What the Apple iPad really is

As with the launch of every new Apple product, detractors and enthusiasts have dug in, with one side proclaiming the iPad an instant failure and the other vigrorously defending all that is Apple.

Lost in this nonsense is a clear notion of what the iPad really is. Certainly it’s not a laptop or a netbook. It’s not even a tablet PC. It’s a media consumption device — nothing more, nothing less.

Apple realized long ago that if you provide a “normal” user with a high-quality product that delivers high-quality content for a reasonable price, you can make a mint. The company proved that several times in the past decade. The iPad is nothing more than a way to expand the market to include ebooks and online publications (hence the New York Times plugs). Content is king, not the device.

So while everyone’s getting their panties in a bunch about the iPad’s shortcomings, Apple is going to sell millions of them to people who just want to be able to use the Web, email, music, movies, and books in one convenient device. That’s it. Back it up with local stores that offer training sessions and employees that really know the products inside and out and you have a winner.

Have you ever seen an Apple store that wasn’t crowded? I was in one last week that must’ve had 30 employees roaming around to deal with the 80 or so customers — and it was a small store. Like it or not, Apple has managed to position its products as the easiest, cheapest, and fastest way to satisfy our mobile entertainment desires, and it’s making a killing doing it.

Apple iPad: It’s not just for the fanboys

I like to look for organic sentiments about new consumer hardware, like uninitiated conversations with acquaintances, discussions overheard in line at Dunkin’ Donuts, that kind of thing. Last week an older relative of mine came right out and asked me about the iPad. This is a man who has what might be called an adversarial relationship with technology and has had the same basic cell phone for most of a decade. He’s not a high-tech guy in any sense of the term, yet he was amazed by the iPad and was going to order one as soon as he could. I’ve never seen him profess interest in any sort of consumer gadget before, but the iPad commercials he’s seen blew him away.

If that’s a demographic that Apple’s going to draw in with the iPad, the company may well yet have another tiger by the tail.

So is the iPad “limited”? Sure. The missing camera is really annoying, and I hope it’s due to sourcing issues rather than a corporate desire to mete out features in subsequent releases over the next year or so. Plus, this device really does need multitasking, Steve. But it doesn’t need to be turned into a netbook, it doesn’t need a ton of ports, and it doesn’t need to be “like” anything else. It just has to deliver (mostly paid) content in a fluid and seamless manner.

That’s the whole idea.

This story, “What the Apple iPad really is,” was originally published at InfoWorld.com. Follow the latest developments in mobile computing, the iPad, and netbooks at InfoWorld.com.