People visiting our site may have the wrong impression of us. We’re not hating on iPad at all. For the most part, we think iPad is pretty cool. The UI is slick and as web businesses, Apple, and yes even Microsoft teach us, it’s software (and UI) that drives this business to success.
Not just simple software sales, but the content that the software enables.
At the end of the day, you could have the best hardware out there, but without the software to back it up, then you can’t have success.
Strategically speaking, there has to be an element of some ability to churn revenue from the software. Apple has demonstrated with iTunes that it is possible for software titles (in the form of music) to drive hardware sales. They struck again with iPhone’s software interface and the associated Apps.
This same model, of course, has been copied multiple times (Sony’s got one, along with Amazon, even Microsoft, and the list goes on). But no one really has been able to achieve the tight hardware-software success that Apple’s been able to get. Think about it this way, it would be like folks buying a PS3 and owning more than 20 titles for it. I’m willing to bet Sony would
Why? Buying something from Apple’s Store is supremely easy. Connect, create a profile, enter your credit card info, and bingo, that’s it. Click, buy, and download. What could be simpler? Putting the ability right in front of people, negates somewhat the need to go and hork free music (sometimes of questionable quality). There are other reasons too, but I think this simplicity is what makes Apple’s products so popular these days. It’s the old “it just works” mentality.
Who’s to say that allowing the same ability for a simple (yet powerful) device like iPad won’t work? It very well should, especially considering Apple’s ability to muscle content onto its store. Couple the fact that books are more expensive than music and applying Apple’s sexy UI and software to e-books just makes sense, doesn’t it?
So much so that folks are already copying Apple’s concept. HP’s got it’s own slate/tablet PC coming in the next few months. Remember, HP is the same company that couldn’t get it’s own iPod device going so they go a blue iPod from Apple and branded it HP (to the best of their ability) not that long ago.
Note to HP: You’re going to have a tough time beating the folks over at 1 Infinite Loop. We know it’s going to have a whole bunch of features that iPad doesn’t have (camera, SD card support, etc). The killer app is not going to be the hardware though. A Windows 7 device, while full functioned, might be just too much for folks to handle and if it doesn’t have something like Apple’s App store, then it’ll be trouble for HP’s slate from the get-go.
Apple’s success lies in it’s software rather than hardware. It helps that sexy designs help draw attention to your product, but ultimately, it’s about what’s running on your hardware. But look, it’s a self contained system with tightly controlled software by Apple to ensure you get a working product every time.
iPad will be a success, but it’ll need time to develop too. We don’t hate it, we’re just willing to wait a little bit longer for the 2nd Gen iPad (hopefully cheaper).
(Editor’s Note: Shawn Chen, Bubba Cross, Joanne Li all contributed to this article.)
abc
We’re Not Hating On iPad
People visiting our site may have the wrong impression of us. We’re not hating on iPad at all. For the most part, we think iPad is pretty cool. The UI is slick and as web businesses, Apple, and yes even Microsoft teach us, it’s software (and UI) that drives this business to success.
Not just simple software sales, but the content that the software enables.
At the end of the day, you could have the best hardware out there, but without the software to back it up, then you can’t have success.
Strategically speaking, there has to be an element of some ability to churn revenue from the software. Apple has demonstrated with iTunes that it is possible for software titles (in the form of music) to drive hardware sales. They struck again with iPhone’s software interface and the associated Apps.
This same model, of course, has been copied multiple times (Sony’s got one, along with Amazon, even Microsoft, and the list goes on). But no one really has been able to achieve the tight hardware-software success that Apple’s been able to get. Think about it this way, it would be like folks buying a PS3 and owning more than 20 titles for it. I’m willing to bet Sony would
Why? Buying something from Apple’s Store is supremely easy. Connect, create a profile, enter your credit card info, and bingo, that’s it. Click, buy, and download. What could be simpler? Putting the ability right in front of people, negates somewhat the need to go and hork free music (sometimes of questionable quality). There are other reasons too, but I think this simplicity is what makes Apple’s products so popular these days. It’s the old “it just works” mentality.
Who’s to say that allowing the same ability for a simple (yet powerful) device like iPad won’t work? It very well should, especially considering Apple’s ability to muscle content onto its store. Couple the fact that books are more expensive than music and applying Apple’s sexy UI and software to e-books just makes sense, doesn’t it?
So much so that folks are already copying Apple’s concept. HP’s got it’s own slate/tablet PC coming in the next few months. Remember, HP is the same company that couldn’t get it’s own iPod device going so they go a blue iPod from Apple and branded it HP (to the best of their ability) not that long ago.
Note to HP: You’re going to have a tough time beating the folks over at 1 Infinite Loop. We know it’s going to have a whole bunch of features that iPad doesn’t have (camera, SD card support, etc). The killer app is not going to be the hardware though. A Windows 7 device, while full functioned, might be just too much for folks to handle and if it doesn’t have something like Apple’s App store, then it’ll be trouble for HP’s slate from the get-go.
Apple’s success lies in it’s software rather than hardware. It helps that sexy designs help draw attention to your product, but ultimately, it’s about what’s running on your hardware. But look, it’s a self contained system with tightly controlled software by Apple to ensure you get a working product every time.
iPad will be a success, but it’ll need time to develop too. We don’t hate it, we’re just willing to wait a little bit longer for the 2nd Gen iPad (hopefully cheaper).
(Editor’s Note: Shawn Chen, Bubba Cross, Joanne Li all contributed to this article.)