To reiterate my prediction made earlier after Apple announced their "revolutionary and new tablet system that is unlike anything before and will change the entire market" (paraphrased and extrapolated from previous Apple launches ever since their iPod made them a marketing success rather than a niche closed computer system manufacturer):
1) Everyone will be all excited about the product and say it will be a "must have" device
2) The specs will slowly leak out. People will start talking about the flaws, it being overpriced, and it sucking (since Apple basically said they couldn't make a decent netbook for the $500 price, this should not be a surprise...)
3) People might start to realize that this is not a "revolutionary" device that will change their lives, but just another electronic device they'll have to tote around and plug in.
4) Apple will start up its marketing campaign. They will use any and every outlet to build hype, and look for positive reviewers to provide the product to.
5) The product will be released. Through Hip-Apple-Advertising goggles (kinda like beer goggles), and hypnotic glow of the bitten-into Apple, people who long dissed netbooks as underpowered and pointless toys will rant and rave about the power of this device with even lower specs than a good netbook at the same price point.
6) Even if people do become disappointed with the device, they'll keep it because it:
a) Makes them look and/or feel hip and young and attractive
b) They realize all their software is through the Apple App store, all their music through iTunes, and all their possessions are now subject to the arbitrary whims of a company that has already showed it is fickle with how they treat software vendors...
Recently added was:
7) Web sites who depend on ad-generated revenue will post everything they can about the iPad so as to pull traffic to their web site, and the web will become saturated with this new fad... feeding the zombie hordes who fall for the tricks of industrial psychologists.
(PS - if you don't think Microsoft, Google, and basically any other company doesn't aspire to the same tricks, they you've obviously forgotten the first and primary duty of a corporation is to make a profit for its shareholders... not behave ethically or honestly with consumers.)
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