Quote:
Originally Posted by ilovejedd
I do believe the market was already prepared for more consumer-oriented tablets at the time the iPad was released. Apple just happened to be the first to come out with one that was user-friendly, easy on the pocket, had excellent battery life and good developer support. Sure, a lot of people might think $500 is expensive but if you had looked at the options before the iPad, it's an absolute steal. Apple was even willing to take lower profit margins for the iPad compared to their other products and looking at the iPad's current market share, that gamble has paid off big time.
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Have to agree - though I feel that "just happened to be..." is a little disingenuous; timing counts for a lot, and I don't believe for a second that there was anything left to chance about the iPad launch. Tablets prior to iPad were mostly Tablet PCs, or oversized PDAs; I honestly can't remember what I paid for my Compaq TC1000 (the early one with the skanky Transmeta Crusoe processor) or for the string of truly poisonus WinCE things I tried prior to that, but it was far, far in excess of a top of the line iPad 1. Even just before launch iPad was widely touted as likely to be in the $800-$1000 range, and I can't be the only person who went from 'I want one' to "I'm buying one" when that $499 slide dropped down in the keynote - was it (really only) 18 months ago??
iPads obviously aren't for everyone, but if they work for you, they tend to work well.
Cheers, Pete