Apple iPad – first impressions, devil’s advocate, an FAQ
January 28, 2010 by Tom Chapman
Apple's iPAD
Apple has now shown everyone their new product the iPad, pitched between the traditional laptop and the smart phone. Now I have to admit I am generally a fan of apple over microsoft. I am typing this on my Mac Book Pro and also have an older iMac in the house. I am not however an iPhone user for 3 reasons, firstly when I bought my most recent phone I needed 3G and apple’s iphone did not have that at the time plus I wanted a keyboard as I am all thumbs and I wanted a diary that would show me a weeks view out of the box which for some reason the iPhone forgot.
With this in mind I am going to take a somewhat cynical or devil’s advocate view of the iPad. I have watched the keynote and the 6 minutes presentation and looked at the specs. Apple are well polished at producing marketing materials and communications that sell benefits and ‘WOW’ factors, creating the impression that products are revolutionary and more importantly NEEDED by all of us to survive. SO given that we have survived so far without the iPad I would like to know more about what they are not telling us.
I am not going to go through all the specs as these are readily available on the apple website but I would like to pick some holes in a few places.
Is the iPad REALLY going to be “Far better at some key things” such as Browsing the web, email, photos, video, music, games and books, as Steve Jobs said in the key note, if not “it has no reason for being”
OK, lets consider the browsing of the web. We can consider usability, navigation, aesthetics etc of the actual device and it appears be lovely, but, (and there is a but) anyone who has browsed the web on an smart phone will often have stumbled when it comes to the display of flash content on screen. My blackberry does not show flash content and I have not yet seen an iPhone display flash although I thought some agreement had been met, especially when that flash content was part of the navigational structure of the website itself.
So I ASSUME as a consumer that the iPAD Safari browser is ok with plugins and flash content.
Do I need a plugin to display this content
Why would the demonstration with all its polish and charisma show a page without some content even if it was professionally ignored. Maybe the New York Times web was playing up, as you have “The whole website in the palm of your hands”, how about National Geographic?
Does it display flash content?
To the right of the nice picture of the dog, there appears to be the flash logo suggesting that content is missing. IF you look at the page below, spot the difference.
No flash logo, but a search box for animals a-z navigation?
So my First FAQ (Frequently Asked Question) is DOES / WILL it out of the box without waiting for an update etc browse websites and show Flash content, as arguably this would be better than my smart phone and as good as my laptop.
Notes about the other stuff
I just love the way Steve Jobs describes that iPAD as “half an inch thin”. The use of the word ‘thin’ rather than ‘thick’ is a fantastic piece of marketing in itself. Am I 6ft tall or 6ft short? I am not fat I am 16.5 stone thin. Great I feel so much better knowing I am thinner than I would be if I was 17.5 stone thin.
How long does it take to fly from San Francisco to Tokyo? 10 hours of video is good, but can anyone tell how I can fly that route in the same time?
Keynote “works in Landscape mode”, because that is the way we design, so I assume it does not work in portrait then? A simple question, is there an accessory docking station for landscape mode like the portrait ones shown on the apple site?
The interface and navigation using your hands looks delightful and the sync through iTunes is one option? and is a backup of sorts but what about direct back up for those without the other mac? e.g. time machine equivalent over wifi to storage device?
The 3G data plans at $14.99 for 250 meg is pitiful, the 29.99 is the only viable option for real 3G surfing (in my humble opinion). It will be interesting to see the UK pricing options compared to mobile broadband which runs a £15 for 3 gig of downloads. I cannot see at those prices why most will bother with the 3G option.
I am surprised that the doc is on the bottom in portrait mode as this means working in the portrait format when typing. The keyboard doc looks interesting but I assume with bluetooth you could use a wireless keyboard.
I would like to know what networking facilities it has, I assume the same as a mac so when at home I can be watching video over the local network from a server rather than be tied to iTunes and the fairly limited space on the solid state drives. They mention HD video but that is limited to 720p and as the screen res is 1024×768 and HD content would be scaled down, would it not? Also the video formats appear somewhat limited.
Price
Pricing is a big issue for any consumer and they have stressed the entry price point of $499, however 16 gigs of space is very limiting. Lets not forget the revenue model for this device is not only based on units shipped, it’s based on all the purchasing from the online stores as well.
Personally its not for me at the moment but I watch with interest.
Nice analysis, Tom. I would be quite concerned if the iPad did not support flash “out of the box”, too, as this is a serious omission. Perhaps this will be fixed between now and roll-out?
One issue you did not address, was the size of the tablet. I think it is an awkward size – somewhere between A4 and A5 – and I think it will be a problem to carry around. For all its lightness and thinness, you will still need a bag to carry it around; and I doubt it will fit into a handbag (not that i carry one, you understand). I would have preferreed A5 size, which would pitch it above Sony’s eReader, but make it smaller than most netbooks. Using the keypad might be a bit cramped, but I suspect most people will buy it as a browsing device. Indeed, if anyone expects to be spending any amount of time on the keyboard, they may as well buy a netbook or small laptop.
What i did like about the US pricing plan was the inclusion of access to AT&T’s wi-fi hotspots. This gets around the problems you raised about data downloads over 3G. Whether that model would work in the UK remains to be seen.
So, if the iPad was an A5 format, with bundled, always-on, wi-fi access, I might be tempted to buy one. I love the iPhone interface, but I won’t buy one, as a “normal” smartphone is quite effective for making calls. and it is still very expensive.
In 12 months time perhaps a discounted, second generation iPad may be on my shopping list – unless the competition come up with something almost as good, but much cheaper.
David
From the additional info I have read, many were expecting a tablet version of a macbook with osx and got a big ipod touch.
Flash will not work as it is using the “next” iphone operating system rather than an adapted version of osx.
That said many will probably buy it, I won’t. The design will scratch etc I am still trying to work out who its pitch at.
Tom
In my opinion, the iPad is just a glorified iPod touch.
Uses the same operating system, the same apps and essentially the same features. I was expecting a fully functional touch screen Macbook, running os x, and I am disappointed.
I see the iPad as Apple’s competition to the explosion in popularity of netbooks. Which, i consider to trump the iPad in every way. A proper keyboard, a real operating system, cheap mobile internet offered by most networks, more connectivity (e.g. usb/firewire) and is an independent computer in its right, not needing to be synced to another Mac or PC.
I get a lot of use out of my computer using it for music production, and currently forced into working with a PC purely because of price, when I can afford a Mac with the specs I need, I would make the purchase in a heartbeat. Macs most definitely have the edge in what I need for my work.
When hearing rumours of the Ipad I had wild dreams of how a touch screen Mac would give me more and exciting features and opportunities in my music production and maybe even help me in my live performance, however, what was unveiled has left me desiring for much much more.
No matter how well Apple market their iPad, I, and am sure many others, will just see it as the iPhone you can’t fit in your pocket.
Just another thought – did I miss something, or has Apple neglected to include a webcam and microphone? I think this will be a key area for digital comms in the near future, especially as we no longer have the bandwidth restrictions that has virtually killed off video-calling in 3G.
Perhaps that will be in iPad v2.01