68 million devices last year is meh? It's not a big deal because everyone in the world doesn't want one? A decade ago Apple was only selling 4m-5m Macs a year. Now hundreds of millions buy Apple "computers" creating a massive ecosystem. When they only sell 5 million watches in the next 12 months, I hope we don't waste too much time with the meh's.
How the iPad Went from Massive to ‘Meh’ in 5 Short Years
21–30 of 59 posts
Re: How the iPad Went from Massive to ‘Meh’ in 5 Short Years
#22Saturation and people are satisfied with what they have. Take my mother-in-law (please) for example. She does _everything_ on her iPad. Banking, email, surfing the web. She literally (yes, literally) hasn't touched her desktop computer in years. But, she's still only on an iPad 2. She'll run that into the ground before she'll get another. She loves it, but isn't on any "upgrade cycle", the same for many people. Now,…
Yes, clearly a factor in the tablet sales slowdown is:
Frequent computer users do not feel comfortable replacing their laptops with tablets. They bring their laptops with them. And then they say, "Do I really want to tote around a tablet as well?" The answer is no, their tablets languish at home, and they don't upgrade.
Very casual computer users may largely or entirely replace their computers with tablets... but they're very casual users. They don't want to be on an upgrade treadmill, and their needs are modest. An old tablet works fine.
Re: How the iPad Went from Massive to ‘Meh’ in 5 Short Years
#23Saturation and people are satisfied with what they have. Take my mother-in-law (please) for example. She does _everything_ on her iPad. Banking, email, surfing the web. She literally (yes, literally) hasn't touched her desktop computer in years. But, she's still only on an iPad 2. She'll run that into the ground before she'll get another. She loves it, but isn't on any "upgrade cycle", the same for many people. Now,…
Exactly
Whoever wanted an iPad pretty much got one already. That void is filled.
It's not selling as much as in the beginning, but of course, there are apps being bought, people get the new model (or have their iPad die on them - yep, saw it happen)
Re: How the iPad Went from Massive to ‘Meh’ in 5 Short Years
#24Saturation and people are satisfied with what they have. Take my mother-in-law (please) for example. She does _everything_ on her iPad. Banking, email, surfing the web. She literally (yes, literally) hasn't touched her desktop computer in years. But, she's still only on an iPad 2. She'll run that into the ground before she'll get another. She loves it, but isn't on any "upgrade cycle", the same for many people. Now,…
Besides I think iPad was something that Jobs envisioned when he was alive. He wanted, seriously wanted, to disrupt the education space with it. That's an important reason why he did not want porn to be easily available on the device [1] and why they had a large book-sized screen and not a mini to start with [2]. I think Jobs had a razor sharp focus back then.
After his demise, from what it seems, Tim Cook never felt for the iPad the same way as Jobs did. Tim is far more profit-centered than Jobs, and Apple's performance numbers lately speak for it. Unlike Steve, Tim Cook doesn't seem like a visionary either. He doesn't appear to have that urge of bringing change into the world.
He isn't of the type who has ability to bring that element of movement into his products. I could be wrong but it seems so. For example, he is unable to see the difference between the idea of revolutionizing education space and the idea of letting out a fashion accessory that competes well with swiss watches!
I mean you get the point, right?
[1] http://www.imore.com/steve-jobs-ipad-freedom-porn
[2] http://allthingsd.com/20120705/the-7-inch-ipads-biggest-crit...
Re: How the iPad Went from Massive to ‘Meh’ in 5 Short Years
#25I was just discussing this with someone the other night. I got the first iPad and for the first 2 years, I was a junkie for new apps. Little pieces of software that specialize in 1 thing? GREAT!
Nowdays though, even with the newest iPad, I barely use it for anything beyond browsing, video, and books. I know they keep pushing it to be a tool, but when I want to do real work, I go to my computer.
Re: How the iPad Went from Massive to ‘Meh’ in 5 Short Years
#26"Meh!"? Really?
Apple has a product portfolio. I agree iPhones are doing much better right now in terms of growth, but I have no doubt that the completeness of their portfolio (from macs to ipads to iphones) is what keeps sales for all product categories going just a bit more.
I bought an ipad first, and then bought a macbook. The next phone I buy might be an iPhone - which I never would have, if I had not bought the iPad.
And amongst tablets, I don't understand which other tablet is better than an iPad.
For a category defining product that still sells millions of units per year, I think calling it "Meh" is just passing an opinion for journalism.
Re: How the iPad Went from Massive to ‘Meh’ in 5 Short Years
#27I think most people don't have the need to push their iPad particularly hard and so hardware as old as the iPad 2 is probably good enough.
Myself, I upgraded from 'The New Ipad' (whatever number that one was) to the latest iPad Air 2 for the massive performance boost. I'm a software developer and use my iPad for the Omni tools (OmniPlan, OmniFocus, OmniGraffle) and also for Keynote. My older iPad was having trouble switching apps because of its limited RAM.
BTW, if you're thinking about getting the Omni tools be prepared to spend some money. They work best when you have them on all three devices - laptop/desktop, iPad, and iPhone. Each has a different UI devoted to that platform and somewhat different functionality.
Sometimes when I fly I don't even break out my laptop. I instead do planning on my iPad using my logitech bluetooth keyboard.
Re: How the iPad Went from Massive to ‘Meh’ in 5 Short Years
#28It's crazy how out of whack people's expectations for Apple have become. I mean after the string of iMac => iPod => iTunes => iPhone, people were just expecting iPad to split the earth in half or I don't know what. Not that the article's reasoning is wrong about the ultimate utility of an iPad, but I find it really hard to describe it as a "meh" product. Remember tablets before the iPad? There were a lot of them but…
I'm not convinced that the iPad was all that revolutionary, I think that 2009/10 was the year when the hardware needed to build a successful tablet became cheap enough to build a profitable one. The equally successful Galaxy Tab launched just half a year later, and Samsung obviously didn't start working on it after the iPad launch. It really was an "obvious" thing given the wild success of smartphones (not that the engineering/software/UX work was in any way trivial).
Re: How the iPad Went from Massive to ‘Meh’ in 5 Short Years
#29Saturation and people are satisfied with what they have. Take my mother-in-law (please) for example. She does _everything_ on her iPad. Banking, email, surfing the web. She literally (yes, literally) hasn't touched her desktop computer in years. But, she's still only on an iPad 2. She'll run that into the ground before she'll get another. She loves it, but isn't on any "upgrade cycle", the same for many people. Now,…
Besides I think iPad was something that Jobs envisioned when he was alive. He wanted, seriously wanted , to disrupt the education space with it. That's an important reason why he did not want porn to be easily available on the device [1] and why they had a large book-sized screen and not a mini to start with [2]. I think Jobs had a razor sharp focus back then. After his demise, from what it seems, Tim Cook never felt…
Little known fact: the lack of copy/paste in original iPhone OS was a nod to anti-plagiarism and also an attempt to disrupt the education space
Re: How the iPad Went from Massive to ‘Meh’ in 5 Short Years
#30It's crazy how out of whack people's expectations for Apple have become. I mean after the string of iMac => iPod => iTunes => iPhone, people were just expecting iPad to split the earth in half or I don't know what. Not that the article's reasoning is wrong about the ultimate utility of an iPad, but I find it really hard to describe it as a "meh" product. Remember tablets before the iPad? There were a lot of them but…
I'm not convinced that the iPad was all that revolutionary, I think that 2009/10 was the year when the hardware needed to build a successful tablet became cheap enough to build a profitable one. The equally successful Galaxy Tab launched just half a year later, and Samsung obviously didn't start working on it after the iPad launch. It really was an "obvious" thing given the wild success of smartphones (not that the e…
you might want to google "equally successful" (http://appleinsider.com/articles/14/04/11/exclusive-apple-vs...).