Dear FutureMe,
Was the iPad a success? John C Dvorak and many others though it wouldn't be.
http://aaplinvestors.net/stats/ipad/ipaddeathwatch/
Even though the iPad has only been announced and is not scheduled to ship till the end of March, it seems the same people are saying the same things they said about the iPhone.
While theres no doubt that this is just the first model of Apples new tablet family, the iPad is a disappointing effort that fails to live up to the hype. The iPad is both an oversized iPod Touch and an under-powered netbook.
The iPad is a not so magical e-reader. Expect to hear a lot of: I spent a cold night in line for this?
Scott Moritz , TheStreet.com, 9 March 2010
Any tablet computer, including Apples eagerly anticipated iPad, will face serious problems in generating big sales. Tablets look cool, but the reality is they dont do anything new.
Michael Comeau, Minyanville, 5 March 2010
Dvorak:Im telling you, look at this product coming out of India called the Adam.
Curry: A-D-A-M?
Dvorak: Yeah.
Curry: And its a what its a pad?
Dvorak: Its an iPad Killer. And I hate to use that term since the iPad is probably dead anyway.
No Agenda Podcast, Adam Curry & John C. Dvorak, 25 February 2010
The full program can be heard at No Agenda Podcast, Episode 177, 25 February 2010
Fewer capabilities (than a netbook) but a similar size? Not a good start.
Lee Gomes, Forbes Asia Magazine, 5 March 2010
We of course build plastic mock-ups that we show (to customers)
we had a slate form factor. The feedback was that for (our) customers it will not work because of the need to have (a physical) keyboard. These were 14-year-old kids, who, I thought, would be most willing to try a virtual keyboard but they said no, we want the physical keyboard.
Mika Majapuro, Worldwide Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Lenovo, 22 February 2010
The Apple iPad is not going to be the companys next runaway best seller.
John Dvorak, MarketWatch, 12 February 2010
Its a nice reader, but theres nothing on the iPad I look at and say, Oh, I wish Microsoft had done it.
Bill Gates, Microsoft, 10 February 2010
The rally has been especially kind to seemingly racy stocks such as Apple and Google. Both have pole-vaulted to market-surpassing gains over the past 12 months, despite the fact that the formers hamster-wheel of innovation (to borrow an apt phrase from my Fool colleague Joe Magyer) may have hit a snag with the iPad.
Shannon Zimmerman, The Motley Fool, 10 February 2010
Its not a tablet, its an extension of the iPod Touch. It has some new kinks, but generally speaking its using the iPhone OS. Its more like a smart phone than a personal computer. Its the Newton reborn. Whats missing most is the communications aspect.
Andreas Haas (former Apple executive), CEO, Axiotron (Modbook), 7 February 2010
Before Jan 20th, only 26 percent of people said they were not at all interested in buying an Apple tablet. That number jumped to 52 percent after the announcement.
Before Jan 20th, 49 percent of people said they didnt think they needed an Apple Tablet. That number jumped to 61 percent after the announcement.
Fifty-nine percent of buyers wouldnt pay extra for 3G coverage.
Whether this device becomes a big hit is anyones guess but based on this study it sure looks doubtful.
Retrevo, 5 February 2010
Yet its hard to see how the iPad, in the form unveiled last month, will come close to transforming daily life as much as the iPod or iPhone. The challenge with the iPad will be less about improving an established market than building a new one.
Arik Hesseldahl, BusinessWeek, 5 February 2010
I added it up and
like 800 people are going to buy the iPad. . . . Its not that the iPad is a failure. Its just a product ahead of its time. No one should actually buy this iPad between its inevitable first-generation bugs, fulfillment problems, and buyers remorse over added features and price drops, its heartbreak waiting to happen.
Molly Wood, CNet, 31 January 2010
It was a bigger iPod Touch. I question whether those features would be enough to get people to buy new machines.
Satoru Iwata, President, Nintendo, 29 January 2010
The company once notorious for its ability to upend convention and revolutionize markets may no longer have what it takes, worry some technology journalists. Call it the iPad or the iPlod, but the message seems clear: Apple may have lost its mojo.
Jeremy A. Kaplan, FOXNews.com, 28 January 2010
Whats the single most worrisome thing about the iPad? Its Apples monopoly on distribution of applications.
Harry McCracken, Tecnologizer.com, 29 January 2010
The tablet market has only succeeded as a niche market over the years and it was hoped Apple would dream up some new paradigm to change all that. From what Ive seen and heard, this wont be it.
John Dvorak, MarketWatch, 29 January 2010
It is a humorous world in how Microsoft is much more open than Apple,
Frank Shaw, Microsoft, Corporate VP, Corporate Communications, 29 January 2010
When Steve Jobs first demonstrated the Apple Mac, he used the words insanely great to demonstrate the full graphical display of the computer. Its a tag that has stuck around to this day among Apple fans. But, todays comments from Jobs that the iPad is a magical, revolutionary device ring hollow.
Dan Wayne, apc mag, 28 January 2010
All the people (including me) who felt underwhelmed by the iPad initially might have missed its true potential. Put another way: the iPad is all about software. Forget the sleek form factor thats just a prerequisite. Ironically, its the software and services that Microsoft never got, that Apple totally does get.
Dan Wayne, apc mag, 12 February 2010
Nothing from the iPad specs that Ive seen really shows any great cause for celebration. Unless Apple has also developed some new type of power source, such as nuclear cells or magical hamsters on tiny spinning wheels for the iPad, dont expect the claims about battery life to hold true.
John Breeden II, Government Computer News, 28 January 2010
Ultimately, the iPad is a large iPod touch: a great device to draw your inspiration from, but perhaps not the seismic shift in technology that we were expecting.
Claudine Beaumont, The Telegraph, 28 January 2010
Behold: The Apple iFlop
Neither truly magical nor revolutionary, the cluelessly named Apple iPad tablet device has dropped like a shiny wedge into the gadget game, dividing tech watchers in to opposing views the critical and the adoring.
Scott Moritz, TheStreet.com, 28 January 2010
9 Worst Things About The Apple Tablet:
1. No Flash
2. Its screen
3. Its price
4. Closed App Store
5. Its name
6. No multitasking
7. No camera
8. No USB
9. AT&T deal
Bianca Bosker, Huffington Post, 29 January 2010
What do the new Apple iPad and Googles Nexus One have in common? Both were DOA: Disappointing On Arrival. Why is the iPad a disappointment? Because it doesnt allow us to do anything we couldnt do before. Sure, it is a neat form factor, but it comes with significant trade-offs, too. No 16:9 widescreen, for example.
David Coursey, PC World, 28 January 2010
E-readers will outsell iPads because of the simple economics of the consumer device market.
Its triple the weight and 30% thicker than an e-reader. You need two hands to hold it. Its got a backlit screen, and its too expensive to give one to everyone in your house.
Russ Wilcox, CEO E-Ink (makers of Amazons Kindle), 28 January 2010
It seems like a high priced, unnecessary trinket to me.
Paul Thurrott, SuperSite for Windows, 27 January 2010
Apple iPad - failure, joke or fiasco? Pick one
Linen DeFiller, MillionFace.com, 27 January 2010
The press werent cheering and whooping. I didnt see anybody pee their pants
Not one! The only people I saw cheering were the people who work at Apple down in the front two rows
Al Gore was going crazy. I wanted to see more. Its a big iPod. What is there to do there? Play a video game on a bigger screen? I thought it [iPad] was paving the cow path (enshrining a makeshift solution).
Dan Lyons aka Fake Steve Jobs, 27 January 2010
Lets face it, the Internet was designed for the PC. The Internet is not designed for the iPhone. Thats why theyve got 75,000 applications theyre all trying to make the Internet look decent on the iPhone.
Steve Ballmer, Microsoft, 21 October 2009
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