Apple's long history of lousy first reviews
Though the iPad has drawn some harsh reviews, it's hardly the first Apple product to get trashed (at first). A look back at 25 years of "flops".

Mark

To be fair although some of those products have gone on to be very successful - apart from the Newton - some of the criticism is fair e.g. iPhone v1 lacking some features deemed basic on other handsets (MMS messaging anyone?). I guess this didnt stop it from selling like hot cakes though did it.

Always good to see the so-called 'analysts' getting it wrong; I'm sick of seeing their worthless opinions.

Link is invalid. Another flop?

Only for you

Link works here

First opinions might matter for a while, but analysts are probably no better than the average person. When Apple release a new product I think how will this fit into my life and how I do things. It if is ugly as hell then I look elsewhere. People use a number of factors to decide what to buy.

Most often for me, it comes down to money. I'd really rather like quite a few Apple products, but I simply can't justify them. They're usually elegant, but don't actually enable me to achieve something I can't do more cheaply with something else. In fact, they're usually more locked down so I'd still need an alternative device to do what I do with my cheaper hardware.

It's like buying a Mercedes instead of a Ford, and finding the stereo doesn't have an mp3 input or bluetooth. My Ford has both and it was cheaper. It's not as classy or comfortable, but it does the job.

Of course, a lot of Mercedes drivers would cringe at the idea of being seen to drive a Ford. Being an inverted snob, I'd actually cringe at being seen in a Merc.

Price is a factor for the majority of people. If people feel that they must get something they may be willing to stretch themselves to buy it.

The top factor has to be fashion.

The fashion sheep will buy from certain companies just because they're the in thing. Because of the branding and debt cultures, cost and usefulness take a back seat to form and fashion every time.

Apple = In thing
In thing = Sales
Therefore iPad = Sales

I just hope that in the clamour to be the IT girl (see what I did?) Apple don't turn their back on their loyal customer base.

I would doubt that there really are many who only buy because it is in fashion. Maybe with clothes and jewellery, but not computers. I have a couple of macs and no windows machines. So for me it is not fashion. All my set up is mac related. While a MacBook Air is lovely I still have not bought one because I have no need for one right now. The iPad looks like going on my shopping list more so if it can be set up so I can do things that I want to do. Then if the price is too high the I will wait till it is cheaper.

I agree. The number of people who will buy a £400 quid gadget because it is 'fashionable' surely can't be all that high. Gadgets are never 'fashionable' in a real sense - tech pretty much never is cool. if it was 100 quid, yeah, that's almost in the 'impulse purchase' area for a lot of people, but that's a much bigger jump to make at that price.

I think quite a lot of gadget freaks will buy them and I can actually also see a lot of said gadget freaks buying them as presents for other people. But I can't see anyone having to make the difficult choice between a pair of Manolo Blahniks and an iPad.

Jon

Gadget fans are another breed altogether. They will only buy it if they think it fits their needs.