A Curmudgeon and The iPad
On Saturday 3-Apr-2010, the iPad went on sale in the US. For us Canadians, it will be later. On the news, all the media companies were saying how good it will be, it will save the world, cure hunger, cancer and poverty... The iPad is supposed to save all the old, decrepit business model by regaining control over the end-user. Their control of the end-user is the app.
In the late 1908s and the early 1990s, the "old media" companies pinned their hopes on the CDs. They would be able to control the distribution of the information with some program and you could read the information through their program.
When Microsoft Windows 95 came out in the spring of 1995, Microsoft made deals with Disney, AOL... to push subscriptions to the desktop. A flop that was dropped by Microsoft with Windows 98.
Why is "old media" is dying? Because their primary goal is to "screw the customer"!
They are trying to do the same with the iPad. Will they succeed? Personally I don't think so. What can they do with the iPad that they can't do right now with their website? Nothing.
People have always been willing to pay. Yes, people are willing to pay for real content, just ask RadioHead. People are not willing to be "screwed". People are not willing to be gouged, like having to buy a whole CD for just one song.
Please note that I haven't used the iPad but...
- The iPad looks like AOL from the mid-1990s, just the graphics are better.
- Since Steve Jobs controls the iPad. You can only see websites approved by Apple. Websites with Flash are not allowed except for YouTube. You can only run apps that are approved by Apple.
From the way I hear it in the press, everybody either has a BlackBerry or an iPhone. Not true! Depending on who provides the information, from 74% to 87% of all the cell phones sold in 2009 were just plain-jane, regular cell phones.
The goal of the iPad is:
- Sell Apple hardware to consumers. Steve Jobs is the largest shareholder
- Sell Disney content to consumers. Steve Jobs is the largest shareholder
- Sell large media content to consumers
I fail to see: What's in it for me with the iPad? Right now, I have similar graphic qualities from a netbook which is 40% cheaper and without any of the restrictions of the iPad.
Will I buy one? May be, but definitely not right now, in a couple of generations and if it will still exist then. It's not the first time that Steve Jobs tried his hand at the tablet in the late 1980s and the early 1990s. It was called the Newton. Run the following Google search on the Apple Newton:
- So far the only benefit of the iPad is to use the iPad as a portfolio.
- How will you carry an iPad with you? Definitely not in your pockets.