What Sales of Two Million iPads Can Tell Us

May 31, 2010—Apple® today announced that iPad™ sales have topped two million in less than 60 days since its launch on April 3.

via apple.com

There’s the inevitable comparison to the corresponding iPod and iPhone sales marks, but I don’t think it can reveal the iPad’s overall popularity compared to those devices. After all, iPods now routinely sell over 10M a quarter, and iPhone sales are always encumbered with carrier contracts.

What I do think we can see is that, increasingly, the iPhone OS is becoming “mainstream”. By this, I mean there’s less concern in the mind of the average consumer that a purely touch interface can work. No more garbage about how the screen will get too oily, you can’t use a software keyboard, etc. Put simply, the paradigm shift from keyboard/mouse to touch screen—at least for tasks most consumers do—is less of a question. As more and more consumers understand this, iPad sales will continue to roll.

The latest iPad ad contains the line “You already know how to use it.” Though a simple statement, I believe it’s at the very core of the iPad’s rapid rise in sales.

Google’s Chrome Web Store: “Open” or “Closed”?

Google is reminding us all that “apps” can and should run on the open web, and not just in closed, vertically integrated and controlled environments like the iPhone/Pad/Touch.

via battellemedia.com

Is that what they’re reminding us of? Since Apple’s devices have a compliant web browser in Safari we’ll find out soon enough.

If the Chrome Web Store is truly about supplying apps that “should run on the open web” you’ll be able to use it on an “iPhone/Pad/Touch”. If not, then Google has just created a “closed, vertically integrated and controlled” environment of their own. If the latter, I wonder if the “open” zealots will call them on it.

Adobe: fighting logic with advertising

“Create-once/deploy-everwhere” apps may have some appeal for developers, but homogenization is not a user advantage. Apple is doing what they’ve done forever — trying to create the best user experience. In doing so, they’re actually the only company who does provide choice.

via kensegall.com

Good point. As he explains, Apple provides choice away from all the homogenized platforms.

Apple and the Politics of Phoney Outrage

People seem to think it is their right to have every Apple product be what they want it to be whether or not that’s the intended design of the product.

via thomas-fitzgerald.net

Nice piece by Thomas Fitzgerald.

I’m still waiting for someone to explain to me how a “closed” system having 200,000 apps to choose from hurts the consumer. When the so-called wall around your garden is only a few inches high, there is no practical difference between it and “open” to consumers.

Apple and the Politics of Phoney Outrage

People seem to think it is their right to have every Apple product be what they want it to be whether or not that’s the intended design of the product.

via thomas-fitzgerald.net

Nice piece by Thomas Fitzgerald.

I’m still waiting for someone to explain to me how a “closed” system having 200,000 apps to choose from hurts the consumer. When the so-called wall around your garden is only a few inches high, there is no practical difference between it and “open” to consumers.

Ghost of Adobe past visits Apple: Co-founders exhumed to join the wailing

Tough love–or irony–seems to be the theme, with the ad opening with a big “We [heart] Apple” and continuing with a reprimand about Apple’s position on Flash, which Adobe claims in a bit of bloviatory grandstanding is a threat to freedom and the evolution of the Web.

via digitaldaily.allthingsd.com

Whining, blog entries, ads, and dragging in old friends (enemies?). If Adobe spent half as much time making better business decisions they might not even be in this mess.

Even more pathetic than the war of words is that Adobe finally being able to capture mobile Flash in a demo where it’s not crashing is considered a plus. It’s already at least two years too late, yet demoing it on mondo hardware without it freezing is a big deal? How the mighty (expectations) have fallen.

Ghost of Adobe past visits Apple: Co-founders exhumed to join the wailing

Tough love–or irony–seems to be the theme, with the ad opening with a big “We [heart] Apple” and continuing with a reprimand about Apple’s position on Flash, which Adobe claims in a bit of bloviatory grandstanding is a threat to freedom and the evolution of the Web.

via digitaldaily.allthingsd.com

Whining, blog entries, ads, and dragging in old friends (enemies?). If Adobe spent half as much time making better business decisions they might not even be in this mess.

Even more pathetic than the war of words is that Adobe finally being able to capture mobile Flash in a demo where it’s not crashing is considered a plus. It’s already at least two years too late, yet demoing it on mondo hardware without it freezing is a big deal? How the mighty (expectations) have fallen.

Adobe Brought An Advertisement To A Gun Fight

So where does that leave you? Well, to be frank, shit out of luck.

On one hand, there’s an urge to feel bad for you. You really are getting screwed here. On the other hand, you really did it to yourselves.

via techcrunch.com

Good article.

The more Adobe whines, the less inclined any rational person should be to feel sorry for them. In fact, making this an issue of either pity or schadenfreude is pointless. Adobe’s a corporation, nothing more. As I’ve said before, Adobe made decisions that are coming back to haunt them. That’s life. And business.

It’s time for Adobe to put up or shut up. They need to deliver a great Flash mobile experience (not happening soon enough), or great iPhone OS apps (not happening, if Ideas and Photoshop for iPhone are any indication), or maybe even great HTML5 tools (so far it’s been lip service only). Instead, all they’ve delivered are complaints and promises, mixed in with advertisements and unimpressive demos that don’t help their case.