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'Amazing' Demand May Have Fueled Sales of Up to 1 Million iPad 2s
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What is particularly strong about the iPad?
It's a jack of all trades and a master of none.
What the iPad is strong at is advancing the Apple brand that is known to stand for style and elegance. The iPad is beautifully made and quite gorgeous, but that doesn't mean it's any stronger than any other product on the market.
Can you enumerate some specific uses that the iPad can do that no other device can do? Or if that doesn't exist, can you name a use that is performed better on the iPad over all other products?
I would even accept the iPad's utility if it could do a handful of common tasks decently well such that there was efficiency gained by only having one device. For almost everyone, however, the iPad requires a computer. It replaces nothing.
It is precisely that.
Objectively, within Apple's own product line, there are better products that are as equally portable. The 11" macbook air offers more features than the iPad for only a small amount more.
The iPad really is a toy for people to sit on the couch and surf the web or watch movies in bed. There's nothing wrong with that, but there are other devices that most people already own that can do that just fine. Spending $500-930 for such a thing is essentially product lust.
Again there isn't anything necessarily wrong with this since we all have our favorite things. Some people like clothes, others like classic cars, and some like i toys. No one should be berated for buying one. What we shouldn't do is pretend like this product has some great technological advantage that makes it worth the cost. It doesn't.
I've been building computer systems for near 15 years now. We have an iPad 1, and I honestly had no idea how much RAM it contained. The concept never even crossed my mind. At launch, I thought they were a gimmick product, then a few months later had the opportunity to muck about with one for several hours, and began to see possible uses for it. Bought one shortly thereafter. The specs of the device didn't honestly even factor into that decision, since everything I wanted to do on it, I could.
These sorts of devices are a vessel for apps. Nothing more. Merely a delivery medium, that in and of itself, is inconsequential aside from what improved components will allow to be run on it. This concept has failed to take root in the Android community and their impending deluge of Tron-inspired tablets. People don't buy these things to stare at a homescreen, shuffling widgets and running benchmarks.
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Were they all wearing iPad 2 Reseller T-shirts?
I suppose officially, Apple's response is one/two per person and those limits were in place, but once someone buys something, it's theirs to do whatever they want with them. And if that's send them overseas to make a few hundred extra per device, whatever. It's simple business of supply and demand. Apple justs wants them out the door. If resellers help them do this, I'm sure they understand the capitalist mentality and aren't doing much these days, but smiling.
If you really know of those, they should've come along with you and got them at the same time. You seem very sharp.I got mine, but I know of several that didn't because of supplies being depleted by resellers. One word... Lame.
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A lot of people don't get the iPad and you seem to be one of them. You don't understand that a large format multitouch product allows for different types of interaction than can be achieved on a laptop.
You state that the MacBook Air is just a portable as an iPad but it isn't. You can't stand on the train and watch a movie on a MacBook Air. You can't flick through the pages of a book with one hand while holding it in the other - at least not comfortably. It's also twice he price for an entry level model.
You also mistake features for benefits. A feature is all fine and dandy but if I don't need that feature than it's not a selling point. So a product that's twice the costs and nowhere near as portable, despite what you may claim, is not a better option for me unless I need those extra features. If I don't then it's a poor option.
Also, it isn't about what it can do that no other device can do. The iPhone can't do anything that I can't do on other devices but it does allow me to do certain things very easily and more conveniently than I can do them on other devices. That means it has a value. The iPad is better than a laptop for portability and better than a smartphone for viewing media and reading documents. It sits in that space. It doesn't need to replace a product entirely, only replace it for certain things. That's what it does. To suggest that 15 million people bought one last year purely out of gadget lust is frankly insulting to those 15 million people and defys the massive amount of evidence provided by many users as to how the device has made their lives easier or helped them be more productive.
I went to the Uptown Minneapolis store Friday, and the line was longer than it was for the iPhone 4. Granted that store was new and only open for a couple days before the phone launch, so it probably flew under the radar. Anyway, Friday it was below freezing, so I said
screw you guys, Im going home.
Yes, I was a hold out, as I was expecting the front facing camera, but that pales in significance to the A5 processor, double the memory and double the storage of the iPad 2.
Weel, have you see (better, use) GarageBand?
Do you can show in what other device before the ipad this kind of software exist?
Also... do you know what other device have so *strong* use in population like autism? I have a brother with autism, and man, autism people can't fake excite, can't be deluded by magical tricks, publicity, "brand" stuff, nonsense tech specs. Nothing of that.
They see news, and that mean nothing. I can't talk with my brother and say: "Man, join us to the iSheep cult!". For him, words have no meaning. I can't convince him, I can't lie to him, I can't communicate to him. So, for all things that matter, this people is fully protected to any publicity stunt nonsense made up in this planet.
The thing truly is amazing, or not.
Also, my uncle work with people with disabilities. One of them, is fully blind. And have no hands. Their arms are cut in half. And dude, you must see this guy, The man fly with the ipad.
And if you research about the impact in population like that (population with ZERO probability of be a "iSheep") you can see clearly how truly good the thing is.
Portability is a key feature of tablets and one other makers have failed to match the ipad on. If a tablet's weight, and form factor are too awkward it doesn't matter what the specs are people won't bring it with them.
Software support is the other major selling point. Until android, webos and RIM can match the development support of ios the applications ipad have offer a clear and definite advantage.
A tablet has made it so I don't need to travel with a laptop anymore for business or pleasure. It is wonderful as i no longer need to take it out at security and is thinner/weighs less making packing easier. It accomplishes everything I would use a laptop for while on vacation/business. Not only that I can control my computer with it remotely and access all my files.
You can look at it two ways, 9% are unemployed, or 91% have jobs. The U.S. economy is so large that certain segments can go belly-up and not have that big an effect on the rest. All we see on the news are human interest stories about people losing their jobs, their homes. And while that is certainly tragic for the individual suffering it is not indicative of the general health of the economy. My personal family consists of seven adults (including wife, children, boyfriends, and girlfriends) and no one lost their job or home, far from it actually. There are plenty of people who are doing just fine and they are buying iPads, iPhones, iPods, and Macs in droves it would seem. It's the low end, low margin, low quality stuff that is getting hit.
Not surprising at all (can't believe people actually doubted the iPad 2). When the iPhone 4 was released here in Canada I picked one up along with a couple of my cousins. However much of my family is still tied to Blackberries because of work and BBM (I don't get it). With the iPad 2 I have several family members already planning on buying one and it's their introduction to Apple beyond having an iPod.
Perhaps that's what customers want. A general purpose networked computing device that doesn't require a desk, table, lap or typewriter keyboard to use. First the PalmPilot, now the iPad.
That doesn't explain all the big businesses (large banks, etc.) buying them, including many Fortune 100 companies.
And why is this bad?
Any computer can be accused of the same thing. A custom built application-specific system would be much faster at performing any task that a computer can do, but one of the great advantages of a computer is that a single system can do so many things (games, word processing, taxes, web, etc.). Any custom system will be orders of magnitude faster, lower power, and smaller than a general purpose computer, BUT you have to buy a whole lot of custom systems to cover all the applications that a computer can perform.
Does an iPad have to be the world's fastest web browser to be useful? World's fastest game playing machine? World's fastest video player?
Sorry, you're right, I should have clarified a couple of things. Still, it gave you a nice opportunity to flame and misrepresent my post didn't it?
The first iPad was crying out for a camera. There was a space for it, there was almost a hole for it, but it was nowhere to be seen. There was little stopping Apple from implementing FaceTime, or at the very least some sort of iChat client on the original iPad. Alternatively, the could have waited a month and released it with the finalised software. Alas, they didn't, I'll move on...
"But But But, It Makes It Thinner!"
With regard to your other points, I honestly couldn't care less how thin the battery is, incidentally, it's also larger in terms of surface area.<sarcasm> Thinner glass also, now that is something I always thought the original iPad was desperately in need of, it was like tapping up a double glazed window</sarcasm>
Thinner Glass? Camera. Thinner Glass? Camera.
The only drinking being done here, it would appear, is by you. How much is a bottle of kool aid these days?
I was one of the "dumb" ones. Shortly after 4pm I joined a line of approximately 600 people (in Boston). Shortly before 4pm a friend of mine checked the line and said there were maybe 200 people in it (which prompted me to leave work and get there as soon as I could).
So yes, I can attest to the fact that many people just showed up 1-2 hours before 5pm, hoping for the best. My hopes, however, were dashed when they sold out of all AT&T models (and continue to be)
Problem is that a majority of the sales went to resellers and not actual customers wanting them. When I waited in line on Friday I was surrounded by resellers ready to price gouge. Apple should find a way to prevent this as many real customers are left high and dry because of it.
I got mine, but I know of several that didn't because of supplies being depleted by resellers. One word... Lame.
They have done the most anyone can do to work around this, by limiting sales to 2/person.
But in reality, there is a much easier way. Wait a month.
Nice post, very true. I think Cal wants to debate something we already did last year and don't feel like going over the same points again this year. He doesn't get it. That's fine.
Despite the large number of sales I wonder if anyone as apple is miffed at the lack of media coverage the launch got.
Yes there were hundreds (or thousands) of people in line, but with the tragedies in Japan no national nightly news covered it and in newspapers it was relegated to the tech or entertainment sections.
Yes there were hundreds (or thousands) of people in line, but with the tragedies in Japan no national nightly news covered it and in newspapers it was relegated to the tech or entertainment sections.
Whatever. Just because something isn't right for you, doesn't mean it doesn't serve a legit purpose, aside from being a toy, for others. Mine has completely replaced my laptop. It easily handles all my business needs, as well as entertainment needs, in one device, for 10 hours uninterrupted. There is NO other product out there that can do that for me. All products are a compromise. A 17 inch laptop can do more, and run higher functioning software. But it is bulky/heavy, has short battery life, a "brick" for a charger and is not convenient to use on a seat-back tray during my extensive travels. (and I have to take it out of my luggage with TSA) This type of balance exists for any product. For many people, including real business people, the iPad is a best fit in its admitted trade-offs. But again, all electronics have trade-offs.
You get hung up on the wrong points, such as "enumerate specific uses no other product can do or that the iPad can do better" (not a direct quote) For one, if you don't already see things the iPad can do better, and ways that businesses are using it for everything from inventory, menus, and hospital functions, then you are just choosing to troll, or you lack imagination. Try dropping a laptop off at a table for people to browse your menu, and see the result.
They are selling them by the millions, and to many first-time Apple buyers (i.e. not Apple "fanboys"). All that really matters are that there are people who want to buy it, for whatever their personal reasons are. A product like this is better suited for people with imagination and a willingness to step away from the conventional . . . clearly not a product for you.