This is a quick post to explain why I deserve a back-hand slap.
I have the Asus Transformer. For almost 6 months, my friend and oga Victor kept insisting I should get the iPad instead. Note that he was the one going to buy it (I get mind sha). And for reasons best known to me, I kept on forming “Android for Life”.
Anyway he got me the Asus and though it is no iPad, I was/am quite happy with it. I travelled to Benin and returned to Lagos only to realise I forgot my charging cable/connector. In a normal case, it would not be a problem. However, smartasses at Asus thought it wise to have a proprietary plug/socket/port for their 300 devices sold. So right now the only charging cable/connector I can use is resting quietly, 350km away.
So why do manufacturers, insist on a proprietary docks/sockets/etc when they know absence of accessories can prevent people recommending their stuff. , Apple tablet owners though with proprietor y sockets, know that at least the nearest charger is not 350 km away because of the 350 million iOS devices around the word.
I thought there were port standard like how the micor USB is now the standard for phone?
As part of my idea post series, I present to you what I think will be a killer app for the tablet.
A YouTube of how to cook anything.
The size and form factor of tablet computers make them an ideal kitchen companion. You can hang it on the wall or kitchen table and touch your life away.
How does this differ from Jamie Oliver’s cooking app?
When I started and abandoned this post almost a year ago (laziness is a bad thing), I had not heard of the Jamie Oliver app. But the main difference between this and a Jamie Oliver App will be the ability for anyone to learn from anyone. Because your mums pudding beats Jamie’s any day; that is the one I want to learn. So this like YouTube will be user generated. Of course the professionals will have their channels.
Why not just use YouTube?
There is something different about a curated community. Other than that, the interface will be built specially for this. Look at an initial mockup I designed below. Thirdly, elements like recipes will be entered in a data format that will allow for certain features. So for instance, people could just enter the recipes they have at home and a filter of all the meals that can be made from those recipes will be displayed. Yes, you will be able to sort it by time it takes to cook.
People have started something like this, why would this take off now?
The ubiquity of smart phones with video camera and the increasing availability of broadband coupled with the tablet form factor.
The million dollar question: how will this make money?
The size of the market is quite big almost everyone eats. Some revenue models I have thought of include:
Affiliate: Imagine clicking the picture of a meal you would like to eat and order all the ingredients you need from TESCO or Wal-Mart. Don’t worry, it does not need to be delivered but can be waiting for you at a local store. The stores will Pay Commission for it. Webvan would have been the PERFECT intermediary but they were 10 years early.
Subscription: People could subscribe to premium Cooking Channels. Imagine you can access the same recipe that Oprah/Jamie Oliver is using for thanksgiving and it would cost 99p. His/Her followers will pay for it.
Advertising: Large food chains can have their branded channels where they show people how to cool meals using their special ingredients you buy from them: They will pay for it. I see companies like Sainsbury creating “the 5 pound family meal”
Social benefits:
People will begin to see cooking as fun. Meals can be rated according to how healthy they are, cost, etc. Jamie Oliver’s TED talk, and push for healthy eating alongside Michelle Obama’s drive to make American children start eating healthy will give this good press.
This type of application would probably need some initial capital if it is to come out of the gates blazing. Lots of meals made available; otherwise it can/should be created gradually. It would require a different type of media player that would enable people to jump to various sections of the video. Maybe YouTube editing capabilities can be used for the MVP? More importantly, this type of app will be all about the community. Where lovers of food can come and discuss and compare dishes.
If it is so good, why am I not doing this?
I love a lot more things than cooking. It will take someone dedicated to cooking to make this fly.
When I was studying in the UK, I starved because I could not get around with making any real (Nigerian) dishes with the ingredients I saw in the mall. I ate sandwiches for the first two weeks. I was saved by discovering the African market and tutorials from some friends. (Thanks Thelma, Mariam and Tobe.)
So if you want to work on this idea, let me know and I can volunteer a few minutes giving you more details of things that were too many to put in this post.
When I wrote about the iPad and postulated it would not be very successful because it does not have the first mover advantage of the iPhone and iPod coupled with its several limitations, I had no inkling of a tablet called Adam. From their website, they describe Adam thus
It’s not a tablet, neither a book reader. It’s a new species, and we call it ADAM. The First.
Specification wise, Adam beats the iPad in so many ways! It has a camera, plays flash, has a longer lasting battery, e-ink technology (it allows you to read under sunlight and is the only advantage the Kindle has over the iPad), HDMI, it even has a rear touchpad Arrington fantasized the iPad would have.More importantly, Adam uses the Android OS meaning it has thousands of applications that will work with it from day one. Simply put, Adam is a great guy. Please see video below.
See Adam’s specifications compared with that of the iPad
But the makers of the Adam should note the one lesson I learnt form Robert Kiyosaki, “it is not about being the best writing author but the best selling author”. These days a good product+ excellent marketing will be much more successful than an excellent product + good marketing. Unfortunately, the creators of Adam (besides God) do not have the marketing power of Apple so I will suggest two ways I believe Adam can defeat the iPad in the market
* Sell the IP to a big company (asides Microsoft) to battle Apple billion for billion in marketing budget e.g. SONY
* Save the money on marketing and subsidise the product cost. Then make the tablet go viral using an affiliate marketing scheme or multi level marketing.
I am sure they are smart people and would have though of all that. I really wish them the very best success possible. One more impressive thing, Adam is made in India!
The iPad is the latest device introduced by Steve Jobs of Apple computers and it is billed to change the computing world forever! This post is about why I am disappointed in the product and why it will not be as successful as the iPod and iPhone were for Apple.
MY DISAPPOINTMENT
The hype around Apple’s Tablet (as it was called then) was unimaginable and the coverage was deafening! All bloggers turned detective, they investigated the Who Is (record of the owner) of every i whateveryouputhere domain. Someone even suggested Apple owned the trademark of iSlam. Every acquisition Apple made since 1990 was related to the new technology that would be in the Tablet. It was also said to have been work on for years (Avatar movie kind of talk). ‘Apple’s Tablet’ was billed as the most important tablet since Moses brought the commandments from mount Sinai! There were almost as many posts complaining about the coverage of Apples Tablet as the the ones doing the covering. I did not bulge, i was not carried away! All that changed was when I read the quote attributed to Steve Jobs
This will be the most important thing I have ever done in my life
A statement like this coming from the man that delivered the iPod and the iPhone, I was determined to be a part of history! I ensured Ii would follow it live. The Twitterverse was feverish, less important things like Obama’s state of the Union address was put aside. Even the Haiti crisis was demoted as the number one Trending topic (a position it held since the earthquake on the 12th).
Then the moment came, first, the name iPad was revealed (with quite muted cheers), then the product! It was obvious people were not ecstatic. When the first feature Steve Jobs talks about in a product is you can change the wallpaper then you know we have a problem. As inferred from Eric Schmidt’s comment when asked about the tablet, the iPad is nothing more than a big iPhone iPod touch at least the iPhone can make calls, has 3G, a camera and much more. The product Steve Jobs revealed though a very cool and useful product, is not groundbreaking or innovative. It is not worth the hype. It is almost in the same magnitude of the leap made from the iPod to the iPod touch. at least the iPod touch can be used for gaming!
REASONS THE iPAD WILL NOT BE AS SUCCESSFUL AS THE IPOD OR iPHONE.
A summary of my theory is that this time around, Apple did not catch the competition unawares like it did with the iPod and does not have the first mover advantage it had with the iPhone. I’ll explain below.
1. Lack of ‘basic’ features
My fist reason to why it won’t sell well is there are too many things that the iPad does not have! A camera, USB port, Memory card reader (there are are are expensive propriety adaptors), it does not run flash and much more. I think that is a problem. People keep mentioning that the iPhone had several defects when it was released, but this is way different! The with the iPhone, the competition caught off guard! But right now, there are so many tablets in the market! there is even one called Juju. and there are more coming. The first mover advantage the iPhone had is non existent. What the iPad has only done is to validate the market for other manufacturers to take it serious. a second point to this first reason is a lot of people who just love Apple will wait for version iPad2 when Apple will make the sought after additions.
2. The closed nature of the iPad.
Apple determines what you can do with your device. For example, Apple has decreed you cannot use flash with your tablet therefore forget about playing Mafia Wars and Farmville on it. Yeah, those videos you see online are run by flash too. You can only watch YouTube only because “there is an app for that”. I guarantee that other slates/tablets in the market will allow you do what ever you want with your device.
3. The Android platform as the iPad ‘killer’.
The awe of the iPhone is/was its usability and interface, i.e the operating system. It made people use phones in ways they never thought possible. It is for this reason people ignored that the first iPhone did not have copy and paste and could not do MMS (and it was a smart phone). People had no other choice so if you wanted a good Smartphone, it had to be the iPhone…until the Android OS came. The Android OS can essentially do what the iPhone OS can do and this is main problem for the iPad. Any good manufacturer can now focus on creating beautiful hardware then go ahead and install the FREE Android OS. Consumers will then be FREE to choose any device in what ever shape while enjoying the. Watch out for HTC entering the tablet/slate market having delivered on the Nexus One remember the iPad is just a bigger iPod touch/IPhone.
A major defence that Apple proponents bring up is the 140,000 apps in the iPhone appstore which can automatically work on the iPad: Apple having this number of Apps is no advantage. If my Pareto analysis is is accurate like it should be, then it is 20% of those apps that account for 80% of the downloads. Those ‘important’ 20% are available in the Android market.
Conclusion
Will the iPad be another Apple TV? No. But it will be no where as successful as the iPhone but more popular than Macbooks. Just as jobs positioned the iPad (a product between the phone and the Computer)
Where will that leave Netbooks? I think they are dead! Steve Jobs says Netbooks are not better at anything and he is right!
Notes:
The computer state e.g Apple’s iPad will be a VERY successful product line. But this time around, apple will not dominate the market like it did with the iPod/iPhone
I am expecting the iPad to be ‘upgraded’ before it ships.
I do not have any idea where the Chrome OS comes in. Netbooks are dead!
I am hoping Palm can do something here. The WebOS looks too beautiful and perfect of a slate.
