I was just using my Windows desktop PC to browse on the web site of the Oakland Tribune. I noticed at the top of the page this blurb set apart with its own color graphic:
Every word & image from your newspaper. And more
Announcing the new e-Edition iPad app
San Jose Mercury News . Contra Costa Times . Oakland Tribune
I don't have a tablet yet but am most likely getting an Android device within the next month. It really struck me how often I see ads like this on the web: promoting a new iPad app for something or other. It made me wonder: when we see such ads, are we to assume that their sponsors have first released an iPad app but then soon thereafter will release the complementary Android tablet app? Or should no such assumption be made and that they in fact may never release an Android app to do the same thing?
I'm hoping the former, but typically how long do we Android users have to wait for the sister app?
Or, alternately, when they say they've released an iPad app, have they actually released both an iPad app and an Android app at the same time but because of the huge dominance of Apple in the market call this double enterprise simply an "iPad app" since an insufficient number of people will even know what an Android App is? And that term "iPad app" is simply enough to subtly signal to owners of tablet computers everywhere that all their tablet devices are covered? If that's the case, one could easily argue that the mainstream web community, or rather the advertisers, officers, web admins and most of all the Chief Technology Officers of the companies who run them, consider the phrase iPad app an adequate term when they mean to denote tablet computer app as if Android apps were a skinny stepsister not even worth mentioning and all they have to do is mention iPad app and everything stands up and saluates and feels taken care of? If that's the case, then honestly I don't like it.
It's kind of like how my grandmother used to use the brand name 'Kleenex' when she meant the generic word 'tissues', and 'Frigidaire' when she meant 'refrigerator', always using the proprietary brand name for the most popular model rather than the generic English name for the thing.
What are other ways of looking at this ad above? How common are they? It's one thing to dominate the market but quite another to dominate the language.
Every word & image from your newspaper. And more
Announcing the new e-Edition iPad app
San Jose Mercury News . Contra Costa Times . Oakland Tribune
I don't have a tablet yet but am most likely getting an Android device within the next month. It really struck me how often I see ads like this on the web: promoting a new iPad app for something or other. It made me wonder: when we see such ads, are we to assume that their sponsors have first released an iPad app but then soon thereafter will release the complementary Android tablet app? Or should no such assumption be made and that they in fact may never release an Android app to do the same thing?
I'm hoping the former, but typically how long do we Android users have to wait for the sister app?
Or, alternately, when they say they've released an iPad app, have they actually released both an iPad app and an Android app at the same time but because of the huge dominance of Apple in the market call this double enterprise simply an "iPad app" since an insufficient number of people will even know what an Android App is? And that term "iPad app" is simply enough to subtly signal to owners of tablet computers everywhere that all their tablet devices are covered? If that's the case, one could easily argue that the mainstream web community, or rather the advertisers, officers, web admins and most of all the Chief Technology Officers of the companies who run them, consider the phrase iPad app an adequate term when they mean to denote tablet computer app as if Android apps were a skinny stepsister not even worth mentioning and all they have to do is mention iPad app and everything stands up and saluates and feels taken care of? If that's the case, then honestly I don't like it.
It's kind of like how my grandmother used to use the brand name 'Kleenex' when she meant the generic word 'tissues', and 'Frigidaire' when she meant 'refrigerator', always using the proprietary brand name for the most popular model rather than the generic English name for the thing.
What are other ways of looking at this ad above? How common are they? It's one thing to dominate the market but quite another to dominate the language.
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