With today’s revelation of the iPad, the long-rumoured and much-anticipated Apple tablet, everyone and their mother seems to have an opinion on whether or not this device will live up to the hype. And by far the most common opinion seems to be… no way! This immediate dismissal comes as a bit of a surprise to me, especially considering how many Apple fanboys there are out there.
I think it was easy to get caught up in the excitement and expect Steve Jobs to unveil something that would change the world in a heartbeat, but it rarely works like that. I am by no means an expert, but I think that the iPad definitely has a shot at becoming pretty ubiquitous over the next few years. The familiar interface and the fact that it looks like a “giant iPod Touch” are exactly why it will take over.
I’ve heard a lot of people say that they don’t need a device that is somewhere between a mobile phone and a laptop. Well, you might not need it, but that doesn’t mean you won’t buy it. How else do you explain the explosion of the netbook market over the past couple of years? The iPad could very well replace netbooks completely, assuming the price comes down over time. This could become the web surfing device of choice, and the ideal way to watch video content from the web. And if it can do word processing more comfortably than a netbook, then I’m definitely sold.
It’s simple enough that it’s something I could see my parents using around the house all the time. People will use it at work too. I think we’re underestimating the power of touch capabilities on a full-size screen. I’ve played around with touch monitors running Windows 7 and I see a lot of potential there. Writing and drawing should be a lot more possible than they are on an iPhone or a Palm Pilot. And no one seems to be putting much stock in the iBooks store. This really could be the device that changes how most people read books and magazines. The fact that it’s a colour screen leaves the door wide open for digital comic books as well.
I agree that the lack of a camera is a bit of a surprise, and I’m not quite sold on the full-size touch keyboard, but overall I think it has a lot of potential. Not that I’d necessarily run out and buy one tomorrow (even if I could). It’s just that I’ve seen how the iPhone and iPod Touch became such an indispensable item for people in their daily lives, and I think the iPad has a place there too. As a non-Apple die hard, I feel weird saying this but, hey… just give it a chance!
I think the iPad looks awesome. I just don’t think of it as a Kindle killer. The reason I like my kindle so much is that, when I’m using it I don’t have the internet, games, movies or music pulling me away from the actual reading.
I look at it this way– I have an iPhone, a Macbook and a Kindle, so while I think the iPad is really neat, I have no use for one.
Give it a few years, when there have been a few iterations if the iPad, and I’ll likely be getting one. But I’m certainly not on board yet.
I got to see the seven minute video about the iPad on apple.com and from what I can tell it does have some potential, but while I think this is a cool device I think of this iPad as more of just a downgrade of a Macbook. Or just a giant iTouch. From the prices, one might as well go for a Macbook Pro. The one application I see this working for is iBook. And I think an application like that could be just as great on an iTouch or even a Macbook. What was a big turn away for me, in my opinion, was the fact that it had no USB ports, but maybe the iPad will have a sync feature connected to your home computer, probably a mac as well, but in that case one would need a Mac, wi-fi, and finally a iPad. In all a very expensive way of just reading a book, inserting a DVD into a DVD player, or purchasing a paper or magazine. On a side note: Sean, keep it up with film junk.
No need to feel that you have to defend it. Remember when Apple first came out with iTunes and all that, no one though that Apple could corner/control the online music sales business or that online music could be monetized. Well they’ve done it, so why not with iBooks as well? Now I don’t know if iBooks and Amazon’s Kindle store can co-exist as there was no precursor to iTunes in the same way, but I think they could. This iPad could work for a lot of applications where a traditional keyboard is unnecessary. I think most people’s snap reactions are that they don’t want one. But if snap reactions were the only thing that mattered, then a lot of the things that are commonplace would never have happened. Besides it’s not like it’s going on the market tomorrow. There’s plenty of time for people to think about it and the real sign will be when it goes on sale and what the response is. Once people actually can see and touch it, I bet that the doubters will be convinced.
I have to admit, the lack of multitasking does kind of suck… but maybe they can add that with an OS upgrade.
I can’t see the practicality of it. Apple is marketing this I-pad as a multimedia device. Aside from what I’ve heard about its fast speeds the capacity of it to store video and other multimedia is negligible. 64 GB would be enough for about maybe 10 to 15 HDTV films not much more. It’s a glorified Ipod and there are those Ten Commandments that all Apple users must be saddled with.
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