In late January, Apple announced the iPad. Essentially it’s a jumbo sized iTouch (approximately 9.5” X 7.5”). Some of the features touted by Apple regarding the iPad are a 10 hour battery life, a solid state drive (16GB up to 32GB), all the multimedia you should need, and the ability to read eBooks. One of the neatest things to me was the ability to dock with a regular keyboard and the ability to run iPhone applications! Sounds like a winner so far, and since it’s an Apple product, I’m sure they will sell millions.
The iPad is beautiful, like all Apple products. It looks like an HD LCD TV with the black border and shiny high gloss screen. Which brings me to the first possible problem…
The iPad is slightly smaller than a standard sheet of notebook paper. Laptops, while smaller now, have similar type screens but are sometimes chided for their clamshell design keyboard / screen mechanics. iTouch devices are nice and small and fit in your shirt pocket. This helps eliminate possible scratches to the screen. The other hidden purpose of a laptop’s clamshell design is to help protect the screen since it cannot be easily placed in a protective pocket. I think the iPad will suffer a bit in that the screen is exposed. One scratch and you’ve not only ruined the aesthetics, you’ve just incurred a few hundred dollars in screen replacement cost.
In 2002/2003, Windows toyed with the idea of a tablet PC. It was marketed as being more convenient than a laptop for quick startup and retrieval of information on the go. One thing the iPad has going for it is a touch screen. The tablet PC’s of old required a stylus (but cut them some slack… it was 8 years ago). I’ve read a couple of posts from Apple groupies comparing it to the Windows Tablet PC’s, but they fail to acknowledge that they are in reality comparing Apples to Oranges… or Windows. 8 years of technological growth have no doubt made the iPad a vast improvement over the tablet PC’s.
One problem I’ve had with Apple over the years is their distrustful licensing model. They assume everyone is out to rip them off so they clamp their product access down with a jackhammer. All applications on the iPad come from the App Store, which means that before you use them, a series of complex and secure communications must happen between your device and your App store account. In my opinion, this is where the iPad falls way short of a traditional laptop.
Window will have another go at the tablet market in 2013 when it releases it’s new device. Google will also be releasing it’s Chrome OS and a tablet like device. One of the big hurdles that Google has overcome in marketing it’s iPhone comparable phone is price. Google’s product, by comparison, is cheaper, and that’s driving sales.
I wonder if Apple will pull the same old price switch-aroo it did with the first iPhones? They were cut by $100 within a few weeks of release, which angered some initial iPhone enthusiasts who stood in long lines and forked over their hard earned money for Apple’s latest must have device. But, I’m sure the throngs of loyal Apple groupies will make this launch a huge success. Good luck fitting it in your shirt pocket!
Subscribe