Quote:
Originally Posted by boswd
it may be patronising but this also a strong element of truth to it as well. how many people would buy a tablet if it didn't have that apple logo on the back. It may not be true for everyone, but it is true for a good bulk of apple consumers.
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I bought the iPad for a very specific purpose: I was sick and needed something to browse web etc without sitting up. So it was just the perfect thing that came at perfect time for me.
People I know got their iPads for their kids. Or maybe they got it for themselves but the kids just took over. I have a two yo nephew. If he gets his hand on a laptop, he pries out the keys for fun. But he takes to the iPad like a duck to water. He figures out to turn it on, slide to unlock, launch app, flip pages to get to the app he wants, play angry bird (granted he never clears the levels, he just enjoys watching stuff crash and break). Kid and educational apps abound in the app store, most costing a few bucks.
I don't know why the bulk of people bought it. Maybe they're suckers. Or maybe they figured out a use for it. The fact that it was the only game in town was probably a key factor.
It's funny how when the iPad came out, people said what the heck was this thing good for. Why would anyone want a crippled net book. The price did surprise people. They'd been thinking 800-1000$ range. But plenty of people were skeptical, genuinely or cynically Remember Steve Ballmer said it wouldn't sell more than 100,000 or some such. Now it's like, when are you shipping your tablet.
I'm not going to upgrade to the iPad 2 (would have if they'd had a retina display, but that was a remote possibility all along). My next tablet may be honeycomb, if I can find all the apps I've accumulated on android. I hate the 16:9 AR though. It's not good for anything except watching movies. And I don't watch movies on my iPad. That's what the TV is for.
I'm sure apple tablet market share will drop to 30% in a few years. There's a lot to hate about apple and their closed ecosystem. But I'm glad there is a company like apple out there. A company willing to stick its neck out, create a new thing. They don't just say, whats out there that's good, that people want. They say, let's build this, they will come.
A company that cares about aesthetics and design. I'm not fashion conscious (I'm a slob), but I'm glad there are people who care about making things beautiful. Look at the kindle 1. I think "aggressively ugly" covers it. Steve Jobs wouldn't let that thing get past draft phase. Why do windows laptop come with stupid ugly stickers on them? It's embarrassing. You know why so many movies use apple product in them? Apple often doesn't pay for it. But if I were making a movie, I sure as hell wouldn't put something in that's ugly and sticks out like a sore thumb.
Crazy fascist apple will just freaking switch platform on its users. Sorry, but we think this is the direction we need to go. I pity their poor users, but otoh, I appreciate the ballsiness. I'm glad someone out there is willing to say this legacy crap is crap, we're getting rid of it. Take flash, for ex. Jobs is right. It sucks, it should die. The only reason the android crowd don't want to join Jobs is they need to have an advantage over apple, not because they believe a proprietary resource-hogging crash-happy legacy solution is the way to go. It's a merciless job, and I'm glad apple is there to do it.
Apple: evil, but good!