Blog Postcards from Connectedland
By Fabio Sergio - March 30, 2010
Those that know me will tell you that I tend to reflect on things, but the sad truth is that my brain is simply slow: here I am, writing about the iPad months after everybody else has put the microscope down and decided to wait for the thing to finally hit the market for real.
From my vantage point of non-engagement I must admit it was oddly amusing to see Apple for once unable to safely ride out the centrifugal mammoth hype tube they managed once more to build around their latest miracle product. It was similarly amusing to see everyone work themselves up into an overexcited frenzy until moments before Steve Jobs' (second) revelation, and then to see fervent trepidation mostly turn into bitter disappointment. It was finally amusing to see most everyone criticize the product to death, and to see most criticism targeting the iPad as if it were a product, some analog artifact with functions and features permanently bound by the original arrangement of its atoms. I am sure others have said it before me and much better than I ever could, but the iPad - just like the iPhone before it - is ultimately just one high-performance touchscreen with a powerful cardboard-thin computer laminated behind it. In other words it's a service - not a product - it can pretty much become anything developers - or make that Steve - will want it to be.
So, the iPad. Hugely successful in the long term. Why? Medium-sized touchfrastructure.
