iPad, Then and Now

John Gruber, terrific as usual:

The biggest difference, though, was this: last year Apple didn’t yet understand the iPad. They knew it was good. They knew it had potential. But they didn’t know what it was. They had a sense that in the conceptual space between an iPhone and a MacBook there was uncharted, fertile territory. And they set for themselves a wise metric: the iPad would only succeed if it could do some of the same things a Mac can do, but do them better. If it wasn’t better in several important ways for several common tasks, it would not succeed.

What they didn’t know last year was how people would use it, for real. They know now.

As I said on Twitter:

I bought an iPad on day one last year. And I’ll more than likely buy an iPad 2 on day one this year. Amazing what happens in one year.

The difference between last year and this year, for me as a consumer, is the same as it is with Apple: last year I didn’t know what the iPad really was or could do; this year, I do.

Last year, I stepped off a plane in Minneapolis, fresh from Thailand, drove straight to the nearest Apple store, walked in, said “I want a 32GB iPad” and held out my credit card. Even the store clerk was stunned — I probably looked like a crazed fanboy. Truth be told, I’d never bought a single Apple product in my life. You wouldn’t be hard-pressed to find someone who could quote me bashing Apple products as only for self-important writers who frequent coffee shops. And yet, the iPad was just something I knew I wanted to experience. Like so many others, I had a strong feeling it was going to change a lot of things. And it did. For me and for so many others.

This year, I’ll walk out of my house in San Francisco, past Moscone West where the iPad 2 was announced — like every other Apple product — and in to an Apple Store and I’ll say “I want a 32GB iPad 2” and hold out my credit card.

Amazing what happens in one year.