone? Ooops, they already have you hooked into their vision of tomorrow.
@ Chaz “no M$ office is a killer”
What??? There’s already 3 or 4 Open Office type apps for the iPhone. Don’t you think their developers are already loosing sleep working on the iPad version?
apologize all you want, it’s going in the back of the closet with the cube…
“There is a lesson here though,” Bilton writes. “Maybe we, the media, let things go too far?”
the media has gone too far?
no, say it isnt true!!
they would never take something too far
does the word , duh?, mean anything to you
I tend to agree. The ipod was a whole new experience for users. The iPhone was as well. Remember how you stared in awe at Steve demoing “the pinch”? Nothing like that with the iPad. It could still be a runaway success. It is a lot better than any gadget in its category out there, don’t get me wrong. But it still has the same technology as an ipod touch with maybe a few more functionalities.
@ TheMacAdvocate
should be “reining in”, not “reigning in”
I’m already laughing at the naysayers.
Apple CAN deliver multitasking on the iPhone. They did 3 years ago. The iPhone is OS X, and lots of things it does multitask and always have. The browser and mail app don’t quit when you play a game, for instance.
Apple has CHOSEN (wisely) to limit multitasking because the iPhone has a slower chip and less RAM than a “real” computer.
Unrestricted multitasking on the iPhone would hurt more than help. It’s a nightmare on Android. But the iPad is another matter!
You want multitasking for third parties. Well, iPhone OS 4.0 wasn’t announced this week. We have no info on it, so keep hoping.