6 ms·

> When the iPad was introduced, everyone was shocked by the very low price and the sleek form factor compared to previous Windows tablet devices. I remember hi

> When the iPad was introduced, everyone was shocked by the very low price and the sleek form factor compared to previous Windows tablet devices. I remember history a bit differently. I recall lots of people dismissing the iPad as "just a big iPod Touch".

ChicagoBoy11 3y ago
this is exactly as I remember it as well... it was quite mem'ed on that dimension alone, as to why would you need a giant one of the thing they already had.
plagiarist 3y ago
"iPad? Why did they name it after a tampon hahahaha never getting one of those. Similarly priced laptops are more powerful and have a keyboard." TBF the early models weren't as good and didn't have the keyboard and Apple Pencil of today.
- Hamuko 3y ago
  They also ran iOS without really much adaptation for the form factor. Now it's called "iPadOS" and has functionality that differentiates it from an iPhone. You can even dual screen the thing if you're a weirdo.
  - lobsterthief 3y ago
    I love using it as a second screen when I’m out at a coffee shop. It works so seamlessly and I can throw Slack on there while I code, without looking like a complete weirdo
    - jwells89 3y ago
      Sidecar works surprisingly well. With its latency and performance it’s barely distinguishable from a wired screen even running a HiDPI resolution.
      - GeneralMaximus 3y ago
        If you want, it's possible to wire it up too! I use the included USB-C cable to connect it directly to my MacBook. It's much more reliable that way, especially if you're on a flaky WiFi connection.
    - Hamuko 3y ago
      For clarity, by "dual screen", I mean this: https://www.macstories.net/stories/stage-manager-external-displays-finally/ https://www.macstories.net/stories/stage-manager-external-di...
- dpkonofa 3y ago
  Isn't that the rub, though? The majority of iPad users don't use the keyboards or Pencils. They're just using the iPad. That's exactly why the original was so successful.
frou_dh 3y ago
To a first approximation, that's what it still is all these years later. The software might be called iPadOS now but it's not fooling anyone that it's much different to iOS.
- KeplerBoy 3y ago
  It is iOS in all but name, isn't it? Same version and basically same changelogs?
  - ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
    I'm an Apple developer. When I release my apps, I only do so as iOS, and that runs on iPadOS. In the code, I check for the environment, in some cases, and do things differently, if it's an iPad.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    THE iPad supports a few things that the iPhone doesn’t, the main one being screen size, the two apps next to each other (iirc) and the pencil. But lots of apps can just treat it as a big phone.
- ghaff 3y ago
  There are some specific use cases like creating digital artwork and certain gaming/video where the difference between an iPhone and and an iPad really is arguably a difference in kind. But, yeah, especially with larger iPhones (even sub-Max) I've come to see an iPad as increasingly optional for most purposes.
  - longtimelistnr 3y ago
    Yes, I would agree. I use an iPad Pro for 3D modeling as well as drawing and graphic design. For those applications (especially 3D modeling) the M1 and large screen make a massive difference.
- dpkonofa 3y ago
  Yeah, but just like I said back then, that's like saying that a bathtub and a swimming pool are the same because they're both masses of contained water. The difference is explicitly in the size.
chomp 3y ago
Haha you’re not lying https://m.slashdot.org/story/133608 https://m.slashdot.org/story/133608 > Since the iPad's initial introduction back in January, many of us still wonder why we should drop hundreds of dollars for what is termed as a large iPod.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- rchaud 3y ago
  And Apple handled that with product placement. An episode of the hit sitcom Modern Family was centred entirely around a character's obssession with buying the iPad on Day 1. "Game Changer, Season 1, Episode 19, aired March 31, 2010" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Changer_(Modern_Family) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Changer_(Modern_Family)
  - dpkonofa 3y ago
    Your link states that Apple didn't pay for the product placement in the episode. It was the writers' idea.
bryanlarsen 3y ago
The iPod Touch was a highly successful product; if that was supposed to be a dismissal it wasn't a very effective one.
- drcongo 3y ago
  I'm not sure it's a dismissal, as in "an iPod Touch with a big screen" is quite a good pitch. Like even now, if we ever get 16" iPads it's just an iPad with a massive screen, but I'd be all over it. edit: so yeah, I agree with you
  - ghaff 3y ago
    I have an older version of one of the big iPads. The thing is that I never got into using it for digital animation/art that I envisioned doing at one point. And for routine travel content consumption stuff it was just bigger and heavier--but otherwise not a better experience.
    - drcongo 3y ago
      I use mine (12" M1 Pro) as a portable music studio - touch screen is fantastic for this so I vastly prefer Logic on the iPad to the Mac, but it's mighty cramped even on the 12".
- psunavy03 3y ago
  It was a dismissal from people who didn't see the utility of a parallel product that was just bigger. Just because someone sees the utility of a small SUV doesn't mean they will automatically want to also buy an F-150.
globular-toast 3y ago
Also they said the name sounded like a sanitary product.
iddqd 3y ago
To be fair, it kind off started off as a large iPod Touch. It took a few years for iPad to really differentiate itself from iOS devices.
al_borland 3y ago
There were also a significant number of jokes about the name, relating it to a feminine hygiene product. I bought one day 1 and pretty much everyone thought I was nuts and just an Apple zealot. However, as I took it places and used it, people saw it and became much more interested and took it more seriously as a product.
- brailsafe 3y ago
  I was definitely in the former camp, and eventually bought one because other people seemed to like it, and so took it more seriously as a product. But.. it was after buying it that I realized the emperor didn't really have any clothes, and it was either mostly an expensive status symbol for people who couldn't care less about the money, or a device with just a few specific and very useful purposes. My grandpa uses it for Planespotting, which seems perfectly appropriate to me. Now it's been 10 years, and I've never really thought about buying another one, because it's just not a general computing device that I've been able to make useful for a breadth of things I use devices for. It's only ever been effective for reading reference books, playing YouTube videos (before the app and browser support went away), reading pocket articles, browsing the web, and maybe a few games. Everything else just didn't prove effective, for me anyway. Even trying to watch regular videos on it is a total pain.
  - al_borland 3y ago
    I can agree with a lot of this, depending on the user. I’m pretty similar to you. I got it and used it, because it was new and novel, but over time the usage faded. I tried going back to the iPad mini, since I liked that form factor best, but it’s sitting a few feet from me, powered off, and hasn’t been used in months. My dad on the other hand, who is one of the people who bought and iPad after seeing mine, uses it all the time. He actually has 2 of them, a 10” and a 12.9”, and he uses both of them regularly enough that he feels they are both justified for his use cases. He still does use his Mac as well, but his iPads get a ton of use for reading the news, email, photography related things, and maybe some other stuff. He’s retired now, so that might be part of it. Maybe if didn’t work in IT and simply consumed whatever the apps allowed me to consume, I could get by with an iPad as my computer, but I want to do stuff an iPad can’t do. I also pretty much always want a keyboard and mouse, and when that’s always bolted on to an iPad, it might as well be a MacBook. I never found the appeal of touch screen laptops.
replwoacause 3y ago
Yes I remember Bababooey calling it a bit of a stumble.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
pavlov 3y ago
> ‘I recall lots of people dismissing the iPad as "just a big iPod Touch".’ The interesting point here is that Apple’s competitors at the time didn’t even have a product that could come close to the iPod touch, and yet Apple was already taking the product into a completely new direction. The iPod touch doesn’t exist anymore. Turns out the paper-like size combined with the simple UI made all the difference. And nobody scaling down from $2k Windows tablets could have figured that out. That’s how Apple created a beautifully designed tablet for only $499 and everybody else was left scrambling. With the Vision Pro, Apple doesn’t seem to have that kind of advantage. But I’d be very happy if it exceeds my expectations and is also successful in the market. I’ve been waiting for VR all my life. The Quest has come tantalizingly close but still misses the applications that would make it a part of my daily routine.
gumby 3y ago
They did, but before it was released it was predicted to cost over $1000, often confidently assumed to be well over a kilobuck. Instead it was $499. It was also much thinner and with better battery life than the experts had predicted. It was more of a shock than the M1 was in recent times. Not defending Apple here: I do believe the Vision Pro will be a resounding "meh".
beautifulfreak 3y ago
The iPad Death Watch is pretty funny: http://aaplinvestors.net/stats/ipad/ipaddeathwatch/ http://aaplinvestors.net/stats/ipad/ipaddeathwatch/
faeriechangling 3y ago
There were tear downs showing this tiny little iPod shaped SoC shoved into the case and connected to a massive battery. The SoC was underpowered considering it was running a 1024x768 screen and support was dropped almost immediately. The iPad 2 teardown showed an SoC which seemed a lot more custom designed for the iPad, and the "big iPod" criticism died around that point.

ChicagoBoy11 3y ago

this is exactly as I remember it as well... it was quite mem'ed on that dimension alone, as to why would you need a giant one of the thing they already had.

plagiarist 3y ago

"iPad? Why did they name it after a tampon hahahaha never getting one of those. Similarly priced laptops are more powerful and have a keyboard." TBF the early models weren't as good and didn't have the keyboard and Apple Pencil of today.

Hamuko 3y ago
They also ran iOS without really much adaptation for the form factor. Now it's called "iPadOS" and has functionality that differentiates it from an iPhone. You can even dual screen the thing if you're a weirdo.
- lobsterthief 3y ago
  I love using it as a second screen when I’m out at a coffee shop. It works so seamlessly and I can throw Slack on there while I code, without looking like a complete weirdo
  - jwells89 3y ago
    Sidecar works surprisingly well. With its latency and performance it’s barely distinguishable from a wired screen even running a HiDPI resolution.
    - GeneralMaximus 3y ago
      If you want, it's possible to wire it up too! I use the included USB-C cable to connect it directly to my MacBook. It's much more reliable that way, especially if you're on a flaky WiFi connection.
  - Hamuko 3y ago
    For clarity, by "dual screen", I mean this: https://www.macstories.net/stories/stage-manager-external-displays-finally/ https://www.macstories.net/stories/stage-manager-external-di...
dpkonofa 3y ago
Isn't that the rub, though? The majority of iPad users don't use the keyboards or Pencils. They're just using the iPad. That's exactly why the original was so successful.

frou_dh 3y ago

To a first approximation, that's what it still is all these years later. The software might be called iPadOS now but it's not fooling anyone that it's much different to iOS.

KeplerBoy 3y ago
It is iOS in all but name, isn't it? Same version and basically same changelogs?
- ChrisMarshallNY 3y ago
  I'm an Apple developer. When I release my apps, I only do so as iOS, and that runs on iPadOS. In the code, I check for the environment, in some cases, and do things differently, if it's an iPad.
- bombcar 3y ago
  THE iPad supports a few things that the iPhone doesn’t, the main one being screen size, the two apps next to each other (iirc) and the pencil. But lots of apps can just treat it as a big phone.
ghaff 3y ago
There are some specific use cases like creating digital artwork and certain gaming/video where the difference between an iPhone and and an iPad really is arguably a difference in kind. But, yeah, especially with larger iPhones (even sub-Max) I've come to see an iPad as increasingly optional for most purposes.
- longtimelistnr 3y ago
  Yes, I would agree. I use an iPad Pro for 3D modeling as well as drawing and graphic design. For those applications (especially 3D modeling) the M1 and large screen make a massive difference.
dpkonofa 3y ago
Yeah, but just like I said back then, that's like saying that a bathtub and a swimming pool are the same because they're both masses of contained water. The difference is explicitly in the size.

chomp 3y ago

Haha you’re not lying https://m.slashdot.org/story/133608 https://m.slashdot.org/story/133608 > Since the iPad's initial introduction back in January, many of us still wonder why we should drop hundreds of dollars for what is termed as a large iPod.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
rchaud 3y ago
And Apple handled that with product placement. An episode of the hit sitcom Modern Family was centred entirely around a character's obssession with buying the iPad on Day 1. "Game Changer, Season 1, Episode 19, aired March 31, 2010" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Changer_(Modern_Family) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Changer_(Modern_Family)
- dpkonofa 3y ago
  Your link states that Apple didn't pay for the product placement in the episode. It was the writers' idea.

bryanlarsen 3y ago

The iPod Touch was a highly successful product; if that was supposed to be a dismissal it wasn't a very effective one.

drcongo 3y ago
I'm not sure it's a dismissal, as in "an iPod Touch with a big screen" is quite a good pitch. Like even now, if we ever get 16" iPads it's just an iPad with a massive screen, but I'd be all over it. edit: so yeah, I agree with you
- ghaff 3y ago
  I have an older version of one of the big iPads. The thing is that I never got into using it for digital animation/art that I envisioned doing at one point. And for routine travel content consumption stuff it was just bigger and heavier--but otherwise not a better experience.
  - drcongo 3y ago
    I use mine (12" M1 Pro) as a portable music studio - touch screen is fantastic for this so I vastly prefer Logic on the iPad to the Mac, but it's mighty cramped even on the 12".
psunavy03 3y ago
It was a dismissal from people who didn't see the utility of a parallel product that was just bigger. Just because someone sees the utility of a small SUV doesn't mean they will automatically want to also buy an F-150.

globular-toast 3y ago

Also they said the name sounded like a sanitary product.

iddqd 3y ago

To be fair, it kind off started off as a large iPod Touch. It took a few years for iPad to really differentiate itself from iOS devices.

al_borland 3y ago

There were also a significant number of jokes about the name, relating it to a feminine hygiene product. I bought one day 1 and pretty much everyone thought I was nuts and just an Apple zealot. However, as I took it places and used it, people saw it and became much more interested and took it more seriously as a product.

brailsafe 3y ago
I was definitely in the former camp, and eventually bought one because other people seemed to like it, and so took it more seriously as a product. But.. it was after buying it that I realized the emperor didn't really have any clothes, and it was either mostly an expensive status symbol for people who couldn't care less about the money, or a device with just a few specific and very useful purposes. My grandpa uses it for Planespotting, which seems perfectly appropriate to me. Now it's been 10 years, and I've never really thought about buying another one, because it's just not a general computing device that I've been able to make useful for a breadth of things I use devices for. It's only ever been effective for reading reference books, playing YouTube videos (before the app and browser support went away), reading pocket articles, browsing the web, and maybe a few games. Everything else just didn't prove effective, for me anyway. Even trying to watch regular videos on it is a total pain.
- al_borland 3y ago
  I can agree with a lot of this, depending on the user. I’m pretty similar to you. I got it and used it, because it was new and novel, but over time the usage faded. I tried going back to the iPad mini, since I liked that form factor best, but it’s sitting a few feet from me, powered off, and hasn’t been used in months. My dad on the other hand, who is one of the people who bought and iPad after seeing mine, uses it all the time. He actually has 2 of them, a 10” and a 12.9”, and he uses both of them regularly enough that he feels they are both justified for his use cases. He still does use his Mac as well, but his iPads get a ton of use for reading the news, email, photography related things, and maybe some other stuff. He’s retired now, so that might be part of it. Maybe if didn’t work in IT and simply consumed whatever the apps allowed me to consume, I could get by with an iPad as my computer, but I want to do stuff an iPad can’t do. I also pretty much always want a keyboard and mouse, and when that’s always bolted on to an iPad, it might as well be a MacBook. I never found the appeal of touch screen laptops.

replwoacause 3y ago

Yes I remember Bababooey calling it a bit of a stumble.

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

pavlov 3y ago

> ‘I recall lots of people dismissing the iPad as "just a big iPod Touch".’ The interesting point here is that Apple’s competitors at the time didn’t even have a product that could come close to the iPod touch, and yet Apple was already taking the product into a completely new direction. The iPod touch doesn’t exist anymore. Turns out the paper-like size combined with the simple UI made all the difference. And nobody scaling down from $2k Windows tablets could have figured that out. That’s how Apple created a beautifully designed tablet for only $499 and everybody else was left scrambling. With the Vision Pro, Apple doesn’t seem to have that kind of advantage. But I’d be very happy if it exceeds my expectations and is also successful in the market. I’ve been waiting for VR all my life. The Quest has come tantalizingly close but still misses the applications that would make it a part of my daily routine.

gumby 3y ago

They did, but before it was released it was predicted to cost over $1000, often confidently assumed to be well over a kilobuck. Instead it was $499. It was also much thinner and with better battery life than the experts had predicted. It was more of a shock than the M1 was in recent times. Not defending Apple here: I do believe the Vision Pro will be a resounding "meh".

beautifulfreak 3y ago

The iPad Death Watch is pretty funny: http://aaplinvestors.net/stats/ipad/ipaddeathwatch/ http://aaplinvestors.net/stats/ipad/ipaddeathwatch/

faeriechangling 3y ago

There were tear downs showing this tiny little iPod shaped SoC shoved into the case and connected to a massive battery. The SoC was underpowered considering it was running a 1024x768 screen and support was dropped almost immediately. The iPad 2 teardown showed an SoC which seemed a lot more custom designed for the iPad, and the "big iPod" criticism died around that point.