Apple's Past Lessons Loom As it Races to April 3
At about this stage in Apple's development process of every important product launch, which the iPad is, questions start emerging over whether it can make its deadlines, whether some problems will emerge out of left field and whether what it eventually ships will live up to the hype. It's time to be realistic about Apple and its capabilities, and a little trip down memory lane might be realistic.
In 2007, while Apple was preparing to launch both its iPhone and the Leopard version of its Mac OSX operating system, it made the decision to postpone launching the OS for several months. The company admitted it simply didn't have the resources for both major launches at the same time; iPhone got priority and OSX got delayed. Complaints were few and disappeared after A) everybody saw the iPhone and it burned up the market and B) everybody saw Leopard a few months later, and people were happy with it. Steve Jobs and Co. didn't have all the resources they would have liked to do both, well, at the same time and the market seemed to understand.
A year later, in 2008, Apple moved to launch the next generation of iPhone software at the same time as it launched what it called "Microsoft Exchange for the rest of us." There were no delays this time, but there should have been. MobileMe was, to be kind, a disappointment when it launched. And, on the day the next-generation of the iPhone went on sale, Apple's back-end infrastructure for providing the new software and registering the new phones was nowhere near ready and tens of thousands of customers either had to wait additional hours or go away without a new iPhone.
Jobs and Apple have made a big deal about the iPad. But after the Cupertino, Calif.-based company last week announced that it would launch on April 3, and not some time in March, you could already hear the grumbling. But, having made both good decisions and bad decisions on its use of resources and product launches in recent years, the hope here is that Apple executives have learned from their mistakes and won't ship the iPad until it's truly ready for prime time - - from hardware, software, application and support perspectives.
Apple's R&D and corporate infrastructure, as it has shown in recent years, isn't boundless. It's time for the market to start building that into its expectations, if it hasn't already. It may also be time for Apple to begin seriously considering strategic acquisitions that could expand its capabilities.