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Apple iPad - Why it will become a hit
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.
