I’m sure Apple anticipated some of the post-iPad-release consumer rumblings that their newest toy isn’t “all that”. The hype leading up to its release became impossible to ignore, which meant there was a lot of pressure to deliver — especially considering the love-in surrounding the Kindle.
It wasn’t just techies whimpering for Steve Jobs’ table scraps. Ordinary people were curious about iPad too. But now Twitter’s a-buzz with mocking names (iTampon, etc) and FML-style complaints that the iPad doesn’t have “clean my room and make me breakfast” features.
What happened to the good ol’ days of December 2009 when people were happy with the Kindle’s minimal purpose and function? The Kindle shouldn’t even really be compared to the iPad; they’re in different markets. The iPad is a digital content consuming device in the broadest sense. The Kindle is meant for reading text — that’s it. And that’s a good thing.
But people are getting nervous that their Kindles are suddenly useless because they can’t stream video and have started jumping ship… or maybe it’s only these two Fox News weirdos who are bailing?
I hate to burst the bubble, but the Kindle isn’t a mini laptop and it wasn’t meant to be. It’s designed for books. Both devices can peacefully co-exist, and hopefully they will because writers (along with everyone depending on mass media consumption to pay their bills) need all the fire power they can get in the war against free content.
To sum it up: The Kindle was “amazing” and now it’s just “good”, and people were expecting the iPad to be “good” but are now disappointed that it can’t cure cancer or successfully play the stock market. Or, at least I’m pretty sure it can’t do either of those things; I might’ve missed something in Apple’s iPad promo video…
Update (via Kirk LaPointe’s Blog):
Google’s Chief Economist says iPads are great, but newspapers have a much more difficult struggle ahead of them: readers’ news consumption habits. This suggests a new approach is needed not only to content distribution, but the very appeal and substance of the content.
Head asplode.
