Edible Apple

Though the iPad has quickly ushered in a new era of tablet computing, its initial introduction didn’t capture the imagination of the public in the same way that the iPhone struck a chord with consumers the instant they saw in action.

Commenting on this in the newly released Steve Jobs biography, Walter Isaacson relays that Jobs was personally saddened by the relatively lukewarm response following his iPad unveiling in early 2010. While premature tech proclamations tend to disappear with time, especially when they’re way off base, you might remember that initial reaction to the iPad was something along the lines of “And this is a big deal because why?”

Indeed, many were quick to dismiss it as an oversized iPod Touch and some even went so far as to proclaim that Apple had lost its mojo.

Reading through Jobs’ biography, it’s apparent that among other personality traits, Jobs was an emotional man who wore his heart on his sleeve – for better or worse.

So in light of the lukewarm response that followed Steve Jobs’ iPad introduction, the Apple co-founder confided in Isaacson on the evening of the iPad launch that he was annoyed and depressed as a result. What’s more, Jobs said he received around 800 emails the day he announced the iPad, with most of them being negative critiques about Apple’s latest device.

There’s no USB cord! There’s no this, no that. Some of them are like, ‘F**k you, how can you do that?’ I don’t usually write people back, but I replied, ‘Your parents would be so proud of how you turned out.’ And some don’t like the iPad name, and on and on.

“I Kind of got depressed today,” Jobs recounted. “It knocks you back a bit.”

Apple and Jobs would of course go on to have the last laugh. Apple to date has sold millions upon millions of iPads and at one point was even struggling to manufacture enough units to meet insatiable demand. During the most recent quarter, Apple shipped 11.12 million iPads which translates to about 120,000 units per day.

Not too bad for a device that many deemed dead-on-arrival not too long ago.