A number of folks have come out recently to try and combat the “naysayers” who say the iPad is not for content creators, including Mike Elgan for Computerworld, and Brian Solis. I think they are missing the point. Here’s why…
The Consumers vs Creators argument is not about capability. It’s about market share.
Take any slice of the population, and more than 80% of that slice is perfectly happy to do nothing but consume the available content. They don’t want to write blogs or books, or make videos or music, or design games, or whatever else is considered content creation. They just want to consume.
The creators? Less than 3%.
Historically, Apple was the company of choice for creative types. They developed a cult-like following but temporarily lost the war for market share against Windows. But somewhere along the line, Apple got smart and decided to be the company of choice for the consumers, too. The iPad is the next evolution of that strategy. It is the ultimate consumption device.
Can you create with it? In very limited ways, but sure, I suppose. However, that isn’t the point, because the folks buying the device — 80% of them — have no desire to use it as a content creation tool anyway.