jonathancallahandotcom

Do I need an iPad? No. Do I want an iPad? Yes! Will I buy an iPad? Probably not.

The release of the iPad has changed our history forever. The common people and historians alike will regard it with the importance of events such as the beginning of the Revolution and the death of Dorothy Bridges. Since that faithful day people have flocked to Apple Stores and Best Buys with crowds that are reminiscent of Woodstock to buy the revolutionary device. With its amazing web browser, magical apps, and a screen that is to die for. The device truly is a crowning achievement of our time.

Or so much of the coverage would lead you to believe…

The simple truth is that nothing is revolutionary about this device. It is a big iPhone. Is it a cool device? Yes. Will it be one of those devices that goes down in the history books with the printing press and cotton gin? No, but it will be a footnote in our history as the device that shifted the paradigm. For over 100 years devices like the iPad have existed but it took someone like Steve Jobs and Apple to make them appeal to anyone in numbers greater than five or six worldwide. This is similar to the story of how the iPhone shifted the paradigm for smartphones to be a “must have” for everyone. But next time you’re at the mall look around. There are lots of iPhones but the momentum seems to be in the favor of other platforms such as Google’s Android. To me, the market and the consumers will be the winner of the smartphone battle, not Apple, with the prospect of choice over monopoly. The same will be true for slate devices with the plethora of devices coming down the pipeline now from makers such as HP and Dell.  Apple prepares the market for everyone else – just as they did with personal computers.

How do they do this? Two words: Steve Jobs. He is a remarkable leader who possesses a power that allows him to use buzz words such as “magical” and “revolutionary”, set laughable goals and timelines, and gloss over massive oversights for everything and people believe his every word. What allows him to do this is a Reality Distortion Field (RDF) that brings everyone who sees or hears him into another world where constrains and self-thought cease to exist. The logic of the crowd lead by Steve Jobs becomes the perception of reality. Consumers and businesses alike can fall for this flocking to buy his latest device and to be able to say, “Yeah, we have an App for that!” But the RDF has one weakness and it’s called choice. Much of PC market escaped his grasps and now the phone and slate market will soon follow, and with them the eBook market. The only market that hasn’t is music but I bet that one will slip with the phone, just my prediction.

I write this because for the last week I fell into the gasps of his RDF. Today I escaped. I realized what I wanted. Steve Jobs’ iPad may be able to fill this but I doubt it will. All I want is a multi-touch slate device with a web browser and Flash support at a nice price. Anything else is just icing on the cake. The iPad currently lacks Flash and is a little expensive for what I need. So I don’t want it. The weeks (Okay, two) of back and forth with, “I want an iPad… I don’t want an iPad… I want an iPad…”, are over.

BRING ON THE CHOICE!!!

Update (4/14/10 @ 1PM EST): Since I wrote this article this morning two interesting things have happened. 1) Apple announced that they were delaying the overseas launch iPad because of “US demand.” And of course the RDF effect kicked in almost immediately with defenses from the media as to why. 2) I’m back into the “I want and iPad” stage. Ugh… to the Apple store I go! Maybe.

Update (4/15/10 ): I’m weak. I bought it.

Matthew 28:1-10

After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.

There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.”

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

Source: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2028:1-10

Last night I had an interesting chat with @kacyf that made me evaluate Google’s position. While I don’t have the time or energy right now to do an in depth evaluation, I am going to make the statement that I believe Google is bad for the technology industry.

Don’t get me wrong, Google makes great products. Search, Gmail, Reader, and 1000+ other services are all amazing. I probably use 70% of these services every day – I bet you do to. That’s what hurts us.

Google’s power slows innovation. Look at Microsoft’s Bing “decision engine”. It’s good, and has even caused Google to rethink the way it does search. The problem with Bing is that it’s not good enough to beat Google, which most users consider “good enough.” It would take product 10x better to even begin to challenge them in any real fashion. With this type of power and lack of competition how can we expect search to get any better?

Sure, it gets better every day. The algorithms are constantly changing and Google is better today than it was yesterday. These are evolutionary changes. Honestly, has Google gotten THAT much better in recent years? I think the answer is no. Search works mainly the same way it did 10 years ago: You go to a page, type what you want, and a list of loosely related articles appears. Searching results in sorting and finding information through all the noise. There must be a better way.

What’s to guarantee that Google has that better way? None. Sure it’s very likely someone their has a better way and I bet they are working on it now. But I also bet that it will come a few years from now. Now, let’s assume someone outside of Google has a better idea now. I hope their idea is 10x better and they have the resources to make it happen. Otherwise it will be crushed by the almighty Google.

A product that’s just a little better can never replace a product that’s “good enough.”

Life is full of comings and goings, hellos and goodbyes. Today I must say goodbye to a dear friend of mine, Farmville. You will be missed. Not because of your ingenious design or constant appearance in my news feed that magically pulls me in, but because of wonderful times that you brought me. The wonderful times that brought people to my farm; to fertilize my crops and scare away the crows.

We had a strange past together. I remember the first time I saw you. I thought to myself, “This is just stupid… why would I want to have a virtual farm?” How wrong I was. As more and more people began to join your farming community I changed my mind and began to learn more about you. I learned about your founder, your past, and many other things. I came to the conclusion that you were evil and must be stopped. You take advantage of people inner psychological manifestations in an effort to make a fast buck.

While I thought this was brilliant, I also felt that it must be stopped. So, I joined your virtual farm and set out on a mission to stop you. Just like others had tried in other cult-like situation, I soon fell prey to your temptations. Constantly I was tending to my crops and making valiant efforts to level up. As more of my friends joined it became a competition to “build a better farm”. I was hooked. When I would hear someone say they did not want to join your community I would preach your good news. Many of them joined. They joined the cult, and I pray they did not fall into the trap.

Now I have come to the simple conclusion that I cannot stop you. I must save myself. Today, I delete you. I call on anyone else reading this that has allowed the Farmville app to be a part of your lives to join me in deleting this evil from our lives. Break away from the virtual temptation – join me.

So, goodbye my old friend. You will not be missed.

Ok, so let’s see if this can be any better for my blogging.