Blog #3

If you’ve ever heard the term “Apple Fanboy,” you know it doesn’t carry a positive connotation. For those of you that have never heard the term before, I’ll allow Urban Dictionary to explain:

1. A person who believes in almost anything that apple says and gives into it's marketing strategy. 2. A prime target for apple marketers to impose their superfluously costing products to. 3. A person who honestly believes that Windows XP or Vista is Archaic, Inferior, Does Not Work, or just plain ripped off ideas from the Mac OS. 4. One who waits in line for days in some instances, for Apple keynote speeches. 5. One who believes adding an "i" prefix to anything is automatically superior to anything that does not have an "i" in front of it.

While I own and enjoy Apple’s products, I hardly consider myself an Apple Fanboy. I find the people that tout that “Macs just work” just as clueless as those who say, “Windows is a piece of junk” (Watch the Windows Mojave Experiment for some insight).

For my final report I would like to explore the customer insight and marketing strategy regarding the Apple iPad. However, since it isn’t even being shipped yet, I am a bit weary about finding academic sources regarding the product (I may look at Apple more holistically rather than a single product, or maybe even the eBook industry instead).

Whenever I purchase a product, I research it thoroughly, sometimes even before its debut. The same was true for the iPad. While I originally wanted to purchase one, I probably won’t after the technically specifications were announced -- not because it’s a horrible product, as some people believe, but because it does not fulfill my needs. I believe the iPad will sell very well, but just not to Apple’s typical market base. The general tech blogs were in an uproar because of the limited functionality, dubbing it as essentially an XXL iPod Touch. Sure, the iPad won’t fulfill the needs of a typical computer user (especially one that visits technology blogs), but the iPad is perfect for our technology-challenged relatives. My grandmother understands very little English, and despite attempts to teach her how to turn on a computer and surf the web (mostly to read Chinese newspapers) she gave up on it due to its unreliability. With the iPad, there are only so many buttons and only so many things that could go wrong. I think my grandmother is completely capable of learning how to use one. Even if she can’t read the text, she could identify the icon for Safari or for Books.

I wonder if this was a calculated move by Apple. Was it trying to market this product to a clientele they have yet to tap into? They already have products for business (MacBook Air), casual (MacBook (Pro)), and power users (Mac Pro) – was this the final frontier? Or did Apple luck out after swinging and missing on a potentially industry changing product. Suffice it to say everyone that was following the debut of the iPad was disappointed. Whether it be the handicapped OS or the lack of I/O. I would assume based on Steve Jobs’ calling the iPad the a “magical and revolutionary device,” that it wasn’t intended for the “grandma niche” but for everyday users. It is also possible when the iPad is available in stores, that we will all realize that it is the gadget we never knew we needed.

Was Apple expecting this product to be owned by the everyman, or did they luck out by unintentionally creating the perfect product for our grandmothers?

(http://northtemple.com/2010/02/01/on-ipads-grandmas-and-gam)

(http://gizmodo.com/5458531/the-ipad-is-the-gadget-we-never-knew-we-needed)