Underwhelmingly Good

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iPad is good… Wait, stop wining and let me explain you ungrateful geeks! (This is how Steve Jobs should have started his presentation)

Apple launched the iPad yesterday night, never felt geekier as i sat there checking out the live feed on gdgt.com clicking refresh every 30 seconds, stopping on  every execs’ statements, and analyzing every picture. I was impressed by how good of a product it is, but it felt funny!

Bear with me on this ok… Now today, I woke up to a new apple homepage, and as usual they followed the keynote with the product showcase video, i thought after watching it, that strange feeling I had yesterday would go away, but still it didn’t.

You can get as much information as you want about the iPad, and all the features in depth, and here is an overview of what the iPad is for those with no idea what we’re talking about here.

But that’s not all what this post is about, this is a collection of my thoughts on why apple will one day rule the world! Oh really? yes really!

So, Two and a half years ago the iPhone was released, five years before that, the iPod, and three years before that was the iMac.

I still remember the hype over the iPhone, as I was still getting into knowing more about industrial design – I majored in 2006 two years after starting college – and in that time it was completely true when they said words like revolutionary, magical, innovative. I watched that video for six months not believing it will be produced until it was released in july 2006, then all hell broke loose.

iPhone, like the iPod and the iMac before it were in fact revolutionary products. They did not only change Apple as a brand, but they literally changed what people thought they need, they changed behavior, instilled loyalty, and gained popularity with people perceiving it as the way cooler, way better looking, way smarter kid that no other kid liked to play with! A show-off they called him! Some kids even called him an elitist, i have no idea where you’ll find a kid say that word but nevermind that!

That’s over-simplification i know but I’ll try to jam in all the info i need to get my point across…

What i mean by changing behavior can be explained by a couple of examples…

You bought an iPod while you have a pc at home, you’ve never used iTunes because you either haven’t heard of it or because you can never find any songs on it, unknown artist being the most dominant artist name in your library! but you don’t care, as long as you have an iPod it doesn’t matter, you can adapt!

Another example. You’ve had a long list of discarded mobile phones, but you’ve never really felt the need to open up your e-mail on those phones, online connection wasn’t that much fun was it, but you get an opportunity to buy an iPhone and suddenly you’re the busy, life on the go, all work no play type, with multiple e-mail accounts, calendar appointments, and to-do list applications installed. You changed, maybe to the worse or maybe to the better, but you changed.

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Now let’s talk about one of the more important things Apple did. As an industrial designer I’m always asked what I do and I always answer based on who is asking and when and why he’s asking… In this case, the definition of design given by the ICSID (international Council of Societies of Industrial Design) fits perfectly.

Design is a creative activity whose aim is to establish the multi-faceted qualities of objects, processes, services and their systems in whole life cycles. Therefore, design is the central factor of innovative humanization of technologies and the crucial factor of cultural and economic exchange.

Since 1998, Apple has been taking gigantic leaps in innovation, risking massive losses with every new product launch, never compromising, never negotiating terms, and most importantly never disappointing (yes even the apple tv)

It’s now 12 years and Apple is now selling music, movies, applications, ebooks, publishing podcasts, treating software developers very well, and their retail customers better, designing the best accessories, while opening wide opportunities to the infinite amount of third party accessory companies, and doing that at very affordable prices (respectively) and above all that, guaranteeing the best user experience across all mentioned platforms!

“Objects, processes, services and their systems in whole life cycles.”

That’s why after this much growth and change on both ends of the company and the customer, this was the perfect timing for a product like the iPad, a product that’s not necessarily revolutionary in technology or aesthetic, but definitely in it’s positioning. it’s easy to disagree with this but iPad is the product the brings the apple brand to a full circle.

There you have it… I could have ranted and went on and on how un-amazed i was. I could’ve went on about the app icon layout, the big screen smudges, no usb, no camera, no multi-tasking, no new groundbreaking efforts in changing aesthetics, and i definitely could have shortened this post to one sentence that the iPad is a giant iPhone with iWork!… But I didn’t because the iPad is good! even if it is underwhelmingly good for now.

This is what the short-sighted review would have looked like:

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Finally, you have to know by now… Look where the iMac, iPod, and iPhone where back in the day and where they are are now. So far, iPad might have the biggest prospects of any Apple product ever made! That is definitely worth waiting for!

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While you’re waiting, don’t forget to check out this video, and ask yourself how on earth does Apple think they’d get away with a name like the iPad!?

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