Yesterday’s launch of the iPad met with some serious buzz. If there’s one thing Apple know how to do, its launch a product!
And hats off to Mr. Jobs – the iPad does look like a stunning piece of kit. The sleek design of the iPhone combined with a tablet screen and iTunes/App Store integration makes for a pretty compelling product that nicely bridges the gap between iPhone and MacBook. Whether it will sink or swim is yet to be decided…
Of note, however, is what the launch of this device means for retailers. The supposedly “best browsing experience you’ll ever have” (Steve Jobs) offered by the iPad means this could be the new terminal through which people will be interacting with online stores to do their shopping. Everything about the iPad heralds a new wave of feature-rich retailer apps that will no longer have to limit their functionality and fight for available space on the small screen of a smartphone. It offers huge potential for an entirely new level of engagement with your consumer.
The question is who will be the first to exploit it?
I’m not so sure chaps, it’s not small enough to be considered “mobile” and does not have enough traditional features (USB to start) to compete with a laptop with 3G wireless.
However, I’m baking humble pie in preparation as where others fail Mr Jobs seems to find a market where others have failed and crobar it open.
Articles like this seem to think otherwise!
We’ll see what plays out, Phil. Just keep that humble pie nice and warm, as it’ll taste a lot better come the time.