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Did Apple rush it?

bobsentell

bobsentell

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 14, 2008
836
0
Alabama
Apple is notorious for keeping their products secret, yet we knew about the Tablet before it was released. Do you think Apple knew what less secrecy anal HP and etc were going to be releasing slate-like devices at CES? (I say "slate-like" because HP has technically offered a tablet PC for years.)

Do you think Apple rushed their device to market? Especially after seeing the not-yet-confirmed Courier preview? Od do you think the Apple higher ups really believe this the best they can do?

I think the iPad needed a little more time in the oven. What are your thoughts?


Edit: I am not bashing the device. I am just curious if you believe Apple took it out of the oven before the timer went off.
 
I think the Pad is Steve Jobs vision. Not rushed. Maybe he only likes to do one thing at a time and thinks everyone else should also. Therefore no multi-tasking. He has refused incorporating Flash since the first iPhone. He apparently feels that his reasons are more compelling than giving customers the "complete" internet experience that he promised when the iPhone was first released. So rather than living up to his statement, he cripples the application. There's been plenty of time. Adobe has developed a Flash version that would easily work on the iPhone. But Steve's vision is that we should not have Flash or be able to view any sites that employ Flash. Not rushed, just his vision. The device is beautiful, aesthetically, like all Apple products. While HP and others will produce a tablet that will be fully functional and give people what they want, they will never be as aesthetically beautiful as an Apple product. Steve does have an eye for that.
 
Yeah it was a lazy rush job.

Really needs it's own custom OS.

The iWork apps seem really nice though.
 
Cinemagic said:
I think the Pad is Steve Jobs vision.

.....

While HP and others will produce a tablet that will be fully functional and give people what they want, they will never be as aesthetically beautiful as an Apple product. Steve does have an eye for that.
Click to expand...

I don't disagree with that at all. Apple products are very good looking. But you can have a beautiful device that is not complete.
 
Rushed?

Do you think Apple rushed their device to market?

Arguments for "rushed":
1) Lacking some basic features (might see a bit more when it actually hits the street)
2) It is almost like they had 24 hours to throw something together and could only muster....."magical". The Jony Ive video on the Apple site and even Steve's speech about "magical device" were/are insulting (and I'm a fanboy!!!)....only reinforces the old Apple stereotype that Mac users are all "fairies"
3) Fact that production HW is still months away
4) The name.....iPad has a high "snicker factor" (more time = better name?)

Arguments for "not rushed"
1) Steve said he approached his App team "a year ago" about porting iWork to the iPad so I presume it was well underway at that time
2) Pricing/plan details already all worked out...that takes some planning/negotiating
3) Marketing always makes engineering layout a "roadmap" and hold back features so each new version will add one of the features identified as missing in V1 (camera, flash, multitask, etc.)...string em along.

And yea, I am getting a V1 coz I don't need any of the "missing features".

All they want is your money....why fight it?:D
 
I think it's pretty clear that Steve Jobs wouldn't even consider releasing this if he felt it wasn't ready.
 
I don't think it was rushed completely, however I do think apple were under terrible pressure to release somthing ground breaking that it could never ever meet those expectations.

However the fact that the iPad is not even available to pre-order on any of the Apple Stores does give some credance to the idea that it may have been unveiled much sooner than apple had desired.

As does the discovery of camera's in the SDK.

At the moment I do not have enough of a compelling reason to purchase an iPad even though I'm usually a gadget nut and a big Rev A mac purchaser. Its one of the few cases (the only other Apple product in the last few years we did not purchase was an :apple:TV) of an Apple product where I will await for Rev B and for them to deliver the iBook store worldwide etc...
 
Chaos123x said:
Yeah it was a lazy rush job.

Really needs it's own custom OS.

The iWork apps seem really nice though.
Click to expand...

So this begs to be asked.

If things like the iWork apps seem really nice and can be accomplished using the OS, is there anything inherently wrong with the OS?
 
jb1280 said:
So this begs to be asked.

If things like the iWork apps seem really nice and can be accomplished using the OS, is there anything inherently wrong with the OS?
Click to expand...

Yes, indeed: The absence of iLife!

And yes, i think, they rushed it. Not like anyone else, but they were short in time. I already had the feeling during the event, because of Jobs description. Usually they are precise and detailed and he is not missing out on questions much probably being asked. And he is usually fully featuring a product.
And he never lies!
Reality is: He showed very few things and left out pretty many he did not want to discuss (mobileme, syncing, other apps, camera, flash, multitasking, IM, headset, phone usage and so on). My best guess is, they aren't settled yet and there will be a final release event. My lucky guess or last hope will be, that even some missing features will be implemented in the last second, maybe even a FF-camera. This stunt has been done by Apple before.
 
jb1280 said:
So this begs to be asked.

If things like the iWork apps seem really nice and can be accomplished using the OS, is there anything inherently wrong with the OS?
Click to expand...


Has App developers start working with the SDK, I think you will be seeing fuller richer applications like Calendar, iWork, etc. I think this will change the netbook market like the iPhone change the smartphone market. The App store, is the key to this. The App store is "the killer app".

Plus there is the benefit of not cooking the testicles like a laptop on your lap watching TV.
 
People do seem to be continually discovering new features, that were unannounced in the SDK.

And 60 days is a long time, we might see another SDK update unlocking more features of the iPad.

There is a good chance the 60 day wait is for not only app developers to create software specific to the iPad, but also Apple themselves to finalise the product . :)
 
huskyte said:
Yes, indeed: The absence of iLife!
My best guess is, they aren't settled yet and there will be a final release event. My lucky guess or last hope will be, that even some missing features will be implemented in the last second, maybe even a FF-camera. This stunt has been done by Apple before.
Click to expand...

When has apple done that before?

I agree this thing was rushed. Apple was spooked by MS Courier and they probably thought that something BIG on the tablet front was coming out at CES. Remeber how everyone made fun of Steve Ballmer for leaking for a while that a major tablet announcement was coming out at CES? And then barely a blip of a tablet was shown- that was nothing special. And then people made fun of Ballmer.
Maybe that was a planned move by Ballmer to scare Apple into forcing something out that wasn't ready.
 
It could be, as Apple had better plans for the iPod touch 3G like the missing camera. There was clearly a space for it, but clearly due to technical difficulties, it was called off and probably rushed out with the faster processor. My bet is either on technical difficulties or :apple: saving the feature for the next generation device.
 
I think porting the iPhone OS to the A4 processor was more difficult than people imagine. This is most likely why the device is only shipping with 3.2 which is basically 3.1 with a few minor iPad specific features. Now that the OS is working on the processor, I expect they can combine their development efforts once again and produce 4.0 which will work on iPhones and iPads.
 
Shabbis said:
Original iPhone. The iPhone Steve used in the demo six months before release had a plastic screen instead of glass and a very incomplete OS.
Click to expand...

If these things are shipping in 60 days, you aren't going to see any hardware changes.
 
Part of the appeal the iPad is going to have is going to be from 3rd party software. People are going to be able to build great apps for it. And media outlets are going to use it to monetize their content.

I also think this isn't the finished product. By June or July, this'll have multitasking...
 
huskyte said:
And he never lies!
Click to expand...

LMAO.

Reality is: He showed very few things and left out pretty many he did not want to discuss (mobileme, syncing, other apps, camera, flash, multitasking, IM, headset, phone usage and so on). My best guess is, they aren't settled yet and there will be a final release event. My lucky guess or last hope will be, that even some missing features will be implemented in the last second, maybe even a FF-camera. This stunt has been done by Apple before.
Click to expand...

As it should be. He was presenting this to the world. not just a bunch of tech geeks. You want people to have questions, it keeps them interested in the device until it's formally announced.

Who's to say OS 4.0 is really what drives this puppy and it wasn't ready yet?
 
rdowns said:
LMAO.
Who's to say OS 4.0 is really what drives this puppy and it wasn't ready yet?
Click to expand...

I'll bet it will run 4.0, but one thing I fear strongly: The overall GUI is not going to change as this would cause a lot of astonishment. And requires an explanation. And the GUI looks strange to me in the current state.

This is exactly what I meant (Steve Jobs is not a liar), he did not state it would run OS 3.2, nor it wouldn't have multitasking, nor other things. I am confident that this is true for the first and the last.
 
Apple does not rush anything to market. The rumors were that Steve was obsessing over the smallest details of the iPad and making sure it was exactly what he had in mind. That's the genius of his vision, he doesn't compromise, he has a vision of what might be useful and like a pit bull, he sinks his teeth into it and doesn't let go until its exactly what he wanted.

Now the question is whether the iPad is what consumers want. While I'll agree that the feedback here is rather negative, I don't think its a bad device.

As time marches on and I ponder the advantages and disadvantages of a tablet computer. I'm thinking that squeezing a desktop OS onto a form factor that its not designed to handle is a mistake. To that end, many of the tablet computers in the pipeline with other companies may miss the mark.

Apple is great at making things easy. Running windows (or OSX) on tablet computer will make things more difficult then using said OS on a laptop. That's one reason why tablet computers failed in the past. They were harder at using/interacting then laptops. I don't think the same will be said with the iPad.

I do think apple made some mistakes with the implementation of the iPad, first the name (and you know steve had to approve of that name, its really lame), the omission of multitasking, ports and flash. With that said however, I think its a step in the right direction and if given the opportunity, it can evolve into a great tablet - provided apple listens to the consumer and adds the functionality we want. So far they've been silent on the multi-tasking but lets hope that stance will change.
 
NJMetsHero said:
Part of the appeal the iPad is going to have is going to be from 3rd party software. People are going to be able to build great apps for it.
Click to expand...

This may be true, but how great apps will there be that Apple doesnt let the customer use?

I dont have an iphone/touch myself, but i use my sister's frequently and the most useful apps on it by far are those i had to jailbreak to install.
 
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