…at Engadget.
It’s called the iPad…
Dear Brad Inman, while you weren’t Vooking, Steve Jobs stole your lunch: “Embedded video inside of articles that can be played.”
Don’t weep, though. It’s a Kindle-killer, too, as expected:
How free does information want to be? The marginal value of digital content is the discounted perceived cost of the hassle and risk of obtaining an acceptable free alternative. Why don’t books sell? They’re priced too high. Steve Jobs will take care of that, just as he did with MP3s.
Note to Richard Riccelli: “You can change the font… whatever you want.”
USB, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 3G:
An unlimited data plan from AT&T for $29.99 a month.
How much would you pay? Starts at $499…
ATTN: ZipForms, DocuSign, FlexMLS: Get on this NOW!
No word on multi-tasking, use of the iPad as a phone or syncing/pairing with the iPhone.
But: It rocks as an internet device, with Numbers, Pages and Keynote from iWorks available. Listers can use Keynote to sway sellers, and Buyer’s Agents can live without paper. This is a rockin’ device for any salesperson.
Bottom line: Wicked cool.
New York Times, top-middle of the front page. Take that, Obama!
Kindle? Dead. Nook? Dead. Vook? Dead. Zune? Double-dead.
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Don Reedy says:
My heart is beating fast, and just from spending a few minutes looking at the Engadget site infoldiing info on this. These guys (Apple) are good……….
January 27, 2010 — 12:48 pm
Greg Swann says:
> These guys (Apple) are good
Here’s a piece of the Apple kind of mind: A virtual keyboard is software. It doesn’t have to mimic clumsy hardware. So the iPad’s keyboards are context sensitive: Qwerty in text apps, a numeric keypad in Numbers, even a special keyboard for iCal. And Microsoft still can’t the caps-lock key to work right.
So you (all) know, the specs for my mobile office changed radically today. This is the laptop killer for Realtors.
January 27, 2010 — 1:04 pm
Michael Wurzer says:
I agree the ipad will be great for real estate pros on the road with clients. Regarding books and vooks, I have a slightly different view. First, my guess is people will find the ipad too heavy for reading books as it’s twice as heavy as the Kindle. Second, the glare from the screen is going to be a problem for reading as well. Where I think the ipad could be a game changer is for content producers that want to leverage video and text together in new ways, and that’s why I think Vook actually will benefit quite a bit from the ipad. Keep in mind that Vook is software, not a device. The primary delivery mechanism for Vooks today, I believe, is an iphone app, which will work with the ipad, too. In fact, I’d go so far as to say vook type content — if it’s produced — will be the killer app for ipads. The ipad won’t make a good book reader, but it will be awesome vook reader.
January 27, 2010 — 2:28 pm
Greg Swann says:
> The primary delivery mechanism for Vooks today, I believe, is an iphone app
This is correct. And they don’t sell.
> it will be awesome vook reader
A key peril of the SMM world, and you can protest that you are immune from it, if you like: Confusing what your buddies do with valuable work. The Vook is not a product for all of the reasons I have named so far. I’ve been right about its inevitable failure from the first word I heard about it. Brad Inman could have saved a lot of money and a good deal of reputation by listening to me. FWIW, the iPad won’t save the New York Times, either, but Apple will make decent money on the Gray Lady’s demise.
But: Whether or not the iPad is a good book reader is not very important. No one in the iPad’s target market one reads books, and no one will care if the iPad is not as good as the Kindle for not-reading books. The iPad’s job is to sell books — and all other forms of for-pay digital content — and at this it will be a category killer.
This is important: The big winner today was Apple, Inc. The actual purpose of the iPad is to serve as a portable retail store-front for everything sold at the iTunes store. They’re not selling razors, they’re selling blades. This was the Vook’s objective, too, but Brad Inman is a big, dumb doofus. Apple isn’t even selling the blades, they’re brokering them — with a 30% split to Apple. The true frolicking genius of this device is lost, seemingly, on everyone except Steve Jobs, who will laugh all the way to the bank.
January 27, 2010 — 2:45 pm
Al Lorenz says:
So, according to Steve Jobs, the state of the union is innovation…
January 27, 2010 — 4:02 pm
Jim Whatley says:
Dude talk about driving down the road looking at house that can beam a video out form the sign. now that is uber. Mine will be a IuberPad. with my companys name all over it, Sweet.
January 27, 2010 — 4:44 pm
Jeff Brown says:
Greg — Please give me your best guess for the timing of the ultimate fade of Kindle. Thanks
January 28, 2010 — 1:25 pm
Greg Swann says:
> Please give me your best guess for the timing of the ultimate fade of Kindle.
Yesterday. I can’t imagine anyone buying one now, except at a deep discount. There will be exceptions, but they’re outliers, and there will be fewer of them — and fewer Kindle sightings — going forward. The Kindle product line is already available as iPhone apps, and that will endure, although I would expect Amazon to use the iPad SDK to make richer iPad apps.
January 28, 2010 — 8:00 pm