With only a day before launch, the iPad press machine has hit a fever pitch. Virtually all the major news organizations have produced glowing reviews. And yet, the closed and limited nature of the device has its share of detractors. David Pogue put it best: Techies are skeptical, and everyone else loves it.
I think the techies are totally missing the point, and the boat.
Take a good thorough look at the iPad page on the Apple website. Read the descriptions carefully:
“iPad – A magical and revolutionary product at an unbelievable price.”
“…you can do things with these apps that you can’t do on any other device.”
“…iPad isn’t just the best device of its kind. It’s a whole new kind of device.”
What don’t you see? There’s lots of hyperbole, but the one obvious word that is completely missing is “computer”. It’s clear that the Apple PR team took great pains not to mention this word even once in all the marketing literature. At yet, clearly a lot of people are comparing the iPad to their traditional notebook and personal computers. What’s going on?
It would have been quite natural for Steve Jobs to refer to the coming of the iPad as the next computer revolution. This is how most techies naturally look at it anyway. But this would have been a great marketing mistake. In the original personal computer revolution, hackers were the early adopters. They were the only ones willing to forgive poor ergonomics, limited input devices, and laborious instructions in order to use those new computers. Catering to them was necessary for a new product in order to build enough momentum to cross the chasm and get to the mainstream.
Today, hackers have been displaced by technophiles as the early adopters. These are people with gobs of disposable income who like to buy bright shiny gadgets. They aren’t interested in writing the next open source web server or cool video game. They just want to watch HD movies, stream music to their $2,000 stereo systems, and veg out on Facebook. Oh, and read a couple of academic articles to justify the expense. Technophiles aren’t terribly interested in buying a new personal computer. They are looking to buy a better iPod.
Apple seems to intrinsicly get this new demographic, as evidenced when they dropped the word “Computer” from their name. They are going lock stock and barrel for this group. It seems that the rest of the technology world has yet to wake up.
The hackers are no longer the gatekeepers or the trendsetters in technology. The technophiles are. The irony is that the hard-core hackers will end up being the late adopters. More and more developers will write apps for the Apple App Store simply because that’s where the audience is. For those who insist that they cannot on principle develop for a closed platform, there’s always the JooJoo.