Well, before any further, yes the iPad is a giant iPhone that does not make calls. But the question is: So what?
In 1913 Coco Chanel opened her first store in Paris. What a lot of people don't know is that long before Chanel embarrassed the French during her earlier couture years with her strange habits, dark clothes and short hair cuts. Her hats were just too strange and her style full of controversy and considered not appropriated. People in those days just couldn't visualize how that style could ever make it to high couture.
The truth is Chanel has prototyped during all her career, experiencing in herself her creations and learning the results. This has allowed her to propose radical changes to the current fashion standards, radically redefining the very word "fashion". All the rest is history: Chanel hair cuts, Chanel shoes, Chanel dresses and hats ... and mainly the Chanel's way of being that has inspired all modern women.
In October 2001 Steve Jobs announced the iPod. But the first MP3 player was launched in 1997 by a Korean company called Saehan. So it was fair at 2001 to say that the iPOD was "one more" MP3 player, only in color and giant (storage). So what came next to change this? Two things: The white phones and the iTunes store.
The first element (the jump). The headphones shoot the iPod to the level of "cool", creating a different positioning for the gadget as an object of desire. To listen music in an iPod is a personal experience. But to walk around with white headphones became a social experience. And social experiences are sticky and trend set.
The second element (the glue) - Itunes store. When Apple launched its well orchestrated services platform around the iPod, it consolidated the positioning of the gadget as a music platform. By creating this whole new profitable business model with music it took completely ownership of the MP3 player market. Until today this dominance remains with more than 240,000,000 units sold till jan/2010.
Did Steve Jobs foresaw all those elements? Probably not. But to have vision is not to anticipate all the next steps for the next 10 years, that is fortune telling. To have vision is to keep asking how to improve the product or service to catapult it into become a relevant part of peoples lives.This question, added to the learning curve that a new product brings, generates a reliable amount of key insights that can be transformed in innovative actions by companies with the right culture.
So, when criticizing the iPad remember: Innovation is not on the product itself, but it lies on the orchestration. What orchestration? Only time will show Jobs and us. The iPad is Job's newest prototype, and watch out because Apple learns and moves fast.
