simoncoles.org   Simon Coles Personal Blog

The iPad is certainly causing people to think, and this post from Matt Gemell with thoughts on How to Compete with iPad really hits the nail on the head in terms of what the iPad represents.

For students of the Innovator’s Dilemma you can really see it at work in the reaction to the iPad. Matt’s comment:

If you’re going to put a desktop operating system onto a tablet device, you’re going to immediately alienate the vast majority of your potential customers. Note the word “potential”. Paradoxically, you may temporarily placate most of your existing customers, but you’re not innovating and you’re certainly leaving a lot of money on the table.

The iPad is really interesting, both as a device in its own right and also in how it will change our perception of how people interact with the computing world. I’ll also be interested in how other manufacturers react – I fear it’ll be rather similar to their reaction to the iPhone which is pretty much “Look, we know you think the iPhone is cool but it really isn’t because it is so limited. Here’s our phone which has all the features and complexities of our normal phones, with a few choice bits from the iPhone, and a load more stuff squidged on top”.

And of course, we all keep buying iPhones.

As an aside, the first views of Microsoft’s “Courier” Booklet have appeared. My initial impressions are:

• By the time it gets to market, the iPad will have set our expectations for this category of device.
• Wow, it looks powerful/complex – but in a way that I don’t really care about. If I want that power, I’ll use my Laptop.
• A pen! Wow that feels old fashioned now… (I know there are lots of good uses for a stylus, but…)
• Microsoft and their partners have a history of making a mess of this space.

The next 18 months will be interesting, both from the perspective of the cool tools we’ll all have at the end of it, but also watching the market dynamics play out. I’m sure there’s plenty of MBA case study material that will come out of this phase of the market.

I’ve had an ADSL connection with Andrews & Arnold for a good few years, and have been very happy. We now also use them at work and some of my colleagues use them too. They are very much the “thinking man’s” ISP and treat their customers like adults with lots of good info available and helpful support whereas most ISPs are just black boxes with really unhelpful support (I’m somewhat cursed with a MEng in effectively computer networks – most ISP support lines just piss me off with their stupidity and haste to get me off the phone).

A&A’s back end web site looks like it was designed by geeks but that does mean it gives you everything you need even if the presentation is a little rough. I’ll forgive them that! And you get a Static IP address (or range) – very very very useful if you have a loft full of servers. Plus their office is about 5 mins drive away from here so we can pick up a configured router rather than have to wait for the post which is helpful.

Anyway, they’ve started offering lines with Be rather than BT and I thought I’d give it a go for the work ADSL line we have back to our house (personal stuff goes over Virgin, work stuff over the A&A ADSL line).

On Sunday using http://www.broadbandspeedchecker.co.uk/ I was getting about 2,800 kb/s down and 600 kb/s up on our ADSL line which I think was going over the BT 21CN network. It switched to Be this afternoon and I’m now getting 6,000 kb/s down and 950 kb/s up.

That is an amazing difference. Same line, just different network in the back. Same price, and the changeover was just the matter of a different router (which cost £30 but was easier than reprogramming my old one).

I wasn’t going to blog about it because hey, it’s just ADSL and A&A are one ISP amongst many. But they are one of the better ones (IMHO) and the speed difference in the Be line is quite a shock.

Andrews & Arnold – Highly recommended. Be lines – if you can have one on your exchange, go for it.

So here’s a thought.

When I got an iPod, I could Rip all my CDs to MP3 and later AAC. So I could easily fill my iPod up with the music I already had, I didn’t need to shell out for a device and a load more content.

When I got an Apple TV, it took everything I already had on iTunes. Apparently using tools like MacTheRipper you can also backup the DVDs you legally own, so you can play them on your Apple TV. Again, I bought the device but I didn’t need to get a load more content.

But with an eBook reader, I can’t really Rip a book can I? If I want to read a book on my iPad or Sony eReader I have to buy it – even if I already have a physical copy. Which kind of sucks.

I wonder if that has slowed the adoption of eBook readers. Of course, the iPad isn’t just an eReader so it shouldn’t matter too much to Apple.

Now, if someone would come up with a scheme where I can trade in my physical books for an eBook copy….

I wonder how many people have now stopped buying physical books because the iPad and eBook store are just around the corner.

I know I have and I am sure I am not alone. Now I just walk through book stores taking photos of interesting books so I can get them on my iPad later.

I’m a bit worried about long term availability but upon reflection how many books do I read more than once? As well as the convenience of being to take stuff on trips, imagine how much shelf space I’ll save at home and work!

I’m not sure about the idea itself (at one level seems good but I suspect it’ll have some nasty unpredictable side effects – more detail here), but the way the Robin Hood Tax people have promoted their idea is very interesting. With YouTube, do we really need Party Political Broadcasts so much? And it’s great that alternative ideas can get their message across in a visual way as well as the standard blogging etc.

Anyway, here’s the video