It's 7.50 am and the queue at Apple's flagship retail store in Cardiff is well into the hundreds. What sort of device would a company be releasing that would make there be worldwide queues with some cases where queues start five days before the release.
In 2010 when Steve jobs unveiled the first generation iPad, it sure did not look like a device that would shatter grounds or shake the market, but the last two years in terms of quarterly revenues and product shipments told a different story. A story many pundits still cannot believe and a story Steve Ballmer would rather not tell as a bed time story.
Apple has always differentiated itself, seen farther than the competition and outshone in terms of design and eye-catch value. But this race to release a product year-in, year-out is baffling to me. This new age, product life-cycles have drastically reduced and a new iteration is always ready. A new product every 18-24 months might give time to add more innovation to it. Because sincerely, the new iPad is not in any way a revolution and sadly the fourth and fifth generations of the device might be the same story. Taking a cue from American Idol, when you dish out much-of-the-same thing yearly, relevance is lost.
This is the second major release of an apple device in a row that majority has termed as not-too-radical in innovation. The major feature Apple touts to us is the 'Resolutionary' value. It has more resolution than your HD Television and is the sharpest thing you have probably seen on a mobile device. In comparison to the iPad 2, the resolution is better but that definitely is not a big enough reason for an upgrade.
It's heavier than the iPad 2, that's a bit odd for an Apple release since every future device is aimed to be lighter than the former but we can blame the 4G LTE Antenna and battery for that. The 4G LTE support is probably a feature that three-quarters of the customers would not get to utilise until the next iPad is released in March 2013 as majority of Telcos are yet to upgrade their networks to 4G. Also, as Telcos are trying to squeeze and manage data capacity, they finally are shedding out unlimited data plans. The truth is without an unlimited plan, you would consume your whole Data cap simply by downloading one HD Movie. The speed would coerce you into downloading more until your cap is exhausted (though that's not Apple's problem, It's a great note to avoid 4G Sticker shock). I believe it is too early for a 4G iPad and next year's 4th generation iPad should have been the 4G Version.
The new iPad has no Siri. That's not really a bad thing since Siri has actually not been what it was touted to be. According to this lawsuit (which unfortunately would not get anywhere), I am not the only one disappointed with Siri. That's a great move from Apple to delay it, perfect it and launch it with the 4th generation iPad. Instead of Siri, you get dictate-to-type. Does that justify an upgrade?
The front camera is still as poor as it has always been and the specifications of the back camera should have been on that of iPad2. There's a slight feel of complacency coming in on Apple's side and might fare badly for the company. But when you take a look at the competitive landscape, it's pretty much tempting to become complacent. Android is still a solid rip-off of the iOS, Blackberry is a joke, and Microsoft (under Ballmer) is doing as it was meant to do. The Blackberry Playbook and its software are so poor that it would make a Windows ME powered tablet look good.
With the focus on Apple, Investors are probably still satisfied as Apple's stock price just rose to a record high of $600, but it would get to a point there would be demand for more rather than just a nicely rehearsed product release presentation.
As there's always two sides to a coin, Twitter is abuzz with many disappointments and celebrations of the new iPad. But @IrishRedSox77 put it best, "Sooooo...I got to play with the new iPad3 today. Yup...it's as exciting as this black and white post makes it appear. #Blah".
The funniest thing about Apple products and why they would forever be a great case study for every business out there is, even if the iPad is re-released with a new color, there would still be a queue for it. The cult following is unprecedented and the media hype is probably just a little too much. Even this article is also guilty of the hype. Though I am chastising Apple's seeming complacency, I still believe they are the best in the market today.
The iPad3, iPadHD, iPad X or whatever name you call it was a let-down for me and I would not recommend it to anyone who currently has any previous generation iPad. It should simply have been called the iPad 2S to signify a little upgrade but not yet the major leap. The new iPad is a nice device but calling it a revolution is just wrong.
This article is culled from CiteWire.com