Early Impressions of the Apple iPad
As expected, Apple announced their new tablet device today. While rumored to be called the iSlate, we were introduced to the iPad and it has come with many mixed reviews. As a drinker of Apple Kool-Aid, who currently owns 8 major Apple products, ranging from the iPod nano to the MacBook Pro, I’ve tried to receive this new announcement as objectively as possible. And I must say, I’m slightly disappointed.
Media
Pros – The iPad looks like a fantastic device for media: Photos, movies and books, in particular. YouTube movies can be displayed in HD, photos look amazing and the integrated iBooks & iBookStore is sure to be well received. The additional Brushes app looks to be a clever, fun and creative photo editor. Email & internet browsing interface appears extremely intuitive.
Cons – Rumors of an integrated e-ink screen may prove difficult for the iPad to compete with the Amazon Kindle or Barnes & Noble Nook as an e-reader. Lack of camera is an extremely surprising disappointment. Hopes of a front face camera for video chatting were not only squashed, but not adding a simple camera for quick-pics seems like a major oversight. Lack of Flash support is another major deficiency.
Apps
Pros – Most iPhone/iPod Touch apps will work in their native form on the iPad. New SDK for iPad dedicated apps could open up a new wave of functionality for the device that could ultimately define it, much like the AppStore did for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Redefined iWork interface could be a great, secondary feature for creating and displaying presentations.
Cons – iPhone/iPod Touch app compatibility is great, but also solidifies the claims that the iPad is merely a giant iPod Touch. Until more apps, defined strictly for the iPad are released, it will always be difficult to provide the device with its own identity.
Storage/Price
Pros – Most rumors slated the iPad to range between $699-$1199, and we were pleasantly surprised to see the device start at $499 and range up to $829. With three separate models (16 GB, 32 GB, 64GB) each with Wifi or Wifi+3G options, the flexibility is sure to please the masses.
Cons – Despite being unlocked, the GSM will again restrict the 3G access to AT&T. $14.99/month data plan for 250MB data comes out to just 8MB per day and I think most users will either be stuck with overages or be forced to upgrade to the unlimited data $29.99/month plan.
Applications
Ironically, I find more useful applications for businesses than the consumer for the iPad. Restaurants & hospitals seem like a natural fit for the device. Again, until we see more from the AppStore as to what day-to-day apps can make this useful to the consumer, practicality seems slightly limited.
Final Thoughts
In a technological world where devices are consistently being consolidated to our smartphones (GPS devices, MP3 players, etc.), it was critical for the iPad to provide features that our iPhones and MacBooks can’t do collectively. I’m not certain if Apple has proven to us that it achieves that. That being said, I’m certain I would find new enjoyments and fall in love with the device if I had one in my hands at the moment, but I’m not certain I can warrant purchasing an iPad and a monthly fee with my laptop & smartphone always nearby.
Images via Engadget. Check out their hands-on image gallery with the iPad.
EDIT:
I was led to this great demo video by @nogueiradiana. What are your early thoughts of the iPad?
Hi Eric,
On the consumer side – I see several applications at the grandparent/baby boomer level for sharing and using photos, videos, music. I can probably already purchase two of these devices for grandparents just to have a fancy photo-show for the grandkids.
Like you, I saw several applications for business. In fact, I can think of several different situations where you need something more than a mobile phone and less than a laptop. This type of device solves those situations. One thing that is important to note about the iPad – if they can port many of the features of iWork over to the device – then developers should be able to use the same types of application building tools as well.
I think that the lack of video camera, etc. are just reasons for Apple to make a version 2. If they threw in everything – we would have no reason to upgrade. (Just my opinion…)
Nice post – thanks for starting the discussion.
- Sam
I’m with you Eric, I also was very disappointed. But at least that saves me some money! It’s almost like they planned their products so that you’d need to own all of them
None of them do everything, just enough to get you to buy them but not enough to get you to not buy all their other products too. (Somewhere there’s a grammar teacher rolling in her grave)
So now I’ve got my iBook if I want to do some actual work while I’m out, and iPhone to make calls and check e-mails quickly and my iPod to listen to music so I don’t run down the battery on my iPhone. Looks like what I really need is a new purse/bag for all of this!
Eric, approaching this from an AV perspective, I see it as ideal rental inventory. We could rent these to event organizers to supply to their attendees preloaded with sponsorship information, event-specific software/app’s (polling anyone?), conference materials, interactive tradeshow maps, social networking software and any multimedia they can imagine. Organizers could very simply push alerts and information to attendees.
Selling sponsorship would be fantastic. Offering tracking of activity and click-through’s by attendees would supply much-needed data for sponsors.
For our purposes, we’ll be buying a handful of these for our internal purposes. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve been sickened by watching a crewmember pick up a binder, flip through it and maybe refer back to it just once or twice for the duration of the event! All that paper and waste
I am so intrigued by this little gadget. I would love to have something that was tied to our Mac network and didn’t port the weight of my laptop! Can’t wait to see more!!
Midori Connolly, Chief AVGirl
Pulse Staging and Events