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Originally Posted by Wrao
Well. I am one of the few(bite me) people who actually predicted that the iPod would be as big of a success as it is. When I saw it I knew that everyone would want it regardless of the price. It was exactly the type of thing that MP3 players needed to be. The iPhone was easier to bank on being a success since by then Apple had already gone mainstream. But, still, the reasons for why the iPhone succeeded are still very similar to why the iPod succeeded. Both platforms took existing concepts and made them "better".
iPad, is kind of a new thing, and for that reason, I have a harder time grasping how it can be successful. We all knew mp3 players were eventually going to take over from CD players, so when the iPod came along as the best mp3 player, it just made a lot of sense. Likewise, we all have cell phones, and we all knew that they are only getting more and more advanced and capable, so when iPhone came along being almost like a full-functioning computer in phone form but without 'teh suck' it made a lot of sense.
There isn't really anything analogous to this with iPad. In fact, if anything the exact opposite has existed. Where tablet pcs have tried to exist for decades, always failing due to... well, just being kind of pointless/redundant/weird. It's not a market that has been waiting for a champion, it's a market that doesn't even really need to be there in the first place.
All that said, the $499 entry point is hot, and that will definitely grab more sales than it will scare people away. Heck, even the $699 price point isn't repulsive. I don't think this product will revolutionize much or be much of a game changer for any particular market or industry. But, it is really neat for what it is.
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Education, education, education, education.
I really think it may be a game-changer for educational use. The presentation didn't do a good job highlighting the possibly uses (the "liberal arts" street sign was almost inexplicable, given that Steve Jobs didn't talk about textbooks), but I think the iPad will succeed on campus way in a meaningful way that no other device today can touch.