By Lindsey Challis
While
at a family BBQ last week I realised the difference in opinion over Apple’s new
wonder-device. There was a lot of heated
banter, but mainly a lack of actual knowledge.
How many new technologies have we seen step into the market, ridiculed
by a whole array of people – from the techno-obsessed to the techno-phobe –
only for them to later become staple in our everyday life? Social media, internet banking and the mobile
internet to name but a few.
At
the beginning, there are two camps of people – those that have the gadget and
those who don’t. Generally the former
are absolutely enthralled by the new technology. With the iPad they’ve bought into a unique
merger between iPhone and laptop, often expecting it to revolutionise the
world. I understand this – they have the
gadget, they are using the technology and have most likely spent the previous
months reading everything to do with the upcoming device and its
technology. At present, however, they
seem to jump to defend their new gadget at any cost, claiming that they can’t
understand anyone who lives without it.
The
other side I am less supportive of – and unfortunately this was the side
indulged most at the BBQ.
As
the iPad got well and truly put through its paces, the discussion was more an
effort to wade through everything that had been said and written about it –
this was because nobody had even seen an iPad, let alone used one! As perception, assumption and confusion
intertwined, the newly constructed version of the iPad seemed far removed from
the reality.
So
I guess the question remains – is it the technology or the newspapers driving
public opinion?
The iPad is here to stay. I have had one for three days and have not had to boot up my laptop or use my Blackberry whilst out of the office, since buying it.
Apple certainly has Microsoft and all the other major hardware players in a tail spin...
See: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1294425/Microsoft-Apples-iPad-concentrates-slate-devices-run-Windows-7.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
or: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38208922/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/
They are frantically trying to rejuvinate the failed Windows based tablets from the early noughties BUT here lies the problem, they are all Windows based!
Posted by: Simon Price | 14 July 2010 at 17:26