Thinking About iPad (Premium)

When Steve Jobs introduced the first iPad in 2010, he carefully positioned it as a new category of device that was different from, and superior to, both the PC and the smartphone. And while his initial justification for the iPad—"the question has arisen lately, is there room for a third category of device in the middle, something that's between a laptop and a smartphone?"—was perhaps poorly argued, Jobs never intended this device to be limited to consumption activities like browsing the web, listening to music, and watching videos. A point he thought he had made by announcing iWork for iPad during the keynote.

Jobs was so upset by this misconception—he claimed to have received over 800 complaints about the iPad's limitations within 24 hours of his announcement—that he resolved that the next version, iPad 2, would "emphasize ways to facilitate creation by the user." And one year later, he took to the stage with a new message and a new positioning. He didn't pull any punches in defiantly taking on the doubters.

"We're here to talk about Apple's third post-PC blockbuster product," he began. "Right? That's how we think about these things. We started off in 2001 with the iPod, our first post-PC product. And we've been at it ever since. In 2007, we added the iPhone, and in 2010 we added the iPad. And every one of these has been a blockbuster. So we're in a position now where the majority of our revenues come from these post-PC products."

The constant repetition of "post-PC" there is, I think, important and deliberate. The phrase also appeared on-screen in a classic example of his clear communication style. But he wasn't done.

"And when we introduced the iPad a little less than a year ago, we said it's 'Our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price.' Now, people laughed at us for using the word magical but, you know what? It's turned out to be magical. Right? And people weren't sure that it was an unbelievable price. Well let me tell you. Ask our competitors now. [Here, he was interrupted by knowing laughter.] And they'll tell you."

The iPad 2 was thinner and lighter than its predecessor, and it arrived alongside an innovative and elegant new Smart Cover that answered another criticism of the original version. But the iPad's positioning had not so subtly shifted. It now supported all 65,000 iPad-specific apps that developers had created over the previous year--"creation apps, ... a lot of apps for business and vertical markets like medical," Jobs enthused—a huge advantage the iPad 2 had over the second iPhone from several years earlier. And it also ushered in two new Apple creative apps, iMovie and GarageBand for iPad, to hammer home its creator credentials. The iPad was now exactly what its critics had said it was not, "a game changer."

This new positioning might have silenced some of the complaints, but it raised some new concerns as well. If the iPad was part of the post...