Will The iPad Be Apple's Next Block Buster?

For all the iPad doom sayers out there please note: I got some news for you ....... a recent major survey has just revealed that there are now even more people interested in buying an iPad than there ever was for the original iPhone and we all know how that one turned out, now don't we!

As John Paczkowski, writing for Digital Daily noted, one of the main reasons the iPad unexpectedly beat the iPhone in this pre-launch survey, seems to because of the iPad's unexpected price points, which was originally expected to be around $1,000! As also noted, the iPad seems to have really hit the sweet spot on both the lower and higher end models, and John goes on to list the following interesting quote from RBC's Mike Abramsky, who stated:

“This data, while preliminary, suggests iPad may have greater potential than expected, to expand Apple’s addressable PC, iPod markets and to capture a segment of the home PC market (est. 35M+ units/yr).”

Well, I'm no analyst, but the more that I read up on the iPad, the more interesting it is becoming and tempting for me to personally buy one. The low price points is not the only reason either, because the truth is that I, like a lot of other people, really love the iPod Touch, but the big problem is that damn small screen. Apart from the fact that you can easily park it, out of sight, in your pockets, is rather nice, but its limited screen real estate, you have to admit, severely limits it in various ways. No, you can't exactly place an iPad in your pockets, but neither can you do the same with a netbook, but look how those things are selling. The iPad's larger screen poses some problems in the portability department, but otherwise it has a lot more positives going for it then it has negatives.

So, does RBC/ChangeWave's recent survey point out that the iPad will become another huge success for Apple, and, who knows, maybe even bigger than the iPhone?

Well, first of all, as Gigaom recently pointed out, if anyone has the ability to predict that something will be a technological success it has got to be none other then computer pioneer Alan Kay. As they point out, he's not exactly known for buying into hype and has been unusually successful at predicting what will, or what will not be the next big thing in tech! Case in point: it was he that personally came up with the idea for a portable or laptop computer, among others, and that particular one goes way back ..... all the way back to 1968 in fact!

Interestingly enough, in 2007 Steve Jobs directly asked Alan Kay about the iPhone, and his response, in retrospect, was:

“When the Mac first came out, Newsweek asked me what I [thought] of it. I said: Well, it’s the first personal computer worth criticizing. So at the end of the presentation, Steve came up to me and said: Is the iPhone worth criticizing? And I said: Make the screen five inches by eight inches, and you’ll rule the world.”

So, back to the big question: will the iPad be Apple's next big block buster?

Well, based on RBC/ChangeWave's recent survey and, as well, based on Alan Kay's comment, then it's beginning to look that way! In conclusion, all I will say is that there are a lot of iPad doom sayers out there that are about to end up with a lot of egg on their faces, just as many did after the iPhone initially came out, and quite frankly, I think it will look good on them! In fact, I'm now beginning to feel that it's becoming entirely possible that the iPad just might end up becoming the one device to rule the world after all!

And that's my 2 cents 4 this Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Graphic via Gizmodo: