I went to the Best Buy at Willowbrook to check out the iPad for myself. They have plenty in stock. It is indeed just a big iPod touch, and the problems with the form factor are immediately obvious.The iPad is heavier than you would expect. To tap the screen on a smartphone you can just move your thumbs while still holding the device. On the iPad you can't do that - you will need to hold the iPad with one hand while tapping the screen with your other hand. This will quickly grow tiresome due to the weight of the thing and the distance your fingers must travel.
You can't rest it on a table or other hard surface because the iPad will slide and move around as you interact with the screen. Typing is not easy. If you rest it in your lap the only way to interact with the display is by keeping it level with the ground. This is very awkward.
What is Apple's market here? What's the point of it? Why would a road warrior carry around a phone, laptop AND an iPad? The iPad is not a phone, nor is it a useful mobile computer.
It seems that last week the hardcore fanbois turned out, but now... at the Apple display at Best Buy I watched people fart around with the iPad for a minute or two, then move on to the iMacs and MacBook Pros. The "ahhhh" factor was just a lot of hype.
iPad will not save the newspapers.
iPad will not create a new computer goldrush.
iPad is a dead end. It's a very expensive device that will be found in many junk drawers, though.
12 comments:
What is Apple's market here? What's the point of it?
I thought it was just a large print, senior friendly version of the iPhone.
The target audience is obvious, they just won't own up to it yet. Vanity.
Interesting about that 16gb of storage. I have on my key chain a small "Swiss Army knife" USB flash memory with 16gb.
Mount one on the wall in the kitchen - you have a handy Internet TV/Recipe/Weather/Messaging system. (sample home use)
Mount some throughout the store as inexpensive kiosks (sample business use)
May I call a local top here? Apple had been rising, seemingly unstoppable, in an even-Casey-can-win kind of way. But with the combination of the iPad and the modifications to section 3.3.1 of the iPhone SDK agreement, I think that the driving force is running out. Just like the housing bubble, inertia will csarry its sales and stock valuation higher for a little bit, but this has the hallmarks of a top. I am not as concerned with the flash cross-compiler or the J2ME-to-iPhone cross-compiler, but the loss of a tool like Unity3D is a BFD for game development on iPhone OS. Adding the losses of these other two development environments makes it an epic catastrophe made of Jobs' hubris. For all of MS's warts, they have been much more realistic about the value of 3rd party development.
And I really like my iPod touch. it's the PDA that my prior Palm devices never were. Between that, my Macbook Pro, and my boring flip-phone, I'm happy and safe from single-point of failure disasters.
Best quote I saw was "I already have an iPad Mini that also works as a phone".
This image is great it really spells out the flaws in the ipad and makes it obvious that the right marketing can sell anything. Personally I already have one cept its call an iphone and I won't get another unless its called a <a href="www.freegadgets-laptops.com>free macbook</a>
The iPad is Steve's Waterloo.
@Anon re wall mount - two words "3Com Audrey"
There are already cheap appliances that do that sort of thing but I agree that it does have a chance for vertical markets. The problem will be cost and that it's a closed system.
@Lou - you're probably right. It will be Jobs Waterloo if he doesn't pull something magical out of Apple's collective asses. However, if anyone can do it, it will be apple.
I got to play with one of my friends iPads. It is a wee bit heavy but feels really sexy in your hands. Problem is that it is hard to use long term in your hands and it probably needs some sort of built in stand. That would solve some problems. Especially the slippery-ness of the back.
I've got three kids, aged 19 to 22, all with iPhones and none want this iPad thing - even when offered one for FREE as a birthday gift.
Hmmmm.
1. Every generation someone has to come out with a tablet style device that ultimately ... sucks.
2. Why 16gb? So they can sell as a "premium" another version in a year or so with 32gb. Then in another year with 64gb. And then finally something with 128gb or some silly nonsense like that.
3. Frankly the only thing that would make any sense at all is the concept of "electronic paper". Essentially a display screen that is less than 0.5mm thick that can be rolled up like an old time scroll. A thin "handle" on either end of the electronic paper would hold the rechargeable battery and the wireless components necessary for the screen to operate.
The actual computer would be in a combined cellphone, pda, personal computer that you'd have in your pocket and would provide the physical keyboard if necessary. Otherwise all interactions would be through the electronic paper.
There are actual prototypes of this device in R&D now. It is produced by layering circuitry and display technology on very thin plastic using *ink jet* technology. This not only allows the inexpensive production but it also allows for the production of extreme differences in form factor. One form factor would be sheet paper size. Another would wallpaper your house with an electronic display that would give better resolution than HDTV and would turn your walls into a baseball stadium.
That is the device we're all waiting for. This occasional sidestep into technological irrelevancy with these tablet devices frankly reminds me of the Sumerians.
They'd be right at home with this iPad thing and that's not right.
I guess you just don't get it....
Get an Android with the defective Flash.... it sucks.
For my part every person may read this.
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