Apple’s iPad – a case of mistaken identity?
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
Given all the excitement and media attention that Steve Jobs' new gadget has received, we thought we'd get our tech leader, Sam Regan, to review it. Here's what he had to say...
The iPad is an interesting foray in to the tablet market. Apple are claiming they are creating a new category of device. However, in reality it's just marketing hyperbole. The category has already existed, all be it with little success outside of niche use. What they have achieved is to bring legitimacy to the form factor, something Apple has a proven record of delivering.
From a hardware perspective the device falls short. Commonly used interfaces are missing: SD / Micro SD storage, proper USB device connection, camera and video being the most obvious.
It's the user-interaction that is exciting. The device will enable people to share online content and media while in the same physical location. we all know the pain of showing holiday photos with others; standing around the laptop or PC. The iPad will simplify this and make the experience much more pleasurable and engaging - flipping the device and having photos re-orientate themselves automatically for example.
Equally, I can see multi-player gaming being quite exciting on this whether you are in the same room as your opponents or not. The replacement of board games such as Chess or Scrabble immediately spring to mind. Interactive-learning between a parent and child is not to be underestimated with such a tool, not to mention how much fun research could become - no more boring surveys!
In reality it's an over-sized iPhone (or iTouch) but it's the scaling up into a device that more than one person can use at the same time that really gets me interested.