Rivitid

The other night I had the pleasure of hearing a great panel of speakers at the Roger Smith Hotel. The forum was a DigitalSomethings production (#dsnyc), and featured MashableMashable Editor-in-Chief Adam Ostrow, NY Times Tech Journalist Jenna Wortham, ABC UN reporter Dan Patterson, and David Weiner who is Emerging media manager for PR Newswire. When the subject of the Apple Tablet came around, feelings were mixed. Of course, we’re all throwing articles around about what the Tablet is before any of us really know, but we all have a general idea – and our panelists definitely had their reservations.

We all hope it succeeds, but here are some real reasons why it might fail:

Overhype

Speculations about the Apple Tablet have been going on way too long. As we saw with Google WaveGoogle Wave, too much hype too far away from the actual launch of a product can seriously damage its performance when it is actually released. I see a lot of similarities between Google Wave and the Tablet (aside for one being a device, and the other being a cloud service/messaging system?). Firstly, Google Wave was hyped and speculated and was described and analyzed before anyone had access to it. So is the Tablet. Google Wave was a really cool concept with tons of potential but nobody knew exactly what to use it for. Tablet seems to be shaping up to be just that. The list goes on, but the bottom line is – the Tablet is being hyped a lot, and it’s starting to seem like a very big iPod Touch.

Awkward Purposing

During the panel, Adam Ostrow mentioned that aside for not being a part of the “Apple Cult,” he also just doesn’t need another thing between his phone and his computer. He has a point there. We have computers which are big and more functional. We can do anything on them, they’re always Flash supported, and often, they’re portable. Our phones are smaller, more portable, a bit less functional, but do almost anything our computers can do. Why do we need a bigger phone/smaller computer? What purpose will it serve? And don’t tell me it can be a reader, because we both know the Tablet is going to claim to be more than just a reader. So what justification will the consumer have to buy such a device? Adam Ostrow: 1, The “Cult of AppleApple reviews“: 0

No Replacement for a Book

Jenna Wortham had a very real concern with the Apple Tablet as a reader, and this is also probably the most common concern I’ve heard since it’s been rumored. It doesn’t replace a book. As a reader, the Tablet, the KindleKindle 2 reviews, the Nook are all great! but they do take away from the smell of a real book, the conversation struck up by one reading a book on the subway. Jenna brought up the classic example of starting a conversation with a boy with “That’s my favorite author too!” That’s not there with the reader.

Either way you cut it, the Tablet is controversial - but will it pass the test with the consumer when it actually comes out? I have serious doubts about that. In the meantime, people will just continue writing stories about what they “know” about the Tablet, and “What the tablet is going to be” while in reality they don’t know any more than you and I.

I’m interested to know what you think about it.

Do you think the Tablet will fail big time? Do you think it will win out?

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