Comment by jbondeson | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jbondeson | Hacker News Reader

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I think the problem is that people are looking at this backwards.

The vast majority of people buy the iPad not because they want a tablet, they buy it because they want a really big iPhone. HP, RIM and most of the others seemed to not understand this and attempted to build a really big iPhone... without the iPhone ecosystem. Surprise, surprise they failed miserably.

Apple did a very smart thing, they took a product that was selling like hotcakes, and they introduced a product that was identical save for the form factor. Every iPhone user (which is a whole lot of people) was suddenly an expert iPad user! They felt at home, they felt safe, they got what they wanted: a really big iPhone.

The iPad isn't just a "really big iPhone". Have you spent much time using one? It's familiar because it runs the same OS, but the experience is unique to the iPad. I agree with your statement that the ecosystem has a lot to do with the success of the iPad, however, it's definitely not "a really big iPhone".

It sounds like you think I'm belittling the iPad. I really don't know what's bad about being a really big iPhone. A different form factor of an excellent product can still be excellent. Apple made a great piece of hardware with some pretty crazy hardware wizardry, but non-techies don't care about that because they expect it from Apple.

I'm merely trying to describe what I've heard my non-techie friends praise about the iPad. They like that the user experience is almost wholly translated to the iPad. They like that they can get all the apps they have on their phone on their iPad. They like that it's bigger.

I've never heard a non-techie say "I really like this new dual-core processor," or "I really like the 4:3 aspect ratio as opposed to the 1.5:1 on the iPhone!" We (royal HN we) may love to obsess about all the little nuances that make the iPad different from the iPhone, but the fact of the matter is that most people just don't care.

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