
Depends on what you see
Over the weekend we have been treated to loads of stories
about Apple's iFad. (Indeed, but you decided to write another one anyway. sub.ed.)
On Saturday there were shedloads of pictures of people
queuing and stories about how the beast sold hundreds of thousands on its first
day. What is perhaps surprising is that all this was spin
perpetuated by a US tech press which should be ashamed of itself.
While there were queues for the product they were nothing
like what was experienced for the iPhone and equally most of the hundreds of
thousands of sales were the result of pre-sales. A few brave hacks did dare to show the empty queue lines,
but the story was already written for them. They would find a couple of people who had been waiting
in the queue for a few days and that was it. One bloke apparently even makes a
habit of it. He gets his 15 minutes of fame every time Apple releases a new
product by turning up early safe in the knowledge that he will get his name in
lots of news papers and on TV.
So what does this really mean for the iPad? Well despite the brave new world that is
supposed to be upon us today, there are no indications that the iPad has sold
anything beyond its Apple fan boy base. Early signs are that Apple will have its work cut out trying to get the
iPad to the great unwashed who seem to have a bit more sense than money.
Meanwhile the tech press is full of stories which claim
that the iPad will be a cure for cancer in the hope that it can convince
ordinary people that Steve Jobs' gadget means something to them.