“Disappointing” iPad 3 speculation
The original iPad: disappointing. Then Apple sold over 15 million of them.
The iPad 2: disappointing. But Apple has sold over 40 million of them. (So far.)
The iPad 3, or whatever it’s called, tomorrow: already? (Don’t worry, it’s just Rob Enderle.)
Knowing no more than you do right now, I can guarantee you: the iPad 3 will disappoint a lot of armchair tech commentators, “analysts”, and anyone who gets paid by the pageview. (How convenient.)
After the specs and improvements are unveiled tomorrow, consider the iPad 2’s launch and surrounding armchair-disappointment. The iPad 2 was thinner and lighter than the original iPad, but not by a lot. Its CPU and GPU were much faster, but most people didn’t care. It added cameras, but they were terrible, and most people don’t need cameras in their iPad. Its pricing and capacities were the same. And it was compatible with a clever but expensive new cover that couldn’t replace many full cases.
The iPad 2 was the combination of many minor or moderate improvements. Most of them, individually, seemed underwhelming.
But the sum of those minor improvements was a significantly improved product. If you’ve used an iPad 2 for a while, go pick up an original iPad to see what I mean. Just pick it up. Then do anything on it. See?
Let’s keep all of this in mind when we react to the new iPad tomorrow.
Because even if the only upgrade is a Retina screen, that’s a hell of an upgrade.