BEYOND THE iPAD HYPE by Scott Budman
The morning after the world saw the iPad for the first time, the stock market tanked. We’re still nervous about the economy, jobs, and where we go from here. Yet, on that same morning, Netflix stock jumped by the most in its history. The reason? Digital delivery. A million more people signed up for Netflix in just the last three months. With deals to stream movies over your computer, TV, DVD player, and game console, Netflix is getting really good at giving you what you want, when you want it. And they’re being rewarded for it.
Also up in early trading? Shares of Amazon.com. Wasn’t this company supposed to just curl up and go away when Apple unleashed its tablet? Turns out, the iPad reaffirms the Amazon model. We want content (like books and newspapers), and we want them sent to us, instantly. Amazon does that very well. Competitor Borders? Also making news this morning, but by cutting 1,000 members of its staff. Borders doesn’t give us what Amazon does. It’s stock price is currently trading below a dollar a share.
The market has voted, and it has voted for content, brought to us quickly and easliy. The recession may keep us from buying that new car, or even that extra tall latte, but it’s not keeping us from downloading books, or streaming movies. If the iPad is to succeed where other tablets have failed, it will prove itself to be the best way for us to find and get that content. Apple is launching its own bookstore, it’s already a phenomenally successful way to download music, and, with iTunes, is making some headway into how we rent and download movies and TV shows as well.
But the iPad doesn’t come with flash, some are already saying it’s too slow, and frankly, it looks like a cool product looking for a market. My take? That market should be digital delivery. Show us that it’s a better way to get our hands on virtual content, and we’ll buy it. Books? Check. Music? Check. Movies? Check. But there has to be more. Can it make magazines and newspapers sexy again? Now, that would be worthy of some hype.
No flash is aggravating particularly because it is a business decision not a technical one — the h/w is there.
They just wanted to hold the consumer by the balls to protect their monopoly on revenue from iTunes for video (no Hulu) and App store games (no thousands of free web games.)
There are thousands of free App Store games, just in case you didn’t realize it.
No Flash is probably because Flash would spoil that wonderfully snappy performance. And because Steve Jobs just plain doesn’t like it.
I think a lot of people are underestimating the appeal of this device. Note that the people who say bad things about it are those who have not seen it hands-on, while those who have rave about it. That tells me something.
It’s a beautiful device, and I think it will substitute for a computer very nicely for many people. I know of at least two friends who I think would be a lot happier with an iPad than a PC.
D
I have an ipod nano I love, plus have played with iphones and itouch and been impressed, though don’t have one.
This would be great for (in some ways best for) around the house casual use, unless one likes to comment on blog posts a lot
“And because Steve Jobs just plain doesn’t like it.” aka insists on near total control — thanks for making my point for me.
Things I think are missing — not out of cost but Jobs’ control issues — are 2 USB ports and an SD card slot (micro or otherwise). They could easily restrict what you can move on and off the device, while letting you consume your own media (photos & mp3s) w/o having to eat up the limited space on board or having to use that god awful awkward (and no doubt expensive) dongle card reader I’ve seen.
Not letting the people plug in a USB keyboard, who in fact might like to use it instead of a netbook to get some semi- real work done, is another example.
The webcam is another curious omission, and they are dirt cheap these days.
Why do you need an SD card slot or USB when you have Bluetooth 2.1 and 802.11n to transfer data?
While Flash is used a lot to deliver videos through browsers, Flash is also used a lot for annoying ads and to deliver malwares. Flash is troublesome unless you use it a lot for video. However, HTML5 is coming and Apple is a big proponent for using HTML5 to deliver video. What Apple does is staying ahead of the curve by preemptively deprecating the need for bloated Flash in favor of a better designed, open HTML standard (like how they preemptively dumped the serial port in favor of USB and floppy drive in favor of CD drive).
To those who say iPad will fail because of no Flash support, look again. iPhone succeeds for years despite of lacking a Flash support. In the meantime, websites can choose to support MPG4 which is supported by iPhone and iPad. Like youTube, for example. This is yet another instance of Apple using their clout to drag the industry kicking and screaming to dump old technologies for a better one.
I see the Apple “Steve-Jobs-Can-Do-No-Wrong” Fanboys and Fangirls are out.
For those of us with a more rational view on things, one might consider this math (full disclosure: it’s from a pro-Kindle blog)
I’m quite happy with my Kindle, and the other $1400 will go into other things… like contributions to good conservative candidates.
“Why do you need an SD card slot or USB when you have Bluetooth 2.1 and 802.11n to transfer data?”
Ever hear of people having flash drives?
Ever think of an SD card as a cheap way to expand the memory (no expansion option for the units main memory)?
Ever think about wanting to possibly make-do with a handy USB keyboard that you might be able to borrow wherever you are for a little more real work?
And someone else’s comment about
“What Apple does is staying ahead of the curve by preemptively deprecating the need for bloated Flash in favor of a better designed, open HTML standard”
Let me finish that for you:
“… in HTML5, which doesn’t really exist yet in a practical form.”
Real world clueless.
Who’s clueless, really? It may not be in final form adopted by everyone yet, but this is another example of Apple staying ahead of the curve. Just like when they adopted 802.11g and n in draft forms.
Advanced Web Technologies
Next-Generation Standards Support
Safari continues to lead the way, implementing the latest innovative web standards and enabling next-generation Internet experiences. With support for HTML 5 media tags, CSS animation, and CSS effects, web designers can create rich, interactive web applications using natively supported web standards. A standards-compliant browser, Safari renders current and future web applications as they were meant to be seen.
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HTML 5 Media Support
Websites can now deliver rich, interactive media as easily as they deliver images. The first browser to support HTML 5 audio and video tags, Safari helps developers create media-rich sites that don’t require additional plug-ins. The media tags also offer a rich scripting API, allowing developers to create powerful new controls as well as controls that match the style of the page.