Two of the iPad's Creators Share Thoughts on Its Development, Evolution, and More

[kaneda]

"the team was surprised to see how much people were using it to take photos."

I laughed when I saw people use iPad to take photos. Dude, you have your phone!

 

[freedomlinux]

That isn't good marketing, that's snake-oil salesmanship

Now that you mention it, my snake has been looking a little dry lately.
Tell me more about your wonderful snake oil!

 

[oneMadRssn]

Good marketing includes successfully persuading people to buy what you have to sell. If you've just invested millions developing a lemon, you better start hyping up lemonade, at least for the next quarter. If you start educating them they might go and buy a competing product.

I think what you described is good sales, not good marketing. The two are frequently conflated, indeed most companies combine the two into one confusing department/role, but there is a difference between marketing and sales. Marketing is about educating; sales is about persuading.

Good marketing isn't afraid of acknowledging the existence of competition because through educating they plant the seed and distinguish themselves from the competition.

But the drawback, as your analogy suggests, is that marketing is not equipped to deal with a lemon. If a company really does develop a bad product, no amount of good marketing will fix that. Good sales can generate some revenue from the bad product, but that's not marketing.

 

[Rogifan]

The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

To reach its potential, Apple needs to recognize they have made profound conceptual mistakes in the iPad user interface, mistakes that need to be scrapped and replaced, not polished and refined. I worry that iPadOS 13 suggests the opposite — that Apple is steering the iPad full speed ahead down...

daringfireball.net

I like my iPad very much, and use it almost every day. But if I could go back to the pre-split-screen, pre-drag-and-drop interface I would. Which is to say, now that iPadOS has its own name, I wish I could install the iPhone’s one-app-on-screen-at-a-time, no-drag-and-drop iOS on my iPad Pro. I’d do it in a heartbeat and be much happier for it.

The iPad at 10 is, to me, a grave disappointment. Not because it’s “bad”, because it’s not bad — it’s great even — but because great though it is in so many ways, overall it has fallen so far short of the grand potential it showed on day one. To reach that potential, Apple needs to recognize they have made profound conceptual mistakes in the iPad user interface, mistakes that need to be scrapped and replaced, not polished and refined. I worry that iPadOS 13 suggests the opposite — that Apple is steering the iPad full speed ahead down a blind alley.

Gruber really harsh on iPad. I’m not sure what potential he’s referring to. If iPad goes back to being just a big phone I think that will be a disaster. And won’t increase the product’s potential. Interesting that he’s way harsher on it than people who use it a lot like Federico Vittici and Jason Snell.

 

[FaustsHausUK]

"the team was surprised to see how much people were using it to take photos."

I laughed when I saw people use iPad to take photos. Dude, you have your phone!

My first tablet-as-camera experience in the wild was a BlackBerry PlayBook, which had the double-WTF of "someone owns one of those?!"

Anyway, happy anniversary, iPad. When it was announced, I was skeptical, but my ex and my family all clubbed together to buy me one as a birthday gift. I have used an iPad almost every day since that first one arrived in the mail. Currently, I have a third gen iPad Pro as my main, a first gen iPad Pro for testing at work, and an iPad Air hanging around that my girlfriend uses as a media device in the kitchen.

After showing it to my mum, she got an iPad and went from barely using a phone to being just as in love as I was. It gave her a freedom she hadn't found in a gadget before. She got my nan one. My nieces and nephews all have access to them and run rings around their parents.

Get outside of the nerdosphere of tech blog comments sections and gushy marketing speak, and they are wonderful devices.

 

[needsomecoffee]

Gruber really harsh on iPad. I’m not sure what potential he’s referring to. If iPad goes back to being just a big phone I think that will be a disaster. And won’t increase the product’s potential. Interesting that he’s way harsher on it than people who use it a lot like Federico Vittici and Jason Snell.

I think Stratechery adds important insights to DF's argument. Link:

The Tragic iPad

The iPad is 10, and while it remains a useful device, it is ultimately a disappointment. Apple lost the vision for what the iPad could be, and never gave space for developers to figure it out for t…

stratechery.com

 

[theluggage]

Marketing is about educating; sales is about persuading.

I'd see them as the strategic and tactical sides of the same thing.
Of course, if R&D, marketing and sales all work in separate silos and don't communicate then it won't end well.

If a company really does develop a bad product, no amount of good marketing will fix that.

Never used Windows 95 then...
Start me up!

 

[oneMadRssn]

Never used Windows 95 then...
Start me up!

WHAAT?? Windows 95 was jumping moonballs amazing for the time. That you had to reformat and reinstall it every 6-8 months a feature!

 

[jasonefmonk]

It’s still my favorite computing device of all time. Especially the 3rd gen

Truly? If it was the device you had at the time and you had a good experience, I appreciate that. But wasn’t the 3rd-gen iPad the worst of the bunch? The first with a retina screen, but too slow a processor to properly drive it. The last with a 30-pin connector and heavier and thicker than the previous generation. I’m pretty sure it only lasted six months.

 

[Rogifan]

I think Stratechery adds important insights to DF's argument. Link:

The Tragic iPad

The iPad is 10, and while it remains a useful device, it is ultimately a disappointment. Apple lost the vision for what the iPad could be, and never gave space for developers to figure it out for t…

stratechery.com

Basically Ben Thompson agrees with Gruber. I don’t. Sure multi-tasking isn’t perfect and text selection could be better. But their arguments aren‘t really about making multi-tasking better but that iPad is too complicated. But it seems to me the reason iPad Pro aNd eventually iPadOS were created was because iPad sales were flat to declining. If you were using iPad as mostly a consumption device (browsing web, email, watching video) then you didn’t really need much from the device and an iPad 2 would last forever.

The people I look to for where iPad should go and how it should improve are not Mac guys like Gruber but rather someone like Federico Vittici where iPad is their primary device. Often times when Gruber talks about iPad he sounds like old man yelling. I want to yell back, just use your Mac then!

 

[iapplelove]

Truly? If it was the device you had at the time and you had a good experience, I appreciate that. But wasn’t the 3rd-gen iPad the worst of the bunch? The first with a retina screen, but too slow a processor to properly drive it. The last with a 30-pin connector and heavier and thicker than the previous generation. I’m pretty sure it only lasted six months.

I owned one, didn’t have much hate for it. Didn’t even update to the 4th went right to the first iPad Air.


To be fair, you did pick out the worst one of the bunch. One that clearly stood out as a transitional iPad during the early retina days.

But even at that time it was still my favorite computing device. Especially at home.