Thursday, January 28, 2010

IPad - Who are you looking for? I don't think you know (I)


I am sure most of you were expecting me to say something about the recently launch Ipad and probably you expected me not to be too enthusiastic about it

Well I may say that it was impossible for the IPad to meet expectations. There has been so much talk in the market, so much hype (most of it feed it from Apple) that no matter how amazing the product would have been it would not have meet expectations

Furthermore I don't think Apple has gotten this right. Don't get me wrong there is enough Apple fanatics and sexy gadget lovers that I am sure they will do well in sales at least on the first year. However if the Ipod and the Iphone did change their industry or even create a totally new segment, the IPad won't
The product tries to be too many products in one and fails to excel on any

Out of the 3 options they chase (e-reader, netbook and tablet), let me comment today on e-reader and the comparison with the Kindle:
Mr. Jobs was probably not too happy with Mr. Bezos reinventing an electronics field (vs. him doing so) as the Kindle is the first "real" successful e-reader. I believe the Kindle is still far from being a market segment "creator" but so far they have done well and their improvements over several devices says that they keep listening and learning
Amazon(.com) have focused on what matters for an e-reader and what many e-readers fail to capture in the past
- Great screen to read for a long period of time
- Long Battery
- Lightweight
- Easy to use and easy to download
- Right pricing (not being too expensive so people will be willing to try)
- Great collection
Just analyzed the Ipad against on some of those key pillars (sexy screen but not good for continuous reading (are books printed in colour?), only 6 hours battery (you can't even read one whole book on that time), heavier and too expensive to try "just" as an e-reader and you will see Ipad will be far from killing the Kindle and dominate or re-invent this space

I could not disagree more with
Ben Elowitz writing on Techcrunch about Top 10 Reasons The Apple iPad Will Put Amazon’s Kindle Out of Business (just check the comments on the article to see that I am not alone on this assessment). And I love one of the comments "...but this device is not made for real ebook readers, its really made for fanboys, that want others to think they read"

More tomorrow: Ipad as a netbook, Ipad as a tablet



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