Ok, I’ll open with this. I love apple products. Their fit and finish is amazing, and i think they have a fantastic lineup. Even the Apple TV and Mac Mini, which many will call a bust, I think are great little machines.
But the iPad, well, it falls way way short of expectations.
Now, granted, I’m not sure of the target market, but let’s call it your general use/commuter market. Guys on buses and trains, mobile people, that sort of thing.
Ok, so let’s look at the good parts. Pricing? 499 for the base model going up to 829 for the full blown mother of all models. Of, not bad, personally, i wish they would have just gone 499, 599, 699 and had 3G and wifi in each (especially since it is not a contract needed, cancel anytime, don’t even have to use the 3G thing) but that’s my gripe. Personally, i think by Christmas or this time next year that will be the pricing model, but I’m just speculating.
Next: app store. Ok cool, it grabs my old apps, and sync’s over and blows them up. Cool, fine, i like the idea, good going there apple. Wireless sync though? really? why can’t i sync my stuff from my computer to my iPad wirelessly over my network? why do i still need a wire past initial setup? come on Apple, your better then that. So in that category, i call it a slight fail, they could have knocked it over the fence, but didn’t, and who knows why.
Ok, now here is the big one for me, and if you ask me a big fail, Ebook Reader. Sure, they were not DIRECTLY going after the kindle but sure was hoping to knock it down a few pegs. As far as it being a Newspaper/Magazine reader, with it’s size, color, and in-line video application. Good deal! heck, I’d even pay for a subscription to certain things on the device if they were priced low. And i like the fact it is big enough to comfortably read books on, and using ePub as a standard, and even showing what looked like pages rendered with Graphics in them for like kiddy books, ok, that is pretty neat.
But pricing? WHAT THE HELL!! So an amazon Kindle book, max i saw in their store was 9.99 for a book. Apple, they didn’t say a max, but it could be whatever. Boo to that. Also, let’s take this example from their own Demo.
The book they picked was 14.95. On the amazon Kindle, same book 9.99. same publisher, not in a proprietary format like the kindle, so why can’t the price be the same? color? please!! it’s probably easier to leave the color in then to translate it to the Kindle format!!
And here is my idea. HEY APPLE PEOPLE ARE YOU LISTENING!!!! IF YOU ARE AND YOU DO THIS, I WANT A FREE COUPLE OF COMPUTERS FOR THE BILLIONS OF DOLLARS I AM ABOUT TO HAND YOU!!!
So let’s use whole numbers to make it easier, Hardcover books cost 20 from the store, for an extra 5 you get a digital copy at a discount (cuz you know they aren’t gunna give it away, the publishers that is) Or without buying the book a straight digital copy is 10 dollars. Now once you have read the book, you can SELL IT BACK on the iBookstore for 7 dollars. Of those 7 dollars, 5 goes back to the seller, a dollar to Apple, and a dollar to the Publisher/Writer (let them figure it out). Now why is this a good idea? publishers and writers are now making money where they were not before from a used book store!! it’s a damn GOLDMINE of new money for these people! Now having the Bookstore setup like that would have made it a MUCH better platform and i might be salivating on when i can get my hands on one. But as it stands now, overpriced books and such, i don’t want it, I’d rather have the Barnes and Noble Nook then this thing (and that’s not even getting into how good or bad the screen might be in a park on a bright sunny day).
So now mopving past that my other big gripes are:
30 Dollars for all the iWork apps? sure they are great and i am sure alot of work went into them, but let’s try 15 for the suite, or gimme Pages for free and for $20 i can buy keynote and numbers. That’s a better solution
And so with Pages and stuff i can type and make things. SWEET!! what if someone wants a physical copy? can i connect to my Network printers at work? can i connect to my Domain at my job and put it on a network drive? no? WHAT THE HELL!! how do i get ti to people? Keynotes are generally too big for email!! Wait, i might be able to buy more apps for that? to me it sounds like you have hamstrung this device from getting data off it in a timely manner. Sure i can hook it up to a Mac and sync it off and then move it around, but what if that is not an option as a business traveler?
As far as this unit goes, from a technology point, and from a proof of concept, it is really really awesome!! but past that, the software package, and the functionality, it loses, badly. It doesn’t do anything in my life that a iPhone and a laptop can’t already do, and to be honest, they can do more, and sure, it’s not as heavy or whatever but do i really care if i still have to carry around a bunch of extra crap to use it?
Sorry apple, it’s a great product, but as far as functionality goes, either make it do more, or throw it away, cuz in it’s current setup, while cool, and you will sell them, i really don’t see a need for one, and i won’t be buying it.
Sound off though, I’m curious to hear other people’s ideas.
Side note: IPAD IS A DUMB NAME!!! i liked iSlate much better. Hell even iCoaster is a better name I think.
First off, I am a little bit biased because I work for the company made the EVIL KINDLE. I have used tablet PCs in the past. They have a number of drawbacks that I could never get over.
1) They don’t have a keyboard and it is supposed to surf the net? I hit wikipedia and google a ton and typing on a screen leaves me wanting more. Why not have a slide out keyboard or something… kindle like
2) Book reading. Not a good device for this given the screen won’t be as readable, although you can now read in the dark. The other non-starter on this is battery life.
I guess that is really it. I think people were expecting magic, but this is just a tablet. Human computer interfaces are important and this is so much worse than what we have today. It can be extended to support what we have today, but it will now have reduced its power to that of an ordinary laptop.
As for your book comments… well books are hard. Publishers are scared silly. If music can’t protect a 5 MB song, how are they going to protect a 100Kb book? Also we should leave libraries out of this as a publisher would probably pay an arsonist to burn them all down. Why do they charge so much? I wish I knew. Amazon even pays for the wireless connection to download the book, which is more than Apple is doing.
It really comes down to a device that is looking for a market instead of the other way around. iPhone would be the complete opposite where there was a market for smartphones that were actually smart….
you raise some good points there. but, because it seems your expectations were so high, the device was bound to fail.
as far as your concern about the traveling business? uh, that’s what a laptop is for. this wasn’t meant to replace the laptop. this is a device (with a horrid name, btw) for personal use. could you use it for a business? sure. as something to showcase your work, and what you’re capable of doing. but it’s not meant to RUN your business while you’re out of the office. with the e-mail access, you could e-mail anything to clients, and then, ta-da, they do the printing. would it be more convenient if it could sync with printers on networks you have access to? sure, but that’s all it is, convenient.
A developer has written an app that will wirelessly sync your iPod to your mac, or PC, and i’m sure another developer will write one that will sync your tablet to your computer (heck, who knows, maybe the app the same app that is already in use will work for the iPad, too).
the target audience would be mobile people, not for hard-core computing people. i would use it as something to port my portfolio, use it as a GPS system, something to check my e-mail while i’m on the road, etc. etc. etc. i wouldn’t use it as an e-reader (i can’t even stand to look at a kindle). but i would watch movies on it.
but, one thing you have to keep in mind: apple is a business and it’s looking to make money. $30 for the iWorks software? cheaper than what it would be for your laptop. but, i would much prefer the adobe suite, or microsoft office suite.
so, you raise some good ideas for future generations of the apple tablet, but for a first generation, with all the hype, it was bound to fall short of expectations. take a look at it for what it is, not what it could be. the could be is for the later generations.
Ohh ohhh.
I think I forgot the real reason… tracking movement and character sheets for D&D…
haha that would be awesome
I dunno, maybe i am shooting too high, but isn’t that apples gig? to give me something that goes above and beyond what i want/need to show me what i should be thinking or doing?
and to be honest, i don;t think i’m shooting that high with my expectations, everything i talked about they already have in their other products.
but who knows, maybe future updates will bring it closer to my vision.