iPad hailed as ‘Disruptive product of the year’
Although it is not a category that would have come immediately to mind, it seems that the Apple iPad is being bandied about for a rather unique honor: “Disruptive product of the year.”
When Apple built the iPad, it was building more than a tablet computer. It was creating a tech product that required an entire new marketplace to be conjured out of thin air in which to exist. Although it was easy to see the shock and awe in that, just because the device is so very revolutionary, it is not so easy to look at the situation from the point of view of the marketplace. When looked at that way, the iPad has certainly earned the title given to it in a CNET article: the most disruptive product of the year.
It is possible to see all of this from a personal viewpoint, as is done by the CNET writer. There is a lot to love about the iPad. Everything about it is instant, everything about it is light, and everything about it is cool. The iPad truly can become an indispensable part of your life even though it may not be able to fulfill all of your computing needs. The fact that the iPad is so completely different and so easy to handle makes it the computer of choice for a lot of people in a lot of situations.
But from the stand point of the tech industry, the iPad may be even more disruptive than that. Already, we are seeing analysts questioning where to put iPad (and other tablet) sales when they tally up the numbers. Is it a laptop, or isn’t it? In fact, some people are asking the question, “Is it a computer or isn’t it?” Yes, it’s a laptop equivalent for many if not most people. Yes, it is most certainly a computer. And yes, it is disruptive in the extreme in a marketplace once known for innovative disruption, but which has been missing that quality for a long time while cell phones stole the show. Welcome back, disruption.
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January 1st, 2011
It is really not that disruptive compared to thier other products and formats. After Windows 9, it’s Linux forward. Apple makes novelty devices.
January 4th, 2011
James, it is funny that everyone is trying to copy Apples “novelty devices”.