Second-cup-of-coffee

Random thoughts on the iPad

First, I didn’t think of female hygiene products when I heard the name. I thought pad of paper. I am kind of surprised that so many people mentioned that. I remember people decrying the naming of the Nintendo Wii and saying that it would not succeed solely on how terrible the name was. I don’t think many people even remember the hubbub about the Wii’s name now that it is such a huge success and so commonplace. I think the same thing is true of the iPad – if it is an attractive device that people want at an affordable price, then it will sell regardless of the name.

That said, I am really impressed with the price point. Seeing all of the discussion leading up to the announcement, I figured it would be in the $800 - $1,000 range. $499 for the low-end model seems like a great value… especially if you’re looking at, say, a Kindle DX. And, obviously, the iPad will have a lot of additional uses beyond being used as an eReader and, so, to me would seem like a better choice if you’re looking into that price range.

I understand why they went with the iPhone OS but I am still disappointed for a couple of reasons. First, most of the apps for the iPhone (which I do own) are not very robust. They are generally quite gimmicky. They are definitely not as full-featured as Macintosh applications. That said, the iPhone interface is obviously geared to the iPad’s multi-touch interface. I mean, it is essentially a big iphone, after all, and it isn’t clear how easy the full-fledged Mac OS X could be moved to a multitouch interface. But, I still would have liked to see it based on Mac OS X. I fear that Apple is losing focus of their full-fledged computers and are risking becoming much more of a gadget maker.

Another reason the iPod OS approach is disappointing to me is that you’ll have Apple as a gatekeeper to all applications (unless it is jailbroken or something similar). I understand why Apple would want to do this… think of all the revenue this generates as they get a cut of every paid application sold. Indeed, this may well be one reason that the hardware price is so low. Much like razors, they can make money on the blades (or the apps). But, having a gatekeeper in place is very limiting for developers. Will Apple refuse to release applications like Firefox that would compete with their built-in apps? If the iPhone’s history is any indication then, yes, they will limit applications and stifle competing products.

And, speaking of competing products, iPad will not support Flash. Perhaps there will be a workaround in the future but the iPhone still does not have Flash support. I have to wonder if Flash and Silverlight would be blocked to lock users out of all of the alternatives to the iTunes Store. The iPad would be much more attractive if I could watch Netflix movies or Hulu content right from it. Of course, having these options available would really limit the appeal of paying for content from the iTunes Store.

In the end, I think that I am not the target audience for one of these devices. That said, I do think that Apple will sell a tons of iPads. They are a really cool and neat toy… I would just not be willing to pay that much for something which, in my mind, offers so few advantages to having a smartphone and a laptop.