The Apple iPad and why I think it is good

 

On 1-27-2010 Apple announced a new product called the iPad. So many people are yelling about the product release and how it is not that good, how it falls short and does not deliver on the dream of the Apply tablet. Some of these arguments are valid, but I am not really sure that the tablet is going to be a failure.

Let me start with what this device is not. This should go without saying, but it is not a laptop replacement. I know that most people are saying that it is to compete with a netbook, but that is really not what this product should or will do. This is meant to augment a laptop or desktop not replace anything. So do not look at this as what you can replace, but what you augment.

Lets take a look at what this will be great at. The first would be reading ebooks. You might say that  you could buy a kindle or nook and do the same things. While that is true I think if you open your mind you will see this will do so much more. You could not compose email on a nook. You can not browse the web on the kindle.

A netbook would give you the web browsing ability, but would not give you the really good ebook experience. It will let you doing email in a very good way. In fact I would even argue that the email experience on a netbook would be better, but the web browsing on a netbook really sucks save for being able to play flash  content.

The final piece is the price. Just like most of Apple’s products this thing comes with a “cool” tax. That means this thing is priced more than a kindle or a netbook, but wait lets take a step back. For your $650 or less you get an ebook reader and netbook. So that makes the price not as bad as you might think.

Lets look at some of the things Apple could have done to make the device better. The first and foremost would be to add a camera. I think this goes without saying and I will not talk much about it. The other thing would be to add expandable storage. This would give the device much more flexibility.

So when it comes to the iPad I would recommend that you open your mind a bit and look at what all it will give you. Once you do that and put the device into proper context I think you will see it is very compelling.