By SteveJack
First of all, let’s get the niche out of the way: I’ll be buying an iPad because the iPhone is just a bit too small to use for blogging (it can be done, just not as well as I would like) and my MacBook Pro is too much to carry around when all I really need is an iPhone with more screen real estate.
So, that’s why I’ll be buying an iPad with 3G and 64GB because you can never have enough storage and, hey, it’s a write-off. (And, no, I don’t love the name. I would have gone with “iTouch” if only to teach a lesson to everyone who’s ever incorrectly referred to an iPod touch by that name. It would have been fun to say, “Go back and revise those 3.27 million articles where you wrongly used ‘iTouch,’ m’kay?” Oh, well, a missed opportunity. Instead, we lucky iPad owners will get to endure feminine napkin comments from jealous anti-Apple ignoramuses and sixth grade boys.) But, as usual, I digress.
Now, who else might be buying an iPad?
• Older people: You see them all the time squinting at their iPhones and iPod touches and/or holding them at arm’s length. That’s sad enough, but they’re also usually the very same people can’t quite seem to master pinching to zoom in and out and/or scrolling. They want to see websites and their email. They’ll want iPads.
• Couch potatoes: Really, not just couch potatoes, but anyone who finds themselves parked in front of much larger TV screens with their iPhone/iPod touch in hand surfing, texting etc. They’ll want iPads for that instead.
• Frequent fliers/commuters: iPad is thin, light, and makes for a better movie watching experience, plus it has an iPod, and a web browser, and your email, and your calendar, and your newspaper, and your novel, and iWork, etc. An iPad is a no-brainer.
• Readers: Books, magazines, newspapers, etc. Look for Kindles to take eBay by storm. Apple will sell iPads to print consumers by the metric ton.
• Gamers: You like playing games on your iPhone and iPod touch? You’re gonna love them on your iPad.
• Navigators: Beyond iPad’s new and improved Maps app, I can’t wait to put my Tom Tom or Magellan app on my iPad and I bet other iPhone/iPod touch navigators can’t either.
• Kids: For movies, TV shows, music, games, etc. in the car and everywhere else, too.
• Students: Textbooks, word processing, spreadsheets, and everything else I’ve already mentioned above.
I could go on, but come to think of it, maybe it would be easier to think of somebody who wouldn’t want an iPad?
• Let’s see… Somebody who only runs Photoshop or AutoCAD or Final Cut Pro while on-the-go and who never reads a book, magazine, or newspaper; who never watches movies, TV shows, or listens to music; who never plays a game, not even a casual one while waiting for an oil change; and, who doesn’t surf the Web or use email.
See what I mean? The iPad has a larger target audience than some people might think. And starting at just $499?! Seriously, Apple’s iPad prices are – channelling Jerry Carroll – INSAAANE!!!
And, oh, BTW, Twitterers, the iPad’s bezel isn’t “too wide.” The iPad’s bezel is its handle. It’s where your fingers grip the device without covering the content on the screen, no matter which way you’re holding it. Give Apple some credit; they’re not Microsoft, they think things through.
SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer and a regular contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section.
I’m either going to get the WiFi version & hang on to my iPhone for another year or so, or get the 3G one & go with a standard cell phone. The actual phone is what I use least on the iPhone anyway, and having more screen real estate would make many sites easier to read.
of course i will im a student and the iwork is something i need and i plan on being a music producer and because of the use of iphone apps i already have an app for producing on my phone its just too small so im going with this and the size and the sheer beauty of the device is a plus
I can see the iPad, and the inevitable Winblows knock-offs, gradually displacing much of the laptop/notebook market. If you have an iPad and an iMac, what else does the average user need? Only the mobile pro niche will need something more while on the road. For everyone else, an iPad and a big beautiful iMac will be the best of both worlds. At most, you’ll want the bluetooth keyboard for those rare times when you need to do more intensive typing on an iPad.
The iPad is what the MacBook Air should have been in price points, and ultimately replaced by the iPad. The MBA has little reason to live now so I suspect it will be end-of-life’d in a few months.
The iPad will be a huge hit with women:
It is small, but large enough screen, fits in a large handbag, has changeable cover sleeves, is not nerdy at all but carries girl-street-cred, is suitable for most business work (not all), is light weight and carries all your social items (diary, address book, email, facebook, twitter, etc).
My wife was drooling over the Apple video of the iPad and she is a computer user, but not a geek.
I like how the iPad removes the ‘Mac versus Windows’ software debate since it is a device that attaches to both, and is neither one nor the other, and can be used standalone.
Does this mean we will buy iWork Pages/Numbers/Keynote once then never have to pay for an upgrade again? Or maybe iWork ’12 will be a separate app to iWork ’10.
I am leaning towards leaving it a while, maybe even until the next version because I would really love a webcam, I’m not bothered about a straight camera because I have a phone.
I would have liked some way to type with my thumbs whilst holding the device with both hands but I’m not sure if that will be possible with this keyboard until i’ve really been able to check out the size. I was hoping for some sort of fingerworks split keyboard positioned for hands on either side of the screen, but I accept that might be a bit radical.
I think they’ve done a great job in actually making a device of this type useful and opened it up to become more relevant as they improve and add to the software – which they surely will – the addition of iWork shows that they intend it to be more productive than an iPhone.
My employer is stuck with a mobile carrier that does not offer the iPhone, but their plan does offer free unlimited calling and 3g data and the phone I have supports tethering over BT so I won’t be needing a 3g iPad.
I’ve also found that I’m not comfortable using a laptop on public transportation. Even the 12″ Thinkpads that I’ve had involve dealing with a clamshell opening, trackpad navigation and a form factor that is less than optimal for that purpose and environment. I suspect that the iPad will help make many an urban commute more productive and/or entertaining.
It is also just begging to be forgotten in an airline seatback pocket, but that is more of a problem with the user, not the device.
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I’m psyched, and plan on getting the 64GB as soon as it’s possible to order one. I’ve gotta laugh at the kiddos complaining about not having a Webcam, it’s sort of like saying, “Hey, I’d never buy a BMW because it doesn’t have an integrated kleenex holder as an option.” Yeah, what a deal breaker, performance mobile computing is clearly a high priority for such weebs.
The killer device for distribution of comic books.
Yup, I’ll get a couple tho’ some questions remain…
With iWork – nice price by the way, the only option seems to be sync through a shared folder when tethered to desktop/laptop. I suppose I could email myself but that seems counter intuitive. Bluetooth maybe? What if I need to see all my docs? Is there full Mobileme cloud sync and iWork integration? Maybe needs to be a wifi node for sharing. Memory slot would’a been good.
Camera input fine… but my dslr pumps out 20mb files and would fill up this puppy in no time and it still seems a step too far to upload raw/unload to lappy then download jpegs – maybe I’m missing something?
Full voice recognition/control for presentations and writing on the move. Hands are good for input, but for writers voice is more intuitive if you like to dictate.
Haven’t had time to watch the whole presentation so I might have missed a few things.
On the whole, I’m impressed that Apple decided to go with the iPhone OS and not the desktop metaphor.
My wife will get one for certain; she’ll use it for crossword puzzles, e-mail, and surfing while drying her hair.
At least until the kids break it while fighting over it. So maybe we’ll get two.
It would be perfect for my mother, except she’s hooked on watching online CNN videos which are…you guessed it….distributed in Flash. Her 5 year old iBook G4 handles them just fine with a 1 GHz processor…
Steve you forgot a few:
Photographers
Doctors/hospitals for medical imaging
The Military
Schools of all kinds has text books move to the iPad
While this version may not hit a mainstream out of the park home run (it will most likely be an in the park home run). The iPad is the start of the paper replacement.
I would have preferred a sexier name!
But, then again if I recall everyone hated the name “iPod” and now all pmp units are referred to by the average Joe or Jane as iPods, not bad for a name everyone hated. Everyone mocked the name “iMac” as well and look where it is today, most respected line of all in one computers on the market today. there were more then a few snicker at the name iPhone. So, will iPad become the iPod of the next century?
@ fring
Maybe the SD Card in the Camera Connection Kit can be accessible for documents. Also Apple have a MobileMe iPhone app at the moment for viewing-only your cloud iWork/PDF/Office documents folder. If this was extended to allow read-write to the cloud or local storage/syncing with the cloud that may meet your need.
@Fring
Watch the iPad video.
I was hoping for a Netbook in a Tablet format. (A “real” computer in a tablet format.)
All that was presented was a big iTouch.
Lots of potential….will wait for version 2…
In 3 years every student in the western world will have one.
Plus every grandparent who had never touched a computer before.
Plus every young person who wanted a MacBook, but doesn’t have $1000.
Plus every poor slob who normally would have ended up buying a crappy PC laptop for $700.
Plus every Indian and Chinese family who’s just getting into the “information age”.
It’s a cool unit and would be fun to play with. For others it could be an essential tool.
Obviously for schools it could be a godsend. If Apple do a deal with the text book publishers so everyone is covered then they could do away with paper books. The initial investment in hardware could be easily offset with lower cost for literature. Tie that in with the internet and you have the perfect instrument for distributing information. Add in the basic word processing features and the kids can write reports etc directly to the iPad.
Girlfriend gets one for her June 3 birthday for text books, email, web, novels, writing… you know: her whole life other than the gaming that requires my iMac’s graphics chip, screen, etc.
I’ll probably wait a year until v.2
Oh, and Dougav- dang right about comics. This is what panelfly, etc have been getting into position to exploit.
MDN word “used”, as in, “I used to feel bad that I could’t afford a new portable Mac.”
Future versions will come equipped with cameras, but I hope that they continue to offer models without them for use in environments where cameras are inappropriate.
my aged parents want one , can’t work a phone , like their imac but want something they can carry around easily
i can see this being a MASSIVE success for apple
Stevejack – thanks for writing this. I’m pretty tired of people being SOOOOO disappointed that it’s “just a big iPod touch”. Almost everyone is whining about no camera (it would be nice but whatever). And I should add that I’m not one to call myself an Apple fanboy (indeed, fanboyism pisses me off a lot), but the iPad is gonna be a game changer for (imo) one big reason:
CHEAP UNLIMITED 3G.
Why the hell is nobody talking about this? This device will bring “anywhere” Internet to the masses! It’s the ONLY reason I’m sold on the iPad! Until that was mentioned, I was thinking “well, this is pretty cool but I’ll probably pass”. They don’t realize how important this is – an affordable device with a $30/mo unlimited plan that you can cancel anytime – that happens to be awesome because it’s an extension of the iPhone user experience?
If iPad with 3G really catches on – well, just think of it! Millions of people using a device that – you guys will like this – doesn’t use Flash! The iPad could very well kill Flash! And none too soon!
I’ll bet a revision or two down the road, they’ll phase out the wifi-only iPad, but leave the 3G (or 4G or whatever) as being optional and pay-as-you-go. This has the potential to completely change portable computing… but no, let’s just whine about no camera. =P
My only concern is that I’ve heard plenty about how at&t;needs to upgrade their network as it is… well, if the pressure wasn’t already on, it sure as hell will be now!
Only miss I see is map related. No GPS. The Wi-Fi model will have sucky Gag-le Maps. We need a real mapping app with onboard map databases and a real GPS. Paper maps and atlases would go the way of the Encyclopedia Set.
@matt
“…CHEAP UNLIMITED 3G.
Why the hell is nobody talking about this?”
I’d start off by saying that the 3G experience is not something that excites meh. 9 times out of 10 when I seriously need to access the Internet, I’m near or I find WiFi. I’ll use 3G if I need to do something small and it’s available. 3G is just not worth even the cheap cost that the iPad is boasting.
And quite frankly, I’m already paying for unlimited 3G, it’s a ripoff price, and I’m not paying one fricking dime more for it.
The iPad breaks absolutely NO new ground. None at all. Nada. Zip. This doesn’t mean it’s a bad device. The iPod also broke no new ground.
The iPad will be a niche device. It will not sell like the iPhone did.
It appears to be dumbed down as to not cannibalize MacBook sales.
No multitasking? No printing?
e-book reader?
I’ll stick with my 11 day battery life Kindle over a 10 hour iPad. The Books for Kindle are cheaper as well.
The iPad has no killer app. Nothing about the iPad makes me think, “Wow, I need to be able to do that.”
Quite frankly, I think this device is a good piece of design, effectively packaging run-of-the-mill technology, but that all things considered, will only achieve the notoriety of a MacBook Air, for example.
The zealots will line up initially to go in and play with one, many will buy, but ultimately people will see that in order to get WORK done, they will have to turn to their real computers.
The same people who liked the MacBook Air will like the iPad. I.e. people who travel lots, need to use e-mail primarily while on the road, and want to carry less weight around with them.
Game Changer? Nope. The rumor changed the game. Everyone and their brother will have tablets this year.
Best Thing Steve’s Ever Done? No way.
Revolutionary? Not even evolutionary.
I’m sorry to say, a lightweight tablet running Windows 7 with Win 7 touch capabilities will kick this thing in the ass. You’ll get a full blown computer, not some hobbled device that you can download a .99 fart app for.
I have an iPhone that I can put in my pocket, an iBook for the few trips I take, and an iMac for home use. iPad is not on my list of things to buy. I’m sure that Apple will sell a bunch of iPads but not to me. It’s not for every one.