Hesseldahl reports, “In the last decade, Apple has revolutionized the music and wireless industries with its iPod and iPhone, respectively. The recent buzz around Apple reflects high hopes that with the iPad, Apple can similarly transform a third industry: publishing. But based on early reviews, the iPad as introduced may not deliver.”
MacDailyNews Take: There have been no “early reviews.” There have only been write-ups following a brief hands-on session offered the media following Apple’s unveiling. The iPad is not even FCC certified, yet. Let’s do something radical and wait for the actual iPad reviews, okay? Hesseldahl does a disservice to his readers with that bit of disinformation.
Hesseldahl continues, “Yet it’s hard to see how the iPad, in the form unveiled last month, will come close to transforming daily life as much as the iPod or iPhone.”
MacDailyNews Take: Arik Hesseldahl. Any less imagination and he’d work for Microsoft. Please see: BusinessWeek’s Hesseldahl can’t imagine where Apple goes from here – October 02, 2008
Hesseldahl continues, “I’ve talked to a lot of people who don’t seem to get what the iPad is for, no matter how many times I explain it to them. Dave Letterman joked about it in his Top Ten list on Feb. 1. Among the surprises in the $3.8 trillion federal budget: ‘A $1 billion research grant to figure out what the hell the iPad does.’ On Saturday Night Live, Weekend Update host Seth Meyers said: ‘This week Apple released a thing that does stuff that its other stuff already does.'”
MacDailyNews Take: Two geniuses there, Arik. How will Steve Jobs’ visions of the future ever compete with those of Dave Letterman and Seth Myers? We heard the same sort of naysaying with the launch of the Macintosh, iMac, Mac OS X, iPod, iTunes Store, and iPhone. And, who’s surprised that Arik can’t explain what an iPad does, no matter how many times he tries?
Hesseldahl continues, “Without a killer app, is there really such a strong demand for a large-screen device that plays music and movies, browses the Web, and displays e-books? Apple clearly thinks so or it wouldn’t devote the money and resources to make the iPad. There’s plenty of time for Jobs & Co. to unveil iBooks, or iNewspapers, or a collection of many things.”
MacDailyNews Take: Arik must have missed the part where Jobs announced deals with all of the major book publishers and demoed the iBooks app and iBookstore. It’s entirely possible, indeed likely, that Arik has also forgotten that iPad already has over 150,000 killer apps and counting.
Hesseldahl continues, “Here’s a suggestion: The iPad might make an ideal universal control for all the smart gadgetry—TVs, entertainment systems, thermostats, alarm systems, surveillance cameras, and baby monitors—found in so many 21st century homes.”
MacDailyNews Take: Brilliant, Arik. Such rampant imagination and originality! Don’t quit your day job. On second thought, after slogging through this mess, you might want to consider it.
Hesseldahl continues, “What if consumers never get it? Apple hasn’t had a hands-down failure (the PowerMac G4 Cube) for about a decade, and let’s just say for the sake of discussion that this turns out to be one, and that Apple shuts down the iPad line at the end of, say, 2011. Apple would still be an astonishingly strong company… At the same time, it may also signal that the transformation of Apple from a late-’90s casualty of the PC wars into the most important technology company on the planet is near completion, and that its upward trajectory might begin to level off.”
MacDailyNews Take: That the naysayers always have to revert to using the Cube as an example of an Apple “failure” speaks volumes. The Cube was simply a Mac model. Nothing more, nothing less. It was discontinued the same as was the original iMac and several other models. Some might say the Cube was the forerunner of the Mac mini.
Hesseldahl continues, “That’s the logical conclusion of the skeptical case, anyway. And as we all know, Apple has a funny way, in the fullness of time, of proving the skeptics wrong.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Thanks, Arik, for plopping a cherry atop yet another one of your piles of horseshit.
MacDailyNews Note: Arik loves email (he might even tell you that he’s “Ivy League-educated,” whether you ask or not): .
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