ericellenberg

What makes Apple amazing

I have a story to tell. It involves a wedding, my friend and his new wife’s first dance, and my iPhone.

My friend Chris Gray got married on April 2 to the lovely Laci Kimbell. It was an outdoor wedding, which comes with the standard set of outdoor-event worries: Will it rain? Will it be cloudy? Too hot, too cold? What about traffic sounds? That sort of stuff. It went off without a hitch. The wind picked up right when they were supposed to light the unity candles (two flames become one thing), but it was a laugh, and they just had a good time. Splendid was the word of the day, no worries.

So we finish up with the ceremony and the wedding party is taking pictures and then someone from indoors (the wedding planner?) informs us that the DJ has a problem. And the problem is, well, he’s an idiot. But the reason he’s an idiot is that the song Chris and Laci are supposed to have their first dance to “has a virus and won’t play.” Uh huh. And he doesn’t have a back up.

I could see it on their faces. Chris and Laci looking at each other like, “We do an outdoor wedding with no problem, and the DJ can’t play a song?” Something always goes awry at weddings. Has to. Before they even fret, I pipe up and say, “Okay, so? I have an iPhone.” I pop on the iTunes Store, download Billy Joel’s “She’s Got a Way,” and then I head off to let the DJ know to use my iPhone to play the song to their first dance.

I had to share the story because in the moment that I said, “I have an iPhone,” I realized that Apple had just saved the wedding. The iTunes Store, the iPhone, the iPod app, Airplane mode so a call wouldn’t interrupt their first dance—all Apple. Everything went without a hitch, as if I was the special guest DJ hosting the couple’s first dance. It was amazing.

We live in the future, people—and Apple is leading the way.

Of Magic and Mirrors

Earlier today Apple announced the iPad, their “most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price.” Along with many others, my first impression was a little cynical; I tweeted, “Basically, Apple’s vision of the future of computing is a giant iPod touch.”

In all fairness, that’s exactly what the iPad is. But everything that has changed between the iPhone/iPod touch and the iPad, and everything that has stayed the same, are all reasons that make it an amazing product. So it’s a big iPod touch. That’s exactly how Apple designed it. One of the biggest problems the industry has had for years is how to acquaint consumers with the idea of using a tablet. Apple has pulled this off handily by making the iPad, from a user standpoint, a mere evolution of the iPhone. Its familiarity is a tremendous selling point, one which I don’t feel can be overstated.

The other brilliant move Apple has pulled is the price point. For the cost of an iPhone without a contract, Apple is offering you their latest creation that has access to all 140,000 iPhone apps and games. Combine this with an offer to get unlimited 3G data access for $30 a month and a new class of applications made possible by the device’s size and power, and you’ve got an amazing value proposition.

That’s the business-oriented perspective on it. The real question on everyone’s mind is, “how will people use it?” It’s an obvious question, but the implications of asking it are indicative of how important this product is. To ask it is to ask, what does the iPad mean for computer users? Which in this day and age means, what does it mean for the world of technology?

For starters, a couple things. The iPad is the first actual touch computer. It is Apple’s bet on not only the evolution of the iPhone platform, but on the future of personal computing as a whole. I don’t believe for a moment that it’s intended to replace desktop computers (my buddy Stevie doesn’t think so either), but I think it is drawing a distinct line between desktop computers and personal computers, where personal means “mobile.”

One of the first things Jobs spoke about onstage was that “Apple is the largest mobile devices company in the world.” As I see it, that was his way of saying that Apple has more experience, is better qualified, and more capable of being the personal computing company than any other company in the world. In John Gruber’s words,

…this is Apple’s way of asserting that they’re taking over the penthouse suite as the strongest and best company in the whole ones-and-zeroes racket.

It is important to note that Apple has not positioned the iPad as a replacement for anything. It is intended as a middle-class product between the iPhone and the Mac. In that regard they are playing it safe and sticking to their strengths.

That said, this product, this device, this thing is not an anomaly. It’s not an experiment, it’s not a sideshow. They’re not calling it magical because it’s a clever smoke and mirrors show; they’re calling the iPad magical because it’s going to change the way we use computers.

Remember, It’s Actually a Computer

John Gruber of Daring Fireball linked to a TechCrunch story this morning about Wolfram Research pricing their Alpha “computational knowledge engine” iPhone app at $50. Next to TomTom’s navigation app (which costs $100), this is the most expensive iPhone app I know of. This has (once again) temporarily refueled the argument about how much iPhone apps should cost.

The whole issue with the price of iPhone apps, which is to say any app priced above five bucks, is due to a widespread incomprehension that the iPhone is actually a computer. Normal, everyday folks are accustomed to paying tens and hundreds of dollars for software. But that software always had to be “installed” on their “machine” at home with a disk. The idea of buying expensive software for what in their minds is just a fancy cell phone is something completely foreign to them, especially given that all it takes are a few taps and your password, and bingo, new application. The painlessness of adding new “apps” (which just sounds like “toys” to most people’s ears) makes it seem like they should be cheap. The intangibility of software, and how to put a value on what it does, has never been more apparent.

The challenge Apple and any other company serious about competing with the iPhone faces is how to change people’s perception of what a “cell phone” is. Sure, “smart”-phones have been around for a while, but the iPhone was the first that actually broke the mold and showed what a real smartphone can do—become a pocket computer.