"All this hype for something so ridiculous! Why would they do this?! It's so wrong! It's so stupid!"
"It won't sell. It will be killed off."
"The reality distortion field is starting to warp Steve Jobs's mind if he thinks for one second that this thing is gonna take off."
It's reassuring to know that some things never change: those were comments made on Apple fan sites as the first iPod was released in October 2001. Despite initial doubts, the iPod has become the symbol for seismic change, and very much to the benefit of Apple. The "iPod effect" boosted sales of its computers and also successfully staked out a lucrative chunk of the nascent digital music market by locking consumers into its own music store – effectively stealing the future from under the noses of the old music industry. Less than nine years later, Apple has sold 250m iPods.
So what of the iPad? Apple did no formal promotion ahead of the launch. Why would they when the world – from big media to fan boy bloggers – does it for them? Apple's skill at creating desire for its products is supreme. Maintaining North Korean levels of secrecy before each launch (it is reported, for example, that only 30 senior Apple executives had seen a working iPhone before its launch in 2007), this anti-strategy has worked so successfully that it now builds almost too much expectation. Anything less than a teleporter would have disappointed.
After successfully defining the digital music market and redefining mobile, the iPad moves Apple into books, newspapers and magazines. The publishing industries are wisely wary of Apple's advances, given its bullying relationship with music and mobile partners in the past. Its only incentive is profit. But Apple will claim to have built on the best of the other ebook readers, added a sprinkle of that famous usability and will plan to coax a few million more consumers into adding ebooks and news to their Apple diet on a screen that makes publications look digitally delicious.
There is opportunity there but, as always with Apple devices, it will take several incarnations before the full potential is realised. We are all quick to dismiss the new, when we would learn far more by making the effort to explore and understand it.
I am currently on maternity leave. I spent most of my baby's first six months deliriously tired, physically debilitated and hormonally imbalanced. My iPhone was my only connection to the outside world. It was my lifeline. Of course, my mother was on speed dial, but it was Twitter and Facebook that kept me in touch with a wide circle of friends, family, colleagues and the world outside. At 3am, it was reading news and following discussions online that kept me awake while feeding my son. At 11am, it was Mumsnet forums to read up on feeding problems and growth rates.
Later, Apple's App Store began to throw up new treats: a breastfeeding log; a monitor that calls another phone if the baby cries; and the iBabySee slideshow that has fended off several in-car temper tantrums. There really is an app for that. And I'm still regularly posting updates on my baby's website using the email-to-blog service Posterous. All of this one-handed, on a phone.
Was that imaginable even three years ago when the iPhone launched? And where could the iPad be in three years?
