“What does the iPad have in common with Harry Potter? Quite a lot it turns out,” Josh Lowensohn and Jim Kerstetter write for CNET. “It’s got legions of fans eager to line up for it, lose sleep over it, and even skip work to be the first to get their hands on it. And of course there are those that detest it entirely.”
“I’m not going to call CEO Tim Cook a wizard, say there will be an eight-part movie series, or focus on the company’s use of the word ‘magic’ to draw this comparison out even further. But I will say that few products have brought this kind of appeal, and fewer still have done it more than once,” Lowensohn and Kerstetter write. “Yet with the third (and assuredly not final) iPad, Apple’s managed to do it again. yesterday’s launch, which brought lines at Apple’s stores and third-party retailers around the world, is an affirmation of that.”
“It started with the iPod and continued through to the iPad: Apple leaped from the tech product cycle and into the cultural landscape, and it’s done a remarkable job at staying there,” Lowensohn and Kerstetter write. “With that said, there remains the question of when these line-filled launches will peak or hit an end entirely. Using the iPod as a precedent–a product that never caused lines, but boosted Apple’s bottom line and gave it a foothold into the consumer consciousness–it’s clear that what’s hot now can be less hot later.”
MacDailyNews Take: Wrong. There most certianly were lines for iPods. For the first iPod nano, too. We even remember personally standing in line – a big line – for our 3rd-gen 40GB iPods back in April 2003 outside the then 18-month-old Apple Store Crossgates in Albany, NY.
Lowensohn and Kerstetter write, “When looking ahead to whether Apple can make this formula work for yet another product, one cannot go without mentioning TVs, which are strongly rumored to be the company’s next big thing. If Cook and company can manage to get legions of buyers to queue up for a TV set that’s not a Wal-Mart door buster on Black Friday, it might really be time to start tossing around that wizard title.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
the apple store at crossgates was where i took my sister to get her iPad (first apple product ever – after they had been out for a while). she talked for the next 3 days about what a wonderful buying experience it was. from this i think it is the total experience that affects people – i still can’t get over what it like to go in an apple store and i work within walking distance of one.
I have a three hour drive to the nearest Apple Store. sigh.
Try moving to civilization my friend.
Considering there’s an iPod in every iOS device, the iPod is hotter than ever before!
Exactly Zmarc. Apple eats itself and births an even more capable creature. Evolution in fast action! The Music app is used heavily on all my devices; the iPod lives forever! When a whole best-selling product becomes another feature you know the company is bold, daring, innovative and a desirable game changer!
I used to live near Albany. I’m so sorry. You sick bastards.