Showing posts with label ipad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ipad. Show all posts
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
iPad Mania
The iPad has at this point generated probably almost as much if not more hype than the iPhone. However the difference is in the quality of hype. When the iPhone was coming out, almost everyone I knew either wanted one or at least was aware of it. This iPad buzz is an entirely different phenomenon. I have a few friends and relatives that I use as my test points when I am curious about how far an industry meme has penetrated into mainstream userdom.
None of them have heard of it. When I decribe it they all have had the same reaction.
So it's a really frickin big phone? Ewwww. This is a fascinating product to those in the blogosphere and in the tech press. Outside of our rarified world nobody cares. Ipods are great because they are smaller than a cd walkman and you can take them with you everywhere in your pocket. Obviously, the ipad isn't that!
I don't want to join the chorus of naysayers that predict doom and obscurity for Apple and it's latest product. But let me just say, this product is doomed for failure and will be the undoing of Apple. (I said I didn't want to, not that I wouldn't!)
I have been saying for a while, "gosh I wish I had a device that bridged the capabilities of a notebook and a cell phone." Something I can use for google maps, excel spreadsheets, email and web. This device seems to fit the bill but it utterly fails in a couple of places for me. That is why I will keep searching, or settle for a lesser device. It also has one or two major points in its favor.
The Failure Bowl
The Success Bowl
Look at how many iPods they have out now? Four seperate product lines with various memory tiers within each. With the iPad that makes 5. It also has a very small amount of storage in my opinion. 16, 32 or 64 gigs? really? For this to be the "one ring" of netbooks meets e-readers I would have thought triple digit storage capacity (or an SD slot!) would be crucial. Like many Apple products this may take another product cycle or two to reach its potential.
You could also say that they are finally making a sub-notebook at half the price of the white macbook. I know some kids will be trying to convince their parents with that argument!
Me, I plan on picking up a netbook, by Asus. I really need USB and SD card slots. Being an old goofball with stubby fingers I really need keys as well. I was hoping that Apple would pull off some amazing slider type device that has a thin metal keyboard (like the current bluetooth keyboard) that tucks away when not in use. Well it was nice knowing you Apple.
Expect a brisk early adopter sales frenzy followed by a long decline.
None of them have heard of it. When I decribe it they all have had the same reaction.
So it's a really frickin big phone? Ewwww. This is a fascinating product to those in the blogosphere and in the tech press. Outside of our rarified world nobody cares. Ipods are great because they are smaller than a cd walkman and you can take them with you everywhere in your pocket. Obviously, the ipad isn't that!
I don't want to join the chorus of naysayers that predict doom and obscurity for Apple and it's latest product. But let me just say, this product is doomed for failure and will be the undoing of Apple. (I said I didn't want to, not that I wouldn't!)
I have been saying for a while, "gosh I wish I had a device that bridged the capabilities of a notebook and a cell phone." Something I can use for google maps, excel spreadsheets, email and web. This device seems to fit the bill but it utterly fails in a couple of places for me. That is why I will keep searching, or settle for a lesser device. It also has one or two major points in its favor.
The Failure Bowl
- iBook store. I don't have to go to a different store to buy books, CDs or Mp3s on Amazon. But then maybe this is something to do with different content provider types.
- No keyboard, sure you can hook one up via the dock port, or I assume bluetooth, but it really puts a cramp in portable as soon as you have more than one thing and cables involved.
- Proprietary processor. I can't believe Apple acquired a chip designer and had their own chips made. Supposedly very fast, but if memory serves me correct Apple just got out of the chip business not too long ago for speed reasons.
- No USB without Dock adapter. I use so many USB devices. Thumb drives, cameras, audio recorders and so on. USB is very necessary.
- No SD card slot. I have a lot of these and they have started to become kind of the standard (finally!) for memory cards. This would be a killer in-field photo review box if it had an SD card slot. Field audio or video editor?
- The apparent requirement of a host computer for iTunes? Am I reading the tech specs right? Do we need to have host machine to download apps/books/tunes to this guy?
- The economy is in a dumpster. Not a good time to come out with a premium version of one of your more successful products.
- Awfully big for an iPod.
The Success Bowl
- The cheap data plan. AT&T will be offering two data plans apparently. One is $14.99 for 250MB of data a month. The other is $29.99 for unlimited download. All 3G iPads will be unlocked, meaning they can be used on other carriers. Also, these plans are month-to-month. No contract! This is really the killer app on this box that no-one is talking about. I am looking at you. How much do YOU pay right now for your puny cellphone's data plan? $40 a month? $480 a year? They must have really twisted AT&T's arm!
- It already has all the App store apps to get it off the ground. Supposedly 99% will run. That 1% is a sliver of doubt though.
- great size/form factor, nice light weight for a netbook.
- Screen resolution of 1024x768. That's my 15" laptops screen resolution! On a 9" screen!
- It is very Star Trek.
Look at how many iPods they have out now? Four seperate product lines with various memory tiers within each. With the iPad that makes 5. It also has a very small amount of storage in my opinion. 16, 32 or 64 gigs? really? For this to be the "one ring" of netbooks meets e-readers I would have thought triple digit storage capacity (or an SD slot!) would be crucial. Like many Apple products this may take another product cycle or two to reach its potential.
You could also say that they are finally making a sub-notebook at half the price of the white macbook. I know some kids will be trying to convince their parents with that argument!
Me, I plan on picking up a netbook, by Asus. I really need USB and SD card slots. Being an old goofball with stubby fingers I really need keys as well. I was hoping that Apple would pull off some amazing slider type device that has a thin metal keyboard (like the current bluetooth keyboard) that tucks away when not in use. Well it was nice knowing you Apple.
Expect a brisk early adopter sales frenzy followed by a long decline.
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I have more good and bad to say about this new Apple product.
It is a cloudy day outside so I get to stay inside and rant. That and I just watched Walt Mossberg and some other curmudgeonly pundits on the ineffable Charlie Rose show gushing about the 'wicked fast' iPad. Incidentally the Charlie Rose show may be a great place to see Prince Abdullah interviewed in the same breath as Condoleeza Rice. But they couldnt get their hands on an iPad. Even with Mossberg, a slobbering Jobs stalker, in attendance. They also have a totally broken video player. It is laughable how badly put together that flash app is. The "share" link pops under the video window so you can't read it. And the video does not play.
Lets start with the bad.
The iPod touch works as a product because you dont need a data plan (and you wont with the non-3G version of the iPad) and it is cheaper than the iPhone! It also fits in your pocket and is easily mistakeable for an iPhone for those that feel the need to impress. The iPad unfortunately shares this family resemblance. I can’t help but think that they should have gone with a very non iPhone form factor to distinguish it from that line of products. If it is supposed to be "Apple's Netbook" it should have been skinned similar to the Macbook or Macbook pro.
Also for the price the amount of storage is ludicrous. Plain and simple they should have included an SD slot if they werent going to give us storage sizes over 64 gigs. 64 GB fills up awful fast when you add media and productivity apps.
Ok now the good side.
The data plan is really the killer app. No contract. Cheaper than the add on data plan for my cell phone (and your cellphone too most likely). If the AT&T network can get into the 21st century and handle sustained throughput at close to broadband speeds, than this could be the product that gets people to drop their DSL and just pay $14.99 a month for internet. Remember when everyone had land lines? Remember when folks started dropping their landlines in favor of having a cell? This may have similar effect on DSL.
It reminds me of a product that was sold in the late 80’s called minitel. It came from France apparently. It was essentially a dumb terminal for BBS access and email.
Now raise your hand if you have a mom, grandma or sister that would do great with a product that they just use for web/email? C’mon arent you sick of diggin them out of their virus fiasco every 6 months?!
As an ‘ereader’ I think it is a joke. $249 for the kindle was too much. Amazon wont say but most folks think they sold 2-3 million units. $500 for the base (16GB) model with no real accessories is a lot to ask for a reader. For a subnotebook though it isn’t bad….but no storage!
Unless of course we are expected to store everything “in the cloud”. That may well be the other shoe to drop. Expect a desktop icon which links to Apples cloud services, iDisk and MobileMe.