When Ford invented the Model T, critics didn’t say, “What’s next for Ford?” as if creating a car for the masses was the first step in a long chain of transportation devices that would ultimately include a spaceship. That, however, is what we expect of Apple, America’s most highly valued publicly traded company. A new iPad? Meh. Just let us know when you’re launching a smartwatch and Apple TV.
Ok, so maybe the term “gadget junkie” doesn’t begin to describe the depths of my addiction. I love buying the latest tech toy, syncing it to the cloud and having it fully functional with my preferences inside of five minutes.
I was one of the first to own a Macintosh, to jump into “Prodigy,” to buy a Walkman, a Palm Pilot, a portable Magellan GPS, a netbook, a cell phone, a Bluetooth headset, an iPod, a Kindle, an iPad and iPad Mini, etc.
Since most of my friends didn’t know or care about these gadgets, I didn’t acquire them for the bragging rights. I bought them because I need them. So I also buy the upgrades.
What tech critics call an incremental tweak to an existing device, I frequently see as a major development. Retina displays, fingerprint recognition, Siri — none of these changed the look of an iPad or iPhone, but they did change the user experience. Imagine the genius behind the engineering of these “tweaks.”
The new iPad — a mere one pound — has 64-bit processor. THIS IS HUGE! The device is sleeker and faster — and absolutely beautiful. As soon as I can reserve and order my iPad Air, I’m in. Only eight days until Nov. 1!
Even with my help, the company that invented the iPad and the state of the art technology that supports it has lost market share to a host of Android competitors. After launching its first tablet in 2010 and dominating the market, Apple share of the global market has dropped to 49 percent as cheaper alternatives emerge.
Imitation may be the greatest form of flattery, but it doesn’t get you these numbers, as reported by ZDnet:
- 9 million iPhones sold by the end of the first weekend of sales
- 200 million devices were running iOS 7, the latest mobile operating system, just five days after it was released in September
- 64 percent of all iOS devices running iOS 7 to date
- 20 million users listen to iTunes Radio
- 1 billion songs played on iTunes Radio — just in the U.S. alone
- 1 million apps on the Apple App Store
- 60 billion cumulative downloads on the Apple App Store
- $13 billion paid out to developers by Apple since the App Store launched
- 170 million cumulative iPad sales to date
- 81 percent the iPad has in the overall tablet usage share
- 475,000 apps, designed specifically for iPad, available in the App Store
The critics can deride Apple’s incrementalism, but those numbers prove that the strategy has worked. The iPhone 5S may or may not be the best smartphone on the market, but it’s still got customers lining up to buy it. The iPad Air will likely spur a similar upgrade cycle, keeping the cash flowing in…and keeping us all waiting for the next new thing, big or small.
