Thoughts on the iPad
Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 11:49AM 
By Gadjo Cardenas Sevilla
The iPad, crummy name, possibly an amazing device. In terms of industrial design, this is likely to be up there with the MacBook Air, the Mac Mini and the iPod Shuffle in the "how did they fit all that...in there?" category. Sure, some would say that iPad is really a gargantuan iPod Touch. That's being extremely shortsighted-- wake up, smell the coffee and see that the iPad is Apple's triple-threat device and its going after netbooks, eReaders and portable gaming devices.
A rundown of the specs shows that its got all the goods it needs to succeed. A proprietary Apple A4 processor running at 1GHz, ample flash memory at 16, 32 and 64GB of storage; Wi-Fi n, Bluetooth, accelerometers, 140,000 apps, iTunes store for apps, media and now books plus possibly much more with an expanded developer SDK program.
What is exciting about the iPad is that it is an entirely new category of product. Unlike the iPhone, you can use it without tethering to a computer- heck, if you can live in Apple's iPhone OS ecosystem then this can be your computer provided you are ready to say goodbye to Microsoft Office and give iWorks a chance. They've rewritten Keynote (presentation), Pages (word processing) and Numbers (spreadsheets) for the iPad and from what we have seen, these are very workable full-featured applications. Available at US$10 each is a pretty good value since you don't have to get them as a bundle.
What will the iPad replace in my life? Possibly my subnotebook, in as far as I use it to surf the web, manage email, watch videos and view photos. I doubt that the software keyboard will be any good for prolonged typing but that's what the Bluetooth is for.
Will it kill my Kindle? That depends on whether Apple's iBooks store has enough titles at the right price to get me interested and whether reading on that gorgeous 9' inch screen is truly manageable for extended periods of time.
iPad is a perfect gaming device because its not limited by the controller layout, the whole device is a controller and creative developers can really create engaging and immersive experiences on this that are just not going to happen on the PSP or the DS.
Definitely, this is a device to travel with and use on a plane or in the airport while you are killing time. Is this the sort of thing to take to Starbucks or the mall, that depends. We'd jump on the 16GB Wi-Fi (no 3G) version for use around the house or in areas where we get free Wi-Fi. If it can be tethered to our smartphone, even better!
Apple has done right by pricing the iPad as low as it can. They will make their money with the content, believe me. I'd like to see the iPad adapted by schools and universities as a standard tool or textbook/ curriculum delivery system. I'd like to see more newspapers and magazines develop their content for the iPad just like the New York Times and Time are doing.
It does have shortcomings, the iPad lives and thrives within Apple's walled garden. Each application and program on the device goes through Apple's stringent review and quality assurance. During the demo, Steve Jobs accessed a webpage that had the "download Adobe Flash" icon. There's still no Flash support on the iPhone/IPod Touch and it won't be magically appearing in the iPad. There are millions of websites that use Flash extensively and they won't be accessible to iPad users. There's also that micro SIM card that's apparently another new standard that isn't widely supported and will make it impossible for people to use the 3G outside of AT&T's network.
With Apple's iPod sales waning, because everyone has one, or two. The iPad is their next big product and it will sell. It may be a bit ambitious to take on netbooks, the Kindle and gaming but even if it succeeds at just one of those markets, it will be unstoppable.
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