40 Mercedes-Benz dealers now using iPads to sell cars - Page 2

Then we are in agreement! I said you were an intelligent guy!

Mb engineers are notorious gadget freaks. It's a little scary to think what those dweebs could do with an ipad and a German lead sled.

Why has noone spotted the most critical piece of information in this news story: teh one that proves that the iPad is a failure? How come Mercedes were able to get hold of 40 iPads when you are limited to two and they have supposedly sold out within CONUS? It is obvious that the stories about iPad sales are all lies, there is in fact a huge surplus of the product and Mercedes were able to put 40 as a job lot for say $50 a piece.


Actually this story does get me thinking again about what Apple has "invented" with the iPad. The great innovations come not from inventing a product but from inventing or popularising a new human behaviour. Blackberry "invented" the idea of typing with your thumbs, Twitter "invented" the idea of broadcasting random thoughts to the entire world; what will we say Apple invented with the iPad? At the moment I think it might be two things:

1) casual access to a powerful computing device in circumstances usually associated with other activities: the classic examples of this are watching TV on your sofa at the same time as browing the web on your iPad or using the iPad to read a book in bed, or cooking in the kitchen. I could do all of these with my laptop but wouldn't want to

It is this that I think will make the iPad so popular with all the people who like to do computing activities but feel that sitting in front of their computer is not relaxing

2) expansion of handheld devices used by business beyond the consumer market (eg Apple store) and transactional business services market (Fedex or Hertz ) into the professional services market (law firms, Doctors ) and value added business services.

For instance I can see the iPad as the perfect device for any company that uses a checklist to support quality when interacting with customers face to face

If I had to guess how people will explain the popularity of the iPad in two year's time it would because of these two things.

Good one.

Who's to say Apple hasn't done nothing in this department. For all we know, they are creating something in their skunkworks lab to be used in a automobile system. It certainly would not be beyond them since Apple is very solid on designing excellent GUI interfaces.

Next gen ipads (apple is already researching patents for the idevices for this) could have rfid receptors, and anything from cars to home security systems, to any electronic item that can give feedback on it's condition, will have a master control center in the ipad. Sure you can get feedback from a car screen on a component showing a problem, but what if you could be alerted before entering the car even...

Of course all these need very, very strong encryption standards as I said.

Actually, the 91% approval rating is misleading. 91% of users were either completely satisfied or somewhat satisfied and only 1-2% were dissatisfied. The remainder were unsure (which is a fairly high percentage of unsure for a product evaluation). The ratio of 91 / 1-2 is the important one.


Actually, Hyundai (of all people) was the first automaker to see the potential of the iPad. They're bundling the owner's manual of their luxury car on an iPad:
http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-04-0...-motor-america

Still, you're right - there are going to be more and more uses of iPads appearing over the coming months and years.


What evidence do you have that any significant number of users are having WiFi problems? So far, there have been only a few isolated reports out of the million-plus iPads sold -- and most of those were due to configuration problems on the user's part.

The only significant one is related to DHCP leases which has affected a couple of universities like Princeton, but even those appear to be related more to site configuration issues and to the extremely heavy concentration of the iPads.


Aren't conspiracy theories fun - when you can make up all sorts of bizarre stories without any evidence?

What in the world makes you think Mercedes paid $50 each? More importantly, where did you hear that they bought all 40 at once? Last time I checked, Mercedes has many thousands of employees in the U.S. and it's not that big of a deal to have an employee order something and be reimbursed for it.

Besides, even if they DID buy all of them via corporate, it doesn't prove that there's no shortage. Even in times of constrained supply, companies may choose to make a number of products available for a high visibility customer.

I think he was joking : didn't you notice the bulge in his cheek ? That was his tongue protruding...

Like preaching the Word from the iPad. I love this little device.

Why for christ sake?. Just put your dells desktops on a cart and wheel it around the dealership with a 500 feet cord.

Mercedes are getting all thier iPads for free. Because they pay for Jobs' new organ.

Are you sure its his tongue making the bulge, not some other oblong thing like um... a Magic Mouse?

Indeed my cheek was bulging, partly because I had tried to swallow a Dell Streak which is a joke from another thread

Nope - I missed it. I guess the post was too long and he did too good a job of imitating trollish behavior. When the trolls start to ramble, I sometimes give up before the 3rd or 4th paragraph - so I didn't get to his emoticon. Sorry.

This is hilarious. I was at the Mercedes Dealership last Friday. He sales guy, Brett, kept saying 'let's go back to my desk'. This happened like 3 times. My first thought was 'get an iPad'.

Amazing.

Am I really this old...

It's not "I can carry a 'streak' everywhere"...

it's I CAN STREAK EVERYWHERE!!!!

Exclusive to General Motors I haven't heard anyone crying for Sync in any other brand of automobile, but if Apple has an exclusive... well you know.

If only the iPad had a camera built in - then they could not only review the condition of the car at turn it (or service drop off) but also take photos of the vehicle at the same time and have the customer sign off on that being their vehicle etc - leaving little if any room for any disagreement later over things like damage done while in for service etc.

Wait a minute! MB is selling cars using a device that needs to be synced to a computer, does not have a USB port, will not play flash, cannot multitask, is too heavy, can't be used in the sunlight, and has a closed app development platform? How is this possible? Poor, poor Apple haters.