So it seems Steve (Jobs) has a nice new product (iPad) and other Steve (Fry) met him talked a bit and seems to really like it. I’m not disagreeing with either. I’m sure it’s a great product at a great price, but this Steve isn’t sure where it fits in.
The iPhone and Macbook have their pluses and minuses. Whilst the iPhone is great, the web side can be a pain (mind you O2’s network doesn’t help). Other than that it fits the bill. The Macbook on the other hand is a superb bit of kit, but it’s heavy and less portable. So the iPad should fit in between these two devices. O.k. it’s not a phone, but the phone part of the iPhone is almost secondary to me. It’s used more as a non voice communications tool than a phone, it just happens to have a good phone built it. So it seems apart from the phone element the iPad is a clear winner. Maybe, maybe not. The other advantage of the iPhone is it’s pocket-able, which for me a major consideration.
So at this point it’s not winning.
Looking over at the Macbook it’s hard to see where the iPad wins, other than cost and weight. For me the Macbook is essential for working/input etc whereas the iPad isn’t an input tool. It has the ability to input, but really at this moment in time it’s not a viable solution for working.
A dead duck then?
Probably for me it is, it seems whilst the ability to create on iPad is not lost, it’s certainly no Laptop. It’s miles ahead for creativity compared to the iPhone, but still lacks multitasking that laptop users have relied on for years. Maybe the iPad/iPhone v.4 software will address this. If so then productivity would be increased on both devices.
It’s still missing something important from the MacBook: OS X. Underneath the iPad/iPhone is a mobile version of OS X, which is superb. Unfortunately it’s a closed system, you can’t change it too much and the freedom to buy applications off the shelf isn’t there. Apple don’t want to go down the netbook route, which I can understand. Netbooks are pretty much just a small laptop, not much cheaper than a normal laptop but with a smaller screen and low spec CPU/Ram combination. For portable mobile computing Apple have the MacBook Air, which does come with a very large price tag (which in turn isn’t too far away from the pricing of Dell/HP etc and their MBA style laptops).
So the real reason for the iPad: Content
Apple haven’t hid away from this, in fact it’s probably the biggest win for the device. As a pure content delivery device I don’t think there’s anything to match it for style, price and usability.
Problem I have is I’m not a content person. I do use the iPhone on the bus/train for music, but that’s it. Trying to use an iPhone for the web on the 17 bus is a nightmare, it’s not an easy task (really the roads were bad before the winter and the potholes). Maybe with the iPad it’ll be easier. I suppose it would, after all it’s a bigger device so navigation may be less problematic.
With regards to video content my Bus/Train journeys are too short for anything but a 30 minute video, so nothing again for me here. Maybe the eBooks will be a winner, again not for me as I don’t read (sadly, never got the bug – wouldn’t know where to start now – probably try War and Peace or some other mammoth tome – just to clarify I can read, but don’t read apart from Technical manuals).
Video treat: Stephen Fry unboxes an iPad and accessories
So to conclude:
It’s a great product, but it probably doesn’t fit me.
As I posted before I’ll probably end up with one.