“Disappointing” iPad 3 speculation

http://www.marco.org/2012/03/06/disappointing-ipad-3

by kacy • 14 years ago

46 36 14 years ago

akent2• 14 years ago

From one of the reviews of the original iPad linked to in this post:

The iPad is not the transformational device so many Apple enthusiasts were hoping for. It won’t turn all the content industries upside down, it won’t be your primary computing device, and it’s not even a bigger, better iPhone. (http://mashable.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipad-downsides/)

Still seems true to me today.

dusing• 14 years ago

"to me"

akent2• 14 years ago

I can only give my opinion. Feel free to disagree or add something to the discussion.

lambda• 14 years ago

Has the iPad really turned many industries upside down? Has it replaced desktops or laptops? Has it become essential for any particular task?

It's a device, that is fun, and has its value. It's a successful product, no question about that.

I know a few people who have one, though they don't actually see much use. There are a few niches for which it's particularly useful, but they are still niches. Most of the value seems to be novelty value, which will wear off soon enough.

I've seen a few people try to use iPads and other tablets as a regular device. I've seen iPads at conferences; they wind up being a lot more of a pain to type on than a laptop. A coworker tried an Asus Transformer for a while instead of a laptop; he wound up giving up and buying a MacBook Air. Most people I know who have iPads wind up leaving them sitting around the living room, and when guests are over, they might pick it up, poke at it for a bit as a novelty, and then forget about it.

It reminds me a bit of back when Microsoft was pushing its Windows XP tablet software. They had the convertible laptops with the swivel displays, that you could use a stylus on. I knew a few people who really liked those. There were definitely some uses for them; for instance, when taking notes in class, you could use it to draw diagrams. But they never really caught on; they didn't revolutionize the industry. They wound up being a niche product.

Now, almost everyone I know who's into technology has a smartphone. Those really are revolutionary. You have access to the phone network, the internet, GPS, applications, a phone and video camera, media, and so on from wherever you go. The amount that a smartphone allows you to do, that was just science fiction 20 years ago, is staggering.

Tablets, on the other hand, are in an awkward space. They are bulky enough that you have to think about carrying them around, just like a laptop. You can't do much in the way of real work on them. They don't have a keyboard, so they're clumsy for text input. They're good for consuming media, with light touch based interaction, and lightweight games, but they're not really all that compelling for video, for music you want a smaller and more portable form factor, and for text ebook readers have a lot of advantages (I certainly see more ebook readers on the train than I do tablets).

There are certainly people who get plenty of value out of the iPad. It is a successful product, and has really given life to what seemed before to be a pretty much dead category. But as the grandparent said, it's not a "transformational device."

solutionyogi5• 14 years ago

I am a geek and I own two iPads (one for me and one for my family back in India), allow me to share my opinion.

My parents have a PC at home but my mom can't use a PC because she can't read English. My dad can find his way through but he will avoid using PC unless it's absolutely necessary. iPad is the first computer which my parents are able to use. I am finally able to video chat with them. I can easily share my photos with them. I have created a 'family' Apple account which syncs to iCloud and I copy photos on my computer and it automatically shows up on their iPad. My mom may not be able to read English but we could teach her the 'swipe' gesture to unlock the iPad and show her the 'icon' to touch so that she can see my photos. She used the 'flick' gesture to scroll through photos without any instructions from us.

If you discount iPad, you are seriously underestimating the potential of the device for all the non technical people out there. My parents have completely stopped using PC as iPad is capable of sending emails/seeing my photos/video chat.

mixmastamyk• 14 years ago

Agreed, but why not switch the language to Hindi(...) if English is such a problem?

acqq2• 14 years ago

It went OK with my parents and iPad until my parents managed to delete Skype app. Holding the finger on the icon a little longer, then pressing it again and hitting the cross that appeared. Maybe even tapping OK afterwards. iOS should get a little better fitted mode to delete apps for "old or challenged people" (hint: not so easy to do). You show them how to tap, you don't show them how to delete apps as they will never needed, but they still accidentally enter the mode as it's just a longer hold on the icon.

Only programmers can like modes. Normal people die because of modes, two years ago one a computer in Airbus turned off "controlling with software" mode because some speedometer didn't get input, pilots didn't understand the effects of such mode change.

Modes bad. Not always having a clear "go level back" bad. And even if I haven't tested, I'm quite sure that anything non-Apple is even worse. Although I'd like to be proved wrong, it seems that nobody is even able not to just badly copy Apple.

scott_s• 14 years ago

Shortly before my parents retired, they decided they wanted a small computer to take on their many trips. I was going to suggest an iPad for them, but to my surprise, they decided on one themselves.

Two weeks later, they bought a second because they couldn't share.

My parents use their iPads as their main internet device. It's what comes with them on trips. It has certainly transformed how they read articles, browse the web, use Facebook, read email, and communicate while traveling.

solutionyogi5• 14 years ago

Om Malik has similar experience with her mom.

http://gigaom.com/apple/the-joy-of-ipad/

seclorum• 14 years ago

I have two iPads, and I can tell you were its getting the most use right now: content creation in the form of Music-making.

When I want to write some songs, I go straight to the iPads. The selection of music-making apps, and the ease by which I can install them and use them, simply astounds me. I haven't touched either of my DAW's (I have both Linux and OSX-based DAW's crammed to the gills with software) in months, because frankly - the iPad really nails it.

So, I wouldn't be so sure to say that ..

frou_dh• 14 years ago

I'm interested in how the iPad's cameras square with the general sentiment that Apple "does things right or doesn't do them at all". They're not purely for FaceTime, as the general Camera app is also a top level choice, with garbage results.

Also, we're told that Apple are "beyond specs" in marketing, yet I've seen several official Apple banners (online and physical) that lead with devices having X cores and Y megapixels.

pooriaazimi• 14 years ago

I believe the reason for those disgusting cameras (on iPod touch and iPad 2) is thickness... The camera manufacturers don't make such thin cameras. iPad 3 is thicker, so they can shove a higher resolution camera in it.

dbecker• 14 years ago

The pundits also panned the iPhone 4S for the first couple days when it came out. And then, after it'd been out for about three days, they changed their tune and started raving about how great it was.

Mythbusters• 14 years ago

There are enough fans of the brand and the device that they will lap up even a marginal improvement over an existing product.

sarvinc• 14 years ago

You really can't say that about many other brands. If I had to guess I would say you have to make pretty great devices, for a while, before you get that kind of brand loyalty.

Also, the question is do you think this is a marginal improvement and if so what would they have to do to make this more than a marginal improvement?

staunch• 14 years ago

If someone created a teleportation device that could beam you to any location within a 1000 miles it would cause mass hysteria. When the next version was released a few years later, extending the range to 2000 miles, it would be "meh".

martingordon2• 14 years ago

I think we see this "disappointing" talk from many of the old-timers because they've spent 25 years writing about specs and that's the lens they use to look at the iPad. "It's not getting a quad-core processor? Android tablets have quad-core chips. How disappointing."

They don't care that Apple and third parties ship software that utilizes both cores (iMovie, GarageBand) and that hardly anyone ships Android software that utilizes more than one core, much less all four. They don't care that Apple may have tweaked last year's dual-core chip to get better performance and better battery life. According to them, since 2=2 and 2 < 4, the iPad 2 is a lackluster upgrade and is empirically worse than an Android tablet.

Meanwhile, 50 million people could care less what's inside an iPad. All that matters is that the hardware and software work well enough for what they want to do.

protomyth• 14 years ago

I think it goes beyond that. It is harder to write a review when you cannot just write one paragraph about each line of the tech specs. Writing about how the new design works is harder and requires some thought. The standard cookie cutter PC review doesn't work.

I wish I still had the link, but I remember a review for a Dell laptop that was a poor cut-and-paste job of the HP they reviewed a week before. They missed some pastes.

kiloaper• 14 years ago

>Meanwhile, 50 million people could care less what's inside an iPad.

I assume you mean 'couldn't care less'. [1]

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om7O0MFkmpw

martingordon2• 14 years ago

Ugh, I always find myself correcting people on that and I hate myself for letting it slip through.

wavephorm• 14 years ago

Yeah, whatever. Find me one person that doesn't want a super high resolution digital tablet.

This stuff was Science-Fiction just 5 years ago. If Apple didn't bring it to use we'd be using desktop GUI computers forever.

ekianjo3• 14 years ago

It would have come sooner or later, it's not because Apple was the first to do it that nobody was thinking about doing such kind of interfaces before. You should know by the history of patents that similar ideas are always flowing around in different places - We would NOT have been using desktop GUIs forever on portable devices.

“Disappointing” iPad 3 speculation

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