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iPad Reactions

Wowbagger said:
I've had a Toshiba Portege M400 for several years, and I am very pleased with it.

(I am tempted to get the M750, this year. But, for some reason, it doesn't look like they're putting the 64-bit version of Windows 7 on it, yet. Only 32-bit. Even if you have over 3 GB of RAM on it.)

Before that was my old, trusty Portege 3500. It was also very nice, for its day. Except that it couldn't come with an optical drive. I kept it alive for a while, after its real usefulness faded, just as an extra toy to play with. But, it recently died. :(

I am so spoiled by the true power of real Tablet PCs, that Apple ain't gonna sell me on this iPad thing. But, I don't think it is competeing against real Tablet PCs. It's competing more against Kindles and Nooks. And in that market, I think it can claim some share.

Besides, as a software developer, I do need to have a real keyboard and a real OS on it.
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One thing the Motion tablet did to make me a real fan was demonstrate an awesome real-life durability. I dropped mine in a six inch deep mud puddle. After I had gotten most of the slime and clay finings off of the circuitry inside, and it had had enough time to dry out completely (a couple of weeks :() it booted right back up, and I continued to use it for a couple of years. :)

Like I said, I don't think it's going to compete with real tablet computers, either. I do think it is going to make the tablet format more familiar to the average person, and then they are going to start looking at real machines. Hopefully this will get the tablet concept out of the niche category and provide some economies of scale. That Motion tablet was really nice, but the price to buy new was not easy on the wallet.
 
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grunion said:
So far no e-reader demo. Amazon must be tipsy with joy.

Also, he picked a bunch of website/technologies to demo but none with Flash, hmmm. Jobs seems to be pretty focused on hyping the gaming platform properties, a la iPhone apps store, but I think it's a mistake for Apple to bet the farm on the computer gaming market.

No pricing announced yet, but I can see the anticipated revenues from app and music downloads subsidizing the street price a bit.
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If your hard up for Flash, can't you get it off the Internet? I was able to get it as a tarball for Linux back before Linux popped it out of the Firefox box...
 
dtugg said:
A real OS for a devices this size would at least have multitasking abilities. It boggles the mind why they wouldn't do this. Are they trying to make a crappy product? Want to surf the internet and IM at the same time. Well you're SOL. Why? Well... because Emperor Jobs said so.
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That right there is the killer for my wife. She likes to surf the web, but wants to be able to have her IM open in case someone needs to get in contact with her (Mostly people from her office). No multitasking? No dice.

Maybe someone will hack it and put OSX or something on it.

To be fair, I bet the reason they nixed multitasking, is because it consumes processor power, and thus, battery life. One of the reasons the iphone doesn't multitask.
 
Shalamar said:
That right there is the killer for my wife. She likes to surf the web, but wants to be able to have her IM open in case someone needs to get in contact with her (Mostly people from her office). No multitasking? No dice.

Maybe someone will hack it and put OSX or something on it.

To be fair, I bet the reason they nixed multitasking, is because it consumes processor power, and thus, battery life. One of the reasons the iphone doesn't multitask.
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I don't buy that.

Smartphones can multitask without suffering (Palm Pre being an example) major hits to battery life.
 
iPhones can multi-task. It's just that the API to run as other than the main foreground process is not public. Only Apple apps, like the music player, are allowed to use it.
 
Nosi said:
If your hard up for Flash, can't you get it off the Internet? I was able to get it as a tarball for Linux back before Linux popped it out of the Firefox box...
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Perhaps if they didn't lock the thing down like Alcatraz.
 
Almo said:
The interface will be nicer. That's one of the main things I like about Apple products.
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I think that's the best answer on the thread. The iPhone does nothing other phones can't do (and in some cases less) but the care they took in the interface is what really made it take off.

I recently bought a Toshibo TG01 which looked superficially like an iPhone interface with a bigger screen.

Unfortunately the interface was just horrible (really appalling) and in the end I ditched it for my previous phone.

I think the iPhone was such a success because Apple looked really carefully at the phone market and said "How can we make the interface here better"?
While at the same time as far as I can tell Microsoft was focussing on tables and saying "Great big tables - how can we make the interface better"?

(Having said that I still love my Pocket PC)
 
quadraginta said:
One thing the Motion tablet did to make me a real fan was demonstrate an awesome real-life durability.
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Well, I don't work in construction. The M400 has been durable enough for the very light amount of abuse I give it.

I think Tablet PCs have not picked up, because the extra cost does not translate into enough benefit for most people.

Real Tablet PCs are cool. But, you do pay a premium for 'em.
 
Wowbagger said:
Apple is not calling it a "tablet", but almost everyone else is. This is something that will probably compete with Kindles and Nooks fairly well.
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And I hope they keep it up. :p

I'd love to see something with the form factor of that Motion I had (size, shape, and nearly :( the weight of a three thick stack of legal pads, even with the added thickness of the keyboard/cover) and the price and functionality of a mid-range consumer grade laptop.

The functionality has long been doable and done. Even exceeded in some ways. A good tablet can always serve as a good laptop, properly designed. The reverse is more difficult. The price will come down if enough people think they are "cool". I hope Apple has just boosted the "coolness" quotient.

"Tablets! Not just for geeks and worker-bees anymore."
 
Terry said:
or Android...
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From what I've experienced (this is from practical experience not just reading), Android is a much better API than iPhone OS.

Android is open, uses a well-known language (Java vs little-known, Apple proprietary Objective-C), more/deeper interface, has less issues, less frustration, no dealing with the iPhone Developer Program and the hurdles necessary to test (requires special this and that - won't get into the details) and make apps available at the App Store (requiring even more special this and that).

Also, with respect to battery life, not one mention of the current BIG problem with iPhone 3G and, especially, 3GS with battery life issues since iPhone OS 3.0 was released? Really? I purchased my iPhone at the beginning of last year (OS 2.x) and it would go for days without requiring a recharge. About September last year (shortly after 3.0 was released) I noticed the battery life being consumed much faster. If I keep the phone on but don't use it, I need to recharge in a day or two (I've turned off a bunch of stuff like email Push, Bluetooth, etc., to increase that from every day). Some people using 3GS mention their phone losing 10%/hr when not in use (!!). Whether this is a battery monitoring issue or something running in the background constantly that shouldn't hasn't been assessed yet. But currently, with 3.x, if you actually use your iPhone then you'll probably be getting only 8 hours at best between recharges. This problem has a long thread at the Apple Forums and there has been no word or fix from Apple six months later.

In other words, I'll bet that after a couple of updates to the OS on this new iPad, you'll be able to watch half a movie before you need to plug it in for charging. Batteries and Apple have been bitter rivals for years. Similar issues with iPods and MacBook. They really need to think about replaceable battery design for their devices. My laptop has a replaceable battery. My Korg electronic guitar tuner (about the same size as the iPhone) has replaceable batteries. What gives?\
 
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timhau said:
Stock market reaction, one day later (when the Jobs spell has worn off): AAPL -4.20%, and it's back under 200 bucks.

And in other news, Apple has lost its #1 fan due to the iPad. (Warning: NSFW.)
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That made my week. Danke bitte. :p
 
erlando said:
And to all the whiners saying "It's too expensive. It doesn't do multitasking. Where's the camera?" I only have one thing to say: If it bothers you that much - don't buy it.
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Come on, I didn't whine even though I brought these things up. If anything, the thoughts I provided on the device were quite optimistic, though notably tentative. It's not really a reasonable expectation to just disregard the criticisms out there with a "just don't buy it" response, especially not within Apple, because the result will be precisely that-- people won't buy it.

Apple fans can forgive the Newton of years past because it wasn't one of Jobs' babies. With the MacBook Air and AppleTV, these are two products that tend to not get focused on as much because they've been so lackluster (despite their having been sold as "revolutionary" at release time), and they are two of Jobs' babies. Sure, we can focus on the hits that the iPod and iPhone were, but if we ignore the misses that the Air and AppleTV were then we're not really applying critical analysis to reasonably judge market acceptance of this device and how well it will likely do. Right now, those criticisms that exist make it at least rational to consider whether the iPad is going to turn out being another Air or AppleTV, or whether something will change that will thrust it into the realm of success like the iPod and iPhone. So far, this device seems to be somewhere between the two and it's difficult to tell which way it's going to go, even if initial sales are strong (like they predictably will be).
 
grunion said:
The challenge is, is there a space for this device? Can they convince people (like them seem to have convinced my daughter, and back2basics) that this will improve their life and is worth the price tag? For a lot of you the answer appears to be (at least for now) "no." Market success, more iller apps, or some other minor tweaks might change that answer. Personally I don't think that I need this yet (and I was a very early adopter for other gadgets - still have my original first gen iPod) and I agree with the sentiment that they will shake out the bugs in future generations, and I can see getting one for my kids in about a year or so.
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I think this gets to the heart of the issue, and it's something I touched on in my longer post of my thoughts earlier in the thread. Convincing people that this device is going to be useful will be the challenge going forward, and people finding a niche for this device to fill (as opposed to the one Apple marketing tries to shunt it into) will make or break the success of it. For the type of buyer who wants to approach this rationally and not in an "OMG bleeding edge... must buy!" sort of manner the wait-and-see approach seems best. I can see a few market segments finding some use for this device, but on the business side unless there's a way to lock it down a little tighter I don't see it taking flight as a "digital professional" device any time soon. This relegates it to being primarily the "digital lifestyle" type of machine I mentioned earlier, and if past trends are anything to count on what this could mean is that it might find its way into a small (but possibly profitable) niche, but that won't translate into the type of hit that the iPhone has become in the larger arena.
 
Another big factor is price. I know that $499 (for the most basic model) seems somewhat reasonable in the Apple structure. Still, it's not an impulse buy for most non-gadget folks unless there's something really compelling someone wants to do with it.

The iPhone 3GS, on the other hand, is right there in the thick of it compared to other high-end smartphones at $199 with contract. One can even get into an iPhone 3G with 8GB of memory for $99. Similarly, iPods don't cost more than $399 and all models but the Classic start at under $200.

The iPod/iPhone line also has the advantage of extreme portability. If you've got a pocket, you've got room to carry one easily. The iPad, on the other hand, is probably going to call for a bag. Even the ladies carrying purses might need to up-size in order to carry the iPad comfortably. My mom carries a medium-sized purse and her Nook just fits in there where the iPad wouldn't have a shot.
 
Yes I think it is a matter of "need". Almost everyone in this day and age needs a phone. A mp3 player also seems like a necessity. Almost everyone needs a computer/laptop. No one needs an ipad. It is a superfluous piece of technology that is way too close to other Apple products and has way too many self imposed limitations (imo intentionally left out for the express purpose of being added later as "new features" for later models). It will sell but not nearly as well as people might think. It will in no way, shape or form come close to iphone/ipod numbers. If anything maybe this will get people and other companies interested in quality/affordable tablets. Archos has some nice products but they always seem to come up a bit short. If their new tablet (https://store.archos.com/product_info.php?id=96) had full Win7 instead of Win7 starter ed. it might be pretty amazing but the battery life is poor and it has a few other shortcomings.
 
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