Live from Apple's iPad 2 event

It's great for what it does. Provides a scratch free case and a tactile surface and 3D gripping 'column' that's needed to casually use the device in a wide variety of general use situations (plus the pocket to store the screen wipe for the inevitable smudges).

That they've made redundant the market for scratch-protective cases, while improving on the other two must-have ergonomic features is a bit funny.

You can be certain that somewhere in mid 2010, there was a higher resolution version of the iPad 2 that was either in the first group of ten, or possibly even down selected to the final group of three. For reasons of cost, power consumption, or, perhaps competitive pressure (Nobody else was coming out with a tablet with a high resolution, so they could hold off until the iPad 3, or possibly 4) that was not the product you saw today.

The next iPad, rumored for September of this year, is more likely to include major new features, including a higher-resolution display and more connectivity (i.e. Thunderbolt).

Can we stop with the "market share" talk? No one is "running" the smartphone market. What is this, Engadget?

Android benefits from mass adoption, since Google makes money on ads. So they license their OS for free to a bunch of manufacturers. They're doing pretty well.

Apple benefits from a simple, walled-off platform because that's their design philosophy. So they update a few products a year. They, too, are doing pretty well.

  > and now look who's running the market

Of course they do. They're not selling $20 pairs of jeans, here. They're selling expensive stuff that requires a conscious decision to purchase. Apple needs to provide a compelling case to move their product. It's not practical to buy something just because it's from Apple. It has to actually do something for you as a user.

> Apple has very good PR.

This line is exhausting. Apple has very good products. The great marketing and PR is a result of having very good products.

You can't sell 15 million units of a brand new, $500 product in nine months on the strength of TV ads and magazine pieces. It has to actually work well. There may be an initial element of brand trust to grease the skids for launch but sustained sales require something real.

My parents aren't Apple fans. They're not nerds. They spend a lot of time frustrated with technology. They're nuts about their iPad because it works really well. That's it. Adding a USB port isn't going to make them like it better. It's going to make it more complex, which is going to degrade their experience in using it.

"Oh, well, that whole 12 hour battery thing? Doesn't count if you use the USB port. Then it's something else."

"What? Why?"

"USB uses power."

"Why?"

etc.

> Pointing to large sales numbers as a counter-argument to criticism is just plain silly.

You continue to miss the point. The criticism isn't valid. Apple has sold a shitload of iPads on the strength of its simplicity. You're talking about making it less simple. In that case, its success is more than ample refutation of your assertion that adding junk to its spec list is going to somehow improve things.

It's like saying, around 1950 "Hey, turn the automobile into a Rhinoceros – then it'll be able to hit things with its horns."

"But people don't buy cars to do that. Look how well they're selling."

"Sales are not a valid refutation of my criticism that cars have no horns to hit things with!"

etc.

But like I said: Chalking it all up to clever marketing, instead of painstaking investments in software design, hardware fabrication and supply chain optimization is how everyone else keeps dropping the ball while Apple sprints all the way to the bank year after year.

EDIT: Planning on selling mine, so wondering if anyone has used the service before?

Damn you Apple for dumping cheap first-gen iPads onto the market!

It also places the iPad events concurrently to the iPod September events (back to school), which isn't exactly great for Apple.

We need a force here. They know how heavy the iPad is. They have an acceleration. There's a force.

This would actually create an interesting problem. If you have a hardware switch and a software timer, then the switch is going to be wrong sometimes.