Tablet Inertia and Grades: Incomplete for iPad and C- for Drama

No celebs.  No "one more thing".  Not a lot of fireworks.  No real drama.

Given all the hype, our dream scenario turned out to be exactly that.  It appears that the marketing team at Apple wanted today to be about making tablets acceptable.  In fact, earlier this week we coined the term "tablet inertia", and identified it as the number one marketing challenge for Apple.

1. Overcome tablet inertia immediately. 
Apple needs to overcome a significant marketing challenge; what I call “tablet inertia”.  Two decades of failed attempts to create a mainstream commercial category for tablets has cast a pall over the entire idea of tablet computing.

We get that, but it is disappointing.  Elements of the device dazzle (screen resolution for example), but Apple decided to take the slow road.  Today was more about evolution than revolution.  Could Apple have included a video camera and phone?  Of course.  But they chose to keep today simpler and begin to cultivate the market first, just as video came to iPod later.

In the same post, we explained - exactly as Jobs did today - why Apple can succeed now:

They will succeed with the tablet now because the technology they have is proven and they (and they alone) have enough stored brand equity from iPod and iPhone that the masses will listen and will think differently about a tablet-like device.   What is an iPhone if not a small tablet computer?  People get it.  Apple primed the market with iPhone, proving the mass appeal of the technology while overcoming the biggest problem plaguing tablet pc acceptance – the UI.

 Apple will sell the iPad to their core consumers and true believers, then launch version 'next' when they've worked out the kinks in design, development, distribution and pricing.  Once these things are flawless, they can annonce video, phone, streaming tv and whatever wish list develops from the masses.  And when they do we will see a true ground-up revolution (rather than a hasty coup).  And hopefully it will be accompanied by an event with drama and theatrics befitting a revolution!

Weeks ago you were convinced tablets were strange little things and not for you.  After today you'll either be buying one, thinking about buying one, or bitching about what feature it will need for you to buy one.  It's not everything we were all hoping for, but I guess it's a start.  (But I still can't believe you can't make a video call or multi-task on a screen that size!)