Handtops, UMPC - Why the iPad (iTampon) should be boycotted - marketing, crap, ethics, Apple, ipad, immoral

edited: Jan 30 2010 + diJenerate

I can no more easily stand aside and watch unsuspecting people get screwed than I can easily stand aside and watch a little old lady unknowingly step into the path of a bus speeding towards her.

Unlike Mr. Jobs, I did not have my conscience surgically removed during a cancer treatment or operation!

This may be my big flaw and it is entirely an individual decision what you spend your money on, however I do believe that as some of us may have more experience in this field/industry than others and as a result can see why this product is a bad investment, we should give the unsuspecting the benefit of our experience just as we'd like someone else to do for us.

It has been pointed out that the iPad's most unsuspecting demographic will be the baby boomer generation, toward whom this 'brand new technology' and 'best way to view the web' are being marketed.

The majority of these users don't know much of what is going on in this industry and have little experience with the use of this type of hardware. As a result, they are unaware of the real-world discomfort and potential injury associated with the attempted extended use of an onscreen keyboard for touch-typing, if made of a glass (or any other hard) surface... the rest of us already know the value of tactile feedback and spring loaded keys.

They are also unaware of the reason for the use of e-paper type displays in the kindle and other ebook readers, as opposed to the back-lit lcd of the iPad. Reading a regular book is easy on the eyes because the light passing through your pupils is diffused reflected light. If you have every tried to read a full ebook on a laptop for any extended time, you'll know what staring at a backlight can do to your eyes... the iPad users will find out the hard way!

Sadly, the Apple engineers know this already, but since the purpose of the iPad is to help those numbers (the marketing team is so fond of quoting at Apple events) to grow, through iBook, iTunes and AppStore sales, their sole objective is get you to buy the product on face value... not on it's quality of build, or it's usability or the realism of how you will interact with it, but how 'cool' it looks....

Here's an example of how the Apple marketing works...

You've not bought an iphone or ipod touch, so the novelty of the 'multi-touch gestures' is still there. You buy an iPad and a few ibooks and some movies, music and an app or two for now.. but that won't be the end of it (100 Million+ apps sold tells us this... Oh, btw, good luck listening to that music while reading an ebook - no multitasking!) You have this toy for a week and you've dropped it while opening a door, breaking the screen... you'll now pay some more to get that fixed!

So you got it back and after using it a for a few more weeks, notice your finger tips are getting all weird and achy... you've been tapping them on glass constantly... y'know, like if you tapped a window-pane over and over.. what would you expect?

Your eyes are more tired and you're having headaches and a heightened sensitivity to light... but if you're lucky your optician won't increase the strength of your prescription... welcome to a world shared by digital artists and computer programmers who stare at bright monitors for 10+ hours a day!

This time around, it's not a phone where the small screen will limit your usage and input habits to a line or two here and there, you are being encouraged to read an entire book and to read and edit your email here. The new usage scenarios bring with them new possibilities for micro-injury unless the product's design has been thought out carefully with that in mind... in this case it has not!

If you think you can sue Apple after the fact... good luck to you! The one area in which Apple spends the most money after marketing is their legal department... believe me, they had protected themselves against injury related lawsuits before the product mockups were done. This is a company that does not care for or respect it's customers beyond the mere essentials for getting their money, heck if the dead could pay, Apple would collect!

Oops, ...looks like it just got squeezed in your carry-on while you were boarding the plane. The screen's cracked again and it's not going into standby (many iphone users know this routine)... however because you have that music and those ebooks, you won't say 'screw it, I'll buy some other device'. Apple has gotten your money and found a way to keep collecting it... you are now officially an iFool!

One more thing, there is no camera on this thing since Apple does not stand to benefit from your VO/IP or video calls since they have not yet launched their iCall service and there is a microsim card slot (ensuring you use the 3G where Apple and their partners wants you to)... and really, this product isn't about what you want, not even a little bit... it's all about Apple Inc of Cupertino California.

Most companies give away stuff designed entirely for their benefit because they know you won't pay for it since obviously there is nothing in it for you... Those companies need to take a page from Apple's marketing iBook on how to get people to pay USD500.00+ for a way to spend USD1,600.00+ (not including iBooks, Apps, Music and Movies) over the 24 months that follow!

diJenerate

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