No Hardware
blog.alexandretestu.com
blog.alexandretestu.com
I'm a fan of the device, I'll be getting my 3G one soon, but for the love of all that is holy, make the voices stop!
The iPad is all about hardware ... all of Apple's products are about making hardware look sexy and trendy, even without the UI. Apple doesn't mention the internals because Apple products are often under-powered compared to similar-costing competitors.
>> The UI is everything
I would say that the looks of the UI are everything, to your average consumer. As sad as it is, the visuals are what drive customers to new operating systems (e.g. Aero), new versions of software (e.g. the Ribbon in Office), etc. Microsoft puts lots of new behind-the-scenes innovations in each new OS, but nothing sways customers more than screenshots -- often the least relevant part of the operating system.
I think you're infantilizing the consumer too much - your users are a lot more than dumb bricks that react to "Ooooh Shiny!". When geeks (more specifically, geeks who have no appreciation for UI) rant about how people buy the shiny UI, they're not really grokking the fact that people like it not because it spins and moves, but because it actually better conforms to how they want their computers to work. Animation between switching windows? Geeks call it eye candy, I call it necessary preservation of context.
Ask your average consumer what was new in Vista? Aero. What's Aero? Neat visual effects. What was new in Office 2007? Ribbon. What's Ribbon? It's that new bar at the top of the screen. Consumers remember the visual changes in these products best.
Like it or not, those superfluous window animations in Mac OS were exactly what screamed "creative" and "cool" to a lot of customers, over the then "business-like" Windows XP. Video games invest in graphics so they can have impressive screenshots. Office suites tweak their UI so that they can communicate "new and improved" visually.
Of course there are other benefits than looks. But the looks, the screenshots are your product's first impression -- if it looks the same as the last version, people just might not buy.