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Apple launches the iPad in US

03 Apr 2010 | Filed under: IT, News, Technology

Apple ships its iPad in the US today, Saturday April 3rd. Britain will have it by the end of the month. Is this another revolutionary product in the long and distinguished line since the return of Steve Jobs? Or, is it a bridge too far in Apple’s so-far successful campaign to persuade us all that we need something we didn’t know we did.

The Harvard Business Review blog believes all business can learn from Apple’s iPad (http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2010/04/what_every_business_can_lear.html). In essence, the writer argues that Apple has always been willing to “let go of their legacies and embrace evolving customer behavior”. Of course, they’ve also been able to spot that evolution of behaviour before anybody else – so we got the counter-intuitive iMac designs, the revolutionary iPod, the iPhone and now the iPad.

We’ll know soon if the iPad is going to take off like all of these or is it going to be a mistake like, arguably, Apple TV.

The Financial Times reports (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/a854eb38-3e83-11df-a706-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss) that estimates for sales this weekend are from 100,000 to 400,000 with worldwide sales in year one anywhere from 1m to 12m – so, I guess, no-one knows, but I wouldn’t bet against Apple.

Incidentally, you have to be a subscriber to the FT to read the link referenced above and, as from June, the Times and Sunday Times will also charge for online access to their news stories. This links in rather nicely with the iPad story as many people believe that the iPad may well be the “killer” e-book reader.