“April 3 is the big day, when everything changes,” Mike Elgan writes for Computerworld. “Are you ready?”
“I think the iPad is the most important launch in Apple’s history — bigger than the Mac, iPod or iPhone. More than that, I think it’s the most important cultural phenomenon of this generation,” Elgan writes. “It’s bigger than technology.”
“I’m no fanboy. I’ve tried to envision some conceivable series of events that might leave the iPad as only moderately successful, but I can’t come up with any. All circumstances, facts and events in technology, media and elsewhere seem to point to the same inexorable outcome: The iPad will be huge,” Elgan writes. “Pundits, bloggers and gadget enthusiasts are talking about the iPad like it’s just another device, on a par with other devices. My view is that the iPad is utterly unique… I believe the iPad will become such a cultural phenomenon that it will become a symbol or an icon of the coming decade. Future generations might refer to this decade as the iPad Era.”
Elgan writes, “I and the others part company because they’re looking at the device, for the most part, and I’m looking at the markets. That’s markets with an ‘s.’ There are many of them.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The iPad has a larger target audience than some people might think. – SteveJack, MacDailyNews: “Why I’ll be buying an Apple iPad – along with millions of others” – January 27, 2010
iPad will be shoved down the throat of future generations by goofball radio DJs every hour on the hour?
So the Beatles will be on iTunes?
Btw, Mike Elgan is a troll.
Yeah for APPLE! (Apple, Inc. and Apple Records)
Does that mean, as per John Lennon, that the iPad will be bigger than God? (ducks right wing flames.)
Apparently this loser Elgan has never heard of The Bay City Rollers.
Discussion over!
The problem with “Beatles-sized” success for Apple will be all those PC knockoffs coming, some perhaps serious ones in Joost and HP’s Slate.
Jobs/Apple is just not aggressive enough competing in the business/school sectors, so any success will be maybe Monkees-sized…
Wait a darn minute here…I really have a hard time imagining anyone could top the Dave Clark Five….
There is just no way the iPad will ever be in the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.
What it will do is replace print media, which is a good thing. Magazines and newspapers suck and r a huge waste of natural resources! I’m an environmentally conscious conservative! More power to the iPad and capitalism at work despite Apple’s pathetic inclination toward liberal, business killing politics!
Zune Tablet will be the biggest cultural influence since the Monkees.
The iPad will Cream the market.
@TowerTone
…or the Back door—errrr….Street Boys.
@ TowerTone,
Would that be the Tampa area Rollers
The Wisconsin Rollers
The rollers of Pirate Bay
or
The ones near Oakland?
Watch the iPad video semi-tutorials that Apple put on the web yesterday and tell me iPad isn’t a truly astounding device.
I have an iPad reserved for purchase at my local Apple Store and can’t wait to use/play with it.
get real! Slim Whitman was bigger than The Beatles and Elvis COMBINED! …top that, Steve-o! lol
No, Zune Tablet will be the biggest cultural influence since Milli Vanilli.
@TowerTone,
S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y iPad!!!
I can’t comment on Elgan’s reputation, but I have to say he does have a point.
Tablets computers have been out for years, some used for medical, military and point-of-sale purposes. And that’s the problem. All are very mundane applications to the average public.
Apple comes in with the precedence of providing one of the best user experiences in the industry, in terms of computing, music and video. Entertainment in other words.
The iPad is a catalyst for entertainment, but now includes print… and print, as we know it, will be forever changed by tablet devices, with Apple leading the way.
Print will become “multimedia” in the old vernacular. So, to all those print reporters, better go see an image consultant. You’ll have to be on camera, complete with “sparkly” personality, whether you like it or not.
I agree with Arnold Ziffel – after watching the videos, especially the iWorks related apps, I am blown away. The thought process that has gone into the interface is astounding. Truly a thing of magic. However, Ballmer will not be able to use – his fingers are too fat – he will need to stick with that table thingie.
Tipping point. (with a capital T!) .:.
Wow — I thought I was was excited about the iPad.
Future conversations with Grandchildren:
“I remember back in ’69, my parents let me stay up late to witness the first moon landing. It was an historical event.”
“But that wasn’t nothing compared to April 3, 2010! Apple released the iPad and changed the world forever!”
(Wait—this isn’t a hoax right?)
/s
Elgan is a hit-whore, but he’s right about the iPad. There are alot of interested players in media that want this to succeed and are helping to make it possible, from video, audio and written content, to app developers. Really it’s a perfect storm. None of the other iPad competitors have had this many interested parties working to make something a success. None of the previous attempts at making a knowledge navigator have ever had this many things fall into place, least of all, having the necessary hardware at the right place in time.
I like Apple’s strategy. I like it a lot.
And we’re all getting a siphon tapped into our wallets. The device cost is peanuts compared to the cost of content. Every time you turn around there’ll be 2 bucks here 4 bucks there. ChaChing. And I’m still gonna love this thing. Mine left Shenzhen this a.m. at 3:54.
@bildad – You got it. My wife recently got a Kindle (against my best persuasion). 60% of the transactions on our credit card now read “Kindle-Amazon”. I’m going to make a separate category in Quicken.
And I thought I was a fanboy.
The strange part is, he’s probably right.
@Usful Ijit
Hey watch it, I liked the Monkees!
Better to be a fanboy than a (Windows) apologist.
A colleague and I are about to re-publish an updated anatomy text from 1899. The content is unique and brilliantly conceived for the practicing osteopathic physician. There is nothing else like it in the present market.
Though it may have a limited audience it will contribute significantly to the practice of those who are inclined.
We will publish a limited number of hardback copies, but this is expensive to print, store and ship. Making this available as a self published ebook on the iPad is an absolute game changer !
Watch the world transform…
Three words about Mike Elgan on the iPad:
He gets it.
The bloggers, analysts, hit-whores and pundits won’t matter. They are driving by looking at their rear-view mirror. It’s not what the iPad is. It’s what it will be, and the changes it will cause.
Thanks for centuries of service, Mr. Guttenberg. On behalf of the Canadian and equatorial forests, thanks Mr. Jobs.
Some day, you’ll tell your grandchildren where you were on April 3. I will.
The iPad marks a shift from buggy, complicated computers to an “appliance” that just works and is easy to use.
The iPad sounds like a great product but let’s get real here. This is is NOT a stand alone device. According to the system requirements, you must own either a Mac or Windows computer running iTunes to use this thing. This requirement is omitted from the gee whiz hype video about it on the Apple web site. Some folks are going to be disillusioned when they realize this.
This is the best iPad article I have read to date, it should answer all of the “what would I do wth an iPad questions” as well as “the flashers” doubters and naysayers.
“Will the iPad succeed? Oh, yeah. As Joe Biden would say, this is a big f***ing deal.”
@ JB Tipton,
“This is is NOT a stand alone device. According to the system requirements, you must own either a Mac or Windows computer running iTunes to use this thing.”
Not for long. iPhone OS 4.0 will end that. It already can buy content from it’s own App and Book Stores. It will very shortly be syncing to The Cloud.
@JB Tipton: while I think eventually that dependency will change, I fail to see how in these first stages, that dependency is an impediment. The number of people who own a Mac or Windoze PC far outnumbers the number of iPads being built this year. Who will be disappointed? People who don’t use computers? Are there a lot of those folks in the target market?
@ Jarrett
It would be Bay City – industrial city in eastern Michigan, on the Saginaw River, near Lake Huron; pop. 38,936.
Michigan – a state in the northern U.S., bordered on the west, north, and east by lakes Michigan, Superior, Huron, and Erie; pop. 9,938,444; capital, Lansing; statehood, Jan. 26, 1837. It was acquired from Britain by the U.S. in 1783.
Britain – an island that consists of England, Wales, and Scotland and includes the small adjacent islands.
Scotland – a country in the United Kingdom; pop. 4,957,300; capital, Edinburgh
Edinburgh – the capital of Scotland, is set across from Delgety Bay on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth; pop. 421,200. The city grew up around an 11th-century castle built by Malcolm III on a rocky ridge that dominates the landscape.
Bay – City Rollers founded in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1966, as The Saxons. Shortly afterwards, seeking a less English-sounding moniker, they chose a new name allegedly by throwing a dart at a map of the United States. The dart landed on the map in the state of Arkansas, but since “Arkansas Rollers” did not sound quite right, and might also lead to problems with pronunciation, they tried again and this time the dart landed near the community of Bay City, Michigan.
—
6∘of separation.
iPhone was huge, but it will be considered the warmup for iPad. It got consumers accustomed to and interested in touch-sceen devices, and taught them terms such as “multi-touch” and “accelerometer.” iPhone (and iPod touch) also established the App Store as part of the iTunes Store, and a key part of the user experience (and difficult to replicate differentiator from the competition). And it’s been less than three years – amazing…
Now, it’s time for iPad to take over…
@SKY LARK
That was awsome.