No one and no product could have lived up to the hype that preceded the Apple iPad launch. Not even Steve Jobs who cranked up the hype machine in the first place.

Steve Jobs stood there on stage, iPad in hand like Moses with The Tablet, and a list of his own Commandments: Thou shall create a product category between smartphones and netbooks. Thou shall not have strange devices before you. Thou shall not covet thy neighbour’s goods...

But this time, this very time when we knew what we wanted, when we knew what to expect...somehow it didn’t turn out to be the Second Coming we expected. (Actually for Steve it’s the Third Coming but why quibble?)

Yes, the Apple faithful didn’t break ranks. But plenty of journalists who try to make a living out of being sceptics certainly cranked out the critical articles: 10 Things Wrong with iPad, iPad No Kindle Killer, What iPad is Missing...

But it’s not about what iPad is “missing.” It’s about what we are missing.  And we’re missing the point. Almost all of us are just missing the whole point. And the consumer will soon prove us wrong.

This time deceived us because it looks familiar: Steve Jobs the Product Genius (from the original Genius bar) poised on stage, waving a piece of hardware That Will Change the World.

He did that performance with the Mac (but in those days not as many were listening). He pulled it off big-time with iPod. And he did it with iPhone.

What’s different? And why is iPad getting so much abuse?

MAKING A "DENT" in DISTRIBUTION

Reading the book, Distribution Channels by Julian Dent, even an experienced Channel Manager begins to systematize, integrate and mesh together their own pieces of personal experience for a better understanding of channel dynamics.

For a subject as important to many thousands of distributors and suppliers, little has been written down about the balancing act known as “distribution”.

One subtle key, in my own opinion, is that we refer to “channels” of distribution using “channel” in the sense of man-made flow...a channel versus a natural river or stream. On some subconscious level, we recognize that “channel” is something that we must create and not a natural occurrence in the environment. And a “channel” requires maintenance or time alone will erode the channel, closing it up and blocking access.

If a channel is man-made, then there are Builders and Master Builders. One Master Builder is Julian Dent. And in this case, when a Master Builder like Julian Dent, the Chairman of VIA International takes 30 years of his experience in building channels and, encouraged by colleagues, decides to write, “Distribution Channels-- Understanding and Managing Channels to Market,” it pays to read the book.

Julian's clients have included HP, IBM, Microsoft, Nokia, Orange, Philips, SGI, Xerox and other high tech companies. Working with the best helps, but Julian himself says, ”It was from clients and situations where things were going wrong that the strongest lessons could be drawn.”

Most vendors think only of ”selling” when they hear ”the word “channel.” Yet the brick and mortar that needs to go into building the channel is far more than throwing a sales person at a distributor. You can't sell channel unless you understand how channel thinks. And this book makes it clear how distributors should be running their businesses.

The mechanics of business is all about money and much of this book unravels the honest tension between vendors and distributors as each seeks to dominate the financial relationship.

Sometimes I found myself reading this book as a business version of a Dan Brown book wondering if it was The Butler (the channel) or the The Chauffeur (the vendors) who did it. Who would emerge as the real villain in the final chapter?

But this book is less of a "Thriller" and far more of a practical manual to engineering channel success: Distribution Channel spells out the financial motivation behind the relationships. And there are no villains if each side understands their financial and business roles as well as Julian Dent does.

Each of us has his/her own favorites but industry-wide you’d have to vote for (in random order):

Blu-Ray Defeats HD-DVD

The Rise of Netbooks

The Disappointment of VISTA

Google’s Android Entry

iPhone Dominates Cell Biz

Yahoo’s Yang Turns Down Microsoft

Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse Deal

Resurgence of Gaming

The Credit Crisis Kills Christmas

Excluding the above topics, the Number one individual article for us at Consumer IT in 2008 was:

Panasonic’s Plasma Plan: Neo PDP