The Apple iPad Haters Don't Get It

Am I the only one who just doesn’t understand the wave of criticism following Apple's introduction of the iPad? I mean the tsunami of criticism in the media about the long awaited Apple Tablet – that’s what it is – is just indicative of the ugly side of human beings. Call it free speech if you want, but its like mental therapy for haters. People just love to hate and the iPad seems to have given them the excuse to go after Apple, the symbol of what the modern day business should be.

Now I have to disclose that I became an Apple convert in 2007, finally taking the plunge to leave the world of PC and Microsoft platforms for the ‘elitist’ Mac. I had just moved to Pittsburgh for a new job and didn’t have a television so I bought the biggest iMac I could find and watched DVDs on it for a few months until I sprung for a 50-inch flat panel. Today I have an iPhone and a Mac Air to go along with my 24-inch iMac. I need a new iPod because mine is old and bulky. And I have a smaller iPod Nano for my workouts and runs. I will most likely buy an iPad in the future.

Based on the above one would think I am an Apple junkie, a follower of the trendy Apple product who probably sits in coffee shops and sips Latte’s all day playing on his Mac toys. Think again. I work 12 hours a day typically because I love what I do, I clock 70,000 miles a year in business and leisure travel and I send out over 1500 Christmas cards a year (sorry if you didn’t get one). I use all my Apple products because they are useful, reliable and most importantly they work. All the time.  

Read my sentence again - I work 12 hours a day typically because I love what I do, I clock 70,000 miles a year in business and leisure travel and I send out over 1500 Christmas cards a year. What do you think I need most from technology? Mobility. Connectivity. Reliability. I don’t have 5 minutes to wait when I turn my computer on. I can’t afford dropped calls. My conference calls often mean I am on the road, in an airport or outdoors so Nokia, Motorola and Samsung phones just don’t cut it for me when it comes to quality of sound. Weight is important to me, I need light and smart design, but high quality functionality. The Sony Vaio was the only PC laptop that came close to meeting my needs, but they don’t last more than a year or so when you travel as much as I do. Not a problem with Mac, the average life span is 3.5 years. No, I am not a trend follower. I buy Apple because it serves a specific purpose for me, works better than anything else on the market and makes work, communication, and play easier for me. The fact that it looks good is just a bonus.

So back to the haters and the iPad. What gives? For years the IT press and analysts taunted Apple for not getting into the Tablet PC market. Steve Jobs always held his ground stating he didn’t see the point of a Tablet PC. As the market evolved – both in terms of what consumers want from their tools (convergence of computer, phone, office, games and information) and what technology is available – Apple has made its move. And its not the traditional Tablet PC. It’s the expansion of the iPhone and that makes sense. I like what they've done. With 3G capabilities, color and graphics, I think they can succeed because the screen and display are large enough to allow true web browsing, photo sharing, movie-watching, and email from your sofa, without you having to get up, boot up the desktop or laptop and log-on (i.e. "instant-on" beats a computer for the tasks many people have a computer for), but has a superior screen to using your iPhone for these same tasks (i.e. beats a tiny screen handheld for web browsing, email and movies). And at $499 I think it can compete with the netbook market on price. Ultimately, consumers will settle the netbook vs. iPad debate. 

But the critics want to make their point. Was the iPad rushed out the door, much like the company’s last big dud, AppleTV? It doesn’t have a pen or keyboard! Why couldn’t Apple put together some sort of mobile TV subscription deal to go with the iPad right out of the gate? Why the staged rollout with 3G models lagging months behind? How can a browsing experience be complete without Adobe Flash? And the biggest quip of all – where are the Apps? 

Its hard to answer all these questions but then you have to wonder – so what? Anyone who understands product launches wouldn’t ask ‘was it rushed’? Developers will tell you ‘YES’ every time while marketing will argue ‘NO’. A TV subscription deal isn’t something you would time your product launch around because who knows when and how that will come about – there are too many stakeholders and variables to align on that one. No Adobe? Who knows why but what are you gonna do? And as for the Apps, I think you can rest assured the apps won’t be far behind. Fight off your ADD for a moment, and think back to early 2007, when the now ubiquitous iPhone was “pre-introduced” after months of feverish speculation based upon misinformation that Apple did little or nothing to squelch.

When Apple unveiled it six months later, there was a lot of initial grumbling about what the shiny little puck couldn’t do. Browser-based apps only? No cut and paste? AT&T or nothing? Are you kidding? But now, after selling more than 42 million iPhones plus some 33 million iPod Touches, and creating a vast new target for which software developers can make mobile applications that people have downloaded by the billions, those qualms are all but forgotten.

Keep in mind, too, that from the get-go the iPad will support the ever-growing array of apps. The complaint that the iPad is merely an overgrown iPod Touch seems odd; once developers start building apps expressly for its larger screen, it could turn into quite a powerful device. Size does matter.

Moreover, being a big shot has its advantages. Within a week of the iPad’s debut, Apple’s flexible pricing model for e-books helped move Amazon to change its pricing structure. And who knows how electronic gaming will change with the iPad’s crossbreeding of characteristics from Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PSP. It takes a bit of a bully to cajole the makers and purveyors of all of these different forms of content to play nice.

Judging from the trajectories of the iPod and the iPhone, Apple and its developer partners will mend the iPad’s flaws sooner than we might expect. Love Apple or loathe it, I’d bet that eventually the combination of flexibility, programmability, connectivity, finger-power, and brute force in the marketplace will make the iPad the first genuine, interactive, high-definition mobile media player. And Apple, which has been growing far faster than Microsoft, is on track to post revenues of more than $50 billion this year (Microsoft revenues for its current fiscal year are expected to be more than $60 billion), is quietly executing the key to its overall strategy: increasing its influence over adjacent industries – film, music and, potentially, TV – in a way no other technology company has.