iPad competitors need to focus on the experience of using their tablet PCs
I remember attending a computer trade show years ago in Vegas (I believe it was Comdex. Gives you an idea how long ago) and seeing an endless array of portable video players. At the time, the Apple iPod had come out, but it had yet to release a video version of its digital player. I went to talk to a few of the manufacturers of the media players about their devices. After the obvious discussion of how big the hard drive was, the resolution, and the price, I asked what I think is the most important question with media players, “How do you get the movies onto the device?” Everyone I spoke to just said, “Oh, we have software for that.” Did they have a demo of the software? No.
It’s no surprise that none of those media players are around today.
Apple at that time had already proven the successful marriage of device (iPod) and application (iTunes). It was truly simplicity. I remember when I installed my iPod for the first time, I was blown away at the simplicity. It just found all my MP3s and sucked it into the device without any difficulty. It was the best consumer product experience I had ever had. Many competing products claimed, “Oh, you can just bring all your music into our device,” but it was far from simple.
Hey tablet PC makers, don’t let software be an afterthought
Lenovo Ideapad U1 Hybrid
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