Cliché: Apple has established the height of the bar.
Whatever portable computing device your favorite company releases from today forward must be way better than an iPad to be considered a worthy competitor.
How do clichés come about? Let’s take a look at what company has established the state of the art for technology for the last 34 years.
The first personal computer with a keyboard and a color monitor: Apple
The first personal computer with graphical user interface: Apple
The first commercially available computer using a mouse: Apple
The first company to coin and make possible “Desktop Publishing:” Apple
WYSIWYG: Apple
The first company to make digital music files legally available for sale and download: Apple
The first to market with a multi-touch device: Apple
Apple had numerous other firsts. Apple has been defining the state of technology for so long it was bound to become a cliché eventually.
Anyone who wants to call me a fan boy for stating those historically verifiable facts, has to do one of two things:
- Prove my facts wrong.
- Admit that you’re a flaming asshole, fighting to stay ignorant.
If you can’t do either of those, it’s okay. You don’t really have to admit it.
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The point is, the game is over, Apple won. You already can’t walk two blocks without seeing an iPod. By this time in March, you won’t be able to walk from here to there without seeing an iPad. First the hotshot junior executive will bring one to a meeting, then everybody will have one. The occasional renegade/dork/asshole will have an off brand of tablet-like thingy. He’ll be the same guy who refuses to dress down on casual Friday.
The iPad is teh portable device.
The price point is perfect. Low-end notebooks and netbooks are obsolete. Apple just killed Asus and Acer. Windows Mobile has no more reason to be.
Laptops are now niche devices for people who need nearly the power of a desktop on the road.
If you don’t need the power of a laptop computer, you’ll be able to get along quite nicely with just an iPad.
The iPad will do everything that most people need a personal electronic device to do.
Everything.
In order to catch up, some other company will have to:
Start from scratch and develop integrated hardware and software.
Create an ecosystem that includes stores, hardware, software, developer support, and customer loyalty.
Create the buzz and hype it takes to market all of that effectively.
Introduce all that in at least one product that is better than whatever Apple happens to be selling at the moment.
Keep in mind that there are no companies that have Apple’s knack for keeping a product under wraps until the proper moment.
Keep in mind that Apple will be watching carefully for any leaked information about coming products.
Keep in mind that if Apple has released a product, the geeks in the dungeon are already two cycles down the road on products that make the relic on the market look like a stone ax.
Apply a little calculus to this equation, and punch it in to your calculator.
Apple products are better, overall, than anything that pretends to compete with them.
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Please feel free to disagree in the comments, so I can call you a retard.
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I did not watch the State of the Union address tonight. I’m going to go read the comment thread on a Windows Fanboy site. Hey, a retard is a retard.
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Rock and Roll (Part 2)
Hey dad….It’s sad, but all I could think about when watching all the iPad videos showing how awesome it is, I could only think of how great it would be to watch those videos on an iPad.
Let’s save our nickels and dimes.
1. I disagree! (Not really, just want some of that sugar you promised)
2. I love Gary Glitter before he became Paul Gadd pedophile. Now when I listen to him I feel slighty dirty and have one eye out for the FBI party bus!
Retard.
(That will be $5.00, and don’t forget to tip the girl on the way out.)