There's one big reason why I think the ipad doesn't stand a great chance of taking off.
Let's look back at the iphone - it was great because it trounced all available competition at the time. It was a few years before android caught up and started to offer a viable alternative, by which point every other person seemed to have an iphone anyway! I thought it was a brilliant idea at the time - and yes, it's enjoyed a great success.
What about the ipod? Again, the MP3 players available at the time weren't really marketed at consumer use, and those that were were ugly things that were hidden away in a corner. Most people were still using portable CD players. The Ipod completely turned that around, and again while you had other offerings following a few years afterwards, they weren't necessarily superior and the ipod had established itself by the time they came out anyway.
Fast forward to the ipad. And compare its specs to these beauties, all due to come out sometime in the near future. Quite frankly, they're pretty much all better...
I'm still not convinced the whole tablet thing will take off at all to be honest. It seems like people are trying to find problems they can apply the solution too rather than the other way round, and that very rarely works. If they do take off though, I don't think apple will take the crown with their ipad - at least not this generation of it.
Let's look back at the iphone - it was great because it trounced all available competition at the time. It was a few years before android caught up and started to offer a viable alternative, by which point every other person seemed to have an iphone anyway! I thought it was a brilliant idea at the time - and yes, it's enjoyed a great success.
What about the ipod? Again, the MP3 players available at the time weren't really marketed at consumer use, and those that were were ugly things that were hidden away in a corner. Most people were still using portable CD players. The Ipod completely turned that around, and again while you had other offerings following a few years afterwards, they weren't necessarily superior and the ipod had established itself by the time they came out anyway.
Fast forward to the ipad. And compare its specs to these beauties, all due to come out sometime in the near future. Quite frankly, they're pretty much all better...
I'm still not convinced the whole tablet thing will take off at all to be honest. It seems like people are trying to find problems they can apply the solution too rather than the other way round, and that very rarely works. If they do take off though, I don't think apple will take the crown with their ipad - at least not this generation of it.