Daring Fireball: Various and Assorted Thoughts and Observations Regarding the Just-Announced iPad:

Having used the hardware keyboard yesterday, though, it is clearly a secondary form of input. You cannot even vaguely drive the iPad interface by keyboard alone. It is almost entirely only for text input. The arrow keys really only work for text editing. Shift-arrow combos work for selecting ranges of text, and Command-arrow combos work for moving the insertion point to the beginning/end of lines. Option-arrow combos do not work for moving a word at a time, though.


Perhaps it's finally time to give vi a look for word processing?

I have noticed that my Magic Mouse's batteries have not burned out as quickly as most say they do. That could mean the reporters of quick battery death are at their computers 10 hours a day and I'm not. Or it could mean that when I do work, I don't use the mouse. Can you imagine using a mouse for select stuff from menus, moving from one app to the next, entering a URL into your browser, etc? It's madness, I'm telling ya.

This entry written without the mouse. Vive los batteries.

In other news, Grubes says...

Lastly, a thought regarding the iPadโ€™s aggressive pricing. Apple is obviously leaving money on the table here. They could easily charge $999 as the starting price and have hundreds of people lined up outside every Apple Store ready to buy one on day one. Then they could drop the price later in the year, as the holiday season approaches.


Sounds awfully familiar.

You can only, which few exceptions, sell the same tablet once to a potential buyer. Sell it to those willing to pay too much first. If 30% of potential buyers would pay more, why leave the money on the table?


Do I quote myself [from just over a week ago]? Very well, then I quote myself.

Daring Fireball's explanation for the overly low price of the entry-level iPad is that, "Apple is trying to stake out a long-term dominating position" in "the mobile computing landscape". Maybe, but I don't see WiFi sticking around at the high-end too much longer as 3G and 4G grow. If my laptop gets 4G speed built-in, do I need 802.11n? No. One barrier to entry down, and I don't even bother clicking the Airport icon in my menu bar at the coffee shop.

And if WiFi isn't where the landgrab's at -- and it's not. You don't make subscription money on WiFi -- 3G and 4G are. So kill the $499 lowend, and at least make the $629 price your price of entry. (3G and 16 megs) or (32 megs with WiFi) both at $629. Who doesn't buy the 3G at this point, since there's no contract involved?

I don't see how the WiFi-only $499 model is helping my Apple stock, middle (as opposed to short or long) term. Well, beyond the App Store. And iTunes. And maybe even iWork soon. And eBooks. And games. And...

Labels: , ,