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Good article. You know how people tend to forget their stupid ideas over time and think they're smarter? I just want to publicly own that I thought tablets wer

Good article. You know how people tend to forget their stupid ideas over time and think they're smarter? I just want to publicly own that I thought tablets weren't going to be a big deal before the iPad launch. I thought Apple fans would buy it, but then it wouldn't take off. I was mistaken. I'm already starting to re-write my memory with, "Oh yeah, of course it was going to be big" so I wanted to publicly own my poor prediction before my mind conveniently rewrites itself.

kenjackson 16y ago
I think you're in good company. My thought process timeline: Before Apple announces: Tablets are dead. Typing is just too convenient, and I don't want an underpowered laptop (which a lot of tablets were, with touch screens). During the 1st half of the Apple announcement: This thing is ugly, and is really just a big iPhone. FAIL. During the 2nd half of the Apple announcement: Since when did the Apple tax become the Apple discount? At those prices, I'll take two! And it slowly began dawning on me that it being a "big iPhone" was actually genius. How did so few people grok that this was the exact right thing to do? Now it's just common knowledge that upsizing your touch phone OS is a smart thing to do. After getting my first one: Two heavy, but it was clear that at 7" the iPad is with me everywhere. Even at 10", while not ideal for me, I can see it being great for a lot of people. The evolution on how people feel about the tablet is an interesting and complex one. I give Apple the credit for making me a believer.
- glhaynes 16y ago
  Your timeline made me smile and remember my experience on iPad introduction day. 5 minutes before keynote: "Well one thing we can be sure of, it's not just gonna be a big iPhone! haha" During: "Hmmmm... it's really just a big iPhone? Kinda cool for some people I guess, but it's certainly not for me." Later that evening, after thinking about it for a while: "Oh, of course! A big iPhone! What else would it be?"
bruceboughton 16y ago
BTW, I think the verb you're after is "own up (to)". I agree with your post though.
extension 16y ago
Anyone could be forgiven for not thinking much of tablets before the iPad. Tablets sucked before the iPad. And what made the iPad different was not really about the tablet anyway, it was about the platform. The iDevices are just a convenient vector for introducing a new computing paradigm, something Apple has probably been aching to do for a long time. How Android fits into that paradigm is not yet clear. Devices in this category need to be fully usable by anybody. In that respect, IMHO, Android is presently broken and fragmentation may prevent it from ever being fixed. It's no wonder that Apple is so fanatically protective of their platform.

kenjackson 16y ago

I think you're in good company. My thought process timeline: Before Apple announces: Tablets are dead. Typing is just too convenient, and I don't want an underpowered laptop (which a lot of tablets were, with touch screens). During the 1st half of the Apple announcement: This thing is ugly, and is really just a big iPhone. FAIL. During the 2nd half of the Apple announcement: Since when did the Apple tax become the Apple discount? At those prices, I'll take two! And it slowly began dawning on me that it being a "big iPhone" was actually genius. How did so few people grok that this was the exact right thing to do? Now it's just common knowledge that upsizing your touch phone OS is a smart thing to do. After getting my first one: Two heavy, but it was clear that at 7" the iPad is with me everywhere. Even at 10", while not ideal for me, I can see it being great for a lot of people. The evolution on how people feel about the tablet is an interesting and complex one. I give Apple the credit for making me a believer.

glhaynes 16y ago
Your timeline made me smile and remember my experience on iPad introduction day. 5 minutes before keynote: "Well one thing we can be sure of, it's not just gonna be a big iPhone! haha" During: "Hmmmm... it's really just a big iPhone? Kinda cool for some people I guess, but it's certainly not for me." Later that evening, after thinking about it for a while: "Oh, of course! A big iPhone! What else would it be?"

bruceboughton 16y ago

BTW, I think the verb you're after is "own up (to)". I agree with your post though.

extension 16y ago

Anyone could be forgiven for not thinking much of tablets before the iPad. Tablets sucked before the iPad. And what made the iPad different was not really about the tablet anyway, it was about the platform. The iDevices are just a convenient vector for introducing a new computing paradigm, something Apple has probably been aching to do for a long time. How Android fits into that paradigm is not yet clear. Devices in this category need to be fully usable by anybody. In that respect, IMHO, Android is presently broken and fragmentation may prevent it from ever being fixed. It's no wonder that Apple is so fanatically protective of their platform.