Why Is Every Non-geek In My Family in a Froth About the iPad?

[Husar]

Well, I thought it blows at first, bigger iPod Touch, and it really is, to get a bigger iPhone you have to pay 130$ extra for the 3G version, don't forget that.
then i read this article on gizmodo and it slowly dawned on me that this could be some kind of replacement computer for people who simply have problems learning how to use a mouse, the whole doubleclicking-windows-multitasking-driver-settings-issues-world of computers, netbooks, etc.
Like my mom, she wants to get on the internet but doesn't really have the time and patience to really learn how to use a computer, giving her an easy-to-use iPad that she could more or less just use after 10 or 20 mins of explanation could be a great thing, except for one big blow...
What's the use of having an internet device that large without flash? Well, there are apps for facebook etc so you won't have to use the browser with all it's plugin deficiencies to access them but there are many sites for which there is no app that use flash and other plugins that my iPhone's Safari simply cannot display correctly, some of them becoming outright useless, and that, I think, is why even my mom would be wasting her money getting one of these...

edit: Might also add that the pictures in the OP are wrong, here is a video of what it really looks like

[Lemur]

then i read this article on gizmodo [...]

Very good article, very good analysis. I usually don't understand why Apple products are so popular until a year or two after they've gotten huge. Looking back, it's obvious why the iPod did so well, but being a geek, all I could see at the time was how overpriced and underpowered the device was (and I was bitter that Apple bought my favorite MP3 software and dumbed it down into iTunes).

So even though I'm bleh about the iPad personally, I'm trying to look at the angles and see if there's something big and obvious that Apple figured out that's invisible to me.

[TinCow]

So even though I'm bleh about the iPad personally, I'm trying to look at the angles and see if there's something big and obvious that Apple figured out that's invisible to me.

The thing Apple HAS done well is the whole multi-touch interface. That is extremely desirable for the consumer, and Apple has so much brand recognition in that area due to the iPhone that they are in a superb position to capitalize on it in the future. I do feel that the iPhone/iPad style touch screen is going to become ubiquitous in mobile computing over the next decade. It's simply the most space efficient method of interfacing with a portable device. Apple needs to keep exploring this area, and I hope they will continue to innovate here because we need the kinds of devices that they're producing.

My ideal product is a device that is portable enough to fit in my pocket, yet functional enough that it replaces BOTH my cell phone and my laptop. I already have two devices... what I need isn't a third, it's a new device that lets me get rid of the other two. If Apple can create THAT device, they can charge the same as both the phone and the laptop combined, plus some, and I'll still buy it.

[Furunculus]

the mass market ebook store is another angle, ebooks for everyday, not just for limited function e-ink devices.

but until i can get my ebooks un an unrestricted open format, just like my music, i ain't interested.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Tangentially related; this launch has led to me hating Robert Kotick more. In this WSJ article:

One Apple partner felt the price was too high. "Maybe you live in a different America. There is 15% real unemployment, taxes keep getting higher, home equity has evaporated," said Robert Kotick, chief executive of videogame maker Activision Blizzard Inc. "Five hundred bucks is a lot of money. You should get out more."

From the *** hat who jacked up PC prices of MW2 because he could, and would jack up all game prices if he could.

IT does appear Apple's market share wasn't as large as I thought.

CR

[Husar]

Uhm, there is a whole lot of free software in the iPhone AppStore, in fact the store is more or less divided into free apps and apps that cost money, the good thing about it is that you do not have to search half the internet to find what you need, there is one central place where all the apps your device can use are, you don't have to go to shady websites with really slow servers, dead links etc. that some hobby designer put on the internet, you just go to the appstore and browse categories or search for what you want. For the programmers the advantage is that all their potential customers go to the appstore, where they can find the app. Another advantage for the customers is that apple tests every single app relatively thoroughly to prevent fraud, viruses, execution of external code etc. All in all I find this a great advantage, on my windows mobile smartphone I had a far worse experience, in fact I had far less apps, it was harder to find theem, some of them were optimized for other screen sizes etc. The Apple approach is a bit more like the console approach for gaming and for a cellphone i think that is fine, if I am on a train and want to download an app or a song I won't have to open the browser and wait ages for google to load, all the search results to load etc. I just go to the appstore or itunes store and search for the app/music and get there much faster. On the PC it's a different animal and browsing is easier but my iPhone was never meant to replace my PC.
And it's actually safer than my PC(so far anyway) because not everyone can just execute all sorts of code on it(I know, there are two viruses, one needs it to be jailbreaked and the other comes through...your PC IIRC).

[Lemur]

I stand corrected, Husar, my bad entirely. Like I said, I've never owned an iPhone or iTouch or iPad, so I was talking out my posterior orifice.

[Furunculus]

the mass market ebook store is another angle, ebooks for everyday, not just for limited function e-ink devices.

but until i can get my ebooks un an unrestricted open format, just like my music, i ain't interested.

oddly enough, here is an article from el-reg in ipads and ebooks:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2010/01..._book_readers/

[al Roumi]

Oh dear, here's anothor fawning sycophant.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

There's much to like, of course. The physical beauty and classy build quality, as in anything designed by Jonathan Ive. The shockingly low price — $499 for the basic model. The contract-free, unlocked nature of the 3G version. But there are two chief reasons for its guaranteed success.

1. It is so simple. It is basically a highly responsive capacitative piece of glass with solid-state memory and an IPS display. Just as a book is basically paper bound together in a portable form factor. The simplicity is what allows everyone, us, software developers, content providers and accessory manufacturers to pour themselves into it, to remake it according to the limits of their imagination. I'll stop before I get too Disney.

2. It is made by Apple. I'm not being cute here. If it was made by Hewlett Packard, they wouldn't have global control over the OS or the online retail outlets. If it was made by Google, they would have tendered out the hardware manufacture to HTC. Apple – and it is one of the reasons some people distrust or dislike them – control it all. They've designed the silicon, the A4 chip that runs it all, they've designed the batteries, they've overseen every detail of the commercial, technological, design and software elements. No other company on earth does that. And being Apple it hasn't been released without (you can be sure) Steve Jobs being wholly convinced that it was ready. "Not good enough, start again. Not good enough. Not good enough. Not good enough." How many other CEOs say that until their employees want to murder them? That's the difference.

So essentially to him it's affordable, simple and apple... But light on the actual function. He likes it because he likes nice things that look cool whereas (to answer the OP) geeks are more interested in what it will actually do -and how well.

It does seem to me a bit like the function will almost be created for the ipad as the market responds to this thing that every man and his wife will have, and been looking for something to do with.

[Subotan]

So, the main points are

Apple.
Simple.
Shocking.