Or better yet, dealing with unsatisfied expectations.
We’ve all witnessed the unveiling of the almighty iPad, the joy of Steve Jobs and the aftershock of disappointment. We all expected the iPad to be a gamechanger, the next iPod, a heavenly mana. But it’s not for me and judging by the social media reactions, it’s not for quite a lot of people. It’s utter disappointment and many of you will not get over it, even after the hype will die out.
But you should. I’m disappointed by the form factor – I never imagined a more ugly looking Apple product. I’m still going to switch to a MacBook Pro, but you wouldn’t catch me dead with an iPad. I find it useless and certainly not worth the money for the value it offers. Sure, if you want a Kindle replacement the iPad is a viable option, but the value stops there, at least for me. So I’m disappointed.
But I’ve learned to deal with it by setting lower expectations: It’s OK if it lacks most of the features I wanted, it’s quite alright that it runs iPhone OS and it’s certainly obvious why it doesn’t have a camera.
It’s not the easiest way, but it’s certainly the best, least painful & disturbing way. I’ve trained myself to expect regular, ordinary things from people, relationships, services & products and be pleasantly surprised rather than setting my expectations really high and being disappointed most of the time.
But this of course is only true for situations outside my reach & influence. You should always set your own standards as high as possible & deliver each and every time. Only by doing this you’ll continuously raise your own bar and avoid disappointment.
Because your ultimate goal is to breach through the barrier of mediocrity and shallowness so you won’t have to deal with inner disappointments ever again.
Ping back:
http://adriandeac.princluj.ro/it/marimea-conteaza.html
Aren’t we all just coming down from a hype-high? With a bit of a crash?
I don’t think Apple ever did revolutionize anything, they just took what was there and made it slightly better and decisively prettier.
The iPod is a glorified mp3 player (those had been around for ages when it appeared).
The iPhone is a glorified smartphone (same thing) – plus they had the vision to turn it into a platform, but that’s a strategy not a feature.
So now the iPad (let’s call it a slate, make a statement of it) is what every attempt at a tablet should’ve been so far. It’s better than the Kindle, the Nook, the Sony Reader, Apple’s own Newton and some other anonymous tablets that have been floating around (Archos, I think?) – and beats their price. What more would we want?
Why, then, are we all so surprised that it didn’t blow our minds? None of this stuff was supposed to in the first place. Apple is just faithfully following its model.
So what’s changed? I think the hype machine just got too efficient for its own good. Apple turned themselves into the boy who cried wolf (in reverse, sortof) and something like this was bound to happen. I think this is something to ponder.
On the other hand, it might sell like hotcakes.
Marius,
I agree with you, it’s a decent product compared to its competitors. But let’s stop for a bit and ask ourselves why did Steve Jobs himself say that this is their most revolutionary product yet? Or why did reports come in as he was more excited than was ever before about a product?
The iPad doesn’t revolutionize a thing, it’s not a breakthrough in technology, it’s not going to change we use communicate (at least not this version) and it’s certainly not filling any gap or solve any problem.
Deep thoughts Lorand. Although it is self-training to set personal goal as high as possible, maybe it is also safe to take small steps. That’s my only “addition” to your otherwise great article
It’s always safer to take babysteps, but you need to set your own expectations really high, otherwise you’ll just do the “good enough” which is unacceptable in my book.
Thanks for stopping by, it’s been quite a while!
I think we need to remember that Steve Jobs is not a person, but an institution, i.e. the front-end of a PR team. When he says something, it’s the result of a strategy, not some guy speaking his mind.
So we know he’s going to step down. He has the great tribal following, and this is his last card to play. Of course he’s going to put it all out on the table. He has nothing to lose, there will be no more game after this. The next “Jobs” will have some big shoes to fill, but he won’t be liable for the first one’s mistakes and overstatements. So they pulled out all the stops on the hype generator.
So far, it seems to have backfired. But I’m not sure their sales will reflect that.
As for revolutionizing…. I’ll stick to my point that Apple has always been more about repackaging than innovation.
Glad to be back