Apple iPad has taken the world by storm. No doubt, it has created a splash larger than anyone could have predicted. Critics were skeptical of the device before it came to market, claiming that there was no market for such a device. After all, wasn't that market already tapped through the huge success of netbook sales from 2008-2010? The iPad would be limited, in many ways, from operations that a typical laptop or desktop computer could do. In fact, it was even limited in doing some of the simple things that even netbooks could do (i.e. flash, webcam, Microsoft Office, USB expansion, memory capacity, and more). So how could such a device succeed.
Almost a year later, here we are. Not only has it surpassed anyone's wildest imagination, but it has entirely reshaped the market. Suddenly demand for tablet computers and ereaders is off the charts. The low-price netbooks of yesteryear are too cheap and undesired. Now everyone wants a $500-$900 tablet!
iPad completely reshaped the landscape. Suddenly device are being made to match compatibility, apps are being developed, websites and app stores are being designed to be compatible with the device.
Apple has created a market out of thin air. Tablet PC's have been around for years. But until now, no one really wanted them. However, everyone seems to want to tap into the tablet concept now. Laptops with tablet-mode flip screens are increasingly popular and more and more iPadesque tablet copies keep on emerging (Android, Windows, RIM, and more). Everyone's rushing for a slice of the newly discovered cash pie.
Even ereaders are benefiting from the new market demand. Because iPad has always lacked a place in any one specific product category, it often gets lumped in with ereaders, despite the fact that it does much more. Consumers keep comparing iPad to the likes of Amazon's Kindle, even though they are apples and oranges in contrast to each other. But as a result Kindle and rival competitors such as Barnes & Noble's Nook and Sony have all reached record sales this past year. The ereader market has never looked more promising, nor have we seen so many competitors wanting into it either. I doubt ereaders would have been the holiday gift of choice this year if it weren't for iPad. And the fact is, ereaders are much cheaper. So naturally, if you can't afford an iPad, go buy an ereader! At least that's what the consumer mentality is currently.
So how did Apple create a market out of nothing? If Microsoft had invented the iPad equivalent before Apple, would it have been as popular? Or is there a double-standard involved, some unconscious variable that draws consumers to Apple products that no one else could successfulness design? I tend to believe the latter to be true. I'm guessing that no other company around today (not Microsoft, not Sony, not Samsung, not Toshiba, not even rising rival Google) could have designed the product and had the same success. No one owns the corner on "cool" like apple does.
If Microsoft had put their stamp of approval on such a cut-down, limited, yet pretty device months before, people would have thought that they had lost their marbles, if they don't think that already. They wouldn't have been able to disrupt their own disrupted PC market (disrupted because of the netbook craze).
Don't get me wrong; I am not saying that iPad isn't an amazing device. I think it has a very gorgeous design, and I think it does the things that it is designed to do very well. I have played with it on many occasions, and have been impressed every time I've picked it up. I just think that there's no way any other company could have pulled this off. It is far too limited in its overall computing abilities and expansionability to have been a threat to sales of any market, let alone of opening a new market, without Apple's iBranding. If Google's saying is "do no evil," then Apple's has to be "iCan do no evil." I think they could brand a product the iNothing, and someone would buy it. How can any other company compete with that?
How the iPad changed 2010
(CNN) -- Less than a year ago, some technology pundits questioned whether Apple's "iTablet" would find any buyers.
InfoWorld ventured to explain "Why Apple's rumored iTablet will fail big time," while VentureBeat's 2010 predictions included the claim that "tablets will fail."
Fast-forward to the end of 2010, and the iPad is a smash hit. eMarketer predicts that Apple will sell 13.3 million iPads this year, and one survey ranked the iPad as the most-wanted gift this holiday season. But the iPad has reshaped more than just the device market: From publishing to web design, we're seeing the iPad change the world in unexpected ways.
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