Now that we’ve have had a week to put the new iPad through its paces, we asked our PM Digital bloggers for their thoughts on the device with an eye to its potential for marketers. Below are some of their initial impressions and takeaways.
OS4 Will Make the iPad Truly “Magical and Revolutionary”
Chris Paradysz: OS4 will have multi-tasking capabilities. Now, I love the iPad. I can be excited about any great technology, but it should fulfill the hope I had back when I blogged about it earlier in the year that it will create an intimacy bond between content and users.
Music, video, words, pictures should no longer be disconnected from touch and feel. The iPod and iPhone didn’t transform this connection with people (consumers). With the portability, size and weight of the iPad well-suited to most people’s hands and laps, it can easily move from one position to another and from one person to another.
From a marketing pov, this creates a new experience sensation and viral ability that prior e-readers have failed to deliver. Within an app or the internet, an advertiser can deliver a rich brand or offer experience, not just ink on “paper”. With the iAd and technology infrastructure to support it, I have two questions: 1) how soon will it be before Apple starts up an advertising agency; 2) will a new SNL Apple skit be on this Saturday night?
A Must-Have Device You Didn’t Know You Needed
Suzy Sandberg: Just to get this out of the way, YES, the iPad does look like a giant iPod Touch. (iPad owners, I feel your pain on this relentless comment). And since I can’t strap the iPad to my arm when I go running, I do still need my iPod Touch. And I still need my laptop since the iPad has limitations (no USB for one). I also have/need a cell phone until/unless Verizon ever actually does get the iPhone.
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