I do not think it means what you think it means.

Someone linked this article on Twitter and the title sucked me in: Apple fail should be a lesson to Microsoft.

OMG that sound serious! I wonder what he’s talking about?

The Retina iPad, for example, violated Apple’s design creed: products should get thinner and lighter — aka, cooler. Not thicker and heavier.

But Apple fixed this quickly (six month later) with the iPad Mini trifecta: thinner, lighter, cheaper. And the iPad, reinvented as the Mini, has been a runaway success.

Oh my! I read it a few times and I’m still not sure what the fail is, perhaps I should read it again.

This is what we call “link bait”, a provocative title draws you in and then fails to deliver because they don’t care beyond the click. See, cash moves everything around these “news” sites and they’ll do anything to get the dolla, dolla bill ya’ll. Now that you’ve clicked and been served 15 ads, they’re not all that worried about letting you down with writing that doesn’t deliver what the title promised.

As best I can tell, the “fail” is that Apple had to (slightly) increase the thickness and weight of the 3rd generation iPad to deal with the LTE radio and Retina screen. I’m not an expert but I don’t think this really hurt Apple because they somehow managed to sell a gazillion 3rd and 4th gen iPads before the Mini came out.

What about the iPad Mini? Is it something you can compare to the full size iPad? Are people who buy a 7" tablet really in the same group as those who prefer a 10" version? I’m not convinced the two can be compared. I’ve fondled a Mini and it’s a very nice device but I said the same thing about the Nexus 7. They may be fantastic devices but I personally prefer the screen real estate provided by the larger tablets and I’m pretty sure I’m not alone.

I do find it interesting that while phones surge upward in screen size, we seem to be gravitating backwards with tablets, does that make sense? Don’t mention phablets please, I really don’t like that term. Oops, I typed it, how do I delete again?

Sorry, I got sidetracked, where was I?

I think what the author really wanted to say is that first generation products aren’t that great, if you owned a 1st gen iPad you know the later versions were better but that’s sort of expected. The Surface RT and Pro are going to improve, they’re going to get lighter, faster, and thinner as Microsoft iterates them. Is that surprising to anyone? I hope not.

Of course no one would have read his article if the headline read “Microsoft Surface Will Eventually Improve”.