If I would have guessed at just how successful the iPad would have been in the first couple of months after its release, I never would have guessed that the device would have hit the 2 million units sold mark in just under two months.
Sure, Apple got a huge boost from international iPad purchasers last week, but no matter how you look at it, 2 million units being sold is a pretty decent number. Everyone worried that the iPad wouldn’t sell well because it didn’t act like a true tablet with a full-fledged operating system, with Apple opting instead to use the iPhone OS. It’s starting to look like it was a smart move by Apple Inc.
BoingBoing's Cory Doctorow won't be getting an iPad. CC-licensed photo by Roo Reynolds
It’s happening; technology is no longer a geek medium
Have you noticed that over the last year that tech blogs seem to be getting it wrong? Device after device, they throw their claims down about the success of a product, and they end up being wrong? We certainly have (and we’ve also made our fair share of predictions that have been wrong) but these missteps have allowed us to notice a trend that’s been popping up quite a bit.
We’re certainly not alone—the Beatweek team seems to have noticed it as well— the technological divide is closing rapidly, and tinkering geeks are starting to be left out in the cold. Your typical user isn’t spending their free time trying to figure out how to tinker with their device, instead they’re just trying to use their device. That’s a huge paradigm shift from the past, and it’s worth noting that the change is very real. The iPad is the literal embodiment of this movement, and it’s a pretty exciting time for technophobes. I’ve always believed that technology shouldn’t be viewed as a hurdle by society; instead, the technology should be used as a straightforward tool. People shouldn’t have to spend hours of their free time trying to figure out how something works; it should just work intuitively. It’s this philosophy that’s been pushing Apple down their newly charted course, and some geeks are having a hard time coping. I’m in the same boat; I know exactly where the geeks are coming from, but I also see how excited non-geeks are getting about technology again. It’s a complex scale to balance, but something tells me there’s more purchasing power in the non-geek sphere than there is in the geek sphere, and the group with the most money is probably going to win this war.
It becomes quite obvious why the hardcore geeks are really concerned about where Apple’s headed: their reality is changing, and embracing change is hard. The real question here is whether or not we’re headed down the appropriate path, and whether or not the iPad is the first major step in a new direction.
Do you think that we’re headed the wrong way down a one-way street?
