Steve Jobs Modestly Downplays iPad [Blockquote]

Steve Jobs Modestly Downplays iPad [Blockquote]

With typical modesty and restraint, Steve Jobs today downplayed the iPad hype. Pouring cold water on some of the hyperbole pundits have lavished on the device, he said:

“We think this is a profound gamechanger. We think when people look back some number of years from now, they’ll see this as a major event in personal computation devices.”

He was responding to a question about being surprised by the initial reaction. Here’s what he said in full:

Even though we’ve been using these internally for some time, you still have butterflies in your stomach the few weeks before…the night before…launch. You never really know until you get it into customers’ hands, and they tell you what they think. The feedback we’ve got has been off the charts. We think this is a profound gamechanger. We think when people look back some number of years from now, they’ll see this as a major event in personal computation devices. What’s been really great for me is how quickly people have got it. You know. I’ve gotten a few thousand emails so far from people I’ve never talked to before just telling me how much this product is…how much they think this product is going to change their life and what they do. People are getting it very quickly.

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From Gizmodo’s liveblog of the event.

About the author

Leander Kahney

is the editor and publisher of Cult of Mac, and author of three books about technology culture: Inside Steve’s Brain, the New York Times bestseller about Steve Jobs; Cult of Mac; and Cult of iPod. Leander has written for Wired, MacWeek, Scientific American, and The Guardian in London. Follow Leander on Twitter @lkahney and Facebook.

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Posted in Apple, iPad, News, Steve Jobs |

  • Mezzrow

    Well…I for one agree. I love this thing more than any device I’ve ever owned, and the OS and apps available for it are still in their infancy. I can’t judge its usefulness for people who create content (except maybe for writers), but for those of us who primarily USE that content, it’s the best thing I’ve ever seen. I have not a single regret about springing for the first iteration of the iPad.

  • meximelt

    and how does he downplay it excatly??? i dont get it??

  • David S.

    meximelt, it’s called irony. No, you don’t get it.

  • Jeff

    Dude, is it irony, or sarcasm?!?!?

  • Joseph

    It’s called sarcasm not irony. But I still don’t get it. Jobs devotes himself to these creations so do you expect him be less confident than other CEO. He’s confident it’s a breakthrough device (it is, and it’s changed the industry already as you can see from the copycat devices in the works by every single hardware manufacturer). But he was hardly boasting.

  • Windsor Smith

    Sarcasm is a type of irony, so it can be both.

    I might agree with Joseph that Jobs is simply exuding typical CEO confidence… except that he’s been spouting hyperbole in other venues as well, even going so far as to call the iPad “magical.” He seems to be excessively proud of this particular device — more so than any other Apple innovation he’s had a hand in.