There was quite a bit of buzz leading up to the most recent Apple product announcement. By the time Steve Jobs took the stage there was practically nothing he could have said that would met those expectations.

Reaction

What I find interesting is the way people are responding to this new product. I’d expect all the Apple die-hards to fall in love at first sight, and many people have, but on message board after message board I’m seeing disappointment spread across the screen. Are these Apple-haters taking advantage of this unproven product with admittedly questionable viability? Are these actual Mac converts that are realizing that no one can hit a home run every time?

The Supporters

What really surprises me is the way in which the faithful support this new addition to the Apple family. The most valid, and therefore most championed, battle cry of the iPad is this:

“Most people only use their laptops for surfing the web, check email, and watching videos. It does exactly what people need without all the extra junk that makes a laptop complicated to use.”

Who are these “most people”? I don’t know them.

Laptops in the Real World

The people I know use their laptops to shop online. In another tab they’ve got Facebook open and they’re chatting with their friends about what car to buy. Sometimes they’ve got iTunes playing music in the background. Sometimes, if they’re serious, they’re compiling all the information they find in a spreadsheet to help them compare all the best deals.

The people I know use their laptops to check email, but only while doing something else. Maybe they’re writing a paper. They’ve got PDFs open for reference material and web pages open to find more reference material. Every now and then they have to pop open a calculator and crunch some numbers, and more often than not there’s some sort of chat mechanism open somewhere too.

The people I know use their laptops to watch videos. If they’re checking out YouTube, it’s because they were on Facebook (while shopping for shoes) and someone sent them a link. Otherwise, they watch their serious video on Hulu (no iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad App).

It’s true, people really do just use their laptops for surfing the web, consuming media, and a little productivity sprinkled here and there, but they key word is “and”. With the iPad it’s “or”.

The Return of the Desktop

The second most common sentiment I’ve heard is that of buying a desktop and using the iPad as their “laptop-like” mobile device. That means people would have to come home to their desktop any time they wanted to do something meaningful (or even two meaningless things at once). I thought the love of portability was why the desktop market has been shrinking.

Please don’t tell me you’ll get a laptop and an iPad then. There really is no need for that sort of silliness.

The iPad’s Niche

I cannot imagine my college-aged friends taking iPads up to campus and satisfying their need for connectedness. I cannot imagine my coworkers taking iPads on trips with them and getting any meaningful work done. I can’t imagine business users deciding they want to add iWork into their tech ecosystem.

Who is supposed to use it? When people are just sitting around with nothing to do, are they supposed to pick up the iPad and poke around? When people want to visit with friends or clients and show off their own projects, are they supposed to grab the iPad on the way out the door? Is the iPad supposed to be the new “laptop” for casual media consumers?

Are there that many people that just sit around with nothing to do? Are they that many people showing off content who don’t actually have the need to create it? I just don’t see it. There’s already a device people can use to poke around, show off media to their friends, and casually consume media. It’s the iPhone.

Filed under: General