Very niche product, mainly for reading magazines
Apple iPad Tablet (32GB, Wi-Fi)
July 18, 2010, 12:00 am
So I have had my iPad now for about a month. The bottom line for me is that the iPad has some strong points but, overall, is very limited in its usefulness. It might be well suited for someone in different circumstances but my scenario is that I have a small work laptop that is with me all day and I have a pocketable iPhone which is with me (almost) at all times. At home, I have the work laptop, another laptop and a desktop.
Strengths
* The iPad is a good digital photo frame. Not worlds better than others you can get, but it's good.
* The iPad's greatest strength is with magazines. Magazines have never looked better than on an iPad, particularly photo-oriented magazines covering travel, sports or food. It is materially better than reading a physical magazine. For this purpose I might have wanted the iPad to be even bigger.
* The iPad is a nicely compact tablet for web searches. You can do web searches, the page is bigger than your iPhone and the device doesn't take much room on the counter. That's handy.
Weaknesses
* The iPad does not replace a computer (or any other device). It is meant as a satellite device for people who have laptops, so for instance it doesn't have USB ports to load content directly onto the device. When we went on a trip we wanted to take the iPad instead of a laptop but we couldn't because you can't offload your pics from your camera directly to the iPad. Also, it is in my view not a good word processing platform, or in any case not as good as a compact laptop, so if you need to do actual work you still need your actual laptop. Bottom line: it is a "third device," not a replacement for one of your current devices.
* It is not really portable (for men). It doesn't fit in your pocket, so the average man (who doesn't carry a purse) will be leaving it at home.
* It doesn't support Flash. The reality is that Flash is all over the web, so if your browser doesn't support it, it's inconvenient.
* I can't imagine when I would watch a video on it. If I'm out and about I might watch a YouTube link on my iPhone. But if I am at home I'm sure I would rather watch on my internet-connected TV or on one of my PCs (all of which have larger screens). If I am traveling I probably wouldn't bring the iPad anyway.
So for me the iPad is a niche device solving a small set of problems not well addressed by the iPhone-laptop combination, basically for reading magazines and doing the occasional web search. That's fine, but I am not sure it is worth $500-$800. It depends how flush you are I guess. Listening to music on the go is a mass market desire, as we saw with Walkman and later the iPod. Reading backlit magazines and having another way to do searches in the house are much more limited use cases. 3 million Apple fans have bought the device (including myself), but I will be surprised if it becomes a real mass market solution.
Strengths
* The iPad is a good digital photo frame. Not worlds better than others you can get, but it's good.
* The iPad's greatest strength is with magazines. Magazines have never looked better than on an iPad, particularly photo-oriented magazines covering travel, sports or food. It is materially better than reading a physical magazine. For this purpose I might have wanted the iPad to be even bigger.
* The iPad is a nicely compact tablet for web searches. You can do web searches, the page is bigger than your iPhone and the device doesn't take much room on the counter. That's handy.
Weaknesses
* The iPad does not replace a computer (or any other device). It is meant as a satellite device for people who have laptops, so for instance it doesn't have USB ports to load content directly onto the device. When we went on a trip we wanted to take the iPad instead of a laptop but we couldn't because you can't offload your pics from your camera directly to the iPad. Also, it is in my view not a good word processing platform, or in any case not as good as a compact laptop, so if you need to do actual work you still need your actual laptop. Bottom line: it is a "third device," not a replacement for one of your current devices.
* It is not really portable (for men). It doesn't fit in your pocket, so the average man (who doesn't carry a purse) will be leaving it at home.
* It doesn't support Flash. The reality is that Flash is all over the web, so if your browser doesn't support it, it's inconvenient.
* I can't imagine when I would watch a video on it. If I'm out and about I might watch a YouTube link on my iPhone. But if I am at home I'm sure I would rather watch on my internet-connected TV or on one of my PCs (all of which have larger screens). If I am traveling I probably wouldn't bring the iPad anyway.
So for me the iPad is a niche device solving a small set of problems not well addressed by the iPhone-laptop combination, basically for reading magazines and doing the occasional web search. That's fine, but I am not sure it is worth $500-$800. It depends how flush you are I guess. Listening to music on the go is a mass market desire, as we saw with Walkman and later the iPod. Reading backlit magazines and having another way to do searches in the house are much more limited use cases. 3 million Apple fans have bought the device (including myself), but I will be surprised if it becomes a real mass market solution.
Seattle, WA
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