The iPad and Consumption
April 6, 2010I recently got to play with an iPad. To start off, I do like Apple products. I’m not a crazy fanboy who think they are the end-all or be-all, but I personally prefer them. This could come from any number of things, including growing up on Macs.
That said, when the iPad was first announced, I thought it was a little silly. I wasn’t quite sure what the point was or how useful it could actually be. I did realize quickly that I’m not the demographic that they were even going for with it. It’s not about people who are looking for a full computer, whether those people are developers or not.
I also realize that it’s not about people who are looking to type up papers and write emails all day. The iPad is really about consuming content and information. Yes, it’s been said before, and people make that out to be a bad thing, like you’re a sheep ready to be controlled.
Sure, you can look at it that way. You’re being force-fed media from major corporations, blah blah blah. However, the strength of the iPad is the choice. This, like any other computer or device connected to the Internet lets people choose what they’re looking for and looking at.
A user can just as easily consume a video posted on Vimeo or any other HTML5 video-enabled site as they can buy a TV show from the iTunes store. The idea that someone is trapped is becoming more and more a scare tactic.
Consumption is not a bad thing when the consumer chooses what to consume, and very few people are actually content creators online. So making a product that caters to those consumers is really not a bad thing. In fact, it’s probably the most obvious thing, and it’s amazing someone hasn’t done it before.
