All iPads So, was the "What's a computer?" ad a success or failure?

[yitwail]

It was very controversial at the time and is still referenced around Apple/iPad discussions today.

I missed the controversy, having just watched the ad for the first time, but in light of events that took place since the ad debuted, it rather amazes me that people were offended by something so innocuous.

 

[secretk]

These talks about the college gap with reality, not about the grow children going to college.

This is a good point. At least for my country I feel that our educational system is not optimised to prepare people for the real world. And certain aspect of this is also the tools and devices they expect students to use. That being said I realised this for myself rather young and by 6th grade I had pretty good system on how I learn and process information. By college my notes were used across wide by the whole group of 100 people to study for exams. I had my own system for doing things that not just worked for me, but for most of the group so I pretty much know not only how to adapt but also now when I am efficient.

In my first days on the broadcast tv a manager with I’m talking about numerous issues that make me free of task and payed for nothing he tells me:”elephantiac companies evolves “elephantianicly”!”.
“Ok, I’m here for money, nothing else, if you pay me I could spent my time seeing tv-series while you evolve”.
And that’s is what happened.
5 yrs to evolve from betacam to .mxf files management.

Sucks but it is a reality that most probably a lot of us face.

Kids adapts themselves in companies and structures with old management, old tasks, old issues. While these dinosaurs attend to killed themselves (Intel as example) kids search a better place to spent their time.
Computers are only a tool, we work with them by decades, but nothing told us their are here to remain, not in those form (tower or laptop, with mouse/keyboard).
I don’t know about you, but I’m a little tired of the “desktop” dogma. 30 yrs ago I could remember the ZUI paradigma, but we are here with mouse/keyboard/desktop representation.
I hope a young brain could thinks (at least one) new idea.

Computers are indeed tools and the way I see things devices are here to help me being productive and optimise my flow, not for me to cater to them and to have to spend constantly efforts to make them work for me.

I am a manager of over 50 people in an IT company. For my team members traditional computer is still the way to go. If I have to be honest even finding laptop for them was a compromise. The power they need (in terms of CPU and RAM) and the sustainability they need is not easy to find in a portable laptop. iPads do have the power but not the sustainability and the multitasking my Developers need. I have to say M1 Macbooks are the ones going the closest to what a Developer needs. At least my teams.

I on the other hand do not need that much power as I have no time to do Development anymore. I spend my time in preparation for meetings, meetings and drafting the vision and strategy for my organisation. When it comes to meetings, I need at least two screens. We are global company and even before COVID and working from home, I had mostly meetings with people in other countries. So I need one display to have the camera feed (body language is important for me) and a separate one to take notes during the meeting.

When it comes to working on my strategy or vision I usually need to create really holistic and big picture of what I want to do. It is a a lot of things at play that I need to consider and combine into one cohesive story. It is basically working with a lot of data and finding relations between said data. This is how my brain works the best. However to do it I need a lot of screen real estate.

This is what is efficiency for me and for now it is still the laptop I would go to because I need multiple monitors. It is simple. It is not about me being power user, it is about me knowing what I need and how I process information.

 

[spiderman0616]

I missed the controversy, having just watched the ad for the first time, but in light of events that took place since the ad debuted, it rather amazes me that people were offended by something so innocuous.

The general attitude toward Apple back then was a lot different. People constantly hammered on them for everything. It was far worse than it is now, in my opinion. Every new iPhone meant Apple was doomed because something or other feature wasn't there. Every single quarterly report came along with an undertone of "Tim Cook will run this place into the ground because he's an idiot and knows nothing about technology." I even remember some iPhone/iPod/iPad commercials being labeled as "desperate". Oh--they did a new iPhone commercial--must not be selling as many iPhones anymore!

Anyway, along came this commercial with the kid that many labeled as "snotty", and it dared challenge the notion that maybe there is a huge market of users out there that are better served by an iPad than a notebook. It moved peoples' cheese and they didn't like it. They still don't.

I think the Magic Keyboard in 2020 brought a lot more people around to the idea that this thing can be your main computer if you have that kind of use case. The commercial was just foreshadowing.

 

[Hunter5117]

I think the Magic Keyboard in 2020 brought a lot more people around to the idea that this thing can be your main computer if you have that kind of use case. The commercial was just foreshadowing.

One complaint I do have about trying to use the IPP for a main computer is that the keyboards are not very rugged. I did not carry my 12.9" with magic keyboard around much so it is fine, but the folio keyboard for my 11" has slight fraying along the edges and will only get worse. Fabric is a poor material for a "professional" accessory.

 

[ericwn]

One complaint I do have about trying to use the IPP for a main computer is that the keyboards are not very rugged. I did not carry my 12.9" with magic keyboard around much so it is fine, but the folio keyboard for my 11" has slight fraying along the edges and will only get worse. Fabric is a poor material for a "professional" accessory.

Good point and unfortunately I made similar experiences with other keyboard accessories from their competitors as well.
My pretty expensive Brydge 12.9 Max + (what a name…) had its hinges brake and give in completely in less than three months of ownership - with very light use only. And before anybody mentions Logitech, three of their keyboard cases broke in the last five or six years at our home too.

 

[spiderman0616]

One complaint I do have about trying to use the IPP for a main computer is that the keyboards are not very rugged. I did not carry my 12.9" with magic keyboard around much so it is fine, but the folio keyboard for my 11" has slight fraying along the edges and will only get worse. Fabric is a poor material for a "professional" accessory.

I agree. I shouldn't have to put a protective decal on both sides of the Magic Keyboard to keep it from looking disgusting and getting banged up.

I have had other iPad keyboards from both Zagg and Logitech. Both were made out of similar material to what Apple uses on their Smart Keyboard/Magic Keyboard accessories. Neither of them had the fingerprint smudging or fraying problem. I very much wish Apple would find out what it is they're using and switch to that.

 

[mrLucas]

Did the ad signify that Apple wants to do more and more to make an iPad the new computer for most people? Did the ad generate enough press (good or bad) that it was beneficial for Apple + the iPad? Or did Apple kinda screw themselves over by creating this expectation that the iPad should be a laptop/computer replacement? Was it a misleading ad? Or did it really have little effect on the iPad and its trajectory?

It was a success, it signaled that apple wants to make iPad a computer, which it really did over the coming years. Ipad silently got a lot of features to make it a pretty good computer - laptop replacement, for most basic tasks. Its not gonna change my 15K Mac Pro workstation with 3 27” monitors, but even considering it ‘could’ (it cant) is an amazing achievement for such a small device. I also spend more time on my iPad than on any other device I own.

 

[mrLucas]

The ad itself is annoying but it had a point. For many people they literally don't need a laptop or desktop and can scoot by with just an iPad perfectly fine.

That being said I've noticed with my friends and relatives kids they literally don't know how to use computers, they only know tablets because their parents have used tablets as baby sitters since they were little and many now do schoolwork on them.

but… I dont see a problem with that honestly. It even sounds a bit like - how are theese kids gonna survive without the computer, just like our parents were taliking about something they had…

For what I can say, I am amazed how my little niece uses her phone. I was like - WTF OMG?! Her hands literally fly all over, and she has mapped the whole UI and has muscle memory, so I cant even see something show on the screen she alreaddy presses the button. Crazy.


What I am saying is… I am pretty quick with my comptuer - super quick. But so is she with her tablet.

 

[mrLucas]

Stick with me here, I swear there's a point that's relevant.....

You may or may not have seen in another thread that I recently changed my desk setup. I work from home full time, even when there's not a pandemic going on, and have been using really old dual Dell monitors that my company gave me back in 2011. Being someone who's always needed glasses or contacts and now has bad reading distance too, those monitors were making me less productive because I found myself hunched over a lot to read small print. My MacBooks, iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch, heck even my car's CarPlay screen all look nicer and are far easier to read than those old dinosaurs I'd been using for work. Which is kind of ridiculous, since I'm using my desktop space 40+ hours a week.

What I ended up doing was ditching my entire desk setup and getting an LG UltraFine 4K. I gave my Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard to my son and got a Logitech MX 3 mouse and keyboard. Each have 3 Bluetooth profiles. All power, charging, peripheral access, etc. is routed through the USB-C or Thunderbolt ports on the monitor. Basically, it's an exploded-out version of my notebook(s), like an old school 90's desktop computer but way cooler looking and with far less cables. (The mouse I bought makes it really easy to switch desktops in Spaces and has a built in "gestures" pad, so the second monitor really feels unnecessary now.)

The idea of all this is that I can hot swap devices on my desk. The monitor is the where I do "work" regardless of what that work is and what device I'm using it for. This is why I made my iPhone as profile 3. If I've shut down for the day or don't feel like getting out a notebook just to write a two paragraph email, I can pop my iPhone right into that setup, type my email, and go about my business.

This is why I never bought into the theory that the iPad is a modular robotic core or whatever Jason Snell called it. Notebooks with fully matured desktop OSes on them fit that description more than anything, whether or not they have touch screens. With the state iPadOS is currently in (that's not to say it's bad, it just doesn't fit my needs anymore) I really think iPhones and MacBooks fit into my workflow as "robotic cores" more than anything else these days. My iPad largely sits here unused.

your post is a great example how needs differ. I’d never do what you are doing

 

[mrLucas]

I missed the controversy, having just watched the ad for the first time, but in light of events that took place since the ad debuted, it rather amazes me that people were offended by something so innocuous.

yeah… The add looks fine to me. Also it does portray the ‘soul’ of ipad rather well.

 

[mrLucas]

This is a good point. At least for my country I feel that our educational system is not optimised to prepare people for the real world. And certain aspect of this is also the tools and devices they expect students to use. That being said I realised this for myself rather young and by 6th grade I had pretty good system on how I learn and process information. By college my notes were used across wide by the whole group of 100 people to study for exams. I had my own system for doing things that not just worked for me, but for most of the group so I pretty much know not only how to adapt but also now when I am efficient.

Sucks but it is a reality that most probably a lot of us face.

Computers are indeed tools and the way I see things devices are here to help me being productive and optimise my flow, not for me to cater to them and to have to spend constantly efforts to make them work for me.

I am a manager of over 50 people in an IT company. For my team members traditional computer is still the way to go. If I have to be honest even finding laptop for them was a compromise. The power they need (in terms of CPU and RAM) and the sustainability they need is not easy to find in a portable laptop. iPads do have the power but not the sustainability and the multitasking my Developers need. I have to say M1 Macbooks are the ones going the closest to what a Developer needs. At least my teams.

I on the other hand do not need that much power as I have no time to do Development anymore. I spend my time in preparation for meetings, meetings and drafting the vision and strategy for my organisation. When it comes to meetings, I need at least two screens. We are global company and even before COVID and working from home, I had mostly meetings with people in other countries. So I need one display to have the camera feed (body language is important for me) and a separate one to take notes during the meeting.

When it comes to working on my strategy or vision I usually need to create really holistic and big picture of what I want to do. It is a a lot of things at play that I need to consider and combine into one cohesive story. It is basically working with a lot of data and finding relations between said data. This is how my brain works the best. However to do it I need a lot of screen real estate.

This is what is efficiency for me and for now it is still the laptop I would go to because I need multiple monitors. It is simple. It is not about me being power user, it is about me knowing what I need and how I process information.

….


ummm…

I dunnno how to tell you this. But you are a poweruser xP


Anyway, impressive use case But I guess for your usecase a desktop is actually better suited? Right? Like, for me, I consider my desktop the ‘real’ computer - it has huge keyboard (fullsize acgtually bigger— ms natural) the best logi mouse (MXMS3) with a super big mosuepad (i think its 40x30cm or something) and 3 big monitors.

I need my keyboard to type fast, I need my mouse to be precise, and I need my monitors to open multiple things at once and compare.
….

But my laptop cant do that.

 

[mrLucas]

I don't have any hard numbers for how many sales the ad bolstered (or didn't for that matter). I'm guessing it was a way to reach out to those who would've never had that thought... that an iPad can be a suitable "computer" replacement.

At the end of the day, gather your needs for a computing device, and make sure that an iPad can indeed cover those. Overall, you'll want an ipad from the Air line, if not Pro (as opposed to the "regular" line). Those are hella expensive, rivaling actual laptops in price, but there are some things that an iPad Pro + accessories (e.g. Apple Pencil, smart keyboard cover). It is much more portable as well. OTOH, there are the usual woes, like doing something with an iPad will have extra hurdles that MacOS, Windows, and Linux can easily do "just like that".

For my use cases...
--I have a PC at work
--I have a desktop PC at home
For video games, internet, and productivity. I could probably get away with just a Chromebook, but internet is a superior experience on there. Speaking of which
--Chromebook for internet while on travel
If I'm settled at a hotel or family's house, this is what I use for internet
--Android phone
For the usual phone stuff, and "internet in my pocket"

Do you have a Treo thou? ? I think you knew 30 years ago computers would change form factor ?

(lovet those devices even thou never got to own one. I was drolling over the one that looks like the iPhone X. Come to think about it… !!! WOW I just realised I like the deisgn of the iPhone X so much, because its like Treo Edge.. .? or somehting like that.. Yeah. Treo Edge

)

 

[sparksd]

Do you have a Treo thou? ? I think you knew 30 years ago computers would change form factor ?

(lovet those devices even thou never got to own one. I was drolling over the one that looks like the iPhone X. Come to think about it… !!! WOW I just realised I like the deisgn of the iPhone X so much, because its like Treo Edge.. .? or somehting like that.. Yeah. Treo Edge

)

I liked Palm devices, particularly the Pre Plus. Fun little phone.

 

[arvinsim]

I still believe that the value proposition of the iPad as a laptop replacement is now much less because of the release of the Apple Silicon Macs.

 

[biffuz]

The first thing I thought when I saw that ad was "What's a computer? THE THING YOU'RE USING! You kids thinks you're are sooooo smart with all those smart things BUT YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT IT IS"

 

[ackmondual]

Do you have a Treo thou? ? I think you knew 30 years ago computers would change form factor ?

(lovet those devices even thou never got to own one. I was drolling over the one that looks like the iPhone X. Come to think about it… !!! WOW I just realised I like the deisgn of the iPhone X so much, because its like Treo Edge.. .? or somehting like that.. Yeah. Treo Edge

)

I actually use a Palm Tungsten T3! My templates are all stored on there, and it was made for organizers/Personal Information Management. It fits in my pocket so not bad there. The charger is bulky, but I only need that when on vacation.