From http://forums.macrumors.com (via Garry):
iPoop... iCry. I was so hoping for something more.
Great just what the world needs, another freaking MP3 player. Go Steve! Where's the Newton?!
I still can't believe this! All this hype for something so ridiculous! Who cares about an MP3 player? I want something new! I want them to think differently! Why oh why would they do this?! It's so wrong! It's so stupid!
All that hype for an MP3 player? Break-thru digital device? The Reality Distiortion Field™ is starting to warp Steve's mind if he thinks for one second that this thing is gonna take off.
Not revolutionary. Big capacity mp3 players already exist. With Creative Labs' entrance into the firewire arena, future nomads will have similar specs and better prices.
A bad fit. This product is outside Apple's core competancy - computing devices. When many are calling for a pda, they release an MP3 player.
Without a future. This Christmas you will see mp3 players be commoditized. Meaning that the players from Korea will be way less expensive tha iPod. The real money is in DRM and distribution (ala Real Musicnet). If Apple were smart they would be focusing on high gross revenue from services rather than a playback device.
To you non-believers of the iPad:
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It's the software, stupid. Yes, out of the box, the iPad is just a giant iPhone (minus the phone). But wait a year for developers to write applications that'll take full advantage of the iPad's capabilities. The iPhone is a huge success and it took a full year before developers came up with some really awesome apps/games. Imagine what they could do with a bigger screen and stronger processor.
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Enterprises are starting to support iPhone technology. Isn't it expensive to transition an entire enterprise to Mac? Yes, but you wouldn't have to because the iPhone/iPad are increasingly building in support for today's most popular enterprise solutions. Are you a Blackberry User? Blackberry's are backed by Microsoft Exchange to do their push emails...and that is fully-supported by iPhone/iPad, out of the box.
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Medical fields, small businesses and universities can benefit from the iPad. Anyone that uses a clipboard or does paperwork -- college students, nurses, secretaries, etc -- imagine them with an iPad, having full access to any resource they need via the internet.
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It'll get cheaper. Remember, the iPhone was introduced at $600. Now you can get one for $100. When the iPad gets cheaper...watch out, world. Lemme ask you this: would you rather carry around a backpack full of $500 worth of textbooks or one light-weight, sub-$400 device that holds everything?
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It's for everyone. The iPad is to laptops the way the Nintendo Wii is to XBOX/PS3. Of course, the serious worker/gamer will need a real computer/console to do what they want. But an iPad/Wii is just so fun, so simple that anyone in the family can use it.
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Don't doubt Steve Jobs. Love him or hate him, he's one of the most influential pioneers and visionaries of our time. When he launches a product like this, he envisions the entire experience, top to bottom -- hardware + software + content. Steve has been working his ass off with major publishers to bring all of their books, magazines and newspapers to the iPad. This will take a while -- just as it did with the music labels, TV studios and movie studios -- but it'll happen.
Why is it that there are hundreds of iPod competitors out there with better hardware and specs, yet the iPod remains dominant? Good marketing? My ass. Yes, Apple has awesome marketing, but that alone won't keep a product dominant for nine f'ing years. What will keep you dominant is the seamless and constantly improving entire experience. Apple always works for the perfect marriage of hardware, software and content.
The iPad is a brand new category of product. It's easy to dismiss it right now but that's only because there are no applications out there that fully take advantage of its capabilities.
With the same formula that was used to make the iPod and iPhone into dominant forces, it'll take a couple years but Apple will surely (re)invent a new class of computing.