Jobs to iPad skeptic: 'Are you nuts?' A European iPad fancier emailed Steve Jobs that he feared a nefarious plot was behind the delay of his rendezvous with Apple's "magical and revolutionary" device. Jobs' reponse: "Are you nuts?" And unlike his other indignant, off-the-cuff email outbursts, this time Jobs may be right. Swiss business consultant Paul Shadwell …
with the word fanboi in it yet either...
Just doesn't seem like a true iPad article without it :P
Shame it's been delayed though, as much as I don't need one, I still want one.
Isn't that what gadgets are all about really? I mean who genuinly needs a USB rocket launcher?
It's a marketing ploy to create demand. Like the Wiis a couple of Christmases ago and countless toys in years before. Make sure they aren't available so that you build up market pressure. It is probably the same as the case as with the Wii only on a larger scale. Then it was a case that you just couldn't buy them in the UK. Mainland Europe had them by the lorry load but the marketing dept. would allow a reasonable supply in the the UK and stopped major Euro retailers from supplying to UK addresses. Back then you could go to Amazon's site in all the other countries and there were loads in stock, but the moment you put in a UK address the shutters came down.
Apple are just going a whole leap further and blocking the rest of the world. I'm sure they have plenty of stock, they are easily available, but the marketing zeebs have decreed that not selling them now is the way to maximize sales when they do decide to open the flood gates (or is that Jobs in this case). This way I'm sure they'll ensure they can sell most and at the highest possible price. This is the name of the game. Customers are there to be fleeced.
they need to be able to flood the market for a number of reasom;ns
* to ensure they can fulfil the early adopter demand at early adopter prices
* to ensure they sell as many as possible before people realise the ipad is an expensive toy and sales dry up
* to clear as much stock as possible before early adopters wish they bought one with 3G and ebay them forcing new price discounting
Going by the comments in this thread, mr Shadwell is clearly not the only one that's a bit... confused. So, to all those people who believe that, after all the hype that has already been generated, Apple (or any other company with a non-vapourware product) would deliberately hold-back product to create demand, consider this scenario:
1. Apple holds back iPads to create demand, forgoing millions of dollars that they could take out of customer's teflon-coated wallets now.
2. Competitor announces 'better' device with Flash, USB ports, ponies, rainbows etc.
3. Customers change their mind about buying an iPad and Apple looses a lot of the money that would have been theirs.
4. Something ugly happens at the next Apple shareholder meeting.
Doesn't make a lot of sense, does it?
So what you're suggesting is that Apple - with all it's marketing resources - always miscalculates demand for it's products. I sell Apples. There is never enough stock of new or current products - Why is this?
A. Apple has a terrible Marketing forecast department and always get it wrong.
B. Apple prefers to drip feed their products keeping demand high and stock levels low.
You mentioned a better product? - I've looked at the likely competition and they won't challenge the Ipad - I know it and so does Stevie boy.
His products still have the "Lust" factor - one day they will get it wrong and have to change supply strategies but not this time...
People will wait - that's why Apple are unique and I don't see anyone challenging them soon..
...and kindly buy Steve Jobs a ticket to Diplomacy Camp. I mean it's not as if he was the sole leading public player (any more, in that company, at least) and "everyone's emotional favorite" behind a company with world-wide scope, or anything.
Ahh, nevermind, he's just that darned charismatic. Or the Apple money is, at least.
Anonymous to avoid forever evoking the bitter and oh-so-relevant ire and hatred of diehard Apple fanbois and fangirlz
They're out of stock, even in Apple's own stores in the USA, which normally have good stock of new products in preference to other outlets, so there's no reason to assume the shortage isn't genuine. It's a completely new product, so Apple will have had a difficult job to gauge demand in advance. No need for conspiracy theories.
That might be the hold-up. Altho' the keyboard is software-definable, some countries would even need multiple languages for the menus, etc. (French+German+Flemish, Finnish+Swedish..., German QWERTZ layout). I guess Apple isn't going to alienate a piffling low density EU country by not producing a lingo pack for it.
Other holdup? EU monopoly laws about the iPad's restrictions? Dunno.
The so-called US shortage may be because of the large amount of smuggling. In a single (non-IT0 mall here in Singapore, I counted over 600 iPads on sale. In the main IT hub, that number is exponentially greater. And that's just here in 2 malls (out of, ooooh, 100 or so), and not counting Hong Kong, China, Malaysia, etc.
Do people really think that Apple would run out of stock through miscalculating demand? - with all it's marketing resources - Apple always under supples retail. I sell Apples. There is never enough stock of new or even current products - Why is this?
A. Apple has a terrible Marketing forecast department and always get it wrong.
B. Apple prefers to drip feed their products keeping demand high and stock levels low.
Apple are aware that there is nothing with enough 'glam' to compete with their products and even if there was (Yes, yes I've seen the HP pad thingy) - the PC market is too fragmented to have the same impact.
People will wait for Apple products - I know, I sell them. Good or bad they have a captive adoring public who spread the word and their disciples are growing.
Steve knows it - he can afford to sit back on his money pile and grin until someone challenges - no one's even close.
Shame.
... that he couldn't even wait another month without complaining? What is it about the modern world that we all have to have everything yesterday? Seriously, a month is not a long time to wait! Try using British Airways and then you'll know what waiting is!
Limited demand - We have X number of IPads of type Y. Auction ends at midnight April x. Starting bids are (something near cost of manufacturing)
That'll maximize your revenue stream while simultaneously building demand. Because we all know the fanbois can't stay away. Heck, you might even make it an I-phone app for bidding on it, and charge the standard fee for each bid submitted through the app.
in New York and they've both fallen for it. She thought it was great anyway, he thought it was a POS until he borrowed it from her and begrudged having to give it back. Says he's seriously thinking about getting one himself when the bells and whistles version is released. He's a big Windows 7 fan but he does have an iPhone.
I'm a big Mac user but I wouldn't have an iPad unless it was a gift from Steve Jobs himself or cost less than a hundred quid. Or both. Or unless I try one myself and also decide it's the dog's bits.
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