On this day in 2010, couch-surfing Merlot sippers were delighted to hear that Apple released a thing called the iPad, allowing us all to surf the web comfortably anywhere in a reasonably large format without having to deal with a keyboard, hinged monitor, or desktop behemoth. Three-hundred thousand sold the first day and, in just a month, Apple celebrated its one-millionth sale. Some analysts called it a “laptop killer,” while others saw it as a bridge for less tech-savvy people to the company’s products. By the third fiscal quarter of that year, iPad sales outpaced Mac sales. It also ushered in an era of “the app,” when every company, non-profit and publishing outfit (and podcast platform!) needed to develop an app for everything, often creating syncing issues with its actual website content or e-commerce operations. Nevertheless, the iPad had staying power—today we’re on the 10th generation, and soon to be on the 11th.
NCPA
