Category: Technology Author : Steven Hodson Posted: January 21, 2010
Tags : Apple, iphone, ipod, steve jobs, tablet
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not going to suggest that there is now magical Apple tablet going to be announce on the 27th. Neither am I saying that Apple is barking up the wrong tree by even thinking about bringing one to market.
What I am saying is that given Apple’s past the idea of them bringing a tablet to market doesn’t jive with their DNA.
In a post here earlier today Dennis Bjørn Petersen asked a simple question
So what will the Apple Tablet do to help resurrect a business that has been sleeping for the last decade?
That got me thinking about Apple and its past moves with the iPod and the iPhone.
When Steve Jobs presented the iPod, and iTunes, to the world and forever changed the whole music industry he did it at a time when MP3 players pretty well sucked. They were expensive and for the most part pieces of crap.
Steve Jobs saw a market that already had established players in it but didn’t have a good enough product. So he gave us the iPod. Something new that shook the established MP3 marketplace to its knees.
Once the iPod had solidified its place as the market leader Jobs turned his attention to the other area where the market had definite leaders making a lot of money but whose products sucked. So once more he and Apple worked their magic and gave us the iPhone which has forever changed the way we look at smartphones.
In both cases Jobs saw an already existing marketplace that admittedly were full of competitors. In both cases he thought that Apple could do a better job than the existing players.
The problem is that when it comes to the tablet there is no existing market. Oh sure there’s a few niche markets but nothing that would even come close to the way the MP3 player and smartphone market was. There’s literally no market to shake up.
Unlike both the iPod and iPhone, Jobs and Apple are trying to create a market for their new product. They are approaching newspapers, book publishers, television networks and game developers.
In effect Jobs has created a product that he thinks is cool but there are no marketable goods for and this is totally unlike previous Apple created game changing moments.
So sure Jobs might be announcing a new creation on January 27 but it still doesn’t make sense as to why.
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Jan 21, 2010
You also have to look at wht the e-readers are doing in the marketplace for the publishing industry. There were an estimated 12million e-readers sold last year, which probably gives it a bigger market than mp3 players had at the time of the ipod. If the tablet brings with it a itunes store for books,and magazines Apple stands a chance to once again give consumers a superior user experience, and revolutionize the marketplace.
Jan 21, 2010
the two comments above make great points… Your argument is too small. The have changed the face of the UI as we know it with the iphone and the tablet with continue the trend.
http://gizmodo.com/5452501/the-apple-tablet-interface-must-be-like-this?skyline=true&s=i&autoplay=true
Jan 22, 2010
The iPhone defined a new market for mobile Internet Communications Devices and a new market for Mobile Apps. They did not exist before the iPhone and Apple defined them. It’s in their DNA.
Jan 22, 2010
Great article, it really changed my mind about wanting a tablet with a desktop interface. I had been dying to get my hands on a power tablet that ran OS X, but the information appliance model just makes so much sense for the average user. It’s time that the power users aren’t the only ones that can benefit from this new direction in computers. I will pray the day will come when my Dad and Mom invite me over to watch a high quality photo/video edited presentation of family events from videos taken on analog tapes and film years ago
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Jan 22, 2010
Everyone seems to forget Apple invented the Tablet with the Newton in 1993.
Jan 22, 2010
you make a valid point but just to be clear what you are suggesting is that whatever Apple is going to announce will be in some fashion a melding of netbooks (and existing market), existing tablets (a questionable market), their own iPod/MP3 market and the e-book reader market.
All to produce an all encompassing product that really isn’t solving a problem like past Apple products have.
Jan 22, 2010
nope – not forgetting that for one moment and yes I should have mentioned that in the post. That said it didn’t work out well then so why would it be any different now?
Jan 22, 2010
Why would it be any different now? Well, technology has advanced a bit in 17 years, in connectivity, processing power, displays, and battery life.
What are the problems Apple is solving? Crappy netbook user experience. Half-way there (though decent) e-book reader experience (i.e., doesn’t really deal with textbooks, or books/mags/newspapers with color photographs.) Overweight, slow to turn on, tablet experience.
I expect the Apple solution to be extremely lightweight; instant turn-on; full day battery; natural, intuitive multitouch (not stylus) user interface; color display; fully integrated with web services; and much faster than the iPhone.
Jan 22, 2010
When Apple introduced the Apple Computer, there was no established market. When Apple introduced the graphic user interface, there was no established market. When Apple introduced the laser printer… When Apple introduced Quicktime… When Apple and Lucent introduced Airport….
Jan 22, 2010
Times change and so do products. What’s not feasible in one era becomes feasible in another. People have to keep trying things because it’s in their nature to do so. Sometimes things catch on and sometimes they don’t. The only way to find out is to try. Inventors have invented some fairly wonderful devices that don’t always make it to market because at that point in time there wasn’t a need for them. You never know when there will be a need for something unless you try it out over and over again. We’d have no home computers or iPods or cellphones if we took your attitude of “Well, I don’t see the need for it.” I swear to you that at certain points in history there didn’t seem to be a need for roads, radio, or TV. A nation of people don’t always stand up enmasse and say “We need such and such.” It could just take a few individuals with a vision to test something out and see what the larger mass thinks of it. One can never tell what the future offers or the next important item to be bought to market. I do know that I wouldn’t mind replacing a few hundred paper books and magazines with one tablet. I could do it with my computer, but I’d rather boot up a tablet in a couple of seconds after I grab it from the nightstand or wherever.
Jan 23, 2010
Exactly. In fact, creating a new market is more consistent with Apple’s DNA (history) than taking a niche/failed product and reinventing it (although they seem to do that pretty well, too).
Jan 23, 2010
Strange. Apple has invented markets for many things. This article is flawed.
Jan 23, 2010
Thank you for picking this up Steven
I’m still not sure what the supposed tablet will contribute with. I’m not convinced it will do anything revolutionary. Of course I said that when the first iPhone appeared too (and now I’m on my second). The first iPhone couldn’t do anything my Nokia N82 couldn’t do, it could do less actually (no 3G).
It could also just be the new OS 4.0.