Apple's iPad Megathread

[sclitheroe]

I still don’t see very many of them. Love mine though.

[Russic]

Originally Posted by sclitheroe

I still don’t see very many of them. Love mine though.

Riding a ctrain 10x's a week for 3 months and I only ever managed to see 2. One was a CP member which was pretty odd.

[FanIn80]

Just realized I forgot to post the link to the article...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/39501308
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2370276,00.asp
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-20018556-17.html

I still get a kick out of people's predictions when this thing was announced (and then when it was launched).

[Phaneuf3]

Originally Posted by Russic

Except that the wii is a video game system, something that's been around since the early 80's. A better comparison would have been to the original NES. I believe the article is talking about new products that exist in a category of their own.

Well, that's not what it said in the article but assuming that's the point the author was attempting to make... Is the iPad really in a category of its own? It's a tablet PC and depending on how you define that category, they've been around for a decade or more before the iPad's release.

Before someone makes the argument that the iPad has some minor feature that's a complete game changer that propels it into a class of it's own, you could make the same argument for the Wii with its revolutionary controller design.



All that aside... even if you want to look at NES numbers: When it was originally released under the name Famicom in Japan it sold 500,000 units in the first 2 months and about 2.5 million in approx the first year and a half (in the Japanese market alone).
Anyway you slice it, the figures and claims in this article are very suspect.

[FanIn80]

It's common knowledge that the DVD player was the fastest adopted new technology. This guy isn't making it up. As for the Wii or NES thing, neither of them were the first ever home video game system.

The iPad is the first of its category, and it's been adopted faster than the first product in any other home electronic category ever produced. 18 million units in its first year (4.5 million per quarter).

CNBC, PC Mag, Cnet... These aren't just random blogs.

[Rathji]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

It's common knowledge that the DVD player was the fastest adopted new technology. This guy isn't making it up. As for the Wii or NES thing, neither of them were the first ever home video game system.

The iPad is the first of its category, and it's been adopted faster than the first product in any other home electronic category ever produced. 18 million units in its first year (4.5 million per quarter).

CNBC, PC Mag, Cnet... These aren't just random blogs.

If the qualification is that it is the first tablet device that doesn't suck to the point of being unusable, then yes it is the first. I think there are enough tablet PCs and large PDA type devices that exist that comparing this to a DVD player is a bit of a stretch.

Actually, with further thought, a DVD player is really just a combination of a CD player and a VCR. I guess the bar when defining a 'new' type of device is set rather low.

Doesn't mean the iPads numbers are not crazy good, you would have to be a fool to deny that.

[Phaneuf3]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

It's common knowledge that the DVD player was the fastest adopted new technology. This guy isn't making it up. As for the Wii or NES thing, neither of them were the first ever home video game system.

The iPad is the first of its category, and it's been adopted faster than the first product in any other home electronic category ever produced. 18 million units in its first year (4.5 million per quarter).

CNBC, PC Mag, Cnet... These aren't just random blogs.

Putting aside the fact that that's not what the quote said but assuming that's what the author intended to say...
It all depends on how you define your categories, I guess. I fail to see how the iPad is its own category unless you're defining your categories as something silly like a tablet computer made by Apple.

Furthermore, even with DVD players you could argue that they're not the first of their kind either. Remember Laserdisc? If we're putting wii/xbox 360/PS3 in the same category as an old atari or something of similar vintage, then laserdisc and DVD could definitely be lumped together.



Conversely, if you want to take the other stance and say that DVD and iPad made enough of a jump to put them into a class of their own, you could definitely make the same argument for Wii with its very innovative motion controls in a home console.



iPad sales are impressive and to be honest, quite surprising - no question there. My point is that you can manipulate stats, figures and categories to spin the story whatever way you want to.

[FanIn80]

Putting aside the fact that that's not what the quote said

It's exactly what it said.

It's really not a difficult thing to understand. The iPad is a brand new product category, and it set the record for selling more units faster then the previous product category to hold the record, which was the DVD player.

There are now like a hundred articles written about it, so I think I'll go with them on this one.

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

The iPad is the first of its category.

What category is it, then?

[Regorium]

Originally Posted by Mazrim

What category is it, then?

First ever magical whole-life device.

[Phaneuf3]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

It's exactly what it said.

No. It isn't. There is no mention of categories or classes of products. The only way this author is categorizing things (at least in the quotes you pulled out and posted) is 'non-phone electronic product'.

This sales rate is blowing past the one million units the iPhone sold in its first quarter and the 350,000 units sold in the first year by the DVD player, the most quickly adopted non-phone electronic product.

Originally Posted by FanIn80

There are now like a hundred articles written about it, so I think I'll go with them on this one.

Well, I disagree with some of their categorizations to be able to manufacture a story. Simple as that.
There are hundreds of articles because they're in the business of writing articles. They need a story and Apple is a hot topic these days.

[FanIn80]

I didn't write any of the articles, and I didn't perform the study that lead to them being written in the first place.

I'm not going to go back and forth on this. If it's something you don't agree with then write to one of the 100 or so online tech and financial news sites that have picked this story up. I'm sorry, but this notion that the entire tech and financial media is lying to you is a rather silly one. If it was just one random blog saying this, then I would be skeptical too... but it's not.

[FanIn80]

The crazy thing is a lot of sites are now saying the iPad is the fastest selling electronics device ever... which is very hard to believe. Fastest tech category, sure but I don't know about fastest device period. I don't even know which device holds that current record.

Google: http://news.google.ca/news?q=ipad+fastest+selling

Edit: Some of this stuff is getting pretty ridiculous...

[Phaneuf3]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

I didn't write any of the articles, and I didn't perform the study that lead to them being written in the first place.

I'm not going to go back and forth on this. If it's something you don't agree with then write to one of the 100 or so online tech and financial news sites that have picked this story up. I'm sorry, but this notion that the entire tech and financial media is lying to you is a rather silly one. If it was just one random blog saying this, then I would be skeptical too... but it's not.

And that's fine. I'm not looking for you to defend their writing. I just made a comment on something that was posted. I'm not even accusing them of lying. The numbers are (assumed to be) accurate and if you go along with their seemingly completely arbitrary and weak categorizations, their conclusions would be valid. Anyway... The media stretching things to create or sensationalize a story? I don't think this is some groundbreaking revelation.


The only claim that YOU have made personally that I find a little suspect, and I wouldn't mind hearing a defense of, is that the iPad is in a category of its own.

[Phaneuf3]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

The crazy thing is a lot of sites are now saying the iPad is the fastest selling electronics device ever... which is very hard to believe. Fastest tech category, sure but I don't know about fastest device period. I don't even know which device holds that current record.

Google: http://www.google.ca/search?q=ipad+fastest+selling

Agreed. That causes me to raise an eyebrow.

Might it possibly be a case of articles sourcing other articles in a game of media telephone distorting the message? Over a couple iterations 'fastest selling tablet PC' can become 'fastest selling new technology of it's kind' which can become 'fastest selling device ever purple monkey dishwasher!!1'.

[Mazrim]

It's good to see then that the media has just been following the buzz words Apple has placed in its press conferences and media releases. I know I'm not the only one who sees the iPad as a tablet computer with iOS. Has any of these articles attempted to explain what separates the iPad from a typical tablet device? I wasn't aware software placed it in a different category. Otherwise, the Wii, PlayStation Move and Kinect should be in their own category: "Motion controlled video game device", and can compete for fastest selling motion controller, fastest selling motion controlled game, etc etc.

I'm not saying this to you in particular FanIn80, just making a comment in general about the media love-in with Apple lately.

[FanIn80]

So what are some of the specific devices that are currently available on the market, and are in the same category as the iPad?

[Phaneuf3]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

So what are some of the specific devices that are currently available on the market, and are in the same category as the iPad?

Well, I'm lazy so I don't feel like finding out exactly what's still available, etc. That doesn't matter anyway though because if Atari, NES and Wii are in the same category, current availability obviously doesn't matter for the purposes of this discussion.

Plus I still haven't seen a definition of what category the iPad is in. Assuming calling it a tablet PC is sufficient, here's a start:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tablet_pc#Popular_models

[Mazrim]

Originally Posted by FanIn80

So what are some of the specific devices that are currently available on the market, and are in the same category as the iPad?

Hardware wise? I work with a couple tablet PCs in the field that have no keyboard and use touch screens extensively. The differences between the iPad and these are Windows XP versus iOS, and I only use my fingers to click icons and drag. I use a stylus for typing with the on-screen keyboard.

I'll see if I can find out what the model name is.

[FanIn80]

http://www.google.ca/search?q=ipad+device+category