Apple announced today the iPad; their entry into the “net-book” market that currently doesn’t cut it. Interesting though, wasn’t the Air supposed to a quasi-entry into the net-book/ultra-mobile market?
Let me say this now; I haven’t watch the presentation in full yet and probably won’t till tomorrow so please forgive me if I’m incorrect in my assumptions or mis-information.
So to put it bluntly, it’s an iPhone the size of Steve Jobs’ head. On the offset this is bad as it suffers from faults that the iPhone has but gets away with due to it’s size; one app open at a time. A lot of people may not see this as an issue but lets put the device into a situation.
I take it on holiday and I want to catch up with a few friends and tell them about the holiday; what apps might have I open?
- Safari – to get details and spellings of places I’ve been
- Photos – to sort photos I want to send over
- Facebook – to upload photos and/or chat to people
- Beejive IM – to chat to people and send photos through
- Skype – more chat stuff
So five apps just to tell and show people my holiday. Now although iPhone has push notifications, this is a little bit cumbersome, but forgivable due to the limitations of the iPhone. But here we have a device that will use current iPhone/iPod apps to make it’s current library that where design for a 480-by-320-pixel resolution screen going onto a 1024-by-768-pixel resolution screen. From a UI standpoint (yes, ignoring the actual hardware here), can’t you window the apps quiet easily?
But even having an app open in the background will be better as it will provide quicker access and also save the exact state I was in. I’m just not sure and this could
That’s one thing that annoys me and possibly the only thing, many not be a major thing to many, I’m a man that likes to do lots at once and so it’s a major thing not to be able to multi-task affectively.
Travel
I am a man that likes to travel also and does stay in his share of hotels over the year, but not enough to justify getting a 3G connection to the net for my laptop or tether my iPhone. This is also interesting in that I am often in a different country when I am in a hotel so it would be very expensive.
There is a option to have a WiFi+3G version of the device (opposed to just WiFi).
Now this is very dependent but I like the sound of this as it means no matter where I am I can access the net in a more capable way than I would do on the iPhone. Granted 768 pixels isn’t a lot of width for web browsing (I typically build sites using the 960.gs framework, which means a 960 pixel width), but the iPad does work like the iPhone so you can flip it landscape and get a decent screen width and it will be a lot easier to read and type on than a laptop.
3G is only good to me on two basis
- It’s cheap enough for me to justify having an easily portable device that I could carry around more so than my MacBook
- I can access it world-wide
In the presentation parts I saw, they did mention of world-wide service but I’m not sure if that means to give locals 3G access in their country or to have a 3G service that costs the same world-wide. Have to wait and see what they say about the UK market, but for it to be more a-kin to the Kindle 2 would be awesome.
In-Between
People have said about it being that in-between device of the laptop and phone, that they don’t need it.
I have a MacBook, iMac and iPhone; two of us live in the aparentment. Often we’ll both sit in the front room and one is on the MacBook (namely the Girlie) and the other is playing one of the consoles (moi). I’ll want to check something and there’s a choice of whether I use my phone; which can take a moment due to it being a bit cumbersome; turn on the iMac; time and effort to go to the office; or borrow the MacBook; disrupt the girlie… never a good idea. The iPad would sit in between and act as that device where I can get the clear information without a cumbersome process.
There is also a matter on size; it’s tiny when compared to the MacBook and thin, so much easier to carry and take traveling! Easier to get out on a train and use also where the MacBook also will become cumbersome and wastes the iPhone battery. Also, typing on the iPhone is pain in the ass, the iPad looks like it will that much more easier to use for writing web-addresses, quick-emails and tweets, hell maybe a blog post!
This is all taking into mind the pricing. $629 for a 3G version isn’t bad, more than what you could get a net-book for, but looking at it’s form factor it’s not such a bad price… I think.
In Conclusion
This is just initial thoughts; I’m not totally convinced on it yet and I will have to wait till more info comes about UK pricing and 3G services, also trying the device will let me see if it’s good as a quasi-MacBook replacement. It’s just a shame not too see suggestions put foward by Tim Van Damme not being used as that would of really sold the device to me. I think to put it bluntly, it’s a shame for Apple not to surprise us with something exceptional rather than mediocre…