For those of you that don’t already know, Apple Inc, release a new tablet computing product called the iPad. It’s hard to make judgment on a device when it’s on stage with Steve Jobs, and the whole energy of the release would make you want a pile of crap if it was sprinkled with gold.
So, I let it marinate a bit overnight, and have come to a conclusion.
What Apple Got Right
While I haven’t handled it yet, I feel fairly confident they got the form factor right. Everyone on the stage, and in the videos appeared to use it with ease, and handle it confidently. It certainly “looks” like the tablet computer we all dreamed existed.
The other aspect I think Apple got right, was the User Interface. Traditionally, as with Microsoft Tablets, software companies would just slap a few band-aids on a desktop platform OS and say “Done!” I like the fact that Apple is taking the path less traveled on this; requiring software companies to rewrite their applications to work differently with hand based interactions.
The polish. When the eBook application rotated like a giant bookshelf to reveal a bookstore on the back, I started feeling warm inside. Then, the purchased book floated up, the shelf rotated back, and the books all got out of the way to make room for the new book’s decent; I wanted the iPad to have my baby. Each animation is short enough to not steal from the action, and designed to provide some feedback as to what, or why something is happening. The polish that Apple applies to their applications is undeniably fantastic.
Lastly, the price. $499 for a base model surpassed all my expectations.
What They Got Wrong
There’s already plenty of posts out there that mention it’s lack of Adobe Flash support, multitasking, and camera. Although I agree with all of them, I don’t want to spend more time on that. Here’s a few more thing I feel are missing.
The first thing that came to my mind, was a lack of synergy between the iPad and the iPhone, or other mobile phone devices. The iPad is designed to be a light, and easily portable device. Whenever anyone travels, they all carry around their cell phone. I would have liked to see an iPhone pass pictures to the iPad. I would have liked to see an iPhone share it’s Internet service via Bluetooth DUN. I would have liked to see the contacts application in the iPad automatically dial a number on a paired iPhone. None of these were demonstrated, nor hinted to.
Using the tired iPhone desktop was a huge disappointment. Apple had an opportunity here, to truly rethink their traditional home screen. I would have liked to see something like Bumptop (see video below). Their lack of ingenuity and interaction with their home screen is in sharp contrast to the polish from the rest of their applications. Their focus on the singular application for everything, leaves me skeptical about the future of the iPad/iPhone platform.
Oh yeah, one last thing, the name iPad was a terrible choice.
Conclusion
Still, my opinion remains undecided. There are things to like, and things to hate about this device. Furthermore, it’s not even available to purchase yet, and I haven’t had my hands on one. It could very well be that many of the cons were simply not demoed due to lack of time or perspective. All will be revealed in upcoming months.
