There are two very different sets of detractors to the Apple iPad. The first one is collections of technical people who cite a bunch of features that the iPad lacks as a failure. It doesn’t multitask. It doesn’t run full Mac OS X (or shock horror, Windows, or Linux). It doesn’t have a 32 day non-stop operational battery. The battery isn’t removable. You can’t directly plug in an SD card, or a CF card, or a microSD card, or a Memory Stick. It doesn’t have 3 x USB-3 ports. It doesn’t have 512GB of SSD storage. It doesn’t have …
Well, you get the picture.
There’s one very important thing to consider on this approach: Apple aren’t making the device for die-hard techos. They’re making the device for consumers. There’s a huge feature difference between what every techo would love to see in a device and what the average consumer cares for. Here’s what the average consumer cares about: cost and core functionality. They don’t care if out of the box they can’t hack down to root and do all sorts of “fun” things. (Where “fun” is for very small values approaching zero.) They don’t care if they can’t plug in an external blu-ray player into it and rip media directly onto it.
It’s fair to say that sometimes, techos lose the plot when evaluating the potential for a new device, failing to see that their standard usage scenario doesn’t even come close to what the average user’s standard usage scenario is.
The second category of detractors are the Microsoft Fanboys. Hell, they call people who like Apple products “fanboys” all the time, so why can’t the same be said in return? These are the people who will only seek out negative reviews, not look for any objective review, or if they do, skip the review to the comments section so they can post their own negative comments. Over the last 24 hours I’ve been reminded so much of a scene out of the final episode of the first season of the new Doctor Who. In it, The Doctor confronts the Daleks and says:
You know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek homeworld? The Oncoming Storm. You might have removed all your emotions, but I reckon right down deep in your DNA there’s one little spark left. And that’s fear. Doesn’t it just burn when you face me?
Apple has become the “Oncoming Storm”. And when I see the endlessly vitriolic comments about a new Apple product without an iota of substance to the claims, all I can think is “…and that’s fear. Doesn’t it just burn when you face me?”
Microsoft aren’t dead. They’re not going anywhere any time soon. But they’re tired. They’re lacking vision, energy and the capability to understand the market. Correcting Steve Jobs from the iPad launch, Stephen Fry said:
Apple stands at the intersection of Technology, the Liberal Arts and Commerce.
More than any other company I can think of at the moment, Apple has successfully grasped the need to straddle those three factors.
Over the next few years, I’m going to have to get used to the continuing reactions from the Microsoft Fanboys. They’re scared. Microsoft is scared. Microsoft continually now breaks the cardinal rule of competition – when you’re number 1 in market share, you don’t talk about number 2. They can’t stop talking about Apple – and in doing so, they’re suffering the same reaction as the Daleks in Doctor Who. I’ll say it again:
You know what they call me in the ancient legends of the Dalek homeworld? The Oncoming Storm. You might have removed all your emotions, but I reckon right down deep in your DNA there’s one little spark left. And that’s fear. Doesn’t it just burn when you face me?
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