What we owe Apple and Mac users

I tend to hate Apple software; it's overly simplistic and makes too many assumptions about what I need to do. I tend to hate Apple hardware; it's good stuff, but you pay too much for it.

However, they've got one heck of a marketing budget, and they manage to make their products mainstream, or, at least, 'hip.' That's something I can appreciate. Why? Because if it weren't for Apple making their hardware and software hip, there wouldn't be the demand for lookalikes and workalikes that leads to products I *do* want to use to become available.

(Yes, the Newton was a failure, but Palm followed up on the concept and made a device I enjoyed using for years.)

Consider the iPod. MP3 players had already been around for a while, but they weren't big sellers. Along somes the iPod, which takes the MP3 player market by storm, and drives the expensive little lossy-audio playback device into popularity. People discover the convenience of having a few thousand songs in their pocket, and show off to their friends. Their friends like the feature set, but balk at the price tag. Along come the products by other manufacturers and vendors, with similar functionality[1] and a lower price tag, and those friends buy. Apple made the MP3 player popular.

The iPod went through a few iterations. It added video, then it added video.

Now we consider the iPhone. Smartphones have been around for far longer than the iPhone, but I normally only heard about them being used by big corporate and institutional types. You didn't get them unless you had a financially-driven need for them, so they were only marketed to the organizations with pockets. Along comes Apple, with their iPhone and their marketing budget, and it *sells*, despite being an open-developer-unfriendly platform. Same as with the iPod, they show their friends this cool stuff, friends want something like it, and so you get things like Android and Windows Mobile[2] getting bought at cell phone retailers all over the place. Meanwhile, people got used to touch screens and video interfaces thanks to things like the iPod Touch, so adding a phone to the feature set doesn't seem too odd.

Now look at the iPad. Everyone teases it. I don't want one, because I don't like the development environment. Everyone teased iPod, too. Tablet PCs are nothing really new, either; they've been around for over a decade. The first one I remember seeing had an 80486 processor, and it was used for mobile logistical record keeping. It ran Windows 3.1, and had handwriting recognition. More recently, HP and other PC vendors have been selling laptop/tablet convertibles. My mother had one. It's kinda fun to use. Yes, they were never really popular. That's why people keep expecting the iPad to fail. They forget that MP3 players weren't popular before the iPod, and that smartphones weren't core culture until the iPhone. I don't know if it's a marketing budget, superb planning or superb timing, but Apple tends to take a known concept and get it to sell.

I expect the iPad will sell nicely. It's like a supersized cross between an iPhone and iPod Touch, with the phone features pulled. What with the requisite technologies for AR getting better and better, I suspect I know where Apple would like to go next.[3]

[1] Greater in some areas, lesser in others. I don't want to debate it.
[2] Yes, Windows Mobile has been around for a while. I didn't say it was *created* as a response to the iPhone.
[3] And a brief plug for an anime I've been enjoying lately. Dennō Coil

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:wq