Justin Thorn

Apple’s newest consumer electronic device was finally announced to the world. The much rumored tablet device, now officially named the iPad, was showcased by Steve Jobs earlier today. Unless you live somewhere without electricity you probably already know all about. Of course if that’s the case then it is safe to assume you are not able to read this blog. I don’t want to spend a lot of time detailing the specs again so for the full list see Apples iPad Specs page. The basics are a 9.5″ LCD screen in a 0.5″ thick case that weighs 1.5 pounds. The form factor essentially is a supersized iPod Touch. The screen is multi-touch sensitive and twice the resolution of its smaller cousins. The iPad runs all the existing App Store apps (140,000+ but whos counting). It includes all the standard features of WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, Digital compass, and optional 3G support. The iPad really creates a whole new category of computing device that is in between a laptop and a smartphone. To really understand what this all means you have to see this thing in action.

While its true the iPad is an extremely exciting new device it is not perfect. Here is my opinion of the good and the bad of the iPad.

The Good

• The price. Starting at $499 for the 16GB WiFi only model. That price point is competitive with most (inferior) netbooks and Amazon’s Kindle (also inferior).
• 10 hour battery life. One month standby life. That is impossible for today’s laptops.
• Bright LED screen with wide angle viewing support.
• On screen keyboard with key size that closely matches full size keyboards.
• External keyboard support through dock accessory or a bluetooth keyboard.
• Ability to run existing App Store apps at double their original size.
• eBook capabilities that rival any other device currently on the market including full color newspapers and magazines with inline photo and video.
• Great for gaming. This large screen size makes the iPad even more suitable for gaming than the iPhone/iPod Touch.

The Bad

• No multitasking. If this is much more powerful than the iPhone and iPod Touch why can’t I run multiple apps simaltaneously?
• No camera. Wouldn’t this be the perfect device to video conference on Skype with?
• Locked into Apples content distribution. No Amazon MP3 store or applications not approved for the App Store.
• No Adobe Flash support. As HTML5 standards become more common this will be less of an issue. However currently Flash is necessary for most non YouTube videos on the web. How will I watch Revision3 shows and TV on Hulu?
• Push notification implementation presumably like iPhone. This was not demonstrated but when you get new notifications from Mail, Facebook, etc… the popup notification interrupts your current workflow. There is only an option to view now or close forever. There should be a better way.
• 3G model only supported on AT&T’s GSM network in the United States. AT&T’s 3G network sucks.
• Not currently available for retail.

The iPad

Bottom line if the iPad was launched when I was 22 I would have been first in line to buy one. At nearly 32 I have grown a bit wiser and slightly more patient. As excited as I am about the iPad’s current offerings it is not enough for me to feel the need to have one yet. Just like the iPod Touch I will wait for the 2nd or 3rd generation device to launch. Hopefully that will solve many of the items on the Bad list.

Education

I do see a ton of great potential in the future of this brand new platform. I am excited to see this device adopted by the education market. Imagine if all these schools that offer laptops to their students switched to the iPad. Not only would they save at least twice as much money on hardware but they could re-engage their students in the learning process. Instead of carrying around expensive, heavy, space consuming text books you would have them all on the iBooks application on the iPad. The inclusion of inline photos and videos in textbooks could help make the subjects being taught more interesting to the students. Even new interactive applications beyond textbooks that are dedicated to the education market could also be developed to expand the options of teaching tools available.

Medical

For years the medical industry has promised to embrace digital health records and other technology to streamline the patients care and hopefully reduce costs and errors. Sure there have been tablet type devices that have attempted this in the past but all of them have been prohibitively expensive and offered clunky, difficult to learn interfaces. Everyone knows how to use an iPhone just seconds after first picking it up. Doctors have laptops in their offices but how much more useful would it be to carry all their information everywhere. I know its more complicated than I make it sound with HIPA privacy regulations and other issues but from a hardware standpoint there has never been a better device suited for this task than the iPad.

Gaming

Clearly gaming is already a proven market for Apple with the explosion of popularity on the iPhone and iPod Touch. In fact the main reason I decided to upgrade from my 5G iPod to the 2nd Gen iPod Touch was mostly for the gaming capabilities. I even considered ditching my Nintendo DS at one point. In using the iPod Touch I learned it is great for simple games like Bejeweled, Flight Control and Canabalt. However when playing more complex games like DOOM things become crowded on the screen. While using the dual joysticks with both thumbs I cover over half the screen on the iPod. With the iPad’s 9.5″ screen that would no longer be an issue. Apple is clearly aiming their sites at Nintendo and Sony in the handheld gaming market. At an average of $0-$5 a game it will be hard for the others to compete longterm.

Publishing

While I touched on this briefly under educational textbooks that is clearly only one example. The Amazon Kindle clearly showed that there is now a consumer demand for eBooks if the price is right. The convenience over physical books is unquestionable. The iPad’s color screen offers great benefits over the monochrome Kindle display not to mention the lack of that annoying page refresh. While no technology will ever identically replicate reading a physical book the iPad makes that transition to digital much easier to swallow for those who have been resistant in the past. Books are clearly the beginning. Newspaper and magazine publishers can greatly benefit from the iPad. Subscriptions of both media types has been declining over the years in favor of up to the minute news online. This new user interface will now allow newspapers and magazines to recreate the traditional layouts and iconic design methods that were previously only possible in print format. Not just that but the ability to include audio and video will make the offerings even more appealing than before. Especially an industry like video game magazines that have lost most of their audience to game trailers online. Another magazine that benefits greatly from video is sports. Here is a concept video Sports Illustrated released last December before the announcement of the iPad.

Video

Raise your hand if you watch TV with a laptop on the couch most of the time. Most of us do it today while we ‘multitask’. The demonstration by MLB.TV showed the way the iPad can extend the viewing experience beyond the game your watching on TV to realtime stats and ‘guess the next play’ type games. Sure you can do this now with a laptop but with the iPad’s new interface it is a much more fine tuned, richer experience. Maybe in the 2nd or 3rd generation of this device it will include wireless HDMI so I can stream my videos from the iPad straight to the TV with now additional wires. Imagine Boxee running on the iPad. The possibilities are endless.

I look forward to seeing what new markets the Apple iPad will open up and if this will revolutionize modern computing as much as the iPhone revolutionized the smart phone market.

UPDATE 1: For those who are interested the full Keynote video is now available on Apples site.

UPDATE 2: ReadWriteWeb posted their 5 Reasons to Wait for iPad 2.0 including many of the issues I highlighted.