Who would have thought that the most innovative thing about the iPad was going to be its price?
brought the audience, generally low key until then, to its feet and
even sent Apple’s stock up by five bucks a share at one point.
This was seismic for two reasons. First, most of us figured it would cost around
And second, that price means the iPad could savage two categories of
products: netbooks (stripped-down, inexpensive laptops) and e-book
readers.
With that price, Jobs landed a sucker punch.
It’s now clear that all along Jobs had the netbook
market in his sights. At the start of his presentation, Jobs placed the
iPhone and the MacBook on the screen and talked about the quest for a
third category of product that fit in between. He listed the things
people like to do on these devices: Web browsing, e-mail, photos,
video, music, games and e-books.
“If there’s going to be a third category device, it
has to be better at these tasks,” Jobs said. “Some people thought that
would be netbooks. But netbooks aren’t better at anything. They’re just
cheap laptops.”
Zing.
Getting the price and features of a new consumer gadget just right is hard. The sweet spot is tiny.
Apple scored a direct hit.
“When we set out to develop the iPad, we not only
had very ambitious technical goals and user interface goals, but we had
a very aggressive price for it,” Jobs said. “We want to put this in the
hands of lots of people.”
I admit to being less than wowed with the iPad until I heard the price. (Models with more memory cost
plus a data plan.) Ever since iPad rumors cranked up, I’d been puzzled
by a simple question: What problem will the iPad solve for me? For much
of Jobs’ talk, I didn’t hear an answer.
There were some nice tweaks in various Apple
software and services. But there had been a lot of chatter that Apple
was going to revolutionize the way we buy and sell media, that there
would be new systems for buying content from newspapers, magazines and
books. Maybe there would be a new music streaming service. None of that
materialized.
What did materialize was a remarkable gadget that
outclasses any netbook, and makes the Kindle and other e-book readers
pointless. Ten hours of battery life. Access to iPhone apps. A slick
e-reader with access to an online bookstore from a company that’s
proven it knows how to peddle digital content.
And a revolutionary wireless plan. You can get an unlimited 3G plan with
What does the iPad lack? It has less memory than
most netbooks. No Webcam. It doesn’t support Flash, which powers much
of Web video and which it will need if it’s going to deliver on Jobs’
promise of being the best browsing experience.
But these are quibbles. And we can expect Apple to address some in future versions.
Apple still has to hope that people will buy this in
addition to its other products. If the iPad cannibalizes sales of the
iPod touch or low-end MacBooks, then the upside for Apple will be muted.
And it bears remembering that this is only just the
start, and that some of the biggest impact from Apple’s products didn’t
become apparent until well after their launch. There was no app store
when the iPhone debuted. It’s possible Jobs is still working on
something that will shake up the way we buy and view newspapers,
magazines, TV shows, movies and other media.
The first iPads will go on sale in 60 days. The only
guessing game left now is when the lines will start forming outside
Apple stores.
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