iPad is not a laptop,its not just an ebook reader,its not a phone,its not just a music player,its just as Apple calls it the iPad.
I own an iPod Touch,the first of such black,single button smart devices by Apple.I am happy with it and use it to the fullest.When i see an iPhone,it just looks the same,same look and feel,same functionality only that it can be used to make calls.
Now when i saw iPad on net it looked like an inflated iPhone(or iTouch).

Jobs with iPad

It again has a single Home button with Multi-Touch interface very similar to the previous devices.

So Does Size Matter ?

If i have an iPod Touch or an iPhone,buying an iPad is a very tough decision.Apple seems to be over obsessed with the idea of having touch based smart devices.Similar was the case with Nokia once.Which ever phone or model you buy in a price range,you get same Symbian interface.Symbian 60,40 etc were part of all the phones that were launched by Nokia.Just the shape and sizes were different else internally all were the same(Line Filling).

Apple has decided to take on Amazon’s Kindle with its iPad in one way or the other.

Critics have not taken iPad very well.The reviews are mixed.Instant comparison with Kindle is being done.

But now i think is this new category of smart devices encroaching laptops ?

In the first Press Conference,Steve Jobs demonstrated how the iPad is used for surfing the Web with Apple’s Safari browser. He typed an e-mail using an on-screen keyboard and flipped through photo albums by flicking his finger across the screen.

The CEO says the iPad will also be better for reading books, playing games and watching video than either a laptop or a smart phone.

There can be a lot of questions asked to Steve on the last claim.Is iPad better than a full fledged laptop when it comes to performance,usability,scalability and ease of use ?

The price of iPad is ranging from approx 499 $ to 800$.Should i buy an iPad or a netbook which might come at a lower price and can perform tasks as i need.

With Apple iPad,I am stuck to Apple’s apps(which don’t come for free majority of time).I would be stuck to a non flash based browser.iPad doesn’t even support multitasking like a basic PC(or even Mac for matter of fact).

These kind of tablet PC is not a new concept or a product.Microsoft introduced it in 2001 with little success but Apple has a history of marketing things in a way no other have done.

Amazon’s Kindle has already created a lot of buzz in the market in recent times.Critics claim that Its an Apple’s extension into Kindle’s territory.

But iPad seems to be an incomplete product as of now.

The Worst Part

1) No Camera

2) No multitasking

3) No USB

4) AT&T locking for 3G

5) No flash support

6) Poor name

Apple is positioning it as a breakthrough product which is better than a smartphone or a laptop but with above list it seems Apple has tried to reinvent the wheel with iPad but donno how well ?

Check out Steve Jobs unleashing iPad to the world

Now lets see how the actual market tackles the product.Would it get the same respect as they gave to  Amazon Kindle or would iPad be Kindled off ?

HP Slate is also just around the corner.Similar product,similar category and similar targeting.Will HP learn from Apple’s mistakes ?

What Say ?

© 2010, TMSBee. All rights reserved.

Something similar has been done by HCL with their latest laptops ‘ME’.The commercial highlishts the same fact of personalization through the laptop.My Music,My Way etc.

Wipro also had launched their Ego laptops sometime back.

All three laptop brands have one thing in common i.e.You,me,us.

In the morning i found my TOI with a yellow Front page.It was actually a Yahoo! ad which said ‘The Internet is under new management.Yours.Its Y!ou.’

Why are all these companies giving so much stress on personalization ?

Why all of these are technology companies ?

The answer to second question is a bit obvious.The products made by such companies give us the power to bring about a new change. A writer can share his views on his blog,a musician can make music on his laptop.A small time movie buff can make a movie and share it with the whole world.So these companies are banking on that and are marketing these product with a touch of You and Me in their products.

I always heard that famous line ‘Customer is the King’,but now i feel that the time has come to make him feel as one.
Currently its fresh,its helping build a nice brand image for the companies.I just wish that this concept should not become repetitive and redundant.I don’t wish to see a soap or an undergarment company using a similar concept to sell their products
After having said this,I think why not?
What Say ?

© 2009 – 2010, TMSBee. All rights reserved.

It was always said that animation is cheaper in recession as the actors,models and brand ambassadors incur a huge cost.

But now comes the fusion.Aamir Khan in his new Coca Cola ad is animated as a Video Game Character.

He came first in Ghajini the game as an animated character Sanjay.Now this new animated avatar.

Here is the Ad

The Making of the above ad can be seen here.

Coca Cola is trying something new here.Pepsi have always been associated with the youth(youngistan etc) but first time now Coca Cola has tried to take on this area with this new ad with Aamir Khan.Coke’s main focus was always on Brand Ambassadors may be it was Sourav,Jadeja,Hritik or now Aamir Khan and a simple and funny storyline.Aamir has given them some cool ads in the past which people still remember today.But there was no brand association with some attribute ever.

e.g. Pepsi associated itself with Youth,Thums Up with adventure,Sprite with cool attitude(seedhi baat no bakwas Clear hai ?) but Coca Cola main focus was never based on some attribute unlike its global Avatar where Happiness is the attribute with which Coke associates itself.’Open Happiness’ is the tag line but in India it never was used or it never clicked with Aamir’s last campaign for them but this time things are different.

Gaming,Animation and Coca Cola together might just click with the youth and help Coca Cola to take on Pepsi.

It also has an interesting tagline ,”Bulbule jab bhi gungunayenge,Log Paas ayenge’ and same is shown in the ad.

The Ad is good and and has some comedy quotient and can make you smile.There is just one shortcoming in the ad.Animation is excellent and professional but the character not quite looks like Aamir.When he transforms into Real Aamir then only i realized that he was Aamir Khan.

And one more thing is that ad is too lengthy.Its unnecessarily stretched with an absurd ending.

This new campaign  might take the Coke as a brand to a height where it deserves to be in India.

In India Coca Cola India’s brands such as Sprite and Thums up have always been on top but Coke as a brand never got established as it is in countries like US or UK.

So lets wait and watch.

What Say ?

© 2009 – 2010, TMSBee. All rights reserved.