I’ve been closely following the Apple announcement this morning, and am very intrigued by the product and its potential. In typical Apple fashion, the only things worth complaining about are what they left out. Almost everything that IS about this device… is awesome.
Here are my thoughts…
The Good:
- The Price: $499-829
- The screen is gorgeous
- Very fast and responsive finger controlled GUI
- iWork, especially Keynote presentations will be really cool
- Good prices on AT&T 3G w/$15 (limited) and $30 (unlimited) plans… and no contract!
- It’s the ultimate picture frame with photos and videos.
- It’s the ultimate Airplane device
Music and reading or watching video the entire flight! - The keyboard and notebook accessories are welcome concessions to touch typers. Thanks, Steve.
- Calendar and Address Book look beautiful
Might replace a daytimer for people like my mom! 🙂 - SD card uploads from digital cameras (too bad it needs an adapter)
Means it could be a great travel laptop-replacement, camera-companion - Runs all your normal iPhone apps. But only one at a time.
- With bluetooth and Skype app, you can use it like a phone!
C’mon, Google Voice and Gizmo… please come out for iPad!
The Bad
- No camera of any kind!
- No Magsafe charging plug for compatibility with laptops
- It’s a little bit heavy. Solid and thin, but slightly hefty.
- No Verizon or Sprint 3G service option
The Ugly:
- iPhone OS only – no Mac apps – an even more closed platform
- No Multitasking (This is my personal deal killer)
- No Flash… wha?
C’mon, Hulu… come out with an iPad app!
The takeaway:
- Every grandma should have one
- Even if you think you don’t need one now, you’ll probably going to get one… one day.
- It’s the ultimate “cloud computing” device
- If you believe Apple and TechCrunch, the future of computing is touch
- Amazon will have to reduce the price of the Kindle
- It might save newspapers and the “printed” word.
- Apple will sell tons of these puppies at $499.
The price is amazing and will hurt the sales of the Amazon Kindle, many netbooks and maybe even cannibalize MacBook sales… but without flash support, a camera or multitasking, I’m waiting for version 2
That said, I think I can feel Steve Jobs’ long arms reaching into my pocket…
justin
PS: if you haven’t seen the old MadTV sketch about the iPad… check this out… hilarious!
PPS: and lastly, I leave you with a whimsical fake commercial for the mythical Apple Tablet which we now know something about: