Who’s Gonna Buy That?

Your mom.

I kid, but it’s true. One of the shortest sighted things that nerds do is project their dreams and wants onto devices. This is great, in theory, but your mom doesn’t care about RAM, Gigahertz or processor cores. Your mom wants to do some stuff.

As the days pass, the longer I think about the iPad, the more I think Apple is going after Amazon. I believe Apple will permit the Kindle app on its devices and is largely allowing multiple distribution channels on its devices. I can’t see that changing with the iPad. So how is Apple “going after” Amazon? Hardware.

Today a Kindle 2 is $289 on Amazon.com. A Kindle DX with a 9.7″ screen is $489. For $10 more for an iPad I get:

-8x the storage
-a color screen
-a touch screen
-a touch OS
-a better web browser
-a better media player (iTunes)
-works on my home/work/plane wifi network
-the ability to download apps that do other things like play Scrabble and do Crosswords

Still think it’s a shitty device? That Apple didn’t “try hard enough”? You aren’t the target. Reader buyers are. On flight after flight, I’ve had conversations about the Kindle. It’s a good reader. But navigating text with foot or endnotes? PAIN. That kills a certain segment of books I can read. Tech books with diagrams or code snippets on a Kindle? Nearly unusable in my experience. Your mileage may vary. Do not buy this device if you think that it will be a horrible reader. PLEASE.

Apple is an experiential brand; you love the Apple product because of what you experience while using it. Apple is about providing that experience across your entire life with the device; from the moment it arrives in the box, you unwrap it like a present and every time you touch it, you are reminded of how deeply Apple cares about the most mundane piece of the device. The iPad will be no different. I will guarantee that once someone touches one, they will think about where this might fit into their life.

The final piece of this for me is that $499 is a killer price for something that could replace a laptop for the most casual of users. In this category I include people who surf and do email, with some light productivity needs: YOUR MOM.

In short: a shit ton of people are gonna buy an iPad.

  • http://www.meowsk.com meowsk

    It’s not so much the capability of the device that deters me as it is the name. I don’t think I would want to carry around something called the iPad.

  • localbites

    Also, students! Imagine the chronic back paid future generations will avoid by not having to lug around giant text books, and instead they get to tote something pretty. I almost want to go back to school to justify buying one.

  • localbites

    pain. i meant back pain

  • corinny

    Funny thing is, I said this exact thing to my husband as we were reading the live blog of the Apple event and texting back and forth. I stay at home with three kids… and the thought of the iPad was just amazing to me. I have no need for a high functioning laptop (though my current platform is a macbook pro… only for the occasional need for my graphic designer husband to work from home). I love the size, as it’s larger than an iTouch (which was on my must get when I have $$ list before the iPad came out). Tech geeks (such as my husband) were underimpressed, but ask any of my friends who are moms? My facebook stream was alive with excitment from all the women in my peer group about this thing… granted, we hate the name, but the product? Totally worth it

  • http://tobyjoe.myopenid.com/ tobyjoe.myopenid.com/

    I’m a recent Kindle DX convert, and I definitely prefer the e-ink displays to backlit displays for serious reading. I’ll still end up with at least one iPad, but it won’t be to read books. More for magazines and news, I imagine. Blogs and some casual games, for sure. Definitely not for novels, though.

    By the end of each day, my eyes are already burned out from being blasted by backlights.

    I am not the target demo, though, despite being an e-reader fan and Apple consumer/developer.

  • lannalee

    I am not convinced that the Kindle is in too much danger from the iPad, especially for those who have the Kindle 2 version (or the first version, which I have.) Most of the books I read on the Kindle do not have pictures, and because the smaller Kindle is smaller and lighter, I assume it will be easier to hold while reading than the iPad would be anyway.

    That said, the iPad looks like it would be a better choice for text books/technical books and for who read a lot of PDFs. Although the DX is good for PDFs, as we all know, anything in color is rendered in black-and-white/greyscale. Most scientific textbooks have full-color pictures and charts/graphs. And the size of them – the iPad might even be lighter! Like you said, Tech books are hard to read on the Kindle. Romance novels, however, are not. (Neither are horror, mystery, sci-fi…) I’ll keep my Kindle for serious fun-reading. However…

    I plan on getting an iPad because I wanted a netbook and I wanted an iTouch – this combines both devices in one. The only wish I had is that it could multitask. You know, just let me listen to music while I write or something! But that’s still not a dealbreaker. I can still use my iPod classic if I want.

    I look forward to having a lighter piece of equipment on which I can read PDFs, watch movies and take notes during class. I don’t need another laptop.

    I am curious tho, what do you think of the name?

    • http://blurbomat.com blurb

      Guaranteed that you’ll be able to listen to music while you do other things. The “no multitasking” crowd likely don’t have iPhones that allow this now. :-)

      The name is fine. Fun to lark about for a day or two but what about the Nintendo Wii? Worse connotations, breakout product.

    • Andrew

      Ditto on the easier to hold comment.

      I hold the Kindle 2 in one hand while I read in bed. With one hand I can hold it over my head on my back or in front of my face on my side, and I change the page with the same hand I hold it with. It’s just the right weight and configuration for me. I’ve held the Kindle DX in the same way to compare, and it’s too heavy. It’s fine for technical documents and textbooks during the day, not for novels at night.

      The iPad is 4.8 ounces heavier than the Kindle DX and requires a free hand to swipe across the screen when you want to turn the page. It may seem trivial, but that’s a step backward for me. I also can’t read backlit screens close to my face for long without getting a headache.

    • Grover Dill

      I have a Kindle DX that I use exclusively for technical PDFs (I got tired of being expected to print out 500 pages of technical documentation for some product in order to be able to learn how to use it). From a pure reader standpoint, I’m not sure that I expect an iPad to be better. My main considerations for a device like this are readability and battery life, and I think it’s difficult for an backlit LCD screen to compete with e-Ink as far as those things go. For heavy duty reader use, I don’t think an iPad is necessarily the answer.

      That said, there are literally hundreds of useful things the iPad can do that are completely impossible on a Kindle DX, for a similar price. To my mind, that makes the iPad a far better overall value, despite its shortcomings as a dedicated reader.

  • http://www.lackofstyle.com weezgrrl

    All well and good, but your average mom is more frugal about her tech purchases than your average gadget hound. You talk about going up against the Kindle, but with any sort of portability factored in, you’re going to need to add $15-30 per month plus the increased base cost. If your mom is indeed looking for a reader, she’s likely to go with the unit with less bells and whistles and less over time cost. At least, my mom would. Sure, it’s prettier than the Kindle. But it’s about perceived value. Whisper Sync is a way better value than having to pay for 3G or ensuring you have access to WiFi.

    • http://blurbomat.com blurb

      $10 says that your mom will likely need help to turn on the wireless in the Kindle. And to buy books. And then complain when the battery dies in a day or two.

      And I think you underestimate the draw of a touch interface. Without fail, every single person who played with my iPhone after it launched had the “I want that right now” experience. I don’t think the iPad is going to be any different.

  • wilberfan

    Gizmodo seems to agree with your analysis: http://gizmodo.com/5458855/the-apple-ipad-is-for-old-people

  • megnut

    I know what you’re trying to say here Jon, and I agree completely with the idea that techies are projecting, but I *hate* the “mom” label as short-hand for someone who doesn’t understand/want/need tech. My mother has an M.I.S. degree and spent years doing tech support at Sybase. She taught me what “row level locking” meant! She worked at CompuServe in the 80s and got me online. She bought us our first Apple ][+ and through that I learned BASIC and Logo. She’s the reason I’m the techie that I am. My dad? Only really started getting online in the past couple of years. The iPhone’s changed his life.

    The “mom” label’s always irked me. Now that I’m a mom as well, it bothers me even more. I’m a mom and I care deeply about the innards of my machines! I know I’m not average and that people use this label as a short-hand for a kind of user. And maybe the average mom is like that. But I think it’s doing a disservice to a generation of girls who are constantly exposed to the idea that moms/females are the technologically inferior sex. It sends a message that this stuff, this geeky stuff, isn’t really for you.

    The iPad is ideal for a certain kind of user, one who’s looking to consume media and stay connected with friends and family. Perhaps it’s not ideal for a hard-core nerd (of course it’s not, they build their machines from scratch and load it with Linux!). And sure, some of those ideal iPad users may be moms. I just wish “mom” weren’t the label we always had to use to describe them.

    Also I almost think Apple’s not going after anyone. They’re looking at the technologies available to end users and saying “we can do that better!” Better GPS device (adios Garmin). Better smart phone (adios Blackberry). Better ebook reader (adios Kindle). Better music and video rentals and purchases (adios music industry that never figured this out and Blockbuster). “Going after” to me implies following someone. Honestly I think Apple’s leading a charge here: a charge to build beautiful machines filled with beautiful software and beautiful hardware to help us connect and share and live lives filled with beauty.

    • http://blurbomat.com blurb

      Thanks for this response. I hear you about the “mom” label. I did not mean it pejoratively. Right after I hit “publish” I figured that there would be moms out there who are super techy and brilliantly nerdy. You’ve always seemed that way to me… you helped invent the software and personal-publishing-made-easy idea that changed my life! I used a cheap playground joke to get attention, there was likely a better way to say it.

  • http://www.smalljoysinlife.wordpress.com THatton

    Very interesting…I hadn’t thought about the iPad this way. I have the iTouch and a small netbook on my wish list this year…this might be a way I can do both for less.

  • Andrew

    A friend of mine was psyched about buying an iPad for his mother yesterday. He saw it as a device for people who didn’t need much computing power, people who only need to do a little browsing and email from time to time, especially older or more casual folks like his mother. And I see no problem with the general assessment.

    I pointed out the following though. The iPad can only exist in a connected home. She needs the computer to backup, sync and update the iPad, to setup a router or access point for internet access, probably to setup and share a printer, maybe for a digital camera, and surely a handful of things we take for granted that don’t come to mind. As tech geeks with connected homes we take the connected home for granted.

    The iPhone OS may be able to do all of these things one day, but not now. Since a fully functional computer is necessary, why not buy a netbook or similar laptop? This is only a problem if you don’t want to buy a consumer device from anyone but Apple (and fair enough then).

    I don’t mean to suggest I don’t see a use for this thing. It certainly seems to fill a gap in the Apple product line. I think this is equivalent to the AppleTV though. I don’t know that Apple will do any better with ebooks on the iPad than it did with television and movies on the AppleTV, but it should push the industry. In that regard I’m pleased.

    People imagine all the possibilities the iPad will create to change the way we do things. Think about it though, TiltShift on a device without a built in camera? With its lower price and simple interface it opens computing up to the general population and should sell like gangbusters. Think about it though, does the general population have a connected home and the money to spend on an auxiliary device? Only if the general population is an affluent population. I don’t see magic. I see Apple filling a gap in its product line that other companies have filled with less expensive netbooks and e-ink based readers. Time could prove me wrong though.

  • cakeburnette

    As the mom of a middle-school boy, I can attest to the fact that “you mom” is a teen phrase used commonly, but rarely actually referring to anyone’s actual mother. So I was not at all offended (or taken aback) to your usage of the phase in the post.

    And as I posted on another site talking about the iPad, this is EXACTLY what is wanted in our household. With 2 middle-schoolers who want netbooks, the iPad is the obvious solution. We will NOT buy any horrid PC products. They do not work on our Airport network (and before anyone PCers out there start shrieking, I know it will go online, but it won’t “talk” to the Macs) and we will NOT go backward. But we are also not buying $3,000 work of MacBooks for middle-school kids. They’ll each get one for to take to college when they graduate, but there’s not a need for them to have them now. But they don’t like sharing the Mac (wah-wah).

    We’ll wait a bit for all the kinks to get worked out, but I see these in our future.

    • Andrew

      Outh! Ma tuun huths.

      • Andrew

        Darn. That would have been funnier if it posted correctly. It looks like stuff you post between greater-than and less-than symbols don’t display in comments. How about this:

        (SYMBOL) bites tongue (SYMBOL)
        (SYMBOL) gets blood on his Apple and Dell certifications (SYMBOL)

        Outh! Ma tuun huths.

  • http://www.blessourhearts.blogspot.com Ms. Moon

    And I sure as hell wish someone would buy this Mama one. Oh yes I do.

  • http://momma-geek.blogspot.com/ momma-geek.blogspot.com/

    The iPad isn’t necesarily meant to rival the Kindle, nor is it meant to replace laptops (yet). It’s just that. A pad. Something you can pick up to jot down a thought Something you can leave out on the coffee table to surf the web whenever. Or as my husband (who is a techie programmer and really likes the idea of the iPad) says, something he can take to the toilet and not worry about losing the mouse down the ubend. It is really handy for loads of things beyond this, but it was never meant to be a netbook wannabe.This is Apple just pioneering it’s way through technology as it’s always done, that’s what their all about. There has been so much hype about this that there was no way it could live up to expectations. And some people are looking at it as such a failure because it doesnt have the tech they were expecting or hoping for. What their forgetting is the tech it is bringing to the table (for example a refined touch screen and the A4 chip). And remember this is just version 1. Mind you, they really could have picked a better name.

    • http://momma-geek.blogspot.com/ momma-geek.blogspot.com/

      Also: what megnut said.

  • Lynn

    I completely agree. Now I am not on the whole e-reader bandwagon yet. I like my books live and in person. But if I was going to shell out the cash I would get the IPad and not the Kindle. Why would I pay for a device that can only do one thing when I can pay for a device that can do all of this. The only “bad” this I have heard from e-readers is that the IPad would make it virtually impossible to read it out in the sun in a park or beach because of the glare.

    Oh also the price is great. I do not like spending money on gadgets. Shoot my cell is a 6 year old free flip phone. But the $499 price point is brilliant.

  • DrKoob

    Thanks for taking it right in the chops on this one Blurb. I couldn’t have said it better myself.

    And people, get a life about the name. I have had a dirty mind all my life but when I get out a new bunch of yellow paper bound by glue at the top, (A PAD) I do not think of women’s hygiene products. And I predict a year from now, no one will care what it’s called.

    When i watched the blogs during the keynote, I knew I wanted one. I knew my wife would also say, “Oh, another toy, but it’s your money so go ahead.” Instead what she said was, “I think I want one.”

    Good job!

  • Rich

    I would buy one, and plan to when they come to my country. I got the new Imac last month and the new powerbook in Sept and I still have a need for an Ipad. My wife has her IMac and my daughter has her Power book as well, but I will get them an Ipad as well. It will be most useful to us in our home, as I don’t like dragging my PB to bed or the living room when I want to watch something online. It would be used in my home just the way SJs demonstrated it, in a relaxed setting in a comfortable chair or sofa. The cost is low enough to warrant one or two and the freedom to be able to carry it around is well worth it.

  • Garrett Guillotte

    Screen’s too small for my mom. She’s already said she doesn’t want one. She got her hands on an iPhone once and didn’t understand why it even existed. It’s a phone, she says! Why does it do all this stuff a computer with a nice big screen is for?

    If the pad had come out first, she’d probably get it, or at least understand it. The weird thing is that she looks at this and says it’s a huge iPhone, and thus is inscrutable to her.

    The one feature that would’ve shut up every nerd, though? DisplayPort input, like the iMac. A locked-down $500 internet pad is a yawner, but secondary displays are like hookers and crack to a nerd. Don’t need them, probably even being close to them is bad for you, but damn, son, look at her _bezel_. Look at it!

    Also, does Amazon really give a crap about the Kindle as hardware? I thought they were making their money off selling books – thus Kindle on PC, Kindle on iPhone, Kindle on toasters, Kindle on diapers, Kindle on bound sheafs of paper, etc.

  • http://ecoecoamerica.blogspot.com/ southerngirl

    Interesting NYT piece on Ipad name:

    http://tinyurl.com/y95moh3

  • http://ecoecoamerica.blogspot.com/ southerngirl

    In reference to “your mom” reference: not sure what generation of mom you are referring to- a mom like me who has been a Mac support person at a large university for 20 years and knows and loves her gadgets or my 87 year old mother who wouldn’t touch any kind of computind device for love or money?

  • http://ecoecoamerica.blogspot.com/ southerngirl

    Make that “computing device”. D@mn iPhone keyboard. ; )

  • Robdiz

    Are you people out of your minds? I could write books to respond to all of these posts, but I’ll stick to the original.
    1.”For $10 more for an iPad I get:
    -8x the storage
    -a color screen
    -a touch screen
    -a touch OS
    -a better web browser
    -a better media player (iTunes)
    -works on my home/work/plane wifi network
    -the ability to download apps that do other things like play Scrabble and do Crosswords”
    I don’t know if you’ve lived under a rock for the past couple of years, but the Ipod Touch does all this…for just a few bucks under $500.

    2.”Still think it’s a shitty device? That Apple didn’t “try hard enough”? You aren’t the target. Reader buyers are. ” You do realize that if it were intended to be FOR readers, that the reading applications would be the number one topic discussed when the device was released? Yes it will be one of the best reading devices out there, but because it is coming from apple, and because it has all the other capabilities that make it more than just a reader, it can’t just be good at one minor thing. It has made 0 improvements from the latest item released, the IPhone/ITouch besides being bigger.

    3.”The final piece of this for me is that $499 is a killer price for something that could replace a laptop for the most casual of users. In this category I include people who surf and do email, with some light productivity needs”
    Replace a laptop!? You have got to be joking. Lets go over a quick list of what my shitty 5 year old laptop collecting dust on my shelf can do that the Ipad cannot (lets not get into new devices, cause that wouldn’t be fair…). 1-USB, nuff said. 2-alternate resolutions for the so called “amazing movie viewing experience, in 4:3″. 3-FLASH, how can you leave that out of any browsing device in today’s age? 4-Video camera. 5-Ability to install any software that apple has made AND any other companies! God forbid I dare ask for software that the app store cannot provide me. How dare I. 6-A real keyboard. Ok the touch keyboard is sweet, but it will not be fun on those wrists using it at the awakward angles. There is an attachment for a full keyboard, but why buy something that any computer should come with?
    I’d go on with the other million reasons this can never replace a laptop, but I don’t have that kind of free time.

    • http://blurbomat.com blurb

      You have missed the point entirely.

  • UptownMike

    I agree that $499 is a great price for the version being release right now. But aren’t the folks that buy it going to feel like fools once Apple releases the 3G version down the road in April? I really don’t understand the motive for releasing a version that’s inferior to its immediate successor, other than greed. Why not give the consumer the best version right off the bat?

    Also, it’s just hard to forgive them for double dipping their loyal iPhone customers by charging a second data fee. That just chaffs. At least for me. Maybe that’s AT&Ts fault. Granted, a lot of folks might just run it off their home wi-fi. In which case, the iPad actually looses a step to the Kindle which comes with free 3G right out of the box. Also, if you don’t spring for the data plan, then you’re basically carrying around a huge iPod touch combined with a low-grade laptop without a network card.

    Of coure, I’m arguing need, you’re talking about desire, in which case I totally agree with you. I just don’t see this as a smart purchase, but that’s not how America works.

  • Yolanda

    I’m a mom and a self-labeled geek and I absolutely want an iPad. I don’t have a smart phone. I don’t have a Kindle. And I *still* use an iPod Mini, not because I’m technological luddite, but because my budget is tight and I rarely replace a working device with another, simply because the next-great-thing has come out. Sure, I blog, edit photos in Lightroom, and do a lot of hardcore Photoshop play. But that is actually a small portion of how I spend my computer time. Most of that time is spent instant messaging, checking Facebook, surfing endless websites and blogs.

    The iPad is the computer I can imagine taking with me everywhere. For some people, their iTouch/iPhone already does that for them. I have a Macbook, and occasionally I have to take it with me, but it’s far from a take-everywhere device. I also like to end each night flipping through a magazine, catalog, or reading a book–in bed. Occasionally I surf the net all the way to sleep. The possibility of having a small, light machine that could meet all these needs is very appealing to me.

    Why wouldn’t I lust for an iPhone instead? Because it’s small and I have astigmatism and carpal tunnel. I have a diaper bag or giant purse with me at all times, anyway. So, pocket portability is a non-issue for me. I think there are a lot of people, an yes a lot of women, students, moms, and grandparents who will find this device as appealing as I do. I also think there are a lot of mouthy geeks out there who are going to talk their less-geeky parents and friends out of buying the device simply because geeks don’t get why some users don’t need their machines to do everything at once and as fast as possible.

    But what do I know? I do all my television viewing on an AppleTV.

  • http://blancheflower.blogspot.com Leask

    I definitely see the appeal of the iPad, though I don’t see myself buying one in the near future, if only because in the last month I bought a Kindle and 13″ MacBook Pro, and already own an iPhone. Between these three, I have my bases generally covered.

    However, like I said, I can definitely see the market for the device, even if it doesn’t include me. Jon, I wholeheartedly agree with your statement about the short-sightedness of projecting one’s desires onto a device or other people; I’d call it the cardinal sin of nerds, geeks, and the internet in general. The internet and the world would both be nicer places if more people didn’t conflate “I don’t want one” with “It shouldn’t exist, and anybody who wants it is stupid”.

    One thing I’m looking forward to seeing is to what extent people’s opinions change once the device itself hits the streets and they can see it and use it without buying one or going to the store. I’m not generally an early adopter, so I can’t speak to this effect on many devices, but the Kindle 2 only became available in Canada towards the end of 2009 and is still fairly rare to see, and it’s interesting to see people’s responses before and after they see or use one. I got a lot of rolled eyes and amused expressions from older family and coworkers when I talked about buying an e-reader, but after seeing it in person they’ve all been impressed with it. Not necessarily impressed enough to go out and buy one right now, but it got rid of a lot of prejudices and nudged them closer to considering one down the line. I’ve even had a few people see the Kindle from across the room and be so fascinated that they came over and asked about it. When they found out what it was, they’ve often confessed that what they’d imagined a Kindle or e-reader as was something completely different.

    I think, in the end, it’s instances like these that form more lasting opinions of gadgets and devices than knee-jerk internet reactions from strangers, which are quicker and more numerous at first, but ultimately carry less weight.