This isn’t directly ebook related, but I think it’s important and a major reason (which analysts have ignored) why the iPad is doing so well. The title, above, is from an article in ReadWriteWeb by Sarah Perez:
There’s an interesting trend happening in mobile these days. Companies – major companies like Samsung, Motorola, Kyocera, RIM and Microsoft – are launching unfinished, unpolished products and then asking us, the consumers, to buy them based on their “potential.” Despite the fact that the new BlackBerry tablet computer has no email client or wide selection of apps, or that Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 can’t even multi-task, or that Android Honeycomb is only a few months old and, frankly, still a little buggy, we’re expected to place our hard-earned dollars, and, in some cases, even sign multi-year mobile contracts for these gadgets, based on “what could be.”
Not biting? Well, you’re not alone. …
Android tablets aren’t selling well. The Motorola Xoom, specifically, may have bombed. Windows Phone isn’t selling well. And the PlayBook? Too soon to tell. Meanwhile, Apple is pulling in record-breaking numbers. Unlike much of its competition, Apple doesn’t launch prototypes or unfinished products. Not surprisingly, it’s a strategy that seems to work.
There’s another problem here as well-
HARDWARE companies with no retail or media experience do not have the proper skillset to produce MEDIA devices (which is what tablets and smartphones are) as anything other than OEM’s. And nobody seems to be calling them out on it.
I’m an engineer, and I do think my skillset matters- but so does everyone else! The salespeople, the agents, the publishers/producers, the editors, the creative people that actually produces content- they all have specialized knowledge that matters.
Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, and Sony all have extensive backgrounds in the entertainment industry- they don’t just do “tech” and assume everything else will just work out. That’s why they are the names to watch.
I think it’s more that most Android users don’t see a place for a tablet to fit into their lives, especially not at $500-$800 additional cost. Android phones already do pretty much everything we’d want in a casual use/toy device, and our existing laptops do the rest. That Apple can sell a ton of them is certainly a credit to Apple, its marketing prowess, and ability to create a following in its customers, but I suspect most iPad users are just interested in the latest toy rather than a real functional device with a purpose.
However, it is true that a lot of the ‘upcoming’ android tablets are lackluster, especially if they have custom skins like so (too) many phones do.
Cell carriers also have a hand in this, since they often require yet ANOTHER contract on top of your existing one. Certainly that’s a turn-off.
I have a 4-year-old Dell laptop and a 1-year-old custom-built desktop. What exactly is it that the iPad can do — other than take photos with its cameras — that either my desktop or my laptop can’t do?
I see no compelling reason to buy any tablet unless my laptop dies, and perhaps not even then. I like my large screen on the laptop.
People tend to forget how many rumors there were that Apple was going to release a tablet and they didn’t. I suspect that they were working on it the whole time but were refining and waiting until they had it working just right. Companies playing catch up don’t have that luxury.
“What exactly is it that the iPad can do — other than take photos with its cameras — that either my desktop or my laptop can’t do?”
Run 10 hours on a battery charge, maybe? Hold it with one hand while reading? Keep it in a small bag? It’s not so much the applications that you can run, but the handiness of the thing I guess.
There are good reasons why the iPad has taken control of the tablet market imho. Apple has a rich experience of both hardware and software, multimedia and hi tech production quality. They have a DNA of customer centric design that Jobs has built in to the company over many years.
Great companies like Sony, Samsung, Microsoft and RIM have great designers, great engineers, great developers too. But the difference, imho, is the magic edge that Jobs brings to the table.
Have you ever seen the mockups that all of those great companies have developed over the years? Amazing devices! But where are they ? Why do they never come to market ? The answer is “Fear”. CEO’s who are 90% administrators and 10% leaders. Jobs has the balls. Jobs has the guts to trust his instincts to drive forward and an amazing instinct for customer based design. He built a company who’s God is simplicity and quality and ease of use.
With several years of development on their competitors, Apple’ audacity with the iPhone and iPad left them in the dust. They had to start from scratch with every element. That takes serious time. And it also takes leadership to demand perfection and then decide the time to go to market.
Keep in mind that Apple has both the OS and the hardware AND the chip in-house. Sony et al have no OS. They were forced by their narrow based business model to rely on the only other game in town, Android. And Android is an infant in OS terms compared with the fully grown and matured base of iOS.
It is absolutely no surprise that these competitors have struggled enormously to catch up. They have also had to rely on a brand new OS produced by Google, who have no OS pedigree and who do not depend on the success of Android for their own success! I feel sorry for these companies, who have hitched their fortunes to the Android wagon. Android is not a bad OS mind you. But it is really just ‘ok’. Anyone who has used both can feel the difference and appreciate why the iOS wins every time. Mind you it is appalling, in my opinion, that these companies are tossing out tablets at the public, at high prices, that are so ghastly and limited. I personally find it astonishing that anyone actually chooses to throw 500 – 800 dollars at these ‘prototypes’. And the endless discussions of new models and their tech specs is quite a comical circus. The customer doesn’t CARE about this endless battle of specifications between Sony, Samsung, RIM etc etc. They care about USING the device. They care about the OS and the OS is the same on all of these devices. Bo-ring!
I have been using an iPad for almost a year and it is fabulous. On the road I access instant email inward, and write most of my outgoing emails on it. I also write substantial documents, letters and presentations on the touch type pad. Being able to instant-on is a fantastic facility when meeting clients and the multimedia is also very useful while travelling whether it be watching movies or listening to my music. My laptop comes along some of the time too when there is heavy weight work to do, but being able to leave it behind is great. On the iPad I can bring all the necessary documents for the projects at hand and the ability to hand it to clients and colleagues to allow them to flip through images or slides or whatever is a huge plus. In the evening then I read my eBooks between movies, all in bed in the hotel. At home the kids enjoy it too. I don’t know how I could do without it.
Does it suit everyone ? of course not. No device suits everyone.
in all your blind apple-loving you tend to have forgotten that the original iphone launched without multitasking (as you said against windows 7 phone). nor did it have am app store. and it didn’t even have cut and paste for years. all these were missing in the original iphone. which sinks your weak assumption.
what is selling ipads is the constant barrage of ads from apple.
step out of the Steve jobs reality distortion field, ok?
Ben, I disagree that the iPad is just a toy. I may be an exception in that I have some extremely specific use cases for it where other devices have not been able to do the job for me the way the iPad has (and if you are truly curious about them, I have blogged about them extensively on this site already) but with that said, if I were not using it for work situations where I need the bigger screen for displaying video and content to an audience, my iPod Touch could do everything I need. On that part, I will agree with you, that there are a ton of instances where a phone will suffice. And if you are not a techie person and don’t care that much, a tablet may be just a ‘toy.’
For me though, it is NOT just a toy and I can think of a ton of cases where it really would hit the sweet spot for a lot of work situations in a way a phone wouldn’t. Not everyone needs an iPad. But not everyone thinks it is a ‘toy’ either.
@John et al – True. But the iPhone launched four years ago. Since it’s gained so much traction in the market, I would think that a successful competitor – especially one coming along a few years later – would manage to match features like cut-and-paste and multitasking, if not better them. That said, I hear great things about the Windows 7 phone interface – and it looks really elegant.
Count me in the “iPad-is-not-a-toy” camp. I love being able to read magazines on a large screen that I don’t have to keep propped up on a desk. I also use it as a second screen – I display PDFs on it that I need to refer to while I work. I’ve cut WAY down on my printing. I cannot do these things comfortably on my phone. And there are some great art-making apps on the iPad too. A few years ago, I would have been forced to buy a digitizer pad and a copy of Painter. That’s no longer necessary.
But to praise the iPad is not to put down Android. I’m sure a couple years from now Android tablets are going to be amazing. And there’s still a place for desktop machines and laptops. I’m not sure why this discussion gets so… testy.
It sound like they are trying to emulate Apple with the get a version 1 out that will attract the market for version 2 (which will have more of what people want.)
But they’ve missed the mark. Apple’s version 1 is usable.
Learning Chinese or a similar language, you can do things no netbook or desktop can do an iPad can.
I can carry my entire bookshelf with me and read it anywhere including musical scores.
The iPad saves my back, reading longform is terrible on a desktop or netbook.
I can watch video anywhere I stretch out after a workout, netbooks are too clumsy.
I too have a lot of specific business things that I can do better with my iPad. For example, when I’m in a session with clients (I’m a mediator, among various other things), I can make notes, pull up documents, etc. on my iPad in a way that’s much less obtrusive than typing on a laptop. I know a lawyer who takes his iPad into court for the same reason – a tablet fades into the background in that environment, where a laptop would call attention to itself in a disruptive way.
The other thing about the iPad for me is that it’s a great example of technology that gets out of its own way. When I ran Windows desktops and laptops, the “Windows-ness” (for lack of a better word) of the system never quite let me forget that I was working with a COMPUTER. I was forever installing patches and running into crashes and hassling with the registry and all that. But more importantly, I had a keyboard and mouse between me and my work. The MacBook Pro is better in that regard. But the iPad just…I don’t know…FEELS different. It feels like my data is just THERE, and that I don’t have to spend any energy thinking about the technology. Subjective, I know, but there it is.