Comments on: iPad: The MacBook Air of 2010

By: David Ahn

David Ahn — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 13:10:19 +0000

Akiva, wow, unbelievable! Exactly what I was just writing to my friend.

You hit the nail right on the head. What were they all expecting it to do? End world hunger, cure acne, get them dates, direct brain interface... what? Or, waaaaah, I want it smaller, thinner, lighter, more powerful, longer battery life, and cheaper, but I don't want to give up my camera, my memory card reader slots, my USB3, firewire, HDMI, widescreen, physical keyboard, my multitasking...

And the tired old "it's just a bigger iPhone/iPod Touch!" Uh, 7.8 times the screen surface area. Seriously? Here's what you're saying: "Your yacht sucks, it's just a bigger version of my rowboat!" "Your girlfriend's DD's are just a bigger version of my girlfriend's A's!" "Your 200 IQ is just a bigger version of my 75 IQ." Need I go on? Size matters, and in some cases, enable whole new capabilities. The newfound real estate will enable a whole new class of apps (desktop-level), only with completely new, more natural ways of interacting them.

It's a whole new class of device: an ultraportable, multitouch personal computing device. It's a brave new world, and you don't even know it yet, people.

David

By: David Ahn

David Ahn — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 05:10:19 +0000

By: Tweets that mention iPad: The MacBook Air of 2010 — Misanthropic Geek -- Topsy.com

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 05:11:43 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Rahsheen Porter, Cliff Gerrish, ja_castillo, ʞɔolɹnds ǝʞɐɾ, Shari Weiss and others. Shari Weiss said: Ipad review: beyond the hype, MacAir: http://bit.ly/bBourU People wanted a mini computer and got a peripheral [...]

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 09:08:52 +0000

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By: iPad: The MacBook Air of 2010 — Misanthropic Geek | High technology information

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:03:48 +0000

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By: Akiva

Akiva — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:16:41 +0000

Although I understand what you're trying to say, I think you're actually the kind of person so much the subject of this post that you're not fully getting it yourself. Your expectations don't define the actual quality or usefulness of a product. Being disappointed in something is purely subjective and doesn't determine anything's value for anyone other than yourself. In fact, my post is in a way written about people like you who confound expectations with results and who are basically now all fussy because they didn't get what they wanted for Christmas.

In other words, just because you didn't get what you wanted out of the iPad doesn't change what the iPad actually is.

By: Otto

Otto — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:00:56 +0000

You're not getting it. The lack of flash, griping about 3G costs, etc... these are all secondary.

The iPad fails because it's less capable than a $200 laptop.

People were expecting a general purpose computer. Not an iPod Touch with a bigger screen. We expect our phones to be limited in capabilities. It's only a phone, FFS. It obviously can't do everything a big screen device can do! but this thing has a big screen. It has the processing chops to do the job. It just lacks the operating system, and it's locked into Apple-approved "apps" only.

People wanted a computer. They got a peripheral.

That's the fundamental failure here.