You know, I know that this steak doesn't exist. I know when I put it in my mouth, the Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and delicious. -Cypher in The Matrix
As the tech industry apes the movie business, the pundits are looking at iPad's opening weekend - First-Day Sales of Apple's iPad Fall Short of Sky-High Hopes - and trying to figure out if Apple has a blockbuster or a bomb. The answer won't be known for months until we see whether the first wave of early adopters is followed by all those people who, if the pundits are to be believed, are looking for a simpler alternative to the personal computer.
Perhaps the most hopeful are the content owners who see the closed, protected world of the iPad as the way they will finally get consumers to pay for what was previously free. As Variety says in Show business jumps on iPad bandwagon, "Hollywood isn't betting against Apple anymore" with ABC streaming "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy" and Marvel selling "X-Men."
For Apple, it's the next chapter in a book that started with the company as a rebel against the Establishment (remember 1984 and Rip, Mix, Burn?) and an appeal to people who created graphics, music and video. The iPod showed them how much money was to be made selling to the people who passively consumed the content. Now the iPad is a bold attempt to cash in on the latter with a platform that's locked-down, simplified, and oriented to people who want to sit on the couch and surf the web, watch TV, and otherwise consume that content.
Is there a huge market for people who want to live in this world? Time will tell, but in the meantime we plan to explore these issues tomorrow on Beacon Hill: Today's Platform Preferences.
