Apples Masterstroke. Turn Negative to Positive????

[needthephone]

I'm starting to think that maybe some of us have underestimated apple and Steve Jobs in particular.

Look at the facts:

The Keynote was almost stage managed to be a flop.

All that was demoed really was a fancy digital photo frame.

I just can not accept that they didn't know we would all notice the glaringly obvious non functioning flash portions of the web pages they went to. It wasn't just on one page several pages were demoed with that little flash symbol un loaded. A mistake surely not??? Steve Jobs is not that stupid not to check. I think he is playing with us.

Total mention or lack of video calling/conferancing. That was the big big ommision which would have turned the ipad into something meaningfull.

Same with no real telephone function.

They demoed works but what good is it really unless you can print that output directly (without going through your imac first)

I just can not believe that all they demoed was a big touch.

This is a thought. Steve Jobs is a genius and so far his judgment has prooved spot on.

Just what is he up to.

What did he dream up as a publicity campaign during his hiatus away from apple whilst recovering from a life threatening illness.

Has he anticipated this negative reaction particularly after all the hype. He will then turn it around and generate more publicity than ever???

Is he about to pull a masterstroke here and surprise us by pulling the real features out of the bag later?

Why wet your powder with 60-90 days to go. Why give the competition a headstart to copy.

For now I'll give Steve Jobs the benefit of the doubt. After all his track record on producing game changing products is better than ours.

 

[wikoogle]

God I hope so.

If Apple unveils a bunch more new features in the iPad a month from now (before the iPad is available for sale), he'll get so much positive press and win so many people over.

After disappointing so many people by leaving out even the most basic of features that everyone was expecting and hoping for he could literally get an explosive amount of hype if he unveils an improved version before release.

 

[drjsway]

I don't know about all that but I do know that iPhone OS 4.0 will be announced in March but the 3G iPad needed to be announced early as it requires FCC approval.

That said, when iPhone 4 is released, expect many of the problems to be fixed. Multi-tasking is a guarantee, although it will probably be Apple controlled. Don't count on flash though.

 

[bossxii]

I'm starting to think that maybe some of us have underestimated apple and Steve Jobs in particular.
...

I won't pretend to know what Apple is going to do, but looking at their history of releases. Your thoughts may very be true. I ran across a blog stating source with Apple confirmed network printing across all iPad apps and file sharing across a network. I fully expect more things like this to surface as the release date approaches.

A coupe of thoughts related to your topic. Flash. While I love Hulu, I've read a few reports from their CEO or maybe head dev they will be developing for all platforms. Hulu also came out early in 2009 saying they were looking into an app for the iPhone. Flash would be a huge suprise imo if it makes it by release.

To the Keynote being a flop... I have to agree (iPad or not) This was by no means par for the course for SJ. Maybe it was because in fact he was trying to make what we already have seen in the iPhone OS "magical and revolutionary" when in fact we are looking around thinking wth is this guy smoking? lol

I won't deny, I plan on buying one, and probably two as my wife loves the idea of it. I don't need it to replace anything, it will be a very cool device for couch surfing, Slingplayer app whlie I lay in bed and enjoying all the things I do now on my iPhone, but with a nice 10" screen. If small is so damn cool (aside from portability) why do people buy 40/50/60"+ TV's? Video on larger screens is cool. Reading on a larger screen, much easier, less scrolling on the web to read anything, mail, ical etc...

Oh and skip the "my iPod only weights .5 lbs, this thing is 1.5lbs!" Sorry my arms are not made of jello, I can handle 1.5lbs. If this is an issue for you, you really need to goto the gym and get out of the computer chair.

 

[needthephone]

But why repeatedly demo pages with obvious non functioning elements?

He could have easily have chosen pages which worked.

No I think he is up to something.

He's had a lot of time to think and he's been right so far.

So we should give him the benefit of the doubt here.

 

[drjsway]

The more I think about it, the more I'm confident that iPad will be released with an early version of iPhone OS 4.0. I've been using iPhone OS 3.1.2 since October. Why would such a big release only warrant a 0.0.8 upgrade?

While I don't think the keynote was some sort of hoax intended to fail, I think Steve intentionally misled everyone by not revealing iPhone OS 4.0, which should be radically different from what we're using now. I think he was forced to announce the tablet early because it would've been revealed in the FCC approval process anyway but didn't want his competitors to catch on.

 

[admanimal]

The more I think about it, the more I'm confident that iPad will be released with an early version of iPhone OS 4.0. I've been using iPhone OS 3.1.2 since October. Why would such a big release only warrant a 0.0.8 upgrade?

While I don't think the keynote was some sort of hoax intended to fail, I think Steve intentionally misled everyone by not revealing iPhone OS 4.0, which should be radically different from what we're using now. I think he was forced to announce the tablet early because it would've been revealed in the FCC approval process anyway but didn't want his competitors to catch on.

I don't think the iPad will ship with OS 4.0, but OS 4.0 will be publicly announced shortly beforehand, which is almost just as good from a PR standpoint.

 

[demiurgical]

damn you got me thinking... SJ does seem to be up to something. It was almost like it was announced just so it can go through the FCC approval process, but all the cool features haven't been announced yet. great post!! xD

 

[drjsway]

When the first iPhone was announced, Steve specifically said he was announcing it early only because he didn't want the FCC revealing it first.

I don't think releasing the iPad with an early version of 4.0 is completely out of the question.

One thing I do know about Steve Jobs is that he's not an idiot. In the years since he's been back, Apple went from near bankruptcy to $50 billion in the bank. He's not going to make a stupid mistake like making me close Pages when I'm writing a paper just so I can check my e-mail.

 

[gr8ful]

When the first iPhone was announced, Steve specifically said he was announcing it early only because he didn't want the FCC revealing it first.

I don't think releasing the iPad with an early version of 4.0 is completely out of the question.

One thing I do know about Steve Jobs is that he's not an idiot. In the years since he's been back, Apple went from near bankruptcy to $50 billion in the bank. He's not going to make a stupid mistake like making me close Pages when I'm writing a paper just so I can check my e-mail.

Interesting discussion. Does anyone remember if the original iPhone demoed was significantly different than what was released? If there were major features released that were not demoed then I think you may be on to something.

I tend to think SJ showing pages with flash and the lego icon (unable to run) was deliberate and may tie back to how he opened the keynote. He harped on how Apple is the biggest mobile company (revenue).

The iPhone and iPod Touch far exceed comparable devices in web traffic. To date, Apple refuses to embrace flash for mobile devices but fully stands behind HTML5. Hint Hint to the industry. Follow the direction of the largest mobile player in the game and convert from flash to HTML5. The future is mobile computing and the mobile computing leader, Apple, doesn't do flash.

 

[aforty]

I think you guys are setting yourselves up for another hard hit of reality and disappointment if you think Steve Jobs is somehow holding features back just to ship them as a surprise. I don't think there is anything else. When the iPad ships it will be exactly what you saw in the demo.

Yes 4.0 is coming and I'm sure they'll add some functionality. Maybe printing, multitasking, better networking among other things. But I think you can forget about Flash support coming, ever. Apple is a very ideologic company and I think their WebKit team has impact high and low. They will not include Flash not out of technical reasons (although there are many valid ones) but purely out of principle. Apple in recent years has become very supportive of web standards and that push will continue. I support them in this. As much as I'd love to surf Hulu from my iPad (someday) I also know that Apple can influence companies to finally drop that dreadful proprietary technology for web standards with their huge user base that will be without flash.

 

[marksman]

I think you guys are setting yourselves up for another hard hit of reality and disappointment if you think Steve Jobs is somehow holding features back and then shipping them as a surprise. I don't think there is anything else. When the iPad ships it will be exactly what you saw in the demo.

I agree with this. There are no hidden features or special hold backs. I am sure they are working on next gens already and other software improvements, but who knows when those will be ready.

There certainly was no plan to hold back and trick people. The device they introduced was pretty spectacular on its own merits and based on a proven mobile OS and UI. So I don't think they really needed much more than that to get going.

 

[Etnies419]

I don't think he meant for the keynote to necessarily fail, but I'm almost positive some major features were left out on purpose. There are numerous features that people want on both the iPhone and the iPad. For example, multitasking. I feel that multitasking will be a big selling point for the next iPhone. I don't think Apple would want to release multitasking this early for the iPad, then when they say the new iPhone is getting it, people aren't impressed anymore, and want something new.

 

[sinsin07]

I could be wrong OP, but from what I have been reading on this boards from loyal Apple fans on a variety of subjects, where is the evidence that there will be a surprise. Has Jobs or Apple done something like this in the past?

It seems that every Apple follower says that Apple does things at a prescribed time and with a standard method. It would seem that your hope does not fit the profile.

Has this happend before? It would be nice.

 

[Etnies419]

I could be wrong OP, but from what I have been reading on this boards from loyal Apple fans on a variety of subjects, where is the evidence that there will be a surprise. Has Jobs or Apple done something like this in the past?

It seems that every Apple follower says that Apple does things at a prescribed time and with a standard method. It would seem that your hope does not fit the profile.

Has this happend before? It would be nice.

It just seems a little fishy. They're showcasing the iPad with iPhone OS 3.2. If it's going to be running almost the same OS as the iPhone, you'd think it would keep the same versions. Now, this statement doesn't seem to make sense right now, as it's on 3.2 and the iPhone is on 3.1.2. However, Apple has released a major update every year along with a new iPhone. Assuming they follow this trend (and I see no reason why they wouldn't), iPhone OS 4.0 will be coming out very soon.

Now, people seem to thing that the iPad will be stuck on 3.2, and won't gain any updates. It seems unlikely that they would release the device with a .x firmware on it though. One would think they would release it with 4.0.

 

[tkermit]

But why repeatedly demo pages with obvious non functioning elements?

He could have easily have chosen pages which worked.

Personally I think that was meant to get content producers thinking, whether they really want this to be the experience that future iPad users will have when visiting their sites. ...

 

[rgbyhkr]

I don't think he meant for the keynote to necessarily fail, but I'm almost positive some major features were left out on purpose. There are numerous features that people want on both the iPhone and the iPad. For example, multitasking. I feel that multitasking will be a big selling point for the next iPhone. I don't think Apple would want to release multitasking this early for the iPad, then when they say the new iPhone is getting it, people aren't impressed anymore, and want something new.

I think the only possible enhancements we'll see in the initial iPad are software. With all the time they had leading up to this, it doesn't seem like you would fabricate a bunch of units to show at press launch day and then release it 60 days later with a significant hardware design element addition like a camera - that's just not Apple's style. Could it come in the next iteration? Sure.

On the software side though, various elements could be tweaked between now and launch. Additionally, I think they very well could have held back certain features for OS 4.0. Apple wants that announcement to be special as well and wants it to get attention. Even if that software is destined to come to the iPad as a free upgrade, they probably would hold back on talking about it until they were ready to release that SDK (perhaps March like they did last year with 3.0). In that case, you would have a scenario where iPhone OS 4.0 gets its own press event in March with a stated release in the June - July timeframe. They go ahead and say in March that the iPad will receive a free upgrade when the software upgrade is released 3 months later. As a result, iPad purchases made on day 1 of that product's release would be confident knowing that new free features would be soon to follow. Initial iPad sales then aren't hurt and Apple gets multiple big press event days. If that new OS rev includes better notifications and multitasking, then a couple of main knocks on both devices would be nullified.

I wouldn't hold out hope for flash support though...

Jeff

 

[sumzero]

this thread is just giving everyone false hope now and they will be disappointed again

 

[aforty]

It just seems a little fishy. They're showcasing the iPad with iPhone OS 3.2. If it's going to be running almost the same OS as the iPhone, you'd think it would keep the same versions. Now, this statement doesn't seem to make sense right now, as it's on 3.2 and the iPhone is on 3.1.2. However, Apple has released a major update every year along with a new iPhone. Assuming they follow this trend (and I see no reason why they wouldn't), iPhone OS 4.0 will be coming out very soon.

Now, people seem to thing that the iPad will be stuck on 3.2, and won't gain any updates. It seems unlikely that they would release the device with a .x firmware on it though. One would think they would release it with 4.0.

It's 3.2 as opposed to 3.1.2 because it contains new UI elements (pop-overs, panes) and probably improvements to actually run on an iPad. Yes 4.0 will roll along sometime this year but it certainly won't be ready in 60 days when the first iPads are due to ship. Likely by the summer all three iPhone OS devices will get updated to 4.0 as all three devices use the same codebase.