This is the same ole story with a new topic when Rumors start running of a new apple device:
1. People say how much they hate the idea and will have no use for it
2. Apple confirms the device with an event
3. Some people finally understands the idea, others still hate it and deem it DOA
4. The device goes on sale to the tune of a few million
5. Those who bought it love it, those who didn't, trash it and says sales will begin to decline soon enough.
6. Apples quarter call, reports best quarter ever and the rest of the world, quarter by quarter begins to buy the device and Apple is deemed the most innovative company in history once again.
I've seen it happen too many times before. Most recently was the iPad. I can't count how many posts I read saying that the iPad would be a complete failure that their was absolutely no need for it. Apple had lost its touch and all that. How is the iPad doing? Exactly.
Lets also not forget how many times I had to hear that Apple would absolutely fail at the Apple Store idea. People said they would be closing up their last store in a years time!! Oh and how are the Apple Stores doing, even in this time where everyone is buying online? Exactly.
Do I need to go on people? I can name many devices and ideas that Apple has had that I hear and read the exact same responses too. Yet look at the results of them? I'm not saying Apple will never make a product ever again that just fails. Oh I am sure they will. Every company will/does. Though it's the same thing every time Apple releases something.
Here is something it seems most people here haven't quite understood. We are not the market. The market is the average every day user, like my grandmother, that just knows how to access her email, browse the web, and other very basic stuff. What has made the iPhone/iPad keep selling with all this competition out there? It is because they do market their products for that crowd! Ask yourself, your grandmother or parents want to get a tech device but don't know a lot about tech. They just want a device they always works, almost never have to worry about, EXTREMELY easy to use, and doesn't change a lot to scare them? What device would you suggest for them? Yep exactly, an iPhone, iPod Touch, or an iPad. That is what most of the market is. We here are the minority that are tech loving people that like to push our devices to their limits and sometimes beyond.
Walk into an Apple Store and just listen to some people talk. Most people in their are not creative professionals, tech loving nerds, or anything like that. They are the average every day person that just barely knows how their devices work.
I would not say that this device is a fail, especially when we don't even know it if it is real (the concept drawing looks like their is no way that would come from Apples Design team).
Also just to say what Steve Jobs would always quote from Henry Ford:
"'If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.' It's our job to show people what they want."