Apple’s Latest Gadget - The iPad
Apple’s Steve Jobs officially unveiled the iPad this week. It’s a tablet-style device that according to Jobs is “so much more intimate than a laptop and so much more capable than a smart phone.” It’s essentially a moderately-sized 9.7 inch touch-screen device with the functionality of an iPhone and more.
Here’s my take on it:
At first glance, it’s impressive and has a nice “wow” factor with it’s touch-screen and custom designed 1GHz Apple A4 processor. However, for me it’s a little lacking and a little disappointing.
When I heard weeks ago that Apple was going to launch a moderately-priced tablet computer, I had high hopes. However, this week I was a little shocked when I found out that’s it’s really just a huge iPhone! It’s not a true tablet computer at all. it won’t run native Mac OS apps like Photoshop, for instance. Plus the most storage space you can get is 64GB.
Here’s what I don’t get…
Let’s say I want to get a portable Apple computing device for under $1000. I can get the G3 iPad for $829 with it’s 9.7″ display and 64GB capacity. Then maybe I want a “real” keyboard, so I add on the Apple iPad Keyboard Doc ($69) accessory, for a grand total of $898. Or better yet, I can shell out a mere $101 more and get the base model Apple Macbook laptop with 13.3″ display and 250 GB hard drive (Just $999.)
So why exactly would I opt for the iPad? If I wanted to look cool hanging out at Starbucks surfing the net on my touch-screen device, then the iPad would be perfect. However, for the price point there are much more powerful options.
Apple’s certainly got their work cut out for them, trying to convince people why they need a giant iPhone for $500 and up. I think the iPad (especially the higher tier 3G version) won’t be an easy sell in our current economic climate. It’s shiny and new, but does it have the staying power of the iPhone and iPod? We’ll have to see what the future holds for Apple’s latest gadget.
January 30th, 2010 at 12:25 pm
Interesting points…
January 30th, 2010 at 9:53 pm
Alot of bloggers are not really happy with this new iPad.There was too much hoopla over it and lots of blogers got disapointed.Quite frankly, I actually see some of the awesome potential uses of this gizmo. Third-party soft for making tunes, games, papers and magazines and FFS books, tons of awesome stuff, but they failed to sell it very well (aside from the books). It looks rather unfinished
February 11th, 2010 at 6:02 pm
The new Zune browser is surprisingly good, but not as good as the iPod’s. It works well, but isn’t as fast as Safari, and has a clunkier interface. If you occasionally plan on using the web browser that’s not an issue, but if you’re planning to browse the web alot from your PMP then the iPod’s larger screen and better browser may be important. Have you tried the ipad?
February 18th, 2010 at 3:43 pm
I agree that the iPad may be ahead of it’s time. I feel like it might not sell well in the immediate future. However, when printed books and magazines eventually go all digital, Apple will already be years ahead of the curve. So perhaps it’s strategic future planning on their part. Perhaps they are trying to push the market, like the iPod did.
The iPod (and other MP3 Players) revolutionized an industry in a short period of time. For instance, I am almost exclusively buy or “acquire” MP3s now. I haven’t purchased a real CD in probably a year or more. So the MP3 player (mainly the iPod) certainly has driven the music sales market in a new direction.
I also agree that Apple combines aesthetics and utility with a certain level of perfection. All of their products are user-friendly, attractive and solid quality. Speaking of build quality — I still own my first Apple Powerbook Titanium that I bought new in 1998. The LCD screen, keyboard and harddrive all still function flawlessly. It’s even been dropped, sat on and part of case has been badly cracked. If that’s not a testament to Apple quality, I don’t know what is.
Anyway, back to the original point —
It may be too soon, but I think Steve Jobs is likely executing phase one of a long-term plan. He probably hopes to not only influence the periodicals end book market, but to eventually dominate the inevitable digital revolution of that market far ahead in the future.
March 5th, 2010 at 2:27 pm
As a longtime Mac guy and Apple fan, I had eagerly planned to buy an iPad. And then: No multitasking, no Flash, no webcam, no… So where’s the value added? Fuggedaboutit.