4 ms·

I get that with the MP3 players and smartphones, but what tablet devices were well established? You had the Nokia Internet Tablets and...nothing. And they were

I get that with the MP3 players and smartphones, but what tablet devices were well established? You had the Nokia Internet Tablets and...nothing. And they were barely more than MP4 players with Wi-Fi and touch screens. The iPad ushered in the modern concept of the tablet computer; rather than just being a media player with a touchscreen, it was a real computing device.

snowwrestler 12y ago
Microsoft had spent many millions of dollars developing and marketing their tablet vision. Bill Gates even went out of his way to tell people that he carried a Windows tablet as his only computer. This was a number of years before the iPad came out, and the MS conception of the tablet was quite different from what the iPad ended up being. It relied on a stylus and handwriting recognition to interact with a desktop-style interface, often with a keyboard folded underneath as a backup. It had largely fizzled, though, but to some extent that was true in the MP3 space and smart phone space as well. The product categories existed, some big players had products out, but consumer demand hadn't really blown up yet. And Apple's entrance changed consumer expectations.
- morganvachon 12y ago
  The Microsoft tablets were non-starters; they were clunky x86 machines in an era when it was difficult to do x86 in a truly portable way. They were practically vaporware, and the few units they did sell disappeared into ignominy. The iPad was something else entirely, and was much closer to the vision people had of tablet computers based on what they saw on Star Trek and similar media. > And Apple's entrance changed consumer expectations. Exactly, that's the point I've been trying to make. Except in this case: With the smartwatch, everything Apple is being lauded for bringing to the platform has already been here for years, with the exception of Apple Pay. That feature alone is what sets the Apple Watch apart from Android Wear, the new Pebble watches, and the new Sony watch; everything else is available whether you have an iPhone (Pebble, Microsoft Band), Android (pretty much any smartwatch), or Windows Phone (Microsoft Band). And so far Apple Pay itself has been a non-starter.
  - mercer 12y ago
    I do agree that in this case perhaps Apple can't offer enough, but I'm not sure about it. Many people didn't see the point of the iPhone when it came out. And I'd argue that especially the tech 'community' did not have a clue which exact features of the phone made it such a huge success: touch-based input with a UI built around the concept and, eventually, apps. It's quite possible that the emphasis on new varieties of 'buzzing' for notifications, perhaps coupled with the fact that they're on your wrist, turns out to be a key feature that others overlooked. Or perhaps the 'new' forms of communication - drawing, heartbeats, customized smileys - will appeal to people more than we think it does. Or maybe just the UI as a whole will be enough to set this watch apart from the ones that exist. I'm not as sure about the watch as I was about the iPhone when it was unveiled (and later the apps), but so far Apple has had an impressive amount of successes where the main reasons for this success was only apparent to many of us in hindsight.

snowwrestler 12y ago

Microsoft had spent many millions of dollars developing and marketing their tablet vision. Bill Gates even went out of his way to tell people that he carried a Windows tablet as his only computer. This was a number of years before the iPad came out, and the MS conception of the tablet was quite different from what the iPad ended up being. It relied on a stylus and handwriting recognition to interact with a desktop-style interface, often with a keyboard folded underneath as a backup. It had largely fizzled, though, but to some extent that was true in the MP3 space and smart phone space as well. The product categories existed, some big players had products out, but consumer demand hadn't really blown up yet. And Apple's entrance changed consumer expectations.

morganvachon 12y ago
The Microsoft tablets were non-starters; they were clunky x86 machines in an era when it was difficult to do x86 in a truly portable way. They were practically vaporware, and the few units they did sell disappeared into ignominy. The iPad was something else entirely, and was much closer to the vision people had of tablet computers based on what they saw on Star Trek and similar media. > And Apple's entrance changed consumer expectations. Exactly, that's the point I've been trying to make. Except in this case: With the smartwatch, everything Apple is being lauded for bringing to the platform has already been here for years, with the exception of Apple Pay. That feature alone is what sets the Apple Watch apart from Android Wear, the new Pebble watches, and the new Sony watch; everything else is available whether you have an iPhone (Pebble, Microsoft Band), Android (pretty much any smartwatch), or Windows Phone (Microsoft Band). And so far Apple Pay itself has been a non-starter.
- mercer 12y ago
  I do agree that in this case perhaps Apple can't offer enough, but I'm not sure about it. Many people didn't see the point of the iPhone when it came out. And I'd argue that especially the tech 'community' did not have a clue which exact features of the phone made it such a huge success: touch-based input with a UI built around the concept and, eventually, apps. It's quite possible that the emphasis on new varieties of 'buzzing' for notifications, perhaps coupled with the fact that they're on your wrist, turns out to be a key feature that others overlooked. Or perhaps the 'new' forms of communication - drawing, heartbeats, customized smileys - will appeal to people more than we think it does. Or maybe just the UI as a whole will be enough to set this watch apart from the ones that exist. I'm not as sure about the watch as I was about the iPhone when it was unveiled (and later the apps), but so far Apple has had an impressive amount of successes where the main reasons for this success was only apparent to many of us in hindsight.