Litl CEO Responds to Apple iPad Unveiling iPad 'is More of a Traditional Device' Says Litl Founder – A Missed Opportunity

Following on from our full coverage of Apple s launch of the iPad, and
consequent to reporting on Litl Webbook a couple of weeks ago, John
Chuang, the founder and CEO of Litl, has offered his reaction to the
Apple iPad " and his thoughts are consistent with what we re hearing
from other industry players.
As reported by Xconomy, who tipped us on John Chuang s reaction to the
iPad (thanks Liasa) Litl s CEO reaction to Apple s iPad is, as noted
above, is very much that Apple have missed a golden opportunity that
could otherwise have furthered the status of the Tablet some
considerable way. Indeed, John Chuang hardly holds back in stating that
he belives that Apple took �the easy road and that the iPad is, in
essence, �just a big iTouch .
Here s John Chuang s feeling concerning the iPad published here with
permission of Xconomy (also credited below):
�We think the iPad is an extension of what they already have done,
in a different form factor. Ultimately, we are about a much bigger
change in how operating systems work and how computers work. We are
about operating-system-as-a-service, about being extremely
maintenance-free, about content, about synching. The iPad is more of a
traditional device "an extension of the mobile platform, which we ve
seen, but at the end of the day it s still local hardware, with local
storage, and that s not what we re trying to accomplish.
On the absence of an expected Apple announcement on January 27 about a
cloud-based, streaming music service : That sort of service is where we
see our company going. A service like that would not only benefit Apple
users but it would benefit Litl users, because everyone will be able to
access their information from any device. That s the world that Litl is
moving toward. They had the opportunity to transition their operating
system more toward that, but that s not what they did We re actually
relieved to see that Apple didn t jump head first into the cloud. That s
where computers are going, and that s where we are now. We re going to
use our head start to keep making our product better.
On whether Apple's entry into the tablet market could enhance consumer
awareness of devices sized between phones and laptops : They ve
introduced this easel-like concept, and our take on that is that, with
the Litl Webbook, we re giving you a device that is fully functional in
laptop mode and in easel mode. It s purposely designed to be a
no-compromises experience, with a full keyboard. They obviously
approched it with a tablet, and it will be interesting to see how
successful that is. But at the end of the day, I think there is
definitely going to be more choice for consumers between a plain old
laptop and a cell phone, and all of that is good. The Litl vision of
computing can really be put on all sorts of different devices with
different form factors. �
Interesting. So we re not the only ones disappointed with the iPad (like
we didn t know that already?).