Archive for the ‘Tech’ Category
Thoughts on Apple’s iPad
Despite the fact that I have never owned a piece of Apple hardware (although I did buy Snow Leopard to attempt a ‘hackintosh’ PC), I was eager to see what Apple would announce on January 27. My interest was not really in a product that I would buy, but in what their announcement would herald for consumer electronics. And the introduction of the iPad is just the sort of announcement I was hoping for.
While Apple has not created a new category (despite their PR), Apple might just do what tablet makers for years have failed to do: create a market for tablets. That’s necessary because without a market, developers have little reason to enter a space and because it will help to lower prices (most tablets before were over-priced and under-powered laptops).
I also think that Apple’s potential entry into the tablet space has helped spur other companies’ development of tablets, as companies want to have something to offer in the marketplace.
Now, I won’t buy the iPad for the same reason I won’t buy an iPhone: I don’t want Steve Jobs or anyone else dictating how I’ll use a product. (I’ve already been burned by the Zune on that front.) I want to use my devices the way I want to, and I enjoy playing around on them to see what they can do. Jobs’s mentality on products is too centrally focused, too technocratic for my tastes.
But despite that, I’m glad they entered the space, if only to spur other companies to give me the device I’m looking for.