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Steve Jobs
Steve Jobs and the iPad

We could think Apple did a extraordinary breakthrough with the iPod. Then the iMac came and the MacBooks… Then suddenly a strange object named iPhone just become the biggest technological tsunami ever after the invention of internet. How far can Apple go ? Well quite far actually. Nobody remembers the failure of Apple TV (fans will say the contrary but yes guys it was a failure) but Apple always knows how to get around things and their incredible creativity strenght always makes you travel beyond any possible statement. The cool thing about Apple is that they have dreams and these dreams become true. I would say Nokia is the opposite : beautiful dreams that remain dreams that one day perhaps…

Last dream come true at Apple : THE IPAD. Some people love it already and others hate it since the rumors.  What should we think ?

First, it is a brillant marketing strategy that makes the usage of the iPad as simple and common as any daily life object. “My granny could use it! But we know this is a niche product right ? How many people read regularly the daily press and books in the world ? A few. How many people read the free online press – more than a few – and electronic books : less than a few. So the iPad represents a micro-niche. But what if we just replace the laptop by an iPad ?

iPad revolution
iPad Revolution ?

That’s the second point. Steve Jobs presented the iPad saying the net-books are useless, just cheap laptops and that the iPad is

ipad
iPad, the new Laptop ?

not a computer or an iPhone but a third gender product. We can see on the advertising that this is definitely not true. Everything is done to make you think the iPad could replace your laptop. In a certain way it can but actually this is really a dream that will not become reality. Why ? Try to type for 2 hours on a iPad virtual keyboard. The horizontal place on a table or the uncomfortable typing on ones knees are definitely a barrier. What about multi-tasking. Can I listen to music, talk with someone on skype and read my emails at the same time ? Ok, perhaps I am a little pushy but not so much actually. Or let’s say I want to have my Twitter open and follow up a conversation. Forget it. Files ? What is this word ? The iPad is not a computer, so you do not have any files.

Third, we know some people will be disappointed, so what then? I know that my last sentences are not so optimistic right ? But here is what is cool about the iPad. It brings a different vision of what we call personal computer. What if we forget evetything we know about computers. What if instead of having the old good files on your harddisk, everything is onnline (Mobileme?). What if the iPad will make people read more books ? We need to give more time to the iPad. Revolution is on going. Remember the iPhone : it did not had Copy/paste at the beginning! By the time being, Apple proposes here the most evolved mobile device that gives you the best navigation, Calendar and email consulting ever.

Last, I would say we will have 3 kind of people : the ones who loves it for the “coolness” and basically they will only use 50% of it. The ones who are interested in what this object will evolve, and trust me it will and finally the ones who will be so disappointed that they will get back their old good laptop. And this is fair enough. After less than one month, Apple sold 300,000 iPads, people downloaded more than 1 million apps and more than 250,000 ebooks.

So iPad or iQuit ?
LA