Launched with great fanfare the Apple iPad is a fascinating product. As a piece of hardware it is elegant and sophisticated. It is clean and functional. It is graceful and fun. And, its value lies in none of these attributes.
The power and transformational capacity of the iPad is in what it makes possible. It is a gateway to experience. In the same way that the iPhone is far more than a phone the iPad is far more than an e-reader. What makes the iPhone so important and transformative is the simple fact that almost all users use it for far more than its telephony function. The iPhone is a gateway. It's what the iPhone makes accessible in people's experience that sets it apart. It's this unique focus on experience that has made the hardware iconic; it's what has created an absolutely passionate cadre of users. It's what has driven the development of tens of thousands of applications and more than 1 billion downloads. This is what Apple gets that almost no other company gets – that the end user's experience is the product – that sets it apart and makes it unique.
This is what most pundits do not understand about the iPad. It's not the hardware (elegant though it may be). It's the gateway it opens to what it will make possible in the user's experience. Watch for the development of Apps in the new iPad App Store. This will begin with expansion of existing iPhone Apps and will quickly move into the development of Apps that are not iPhone knockoffs but are built for innovative uses that today are not even envisioned. The iPad will be the gateway to experiences that consumers don't yet know they want and that they will flock to when they become available.
Think now of our collective experience with health care. As a gateway, what experiences does our existing health care system open the consumer up to? Frustration, fear, aggravation, anxiety, anger, bankruptcy, and disempowerment to name but a few. If I were a CEO leading a hospital, an insurance company, or any health care organization I would be very worried. Someday some CEO will get the message that what they are "selling" is not health care. And when they do the game will change. In much the same way that Apple moved in three years from being a non-player to become the number one seller of smartphones in the world, some hospital or health care organization will wake up to the idea that what it offers is really a gateway to experiences and it will literally transform the nature of this business.
Think of your company and its products. As a gateway, what experiences do you and what you offer make possible? Is your company's culture one that attends to designing a spectacular consumer experience at each step of your product development and delivery process? If not, you're in trouble.
As Apple learned a long time ago it's not about the hardware. The "hardware" must be of the highest quality AND it is only a gateway. The question is a gateway to what?
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Posted by: Coach Bags | June 07, 2011 at 01:58 AM
Hmmm fairly reminiscent of the old "want, means, experience" exercise.
Posted by: Ed Heidicker | February 02, 2010 at 07:40 AM
Imagine easy access to general care during the hours you aren't working...NICE!
Posted by: L | February 02, 2010 at 06:17 AM