Apple iPad released
by Mats Hellman on 27.Jan, 2010 under Apple
Just watched Twit.tv live from Apples event. I knew long before the event I would not be exited about the tablet and I’m still not convinced of the success for the iPad. I can’t see where this thing fits in the market. The price is ranging from USD 499 to USD 829. It’s nearly as expensive as a MacBook or a MacBook Pro 13″.
Apple seems to think it will revolutionize press and save newspapers and the book industry. I have my doubts here. As a long time computer user I still PRINT every document that’s longer than 10 pages I have to or want to read. The screen just isn’t as good for reading as paper. Books wont do well on a iPad for me as I do most my reading in bed where a book is far better than an tablet.
It will however be a great device to watch a movie on while on a train or for taking notes in a meeting. But and this is a big but, if I already have a laptop why would I put out the extra money for the tablet.
It still doesn’t do flash, and like it or not flash is something we have to support today. It’s also as restricted as the iPhone and that’s to bad. I would have liked to see more OSX and less iPhone OS in this device. I like to be able to at least change some settings on my devices.
On the positive side it is able to run all the iPhone’s applications so even before the release it has over 140 000 applications and that’s great. Still I don’t see the value of this device if you already have a laptop and a smartphone. Some think it would be great for users reading email and browsing the web but most of them will want to store their pictures locally and do some editing on the pictures. The 800USD version has 64Gb space so it might be usable for this but then cough up a little bit more and you can have a Apple laptop, go for PC:s and you’ll get one much cheaper. The 500USD version has 16Gb so that’s just to small for any real use and to pay 500USD for a book reader, well that’s to much.
Before I pass any final judgment I will go take a look at it when it hit’s the stores in Finland I’ll give it a fair chance even if my first impressions weren’t that great.
