I don’t really feel like writing about the iPad, and I don’t feel like reading about it anymore. Everyone is writing about it and that’s all I’ve been reading about since yesterday afternoon. I’m already so sick of the iPad, truth be told, that if someone handed me an iPad right now I think I might smash it to bits and possibly get into a tussle with the gift bearer. Perhaps I am not alone.
I think one of the reasons I feel this way, in addition to the weeks of hype that seemed meek in comparison to the crescendo at around 1:30PM yesterday, is a feeling that we’re being played. It isn’t that the product should be more than it is, but that it could have been and wasn’t. I feel as though there is vast imperfection, obvious incompletion, by design, because there will be similar roll-out events, and similar hype, in months and years to come; because Apple would like to milk this thing for what it’s worth, and I find the approach annoying on account of obviousness. I am already tired in advance. But that’s just me.
I am also cranky, I suppose, because much more than features I was expecting rich new content, and that didn’t come, and thus the media revival or redefinition I was looking forward to, having been sucked into the hype machine for all these months is at the very least on hold. Maybe this comes later, and maybe this is also part of Apple’s choreography: to slowly phase everything in, announce new reasons to buy this product every month, or every quarter, with hardware upgrades every year. Perhaps.
For now, what we seem to have in this new Apple product is not only a relative repetition of previous Apple products, but a relative repetition of what is already available from other sources, and a sort of hodgepodge at that. Whether you see this product as a big iPod Touch, a little lap top, a smartphone that’s not really a phone, a portable device that doesn’t fit in your pocket, an entertainment device without the entertainment, an eReader without free wireless access, an iBook store with lots of missing titles, or all of the above rolled into one unit, the product is certainly not a breakthrough in the same sense that the iPhone was a breakthrough, or that the iPod itself was a breakthrough back in the day. Even the name is not particularly new. Not iPod, but iPad. Oh.
The one universally uncontested positive, that is without dispute applauded by all sides – west coast gadget hobbyists, east coast media connoisseurs, the traders on StockTwits – is the price tag of $499. But this too is deceptive, and a little messy. Because the price quickly increases if you would like this device to have capabilities. There are capabilities, after all, which we have come to expect from a portable device, such as a wireless connection for example. I won’t get into the whole list of features that exit or don’t, but there’s some critical missing stuff, at any price, and there’s some good stuff too. Like I said, a hodgepodge. Here’s a link.
In the last analysis, that this innovative company is offering nothing particularly innovative, is in fact holding back, while billing its product as a major step forward, is for Apple a sort of step back. I wouldn’t say I’m disappointed, because that would suggest a deeper level of caring than would be honest to claim, but if anything I feel a little tired of the subject after being sucked into nothing much. At least for now. Maybe the content comes later, maybe the media redefinition is a Spring event, maybe the hype will start anew in a couple of months as this addition to consumerism actually hits the shelves. For now, I leave the subject with this soundtrack to clear the air, and transition us all into new ideas.
