I reported earlier in the week about all the buzz surrounding the Apple iPad, and what it could mean for portable computers. The hype was so high, was it even possible to meet expectations? No, but hype is always high for products like this. As long as Apple released a product that offered some innovation they would be good. So, how did they do? Let’s take a look at our score sheet.
Pros:
- Design – Execept for a large bezel, the design has a sleek looking form factor. The Apple iPad looks a lot like what you would expect from the makers of the iPhone.
- 3G Capable – Starting in April you can buy an iPad which will connect to your AT&T plan.
- Battery Life – Is a decent 10 hours, with a month of standby time.
Cons:
- NO Multitasking – This is one of the most frustrating things about the iPad. You want to check your email while listening to your music library? Too bad. You want to run your Pandora app while writing a report in iWork? Too bad. This has to be one of the biggest oversights of the whole project. In a device this size it is unthinkable to be able to run multiple apps.
- 4:3 Ratio Screen – These days 16:9 screens are the norm, especially for media devices. Why would you go back to a screen size that is heading towards obsolete?
- No Flash – So much of the web has some sort of flash integration in them. It is just a part of every day web surfing these days. It was blatantly obvious in the keynote address that Jobs gave, when he loaded a page with an unloaded flash object on it.
- Proprietary Inputs and Outputs – Want to plug in an external keyboard or camera? Too bad, you’ll need to buy an adapter to be able to use it. USB is the standard, there is no excuse not to have it other than to bolster your already large profit margins.
- iPhone OS – Sure the iPhone OS is already a stripped down version of Leopard, but it isn’t good enough for a device this size. If you are going to boast about the speed of your processor, then allow it to handle a full OS (with multitasking please)!
- No Camera or Mic – It might be a minor quibble, but these days things like a camera and a mic should be standard. Look at any netbook you are competing against, and smack dab in the middle you will see a camera and mic.
- No Expandable Memory – This is one that really comes down to a profit model. To go from the 16GB to the 32GB model costs you $100. Prices at the moment for you to add another SD card of 16 GBs? About $35-40 on Amazon.
- Price – Why spend $500-900 on a tablet that doesn’t even do multiple functions when you can get a netbook for a much more reasonable price?
Most of the tech industry seems to be on the same page, the iPad is a major failure on paper. It is basically Apple’s iPhone blown up to a 10 inch screen, and some slightly more powerful processors. I bought a nice little netbook last year for $299 which has a 1.7 GHz Atom Processor, 1GB RAM, 160 GB HD, a camera, and runs a full OS. I think I’ll wait on touch screen tablet until they can offer me a product worth my money and time.
If you are interested in going a step forward, instead of a step back I’d take a look at one of the new dual core netbooks currently coming out. A lot more bang for your buck.
ASUS Eee PC Seashell 1201N-PU17-BK 12.1-Inch Black Netbook – 5 Hours of Battery Life
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I do believe that it come with a mic and speaker and almost all the netbook are a joke very slow and not very useful. I have a iphone and when they first came out with them I thought it was a joke now i could not be with out it and use it for almost everything and do not use my mac or windows 7 very much.
It has a basic speaker, but the iPad does not have a camera.
As for most netbooks being slow, are you serious? That dual core netbook would outperform the iPad on any test, and for less money.
I'm sorry, but a device in 2010 that doesn't even support multitasking is not worth my time.
Really??? True that 3rd party apps can't multi task on the iphone. But one can use the itunes the ipod apps with other apps on the iphone.... You make it appear that you can not listen to your music and surf the web, NOT TRUE. Please raise your standards and write something that attempts to be objective. We should push the multi-taksing issue with Apple, but the omission of the real usability/multi task issue is either ignorant or irresponsible. EIther way it appears the author lacks credibility. Accuracy, reporting without omission, and clarity must be improved in this report.
I agree with all the above posts. This is the biggest disaster that Apple invented. Can anyone explain why Jobs started off with "Phenomenal", "Dream" and "Industry Changing" words ? If they would have spent more time in correcting all these flaws instead of suing smaller companies, This would have not happened. I am sure, if they do correct these gaps, this is a good device. "if" that is... sigh ! Till then, it is crap.
the IPAD is a major failure, easily the worst product apple has put out yet the lack of flash player is keep the profits up yet they still claim its the best web browser available. Please stevie wake up....
IPad must have to succeed:
1) Multitasking
2) USB (better if multiple)
3) Camera , video and picture
4) Replaceable battery ..come on common sense ..
5) Slim film thin keyboard , which can open up if you need it .
6) SD Memory slot , so people don't get ripped off for tiny memory bump .
Funny IPad have only 64 GB ? my videos are reaching terabyte ....Apple product managers are dum ..