When I found an Apple product in my pocket last year, I was pleasantly surprised on a lot of fronts. I felt like I belonged to a new community. Better yet, I had a fantastic new device, the least important function of which was to make phone calls. (Funny, that)

Given my whole adoption of the iPhone experience, you can likely assume a lot about my expectations for the iPad. Indications were that the the user experience of the iPhone was going to be brought to a Tablet-like experience. What many inferred is the iPad would be a new solution for mobile computing, likely featuring a toned-down version of the Mac’s OS X. Obviously, we were mistaken, given that the iPad will rather function with a slightly enhanced version of the iPhone operating system.

iPhone users are presented with a very real problem with the iPad: We expected it to do more than the iPhone, and it doesn’t.

The same day, a quote began circulating from Steve Jobs regarding the Google Nexus One.

“We did not enter the search business, they entered the phone business. Make no mistake they want to kill the iPhone. We won’t let them. This don’t be evil mantra, it’s bull$&*!.”
Steve Jobs Ipad

That statement puts a lot of casual iPhone users at odds about deciding between Google and Apple just as Apple’s public relationship with Microsoft. Having to publicly condemn either Google or Apple in the arena of smartphone choice seems as combative as it is silly.

In short, the statement made Jobs seem both angry and paranoid about Google’s entry into the mobile phone market, which has been coming for years. In comparing apples to oranges (pun implied), Jobs has made a leap which I don’t think will help Apple’s brand position.

With cavalier comments like that, Jobs has strengthened the position that Apple is the kid in the playground who won’t play nicely with the other children. Even as Jobs navigated the front page of the New York times, it became clear that the issue of flash on Apple’s mobile devices has yet to be resolved, a breakneck issue for many, many consumers.

“No one will be using Flash, he says. The world is moving to HTML5.”

Futuristic vision aside, the vast majority of all streaming video is accomplished via Flash. Rather than identify battery issues, overheating, questionable content, or conflict of intrest with the iTunes story as reasoning (all valid) Jobs has been known to call flash buggy and the reason for a high number of crashes on the Macintosh operating system.

Mac vs PC debates aside, I and many other users are interested in the iPad for its fantastic usability, but are disappointed with the hype leading up to its announcement. Hopefully Apple will learn from the feedback to better manage expectations among its throng of supporters.