But the original criticism was warranted, it basically was a giant ipod Touch at launch and Apple improved the iPad immensely since then. They launched a tablet that initially couldn't even multitask. Now it's world class leading product.
I purchased the first iPad a few weeks after it's release and did not think it was hampered in any important way. It's form and function is still a delight and what limitations it may have had for some users disappeared with the iOS 4 update that followed. Compared to what other companies were messing around with Apple not only showed the world how to put a magical device in our hands, it also showed us all a sneak peek into the future of computing for the masses.
There has been no product ever made that can match the fantasies of a nerd, nor should any monstousity ever be.
Its an incredible thing. Knowing your gonna die and yet be committed to your company that you worked so hard in developing as the #1 tech industry corp in the world. I would imagine that the emotions were over whelming at times. What would you do if you knew you were gonna die. One day your eyes would shut and you would take your last breath? What would you do? On top of everything else you run a company and have control over almost every thing that happens there. I have to say that Steve was very strong and dedicated. When people had a colder response to the iPad I am sure he was over whelmed. I don't blame him. But eventually he got to see the turn around of the iPad reception. At least I am comforted that he was pleased to see the sales go through the roof.
(I am posting this without reading this story or other similar ones.)
Enough with the marketing drip, drip, drip. I'd rather wait for the book to learn all about it.
Go ahead and red it. The article makes only passing reference to the book.
The majority of the article is classic DED whining about how everybody is always so mean to Apple, and how Apple overcomes adversity to win in the end.
For maximum effect, cue up Ride of the Valkyries before you read it.
I agree that the media and especially the analysts have never gotten Apple right. But one of the reasons for all the criticism recently is simply because Apple is no longer a niche computer company as it once was. It's a company with enormous revenues and on good days has the highest market cap and that makes it an easy target.
In addition, the press loves to build up and then take down companies (or people) and the blogosphere just makes it even worse. There are many people who get their jollies criticizing Jobs et al in nasty, immature ways to make themselves feel better in their $40,000 a year jobs sitting in a cubicle.
I don't envy Cook because the press is ready to believe that Apple can no longer achieve greatness without Steve Jobs. Although once the book is released next week, I'm sure the press will obsess over any little bit of nastiness they can find and they'll try to make Jobs look bad.
The press and consumers also have amazingly unrealistic expectations. It's almost impossible to impress anybody with anything anymore, no matter how great it is. And I can see how when someone puts blood, sweat and tears into producing something great and doesn't get much of a positive reaction to it, how that can be depressing.
I was at the Audio Engineering Society convention in New York earlier today where Avid was showing off the new version of ProTools, which has some amazing new functionality as well as remarkable performance improvements. They got a big crowd to watch the demos, but the crowd didn't react to anything.
I participate in some online forums about HDTV. Posters there nitpick every little flaw they can find to death. Negativity is the rule.
I think it's simply become impossible to impress people and the mantra of the web is either to be a fanboy or a troll. Sometimes it seems like there's no middle ground.
I think Licensing KILLS the urge of innovation as a vehicle for survival.
Licensing IS bad for start-ups.
?
: Confused? Let me explain. Anyone can build a business to compete with Apple, but how would you compete with Microsoft or Google?
Still confused?
: Google and Microsoft hide under the cartel that sells their OS. How can a start ups compete against the almighty cartels that sell Android and Microsoft OS.
Probably you'll never got it. Apple = today Germany, while Microsoft and now Google = USA current economic model, where cheap is cherished, because it allows easy market-share grab.
An iPad without your favorite apps is mostly just a nifty web browser. And you have to remember back then that there wasn't really much, if any, syncing between the iPad and the iPhone like there is now with iCloud.
Of course, I think he was much more proud of himself after the iPad 2 launch as people literally clamored for the device.
But the original criticism was warranted, it basically was a giant ipod Touch at launch and Apple improved the iPad immensely since then. They launched a tablet that initially couldn't even multitask. Now it's world class leading product.
I'm not one to debate on what's "real" multitasking and what's "fake" multitasking. As far as I'm concerned, it could play music in the background while surfing the web and get notified of messages and emails while doing so. That to me, is multitasking.
I find the general attitude towards Apple to be very symptomatic of society as a whole right now. It's cynical, twisted, self-important and self-serving. Apple are positive, relentlessly so, and some people just cannot stand that. That says more about them than it does about Apple.
The reaction to the iPad was utterly pathetic. A big iPod Touch? I cannot tell you have annoying I find that criticism. The iPod Touch was an enormously successful product, itself a new product category of sorts in 2007. Making a device with all the strengths of this hugely successful device but with few of the inherent weaknesses commensurate with its size proved to be visionary. Yes, that is the word.
"It's just a 4-door Ferrari! hahahahah!!!!!"
"And...?"
While everyone was disappointed that Apple didn't release a tablet running Snow Leopard, Apple was seeing clearly and bringing a product to market that has since proved all the amateurish blogsphere wrong. That's the problem with tech, half the reaction is curated by amateurs, not serious honest, unbiased (or at least making a noble attempt to be so) opinion.
Apple focussed on what the device was supposed to achieve, what it was to bring to lives of people who used it. The blogosphere wanted a tech demo of OSX on a tablet. The fact that it would have been useless didn't matter to them.
What is also COMPLETELY missed even to this day is that fact that iOS and OSX are the same animal. This is a touch of sheer vision by Apple. As tablets increase in power iOS can be brought up to full OSX power over time until the touch interface is essentially a UI on the same OS. Apple can do this as steadily as they see fit. Android can't do this, it doesn't have a desktop OS (Chrome looks DOA, at best it's embryonic). Microsoft can't do this with WP7 as it bears little resemblance technically to Windows on the desktop. What you are seeing is Windows 8 being marketed as a tablet-friendly OS. I believe time will show that the industry has moved on from the days of being enchanted with Windows. People will see that Windows 8 will not a good tablet make. I also see Windows 8 on a tablet as only hurting WP7 OS as an ecosystem, but that's another topic.
I can understand Steve Jobs' frustrations entirely. You work your backside off to make something you believe will bring joy to millions of consumers and all you get is abuse. As many have pointed out, money was not his motivation. He genuinely believed his products could enrich the world and seeing them slammed in the media for spurious reasons must have been very annoying and depressing indeed.
No. This is historical revisionism you are indulging in here.
The "missing multi-tasking" is a function of the OS not the iPad and was available within a month of it's launch anyway. The iPad sold like gangbusters from day one regardless of that fact. It wasn't hobbled, missing any parts, or incomplete in any way.
"Multitasking" (if you can call it that) didn't come until 4.3, which came in the fall. The iPad didn't have Apple's version of multitasking for more than six months after launch.
Multitasking? it is nice to have, but never was essential. save the much overused adolescent slang "fail" for things that are genuinely essential but lacking (like email on the BB PlayBook, for example).
Flash? neither nice, since it worked like crap, nor essential.
Removable battery? it was always stupid to open up any valuable electronic device to dirt, dust, moisture, and finger oil for any reason.
the boo-birds that have shown up here are the same kind of boo-birds that pooh-pooh anything Apple comes out with. which is DED's point. surprised it got to Jobs, tho, i really thought he was too arrogant to be bothered by it. sounds like he was more vulnerable than we realized.
the average intellectual maturity age of many of the tech bloggers - like Gizmodo - is around 17 years old. talk about arrested development ...
That's your useless opinion. Not having multitasking on a tablet was a fail in many ways and I could give you countless examples but it's water under the bridge, things evolved.
Maybe for you. Ours was one of the first day iPads and we couldn't care less about multitasking. Still can't.
An iPad without your favorite apps is mostly just a nifty web browser. And you have to remember back then that there wasn't really much, if any, syncing between the iPad and the iPhone like there is now with iCloud.
Of course, I think he was much more proud of himself after the iPad 2 launch as people literally clamored for the device.
And you don't think the first day sales figures of the iPad1 put a smile on his face? 300k units?
I can understand that he was down after the iPad speech - who wouldn't be? But that first day of shipping, he would have been bouncing off the ceiling. And the fact that he proved all the pundits wrong would have been even better.
The iPad had multi tasking from launch but only for a select few apps. I remember getting my iPad early and playing music in the background. It wasn't until later that Apple exposed the multitasking API for third parties to leverage.
The iPad was overly hyped. The Tech Press had built up the iPad to ridiculous proportions much like the mythical iPhone 5.
By the time the product launched it could have been made from Adamantium and there would have been a chorus of boos.
It wasn't until I had my iPad and realized how much more involving the iPad was in touch because of the larger screen and the incredible battery life that I realized its impact fully.
There were -- and are -- areas where Apple has really screwed up. The current IOS 5 release will WIFI sync on XP, a 10 year old non-native OS, but it won't WIFI sync on Leopard, a 4-year old NATIVE Apple OS, not on Intel or on the PPC. This is an arbitrary -- and stupid -- limitation. Apple is dead silent on the issue, re-dropping a ball they had already dropped badly enough, frankly.
With Lion, Apple dropped PPC emulation -- completely arbitrarily -- thus throwing a whole generation of otherwise perfectly good -- and working well -- software in the trash.
There are real improvements that could be made, about which there have been numerous suggestions: the iPod/iPad could have had a mono-out option right out of the gate, both to enable those with one good ear, and to allow music in one ear and monitoring of, for instance, a baby's cry in the next room. It took a LONG time to get that simple software fix into the system, despite loud cries from the hearing disabled community. The iPad could have had an IR emitter, a matter of a few pennies: an IR diode and a hole in the case, and it would have made an AWESOME remote control. The iPad could have a memory slot for any number of good reasons.
Snow Leopard was such a highly incompatible release, a third party website sprang up to try and help people deal with the software mayhem... and that was nothing compared to Lion.
People with Leopard (10.5.x)... not even invited to the whole "Ap Store" party. And why? Completely arbitrary, that's why. No good reason at all, other than they wanted to push Snow Leopard and subseqently Lion.
Want to complain about it? Go to Apple's feedback page, and select your OS. Your options are Snow Leopard and Lion. They don't even what to HEAR from you if you haven't bought a new OS from them.
I could go on, but suffice it to say, that while Apple has indeed done well, particularly in the hardware area, perfect it most certainly is not. I can only hope that with new management, someone there will remember that people who bought new machines 4 years ago are still potential customers, and perhaps its not all that bright an idea to kick them in a down economy for no good reason at all.
This article appears to be more about the [real or imagined] slights that DED has received over the years -- rather than Steve's disappointment with the initial reception of the iPad.
I can't tell you how annoying it is to read articles from other tech sites that seem to be written on a cocktail napkin and then typed while drunk, filled with typos and lacking a clear, concise statement. So I applaud you for this well written article and although I knew most of what I was reading already, I still enjoyed reading your article, I hope you keep up the good work and continue to hold yourself to a higher standard so I can continue to read about the products I enjoy and the people behind them.
1. Accesss to content and games in the most comfortable spots in my home.
2. Instant on made it a easier to grab, especially for short sessions.
3. A more natural device to rest on my lap.
4. A cool app store to explore with instant gratification.
5. An e-reader.
6. Lightweight travel companion.
7. Freedom from power chords.
These are what many others loved. Freedom from the negative features of laptops and desktops. Pundits bashed the inability to do their jobs on the device. They were probably right. But that was not the intended use.
There were -- and are -- areas where Apple has really screwed up. The current IOS 5 release will WIFI sync on XP, a 10 year old non-native OS, but it won't WIFI sync on Leopard, a 4-year old NATIVE Apple OS, not on Intel or on the PPC. This is an arbitrary -- and stupid -- limitation. Apple is dead silent on the issue, re-dropping a ball they had already dropped badly enough, frankly.
With Lion, Apple dropped PPC emulation -- completely arbitrarily -- thus throwing a whole generation of otherwise perfectly good -- and working well -- software in the trash.
There are real improvements that could be made, about which there have been numerous suggestions: the iPod/iPad could have had a mono-out option right out of the gate, both to enable those with one good ear, and to allow music in one ear and monitoring of, for instance, a baby's cry in the next room. It took a LONG time to get that simple software fix into the system, despite loud cries from the hearing disabled community. The iPad could have had an IR emitter, a matter of a few pennies: an IR diode and a hole in the case, and it would have made an AWESOME remote control. The iPad could have a memory slot for any number of good reasons.
Snow Leopard was such a highly incompatible release, a third party website sprang up to try and help people deal with the software mayhem... and that was nothing compared to Lion.
People with Leopard (10.5.x)... not even invited to the whole "Ap Store" party. And why? Completely arbitrary, that's why. No good reason at all, other than they wanted to push Snow Leopard and subseqently Lion.
Want to complain about it? Go to Apple's feedback page, and select your OS. Your options are Snow Leopard and Lion. They don't even what to HEAR from you if you haven't bought a new OS from them.
I could go on, but suffice it to say, that while Apple has indeed done well, particularly in the hardware area, perfect it most certainly is not. I can only hope that with new management, someone there will remember that people who bought new machines 4 years ago are still potential customers, and perhaps its not all that bright an idea to kick them in a down economy for no good reason at all.
This is absolutely stupid. If Microsoft introduces an application store software for Windows it won't be on Windows XP too.
And you don't think the first day sales figures of the iPad1 put a smile on his face? 300k units?
I can understand that he was down after the iPad speech - who wouldn't be? But that first day of shipping, he would have been bouncing off the ceiling. And the fact that he proved all the pundits wrong would have been even better.
That's why I enjoy watching the iPad 2 keynote so much... When Steve said "Competitors flummoxed", you can see the joy from his heart.
And... At that time I could not imagine he would die within the year....
Comments
But the original criticism was warranted, it basically was a giant ipod Touch at launch and Apple improved the iPad immensely since then. They launched a tablet that initially couldn't even multitask. Now it's world class leading product.
I purchased the first iPad a few weeks after it's release and did not think it was hampered in any important way. It's form and function is still a delight and what limitations it may have had for some users disappeared with the iOS 4 update that followed. Compared to what other companies were messing around with Apple not only showed the world how to put a magical device in our hands, it also showed us all a sneak peek into the future of computing for the masses.
There has been no product ever made that can match the fantasies of a nerd, nor should any monstousity ever be.
(I am posting this without reading this story or other similar ones.)
Enough with the marketing drip, drip, drip. I'd rather wait for the book to learn all about it.
Go ahead and red it. The article makes only passing reference to the book.
The majority of the article is classic DED whining about how everybody is always so mean to Apple, and how Apple overcomes adversity to win in the end.
For maximum effect, cue up Ride of the Valkyries before you read it.
In addition, the press loves to build up and then take down companies (or people) and the blogosphere just makes it even worse. There are many people who get their jollies criticizing Jobs et al in nasty, immature ways to make themselves feel better in their $40,000 a year jobs sitting in a cubicle.
I don't envy Cook because the press is ready to believe that Apple can no longer achieve greatness without Steve Jobs. Although once the book is released next week, I'm sure the press will obsess over any little bit of nastiness they can find and they'll try to make Jobs look bad.
The press and consumers also have amazingly unrealistic expectations. It's almost impossible to impress anybody with anything anymore, no matter how great it is. And I can see how when someone puts blood, sweat and tears into producing something great and doesn't get much of a positive reaction to it, how that can be depressing.
I was at the Audio Engineering Society convention in New York earlier today where Avid was showing off the new version of ProTools, which has some amazing new functionality as well as remarkable performance improvements. They got a big crowd to watch the demos, but the crowd didn't react to anything.
I participate in some online forums about HDTV. Posters there nitpick every little flaw they can find to death. Negativity is the rule.
I think it's simply become impossible to impress people and the mantra of the web is either to be a fanboy or a troll. Sometimes it seems like there's no middle ground.
Licensing IS bad for start-ups.
Still confused?
Of course, I think he was much more proud of himself after the iPad 2 launch as people literally clamored for the device.
But the original criticism was warranted, it basically was a giant ipod Touch at launch and Apple improved the iPad immensely since then. They launched a tablet that initially couldn't even multitask. Now it's world class leading product.
I'm not one to debate on what's "real" multitasking and what's "fake" multitasking. As far as I'm concerned, it could play music in the background while surfing the web and get notified of messages and emails while doing so. That to me, is multitasking.
I find the general attitude towards Apple to be very symptomatic of society as a whole right now. It's cynical, twisted, self-important and self-serving. Apple are positive, relentlessly so, and some people just cannot stand that. That says more about them than it does about Apple.
The reaction to the iPad was utterly pathetic. A big iPod Touch? I cannot tell you have annoying I find that criticism. The iPod Touch was an enormously successful product, itself a new product category of sorts in 2007. Making a device with all the strengths of this hugely successful device but with few of the inherent weaknesses commensurate with its size proved to be visionary. Yes, that is the word.
"It's just a 4-door Ferrari! hahahahah!!!!!"
"And...?"
While everyone was disappointed that Apple didn't release a tablet running Snow Leopard, Apple was seeing clearly and bringing a product to market that has since proved all the amateurish blogsphere wrong. That's the problem with tech, half the reaction is curated by amateurs, not serious honest, unbiased (or at least making a noble attempt to be so) opinion.
Apple focussed on what the device was supposed to achieve, what it was to bring to lives of people who used it. The blogosphere wanted a tech demo of OSX on a tablet. The fact that it would have been useless didn't matter to them.
What is also COMPLETELY missed even to this day is that fact that iOS and OSX are the same animal. This is a touch of sheer vision by Apple. As tablets increase in power iOS can be brought up to full OSX power over time until the touch interface is essentially a UI on the same OS. Apple can do this as steadily as they see fit. Android can't do this, it doesn't have a desktop OS (Chrome looks DOA, at best it's embryonic). Microsoft can't do this with WP7 as it bears little resemblance technically to Windows on the desktop. What you are seeing is Windows 8 being marketed as a tablet-friendly OS. I believe time will show that the industry has moved on from the days of being enchanted with Windows. People will see that Windows 8 will not a good tablet make. I also see Windows 8 on a tablet as only hurting WP7 OS as an ecosystem, but that's another topic.
I can understand Steve Jobs' frustrations entirely. You work your backside off to make something you believe will bring joy to millions of consumers and all you get is abuse. As many have pointed out, money was not his motivation. He genuinely believed his products could enrich the world and seeing them slammed in the media for spurious reasons must have been very annoying and depressing indeed.
No. This is historical revisionism you are indulging in here.
The "missing multi-tasking" is a function of the OS not the iPad and was available within a month of it's launch anyway. The iPad sold like gangbusters from day one regardless of that fact. It wasn't hobbled, missing any parts, or incomplete in any way.
"Multitasking" (if you can call it that) didn't come until 4.3, which came in the fall. The iPad didn't have Apple's version of multitasking for more than six months after launch.
Flash? neither nice, since it worked like crap, nor essential.
Removable battery? it was always stupid to open up any valuable electronic device to dirt, dust, moisture, and finger oil for any reason.
the boo-birds that have shown up here are the same kind of boo-birds that pooh-pooh anything Apple comes out with. which is DED's point. surprised it got to Jobs, tho, i really thought he was too arrogant to be bothered by it. sounds like he was more vulnerable than we realized.
the average intellectual maturity age of many of the tech bloggers - like Gizmodo - is around 17 years old. talk about arrested development ...
That's your useless opinion. Not having multitasking on a tablet was a fail in many ways and I could give you countless examples but it's water under the bridge, things evolved.
Maybe for you. Ours was one of the first day iPads and we couldn't care less about multitasking. Still can't.
You see - we only do one thing at once.
Fancy that.
An iPad without your favorite apps is mostly just a nifty web browser. And you have to remember back then that there wasn't really much, if any, syncing between the iPad and the iPhone like there is now with iCloud.
Of course, I think he was much more proud of himself after the iPad 2 launch as people literally clamored for the device.
And you don't think the first day sales figures of the iPad1 put a smile on his face? 300k units?
I can understand that he was down after the iPad speech - who wouldn't be? But that first day of shipping, he would have been bouncing off the ceiling. And the fact that he proved all the pundits wrong would have been even better.
The iPad was overly hyped. The Tech Press had built up the iPad to ridiculous proportions much like the mythical iPhone 5.
By the time the product launched it could have been made from Adamantium and there would have been a chorus of boos.
It wasn't until I had my iPad and realized how much more involving the iPad was in touch because of the larger screen and the incredible battery life that I realized its impact fully.
With Lion, Apple dropped PPC emulation -- completely arbitrarily -- thus throwing a whole generation of otherwise perfectly good -- and working well -- software in the trash.
There are real improvements that could be made, about which there have been numerous suggestions: the iPod/iPad could have had a mono-out option right out of the gate, both to enable those with one good ear, and to allow music in one ear and monitoring of, for instance, a baby's cry in the next room. It took a LONG time to get that simple software fix into the system, despite loud cries from the hearing disabled community. The iPad could have had an IR emitter, a matter of a few pennies: an IR diode and a hole in the case, and it would have made an AWESOME remote control. The iPad could have a memory slot for any number of good reasons.
Snow Leopard was such a highly incompatible release, a third party website sprang up to try and help people deal with the software mayhem... and that was nothing compared to Lion.
People with Leopard (10.5.x)... not even invited to the whole "Ap Store" party. And why? Completely arbitrary, that's why. No good reason at all, other than they wanted to push Snow Leopard and subseqently Lion.
Want to complain about it? Go to Apple's feedback page, and select your OS. Your options are Snow Leopard and Lion. They don't even what to HEAR from you if you haven't bought a new OS from them.
I could go on, but suffice it to say, that while Apple has indeed done well, particularly in the hardware area, perfect it most certainly is not. I can only hope that with new management, someone there will remember that people who bought new machines 4 years ago are still potential customers, and perhaps its not all that bright an idea to kick them in a down economy for no good reason at all.
1. Accesss to content and games in the most comfortable spots in my home.
2. Instant on made it a easier to grab, especially for short sessions.
3. A more natural device to rest on my lap.
4. A cool app store to explore with instant gratification.
5. An e-reader.
6. Lightweight travel companion.
7. Freedom from power chords.
These are what many others loved. Freedom from the negative features of laptops and desktops. Pundits bashed the inability to do their jobs on the device. They were probably right. But that was not the intended use.
It has become a super great product since then.
There were -- and are -- areas where Apple has really screwed up. The current IOS 5 release will WIFI sync on XP, a 10 year old non-native OS, but it won't WIFI sync on Leopard, a 4-year old NATIVE Apple OS, not on Intel or on the PPC. This is an arbitrary -- and stupid -- limitation. Apple is dead silent on the issue, re-dropping a ball they had already dropped badly enough, frankly.
With Lion, Apple dropped PPC emulation -- completely arbitrarily -- thus throwing a whole generation of otherwise perfectly good -- and working well -- software in the trash.
There are real improvements that could be made, about which there have been numerous suggestions: the iPod/iPad could have had a mono-out option right out of the gate, both to enable those with one good ear, and to allow music in one ear and monitoring of, for instance, a baby's cry in the next room. It took a LONG time to get that simple software fix into the system, despite loud cries from the hearing disabled community. The iPad could have had an IR emitter, a matter of a few pennies: an IR diode and a hole in the case, and it would have made an AWESOME remote control. The iPad could have a memory slot for any number of good reasons.
Snow Leopard was such a highly incompatible release, a third party website sprang up to try and help people deal with the software mayhem... and that was nothing compared to Lion.
People with Leopard (10.5.x)... not even invited to the whole "Ap Store" party. And why? Completely arbitrary, that's why. No good reason at all, other than they wanted to push Snow Leopard and subseqently Lion.
Want to complain about it? Go to Apple's feedback page, and select your OS. Your options are Snow Leopard and Lion. They don't even what to HEAR from you if you haven't bought a new OS from them.
I could go on, but suffice it to say, that while Apple has indeed done well, particularly in the hardware area, perfect it most certainly is not. I can only hope that with new management, someone there will remember that people who bought new machines 4 years ago are still potential customers, and perhaps its not all that bright an idea to kick them in a down economy for no good reason at all.
This is absolutely stupid. If Microsoft introduces an application store software for Windows it won't be on Windows XP too.
And you don't think the first day sales figures of the iPad1 put a smile on his face? 300k units?
I can understand that he was down after the iPad speech - who wouldn't be? But that first day of shipping, he would have been bouncing off the ceiling. And the fact that he proved all the pundits wrong would have been even better.
That's why I enjoy watching the iPad 2 keynote so much... When Steve said "Competitors flummoxed", you can see the joy from his heart.
And... At that time I could not imagine he would die within the year....