Mele’s Musings

Thanks, Joe. I linked from @DavidDeal. My own weekend very similar — including my spouse checking her lamb recipe. First I said: uh? Then: oh h*ll yes! Sidebar: Do you see content publishers starting to charge for content (or will the app fee substitute)? How would this be/if different from the Pathfinder-like days?

Great article, with some beautiful insights.

My favorite moment so far was this past Sunday. Normally i wake up grab my laptop and start checking blogs and feeds and email. But this Sunday I just grabbed my pad, and went into the NYT app.

Read one article, then read another.

Then i put it down and thought to myself, \\\’wow this is nice, really nice.\\\’

M

It’s a cool post!
Thanks for this words, but i think there is to much things that envolves the end of things like netbooks.

Regards from Brazil!

Personally I think this post doesn\’t take into consideration that Apps are not available to people without an iphone or ipad. It seems like you are suggesting that the internet will suddenly implode and disappear.

Until Apple creates a Google killing search, with a Google killing e-mail, at a google killing price… Google should not be concerned. Apple has superior hardware… but google has and likely will continue to have superior data. I will never understand why the Digital is the only place where 100% of the market share is the only possible outcome..

IMO its toothpaste … the same product just different iterations.

Twitter is the Google-killer. iPad is for folks who don’t use iPhones

Great post dude I did the same thing this weekend - who’d thought apple would crush google and msft?

Apple is some company that makes overhyped, overpriced trinkets used by fashionistas. Google is the homepage of billions.

Joe, your argument that the iPad is a google killer is a bit flawed. The reason a search is needed is because there are simply so many of each thing. There are only a handful of apps compared to the amount of websites that exist. Apps can be easily categorized, as Apple controls how they are added. However, as Apple products become more popular a search will inevitably be required as the amount of apps go up.

Additionally, it makes no sense to \

Additionally, it makes no sense to “search” for an app. An application is much like a business, it has an established name/moniker, so a search would be rather useless at this point in time. Hence, the use of categories is essential to find anything, because a search would avail you of little to no results, because you wouldn’t know what to search for…

Oh, jeez, yet another dame using the iPad to check a recipe. Spare me. Isn\’t there any male reviewer of this thing who cooks? Or anyone married to a wife who might use the iPad for something more interesting?

So I wouldnt call it a Google Killer.
More like a Google annoyer.

Fact is:
You still got served Google content (YouTube).
And will be served by ads by Google (AdMob).

It\’s hard to escape the big \’G\’.

You guys don\’t need Google Reader any more? The iPad mail app is enough for you? What about Google Calendar? I have an iPod Touch and I can see the alternatives. Well, and Youtube is already Google.

I\’m sure your experience was awesome, but beyond the first experimental hours with the device… won\’t you need the web? Only to search books, music and new apps? All your future search of info will be through iPad itself? Seriously?

I\’m not fanatic nor related to Google, but I think you\’re mixing concepts.

Google killer? Hardly! I think you’re forgetting the dozens of services Google offers FOR FREE! You pay a premium, and quite a hefty one at that, to enjoy the ability to again pay for and use your apps. As Mike mentioned, it doesn’t offer what Google does.

Google offers quite the array of innovative, practical applications. Google Docs and Voice are two great examples, of which require no initial cost. But you specifically highlighted the search engine so, let’s do some simple math: the install base of the new iPad is over 300,000 (impressive). The number of queries that Google gets per day was approximately 293.8 million, which was reported March of last year (likely increased since). As you can see, the numbers don’t add up, but it would be unfair to even compare now. Studies would have to be done from release to at least a year, which would then be compared to past years when the iPad was in development, to even discern any significant effect of the increase/decrease in number of search queries. Aside from the fact that the search engine has built-in translation properties for rudimentary pages and can handle conversions and calculations, I’d argue that the assets of the search engine offer far more than the common user is aware of. Not to mention, everyone I’ve seen utilize the iPhone relies on Google’s SE outside of any app, which is why I was so perplexed to see your post.

Needless to say, I think your argument is faulty. While it may be the definitive technology for your needs, “apps” do not appeal to everyone. Of course you’re not typing the URL. The app is doing the work for you. It’s only a shortcut, albeit new function of shortcut. You’re being trained to click a button? How intuitive! Sorry for that bit of sarcasm, I couldn’t resist.

Apple has a long journey to convince me (and others like me) that I cannot live without this device or the app store for that matter. I simply cannot condone investing in what is technically, a step backward. I do agree with the (inverse of) your sentence: it is not practical for more than consuming content, as you put it. You are by no means in the majority. Others expect more than what is arguably a convenience of an existing convenience (a remote control for a television).

Having said this, above is simply my opinion. I applaud Jobs and Apple for their contributions and I recognize the merits of such devices. I hope, as you, the iPad garners many improved iterations and may, one day, justify its cost to me. Simply put, as a student, gamer, and artist, the iPad is nothing better that what’s already out there. I wish them the best, but I think it’s foolhardy to believe that either Google’s web services or the iPad will have an effect on the other. But that Android, now that’s a different story entirely. Cheers!

I agree.

Search is not something we need everyday. It’s nice when you have a question and need an answer, but typically people know which websites they want to go to: Facebook, NYT, Youtube, etc.

I think the age of information overload is causing the pendulum to swing back in the direction of Apple’s portal of categorized apps. Even though the app store still has hundreds of thousands of apps, they’re well categorized & sorted, so it’s still a much more managable browsing experience than the millions of results generated by Google.

Further, apps are nice because they generally don’t surprise people with spammy or unwanted content; they’re self-contained, ad-free, simple & minimal tools. And I think people appreciate the trust they can put in their apps based on how highly rated or popular they are; this credibility is not present in Google results. There’s no fear of an app containing a virus or harvesting important data since they all have to pass through Apple’s checkpoints.

Basically, Apple has created a new internet - one which is safer, smaller, easier to navigate, free of scams & spam. Sounds pretty ideal!

Great that you’re delighted with your iPad.

If you were to do a search and replace all the instances of “Apple” with “AOL” and compare what you’ve written with the kind of publicity AOL was putting out in the late 1990s, you’d find it remarkably similar. You’re extolling the (undoubted) virtues of a walled garden for content. Thing is, that model’s been tried and died several times over and most people don’t want it.

I love Apple’s design but I hate the idea of having any one corporation define my computing experience. Like most people, that’s why I haven’t bought a Mac and don’t own and iPhone. I’m one of the majority who would prefer to take our chances out in the jungle, depending on a free-ish market to give us choice. The price of that choice is the need to be vigilant but the benefit is freedom to define what I consume on the web without it being filtered by the commercial priorities of anyone else.

Dustin made a point, the key word is FREE. And after this the point that Apple will sell 15-20 mil iPad\’s/year and in the same time Google has a market made by 100-500 mil pc\’s/mac\’s already.

Come on you guys, we all know that apple is just an overpriced bubble, so then again why suppress the fact that PC\’s influence is going to fade in any way (as this is not going to happen really)? If you\’re a hipster with some rich parents or a guy in business why would you go for something that is not as functional and usual (thus more productivity) and choose the rotten apple ? It boggles the mind… as in my opinion, I get around with a laptop - just fine(got linux/windows bootup).

I have to disagree with all your thoughts because everything is turning against your point - its not the web turning to apps - its all apps will turn to web.
I mean that after 4-5 years all majority software will be directly in web online. Why ? Because its much cheaper to develop (you dont need to play with different OS), its more easer for user (no installation, downloading etc.), and it will reach all the audience (everyone have a browser, including your so loved Apple i*).
And google feels this way and works this way, it develops google OS which will really “move” others to put everything in the cloud.

Forgot to add this. I work in one of average web company and we sure have becide our main website Apple App, but its not for that it will bring us better sales, its only for the same “everybody doing it” nonsense and traffic from Apple never reaches our main website traffic.

The logic of this post seems to only hold for those who are in the demographic that can actually afford the world of the Apple I-$$$. This is the world of the affluent - a mile wide and in inch deep. Most people are middle to low income - a demographic which will still be around long after the current bubble of artificially inflated affluence has popped.

Just a thought,
-Steve