The Third Trojan Horse

I don't profess to be an industry guru. I bought into the whole concept of Network Computers and JavaStations (remember them). I couldn't understand why anybody wanted a Blackberry. I dismissed the original iPods as expensive pieces of platic that would never take off. What I totally misread though was the timing, the importance of the user experience for successful adoption and the completeness of the end to end solution - namely through the provision of content via iTunes. The rest is history and the iPod became the Trojan Horse that wormed its way into the pockets of millions and went a large way to restoring Apple's fortunes and coolness. IMO the iPhone has pickedup the gauntlet and is proving to be a worthy successor.

So here I go making another prediction - the rumoured 2010 release of the Apple Tablet (could they possibly resurect the name iBook or Newton name?) will be huge. So in 2001 when Bill Gates predicted that the tablet PC would be the most popular form of PC sold he wasn't entirely wrong. His timing was just a bit out, the user experience was woeful and there was no end to end compelling argument to change. I don't think Steve Jobs will repeat those mistakes.