Infographic by Smarter.org

My initial reaction to the iPad was “meh.” But as I started reading some blog posts about it my mind has changed. I think of my mom, and what she does at the computer — basically it’s email, craigslist, & the occasional news story. That’s pretty much it, & she just wants it to work.

The iPad seems to fit very well in that category of people. People who just need something that lets them browse the web, do some occasional shopping, maybe read a book from time to time, but who have no need for the ability to tweak it under the hood.

I don’t know exactly what Jobs’ marketing plans are for the iPad, but my hunch is that he will go after the baby-boomer generation who needs to have a computer but don’t want/need to have all the bells/whistles of a regular computer. The problem with most of the reviews of the iPad is that the people who are on the “front row” of the iPad announcement are geeks, & they look at the iPad and go “uuh, what’s in it for me?” That’s the thing — there’s not much there for them. But there’s something there for their mom or dad.

So while I won’t be running out to the nearest Apple store to get one being the geek that I am, I predict that the device will be a big hit among the non-geek.

They Have Forgotten their “aha” Experience

Many people watching the presentation and commenting/blogging about it forget what it was like before they tried the iPhone. Before the iPhone, phones were just phones. Personally, I was using a Cricket phone because it was the cheapest monthly data plan. I used my phone for phone calls, & nothing else. But when I tried out the iPhone, I knew that something incredible had happened. I was at Walmart. I had never experienced multi-touch. This ONE thing was a huge paradigm-shift for me, among many other things. The mobile web browsing experience ALONE had me excited enough to buy one. All mobile browsing before that was annoying, slow, & non-intuitive.

You really have to go back to that first-iPhone experience to appreciate what “classic-computer” users are going to experience the first time they try the iPad.  Now let’s switch back to your mom.

Your mom is where you were before you tried the iPhone, except instead of an “old junk phone” it’s an “old junk computer.” She’s been looking over your shoulder as you showed her how to use a PC. “Yeah, first you click Control Panel, then Network & Internet Connections, then look for an icon that says Network Connections then….” and on and on. I have nothing against Microsoft - I love Windows myself & enjoy tweaking things from time to time and having full control over it. But by the time you’re done explaining to your mom how to connect to the internet she thinks “Wow, my son’s a genius & I don’t ever want to try to do what he just showed me!” So she comes from that paradigm, and then she tries the iPad. It’s simple, intuitive, & requires no understanding of the inner-system in order to operate it. That’s a big deal, & I think she’ll have her own “aha” experience with the simplicity, but also with multi-touch, always-on internet, beautiful resolution, 10-hour battery life, etc.

I believe the device will be another game-changer, just this time it won’t be changing the game for the young and tech-savvy, but for the older generation who are less tech-savvy.

When you look at this from a business standpoint, it makes sense right? What’s the market size of the tech-savvy? Now what’s the market size of those who are not tech savvy? Yeah. “Normal” people make up like 90% of the population. Jobs and his team have just cracked the door to the mass-market, & I think they’ve picked the perfect device to do it with.

This is a huge productivity boost, so why hasn’t the mainstream adopted it yet? I think part of it is that it would be really awkward to sit in a cubicle surrounded by a bunch of other workers — & speak the things you normally type. At least that’s part of what has stopped me from really getting into it. Somebody needs to create some kind of darth-vader mask so others can’t hear you when you’re dictating — like noise-cancelling headphones in reverse and for your voice.

Perhaps it’s also because of the bad reputation that voice dictation software has. Even though Dragon Naturally Speaking has all but perfected voice-to-text software, I don’t think that it has penetrated the consciousness of the mainstream. Most people still think of voice-dictation software as being buggy; well, that’s probably because most of it is. Like the software Google Voice uses for its voicemail dictation. It’s pretty bad.

There are so many advantages to being able to use something like Dragon. Cut way down your risk of carpel tunnel syndrome, write a 10-page paper in the amount of time it used to take to write a 20-page doc, cut down on eye-strain because you can dictate without staring into a computer screen. There are probably others that I haven’t thought of, but I think you see the point.

Anyway, if you have any thoughts about why the lack of adoption, let me know in the comments.

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Update Jun 6 11:08PM: It looks like the CEO, Greg Tseng, has a bit of a history with spamming people to get businesses off the ground. See http://dir.salon.com/story/tech/feature/2002/08/07/crushmaster/index2.html

I contacted him to get his side of the story. If I hear back from him I’ll report it here.

Just got this email from a friend of mine — but he didn’t send it. It’s from a site called Tagged.com or TaggedMail.com — the scam apparently wants you to sign up at their site, and give them your email and credit-card info. It is not clear whether the site sells a legitimate product or service, but their marketing tactics are certainly immoral. Breaking into people’s email accounts and sending out false emails ain’t a good way to build trust with the community.

It appears that once you’ve given them your email Tagged.com adds your email to a list — so the spam will only get worse.

If you get an email like this below are a few steps you might want to take to make sure nobody else gets tricked:

1. Delete the email
2. Email your friend to recommend that they email the people in their address book to make sure others don’t fall for the phishing scam
3. Advise your friend from whom the message was sent to change their email password of the sending account

Hope this helps!

P.S. You can read about other people who have been attacked by this scam at this live search on Twitter: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=taggedmail

http://academicearth.org/

Wow. So simple — usually the coolest things are.

P.S. To see a really interesting conversation on this, go to this Hacker News thread.

Coates’ Venture Startup Lecture Series

Provo, UT — February 13, 2009 — Starting Tuesday, February 24th, Josh Coates will present a weekly lecture series on how to build a successful Technology Startup. Coates is a veteran Silicon Valley entrepreneur who has experienced both spectacular success and dismal failure in the arena of the technology startups (but mostly success!) This six-part lecture series will provide candid advice about how to navigate the well-worn path of venture startups:

• Technology and Fundamental Business Concepts (Feb. 24)
• Raising Capital: The Simple, Well Understood Path (Mar. 3)
• Pro-active Product Development for the Enterprise Market (Mar. 10)
• Hiring the A-Team: Rocks and Clowns (Mar. 17)
• Practical Internet Marketing (Mar. 24)
• Personal Liquidity and Financial Exits (Mar. 31)

This lecture series will be hosted at the Novell Cafeteria (Bldg G.) “We are thrilled to be able to host the Coates’ lecture series again this year.” said Shauna Theobald, Program Director for the Technology Center at Novell. “Attendees from last year’s series raved about the positive impact Josh’s advice had on their businesses. Josh has firsthand knowledge of how to lead a tech-based venture to success. ”

This free lecture series is open to the public every Tuesday from 12-1:30p.m., starting Tuesday, February 24th. This series is sponsored by the Utah Valley Entrepreneurial Forum, the Provo Technology Xelerator, the Technology Center at Novell, and SiliconSlopes/Omniture.

About Josh Coates: Josh began his career doing research in parallel computing at UC Berkeley and went on to found two venture backed startups related to large scale data storage technology. His extensive experience ranges from high performance computing and data center operations to venture funding, financial modeling, marketing and mergers and acquisitions. Coates has been honored for his innovation by MIT and Ernst and Young and featured in Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. He currently volunteers as an adjunct instructor in the Computer Science department at BYU.

For additional information: http://www.uvef.net
Contact: stheobald@novell.com
Phone: 801.318.2764

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Contact Information:
Shauna Leavitt Theobald
stheobald@novell.com
work: 801.861-4046
cell: 801.318.2764

Question: How can you tell if an entrepreneur is pitching?
Answer: His lips are moving.

Pitching Tip 1:

In the first minute, answer the question: “What does his organization do?” — Don’t go off on personal tangents at the beginning of a pitch

Two Things to Do Before Pitching to a VC

1. “Set a timer to 1 minute. Give your current pitch until the timer goes off. Ask the audience to write down one sentence that explains what your organization does. Collect the answers and compare them to what you think you said.”
2. “Videotape yourself giving your pitch. If you can watch it without being embarrassed, you’re ready to go.”

Pitching Tip 2:

Observe the 10/20/30 Rule

• 10 slides or less
• 20 minutes (leave 40 minutes for questions/discussion in a 1 hour meeting)
• 30 point font

Pitching Tip #3 - 1 Person Talk & 1 Person Listen & Take Notes

Story on listening:

“I once accompanied a startup’s CEO and COO on a pitch to a venture capitalist. A few days after the pitch, I met with the VC alone. When we began to discuss the Management (with a capital M), all he said was, ‘I noticed that the CEO did a lot of talking, but the COO was sitting there taking notes. The CEO didn’t write down a thing. I think the COO is a quality guy.’

“I don’t remember whether what the venture capitalist had been saying at the original meeting was actually noteworthy, but that’s not the point. The point is that shutting up and taking notes or, God help you, actually listening for ways to improve is a good thing to do in a pitch, where even the smallest actions create a big impression. The visible act of taking notes says

• I think you’re smart
• You’re saying something worth writing down
• I’m willing and anxious to learn
• I’m conscientious

“Taking notes provides these benefits, plus the value of the information that you’re recording. It can’t get much better than this.”
“Also, at the end of the meeting, summarize what you heard and play it back in order to make sure you got the correct information. You can make an even greater impression by also following through, within a day, on all the promises that you made during the pitch — for example, providing additional information.”

For RSS feeds without the setup from Guy Kawasaki on startups, try startups.alltop.com