I am writing this at lunch… while the event is going on. So I will come back to finish editing it tonight. I did my own predictions for a slate style tablet computer back in November and on January 25th. Now we will go over the hit and misses. Not just mine, but Apples. Apple missed the mark on a few items, so let’s not let them off the hook. I will start off with the first couple of big misses (IMO):
Hit: $499-$829. I am really glad they did not hit the $1,000 mark fully optioned.
Miss: 3G component is $129 of price… not counting the monthly fees of $14,99 for 250 MB or $29.99 for unlimited data.
Miss: iPad OS, not OS X. It’s like a Ginourmous iPod Touch. Maybe Adobe with come out with a decent Photoshop Lite for the iPad… and at a reasonable price.
Miss: No Stylus Support. This is the biggest disappointment. Why would Adobe make a Photoshop Lite for the iPad without a stylus?
Miss: No USB Port. The iPad uses a dedicated 30-pin connector. So much for using an external hard drive or DVD or Blu-Ray drive. Also no SD slot… but there is a camera connection kit that will let you import pictures from an SD card.
Hit: Keyboard Dock! Pair this with built-in Bluetooth and you have a decent computer you can use at a desk. One of the pictures showed it on a plain stand which makes it a great picture frame when not being used.
Miss: iPad OS, not Mac OS X, so the keyboard and mouse are less useful… but still welcome.
Hit: Runs Apps from the App Store.
Miss: Runs them full screen (original size or pixel doubled, 2X size). No multitasking, no multiple apps side by side in a “window.” This looks silly with a 3.5″ app in the center of a 9.7″ screen.
Hit: New SDK for iPad devlopment… available today.
Miss: No OS X (see a trend here) or support for real applications.
Hit: 3G is unlocked and uses GSM microSIMs. Includes free WiFi hotspots (AT&T).
Miss: 3G plans are AT&T, so why not a way to tie to your iPhone plan? Maybe other carriers will offer better plans to entice you away from AT&T.
Hit: Movies & TV Shows. This was expected… and all from iTunes. Until I know more I will assume it can get content from your Mac or PC running iTunes. Hopefully that means it will run your own content as well as iTunes Store content.
Miss: Screen is 4:3, not 16:9. Oops! Black bars on all your movies.
Hit: Photos. Looks good. And it looks like it will make a great picture frame.
Hit: 10 Hour battery life.
Miss: Is this 10 hours of video on a plane?
Hit: e-Reader. Everyone expected this. Bonus the iBook Store, but again this was expected.
Hit: New York Times on iPad.
Miss: Does every periodical have to build their own app. Where’s the common platform application that publishers can feed with a subscription fee? This would have been better if Apple built an app to display newspaper and magazine content and let The Times and others create the content in a particular format. Then plug in subscriptions into the iTunes Store to get the content.
Hit: Brushes for graphic artists.
Miss: No OS X to run Photoshop.
Hit: Games. I was surprised at the Need For Speed Shift demo. I have it for the XBox 360. It looks like Apple wants more of the gaming market than just simple iPod games.
Miss: No OS X. If the iPad was running OS X wouldn’t game developers have it easier since they could develop for BOTH the Mac and iPad? That would bring a lot of game development to the Mac platform for people that have iMacs and MacBooks.
Hit: iWork? Is this really a hit?
Miss: Office for the Mac… running on OS X? Have I beat this to death yet… the iPad should really run OS X.
The screen is 9.7″ with a resolution of 1024 x 768. Not widescreen!
That’s all I can think of at the moment. They hit a lot of the marks I expected. However, the lack of a stylus and the lack of OS X means I will not be getting one until I can think of a use for it. I was considering it… if it ran OS X, but now I am not. Maybe I will change my mind. I think my oldest sone will love it since almost everything he does on his laptop is iTunes and Web. For him it will be perfect, but I want him to have more power for doing homework. We’ll see if it is good enough for a high school student’s only computer.
January 27, 2010 at 3:35 pm |
I agree. the lack of a stylus for note taking and sketching is a major miss.
January 28, 2010 at 11:49 am |
Couldn’t agree more. I was REALLY expecting this to run OS X (or some lighter version of it), but since it does not, you won’t see me lining up anytime soon.
January 28, 2010 at 7:45 pm |
KJ,
I keep thinking about it and I love the device. I was hoping for a “lighter” replacement for a laptop… something between a desktop and an iPhone. If they just ran OS X I would buy it… even without the stylus. Maybe iPad 2.0.
Scott
January 30, 2010 at 12:10 am |
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January 30, 2010 at 11:23 pm |
Lots of of bloggers not really pleased with the new iPad.There was just 2 much hype about it and alot people got disapointed.You see, I for one see lots of the awesome potential of this gadget. Third-party apps for doing music, games, papers and magazine and FFS books, all kinds of neat stuff, but IMHO they failed to sell it right (aside from the books). It smells kind of unfinished
February 1, 2010 at 5:00 pm |
I love tablets ( Wacom based, no touchscreens) but the fact is they haven’t sold at all. I couldn’t care less about handwriting recognition and even less about Office. Are we really going to be using Office for the next thousand years. No wonder innovation is hard to come by.
The Apple tablet will create a market for tablets and not just tablets for artists or convertibles for those who can’t decide.
While it’s hard to imagine writing out a whole lecture on an iPad (or any touchscreen) the reality is most laptop users are not science students and only type text anyway so they don’t require an active stylus.
For presenting lectures the iPad will be great as it will be possible to annotate pdf files on the spot ( and there is a “stylus” available to do that).
It’s unfortunate that the typewriter has done in handwriting but we have gotten a very nice compromise and for a great price.
In short. There is hardly no market for tablets now. TabletPC’s are a market failure, as are slates and that is truly a shame. People no longer want to write (unless you are a scientist) and the typewriter rules. The iPad, at least, provides some hope.
philip
February 2, 2010 at 7:27 am |
Nice thoughts Philip. However, tablets do sell. Those Wacom tablets do sell to artists and serious photo retouchers (I have been pricing one myself for $349). However that is a niche market. That used to be the niche market that Apple dominated in. Over the years (since the original iPod) Apple cares more about electronics consumers than artists. So no stylus on the iPad, and no Photoshop.
You are spot on that this will open the door for tablet computers… for CONSUMERS! Google “Motion Tablet” and you will see an EXPENSIVE slate computer that is geared only at vertical markets… and does well there with high prices and low volume. They used to make a “business” model that was what some of hoped the iPad would be. But it cost about $1,500 with no keyboard and before bluetooth would make that easy. Next Google “Modbook” and see that it will cost $700 to convert an existing MacBook into a slate computer that works with a a Wacom screen/tablet. Again, niche market and very expensive.
Apple was wise to leave this out and go for the consumer… where the serious volume is. Remember, Apple is the only compter company making 20-25% profit, while Dell and all the rest try to eek out 5-6%. If the iPad is remotely successful Apple will expand the line and include support for the artist later… once the consumer is taken care of… as they have done with their business model over the last decade.
Thanks for all the comments.
Scott