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iPad – Heavyweights Weigh In

iPad – Heavyweights Weigh In

By, Talia Andrews, Senior Account Executive, Fusion PR NY (@TaliaAR)

As PR folk, we must wonder… will the slate marketplace kill traditional media? It’s fast, it’s sleek and, well, its plain just easier that turning the pages of a paper or magazine.

While you and I must wait until Saturday, Apple did lift their embargoes loose and allowed our most beloved tech gurus to let their opinions flow. I have to say, its about now I wish I could take my two fingers…make the “enlarge” gesture…and turn my iPod Touch into an iPad.

After reading the reviews, it seems the general consensus is that the iPad will make consumers drool, but proves less effective in the workplace. I will be very interested to see what this slate device will do to the concept of traditional media. In the end, its popularity and adoption speed will depend on the applications made available to support a touch interface and a larger screen.

Here are some of my favorite reactions and predictions…

  • David Pogue, NY Times: “The bottom line is that you can get a laptop for much less money — with a full keyboard, DVD drive, USB jacks, camera-card slot, camera, the works. Besides: If you’ve already got a laptop and a smartphone, who’s going to carry around a third machine?”
  • Walt Mossberg – Wall Street Journal: “After spending hours and hours with it, I believe this beautiful new touch-screen device from Apple has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop. It could even help, eventually, to propel the finger-driven, multitouch user interface ahead of the mouse-driven interface that has prevailed for decades.”
  • Ed Baig – USA Today: “The iPad is not so much about what you can do — browse, do e-mail, play games, read e-books and more — but how you can do it. That’s where Apple is rewriting the rulebook for mainstream computing. There is no mouse or physical keyboard. Everything is based on touch.”
  • Tim Gideon – PC Magazine: “But having used the iPad for some time, I can tell you that the device just makes sense. When you combine basic-but-essential work tools with iWork, an improved browser, e-mail, iPod, and photo applications, a well-executed e-Book platform with iBooks, and throw in thousands of downloadable apps and games, and package it all in a gorgeous, slim slate with a beautiful 9.7-inch touch screen, you have yourself a winner.”

Back to my original question…will this type of device kill newspapers, magazines and/or TV? In the long term, yes. As technology continues to evolve this is only the natural process – paper is going the way of the old rotary-dial phones.

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