hopinet

So the iPad then?

3rd February 2010

It’s now been a week since the launch event for the iPad, I’ve now watched the Apple keynote and done a little research on the new Apple device. For those who don’t know about it, where have you been? I thought I would give my thoughts on what Apple have come up with, why some aren’t pleased and what I think the future of the device will be.

When I saw and read about the iPad I was underwhelmed, there’s a lot that’s ‘wrong’ with it, however now I have a chance to mull it over I think I get where Apple are coming from. People were always going to be disappointed with whatever they made, they wanted something revolutionary. I read someone complaint that the text input is by an onscreen keyboard, what else was it going to be? A thought keyboard, where you just think what you want to type? Let’s get real people.

I’ve sat down and tried to imagine the thought process behind the device, first we know things that Jobs doesn’t seem to like:
1. Flash
2. External memory – he likes everything built in to the device
3. Stylus – he doesn’t like having to use a pen like device
4. Buttons
5. Connections – he doesn’t like lots of input/outputs from mobile device

Next let’s look at the market, I believe this is what apple thought and how they came up with the iPad (I could be wrong). If it’s to sit between laptop and Smartphone (which is where the ‘gap’ is, it’s got to be priced between the two. It’s going to be up against netbooks, if that’s where you price it. It’s got to be easy to use, they know what has worked with the iPhone. If someone is going to just quickly check email, check something on net, etc then they’ll just pick up their phone. If someone wants to do some major computing then they’ll pick up the laptop, so what’s the point in competing with either of those markets, they’ve already got arguably the best devices in those categories. So they need to find a market for this device and then fill it and I think they have probably found that by trying to aim it at recreational users, people who want something to carry around when they don’t want laptop or people who want an entertainment device for watching videos, music, ebook reader, etc.

There’s loads they have got right with the iPad which I’m not going to go through but I’m going to look at what people have been complaining about and see if it’s actually a fair complain when thinking about who the device is aimed at.

1. The Besel. The enormous besel is just not what you expect from Apple, it’s not the prettiest but I believe it is a case of them thinking of usability. You’ve got to hold it and you don’t want to keep pressing the screen by accident, where are you going to hold it if it doesn’t have the besel. People would complain if you couldn’t use the iPad, it’s not pretty but I get it. It also acts as a picture frame (I suppose) when viewing photos.

2. No removable memory, yes it’s annoying you can’t share files easily or add more memory. Still you can email to other computers and dock to the base computer. Not a real deal breaker, You’ve never been able to remove memory on iPods or iPhones and well they’ve been pretty successful and not many people seem to complain. I rarely us a memory stick or even a CDrom to share information I tend to email anyway.

3. Flash. I hate flash, I really hate it. I believe any website that is flash should have a non flash version or a way to view content without flash. I also believe that if you really want games, why play online flash games are they that good? You can download better games for free or very little on the iPhone/iPad. Get over it Jobs doesn’t seem to like flash I doubt you’re going to see it on the iPad (you never know though)!

4. Homepage. People are moaning about the bland homepage. It does a pretty good job on the iPhone, why change it. I’d be interested to know how else you would design it. I hate my computer backdrop to be cluttered I want the bare minimum on it.

5. Not widescreen. I can see why people would want widescreen, especially when watching videos but I don’t think it’s a disastrous flaw.

7. No cameras. What is people’s obsession with cameras, I rarely use the camera on my phone, I don’t have a webcam. I don’t need to see someone sitting at a computer staring at a screen when I talk to them. I use a digital SLR camera to take photos because it’s designed to do just that and it does it really well. It’s not like your going to carry your iPad with you to take the occasional picture. The only other use I see for a camera is webcam and as I’ve said above, not a great fan and lets think of Apple’s target market are they really going to be web conferencing?

So all of these issues for me are not actually great issues, when you sit down and think about it. I don’t think it’s going to be a device for everyone but I think they have actually done a pretty good job, there are two other issues that I have one, is minor and one at the moment is the deal breaker for me. First the minor one, the lack of connectors. I would like to be able to plug it into a printer but more importantly it would be nice to be able to plug it in to an external monitor or projector, I think it would be a great device for presentations but just for plugging in to the TV to watch movies from it it would be nice to have the option.

The second fault is the major one. Multi-tasking, it’s a minor problem with my iPhone having to keep logging in and out of messenger when I do anything else but the rest of the time it’s OK with the small screen you can’t really do two things at once anyway. However on this I need to be able to be logged in to messenger while I listen to music, or Twitter while on online or listen to spotify while I do a little work. Please sort this out in OS 4. I think it’s a must for this device to succeed.

Running one iPhone app in the centre of the screen or twice the size just looks silly. However judging by the standard of the iPhone apps that are out there I’m really looking forward to what is produced for the iPad, if they get the multi tasking sorted then it’s the apps that will make or break the device.

Only time will tell as to whether the iPad will succeed but I don’t think Apple are as far off the mark as some people initially thought. One final request please, please Apple sort the multitasking!!

I’d be interested to know what anyone else thinks, will you be buying one?