也许很多人都在猜测，在去年首次正式发布ipad并遭遇一定的市场非议之后，作为苹果“总设计师”的乔布斯究竟度过了怎样一段心路历程，而在看了《史蒂夫·乔布斯传》之后，我们对这个问题终于豁然开朗了。自从史蒂夫·乔布斯于2011年10月5日不幸离世之后，整个it业都沉浸在悲痛之中，而全世界的果粉们更是难以自制，在这样的背景之下由walter isaacson所执笔的传记《史蒂夫·乔布斯传》早已引起了广泛关注，这本传记已于10月24日在全球同步上市。

　　那么来看看《史蒂夫·乔布斯传》里对ipad发布事件的描述吧，看看乔布斯在ipad遭受非议的日子里的记忆：“ipad竟然没有usb接口!这里又差个什么啦，那里又没有什么啦!“法克鱿!你怎么能这样做?”有的用户甚至这样直白地问候。我一向不给人们回信的，但是这次我回了。“你父母会对你如何出生这件事很自豪的!”同时一些人不喜欢ipad这个名字，诸如此类的评论举不胜举。今天我低落极了，这些反应让我倍受打击。”

　　乔布斯传记里还有这样一段叙述，“我们很容易描述ipod是个什么东东——那就是“a thousand songs in your pocket”，也就是装在你口袋里的千百首歌曲——而且我们还能快速地移动到形象的剪影广告。但对于ipad我们就很难进行明确描述了。我们不想把它描述成一台电脑，也不想轻描淡写地将其描述成像是一台可爱的电视机。当看到第一辑广告设计时，甚至连我们都不知道自己在做什么。这很是给人一种ipad是一个毛线玩具和hush uppies(巴吉度猎犬)的感觉。”

　　但是当ipad于去年4月公开发售时，人们逆转了此前对它的看法，并开始疯狂追捧ipad平板。时至今日，苹果公司每个月都可以卖出数以百万计的ipad平板，并凭此成为了平板电脑市场最具影响力的厂商。

　　jobs was not happy with the original ads for the ipad. as usual, he threw himself into the marketing, working with james vincent and duncan milner at the ad agency (now called tbwa/media arts lab), with lee clow advising from a semiretired perch. the commercial they first produced was a gentle scene of a guy in faded jeans and sweatshirt reclining in a chair, looking at email, a photo album, the new york times, books, and video on an ipad propped on his lap. there were no words, just the background beat of “there goes my love” by the blue van. “after he approved it, steve decided he hated it,” vincent recalled. “he thought it looked like a pottery barn commercial.” jobs later told me:

　　it had been easy to explain what the ipod was—a thousand songs in your pocket—which allowed us to move quickly to the iconic silhouette ads. but it was hard to explain what an ipad was. we didn’t want to show it as a computer, and yet we didn’t want to make it so soft that it looked like a cute tv. the first set of ads showed we didn’t know what we were doing. they had a cashmere and hush puppies feel to them.