Bold statement? Yes. So I’ll refute this guess with a series of questions and a few hopeful answers that have been swirling in my head…
Isn’t this just a big iPod?
Maybe.
But what if it isn’t. What if it’s really a smaller, better computer?
My guess is that when you look at this $499 product, it will not become something compared to a $199 iPod but rather to a $999 (or more) laptop. Think about that. Why?
Size. It’s way too big to be something you have with you at all times, like your phone or iPod. But it’s also a lot lighter and thinner than a computer.
Functionality. So this is going to enable you to do about everything you can on your iPod touch or iPhone from a non-talking on it standpoint. It’s got wifi capability, it’s got a beautiful 9.7” screen that makes it much easier to use but you’re still swiping and pinching like you do on an iPhone.
Newspaper. What? OK a general way of looking at this. But to me this could be the closest thing we’ve gotten yet to that amazing Daily Prophet from Harry Potter. You know (see below) the image of looking at the newspaper on a flat screen that also allows you to watch videos and listen to messages.
I think this actually might help the newspaper business but that’s another topic.
Use. So what do most young people do on a laptop? Go online. Download music. Then they have to use their iPod touch or phone to mess around with apps. This does it all.
We’ve seen how Texas A&M and South Florida take their media guides and turn them into Online Guides. (images below)
Now imagine what this will do for the “Media Guide", beyond just changing what we call it!
Does this affect college basketball?
Over time, I think it will. I am not advocating dropping everything you're doing to head out and plan for the iPad. But I think this should impact the way we think about where things are going. And how people will interact with the things we are creating now. So I’ll answer that question with a lot of questions.
- If you have the ability to add movies (videos) into the newspaper/magazines, how does that change things?
- Now if someone is using an internet connected device, how could that change things?
- What if you are active on Twitter and Facebook and the same kid is looking at your guide. Could that change things?
- Could live in-game blogs like Marquette does (here) evolve differently if a kid is looking at your site on an iPad during a game?
- And if this iPad has a GPS App on it, does that change things? (I’m betting the answer there is yes… in a big way)
- How does this change live game streaming? Or archived game viewing, like Illinois State does?
And... breathe.
So this whole question of the iPad is going to take some time to answer. But it's giving us a lot to think about, and I can't wait for the ride!
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4 comments:
The iPad would serve as a beautiful presentation monitor when coaches are making their in-home recruiting visits with a player. Aside from the tablet structure and touch screen functionality, does it do anything that a MacBook can't? I need to spend some time researching the iPad. Good stuff, Andy. Always enjoy reading your work.
I have to disagree. The exclusion of Flash will severally limit the creative approach you hint at with newspapers and media guides. Apple is trying to funnel all the activities you can do on an ipad through the App Store. so they can profit from it the same way they have with the ipod.
Also I don't see where the ipad will actually be used. Its too big to be portable or always carried and people won't use it at their desk where they have a laptop which can run multiple applications at once where they ipad can't.
I do agree with Mark Cuban that it could be very profitable as a toy and movie player. http://blogmaverick.com/2010/01/28/talking-the-ipad-kids-making-money-and-video/
Thanks for the comments Peter and Alan. Peter, I completely agree. I think that coaching presentation in the living room can completely evolve if a program takes advantage.
Alan, you pose an interesting question. The lack of flash will cause people to evaluate how they do things, but since the iPad will be able to play video content, I think this will not be a limitation. It will just force the programs to think through and plan for a different style of execution with the iPad.
The smart programs will look at what is possible and then leverage it.
If you look in the App Store, there are already schools that are throwing this kind of thing out there, such as Marquette in my own town.
Alan's right though. Flash is extremely important to the internet and most cool things that you're talking about use flash.
When I think of a coach in a family's living room, I think that they would prefer to keep the attention on them - a video or live media guide such as the ones at USF and TAMU (my two favorite schools I didn't attend) would be better served as a preview for recruits, kind of like a letter or a brochure and media guide.
In fact, I've thought about bringing it up to our coaches to spice up our recruiting efforts with a larger internet presence.
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