Other than Apple’s blatant rip-off of my own iPad product from 2006, I (in agreement with most of the free world) was fairly underwhelmed by what Steve Jobs unveiled today.
Let’s face it, the iPad will probably won’t go down in the annals of history of computing as one of Apple’s more half-baked ideas, like the Apple Lisa, eWorld, the Macintosh Portable, the Puck Mouse and Apple TV. But it still could.
The inspiration for the Apple iPad’s keyboard.
Little known fact: Steve Jobs is an Atari 400 fanboy.
For the iPad it’s pretty clear that Steve and his designers were feeling overly arrogant and figured they could take a good idea, give it a twist (“I know, we’ll make it… BIGGER!”) and sell another 30 million units.
Even Steve pretty much admitted that he and his Apple geniuses simply took an iPhone, removed some features (like the phone, camera, portability, usefulness and fun) and made it large enough to look cool, but not large enough to, you know, play a wide screen movie or have comfortable keys for typing.
Here’s the simple problem with the iPad: it’s being treated as if it’s a tablet type of PC. That means that is has some of the properties of a phone, some of the properties of a notebook PC… but it has none of the really useful properties of either. You can’t easily make phone calls and you can’t easily do any sort of real computing tasks. Tablet PCs aren’t popular not because there aren’t a million things you can do with them. There are. But to do any of those million things you have to be inconvenienced.
Take the simple example of walking around with a tablet computer and being “productive” throughout your day. Here are the problems:
- A tablet computing device is bigger than a phone, so you can’t put it in your pocket. You have to dedicate one hand to holding it.
- A tablet computer is more expensive than a pad of paper, so you have to constantly be worried about smashing it, losing it, dropping it or doing any other sort of harm. The iPad manages to ramp up the nervousness by bypassing that silly plastic and metal housing on most tablet computers and going right for a breakable glass front.
- And data entry, and even retrieval, in a tablet computer (even in iPad) requires two hands – one to hold the device and the other to type. Serious typing on a glass keyboard for hours on end can’t be all that much fun and the moment you start talking about “add on” accessories like an external keyboard you’re right back to having the power of a notebook computer with none of the convenience (you now have to carry around an iPad and a keyboard and you have to find a flat surface to use it on).
The Kindle. Get it while you still can…
All this being said, I think the iPad will still sell a bazillion units and allow Steve Jobs to buy at least two more pancreases. Why? Because while the Apple iPad is a lousy tablet PC it’s still a pretty good electronic book reader. It’s arguably better than the current ereader leader, the Kindle, and the iPad hasn’t even been released yet.
The iPad completes eliminates most of the complaints you read about the Kindle: clunky buttons (the iPad doesn’t use them), doesn’t work well with the internet (the iPad was built as an internet devices), lousy screen quality (iPad’s screen is full color, not gray) and Amazon (the iPad will obviously go through iTunes). This doesn’t mean there won’t be other problems, but so far it looks good.
Yes, the iPad is just a big iPhone, but since getting my iPhone I’ve found that reading books on it is really a pretty damn good experience. I don’t mind the small screen and I love the portability. I use Amazon’s Kindle software for the iPhone (not sure if that will still be around in a few months) and I use Lexcycle’s Stanza for the iPhone. Both programs work fairly well, though both could definitely improve.
The bottom line: In 2010 Apple is offering a $499 iPad that can do less than a $329 netbook from 2008 can do. But the 2010 Apple iPad is also about 100 times more useful than any electronic reader on the market. It’s an expensive ereader and ultimately the prices of online books and magazines for it may be the deciding factor in the marketplace.
If you want a webcam, need a USB port, want to use websites that use Flash or like using a real keyboard, then the iPad’s not for you. Of course, if you’re looking for a super eReader than do a bunch of other things (or you’re pining for that old Atari 400 membrane keyboard), then maybe the iPad is right up your alley.