iPad? No, uFail.
Yesterday, the highly anticipated ‘Game Changer’ was finally released. A new device between a smartphone and a laptop. Something they’ve advertised as “Revolutionary” and “Magical”. The iPad!
Wow this is… err… well… it’s kind of like a Unicorn, without legs. It looks pretty and magical at first, but then you realize it doesn’t really do too much. It’s a boring device when you compare it to other Apple innovations. The iPad actually isn’t an innovation at all. It’s a large iPhone with less features!
One thing Appleheads have been saying is “It’s better than a netbook, but it’s not even competing with it. It’s revolutionary because it’s in a category of it’s own.” Really? Well, Steve Jobs brought up that this was a netbook killer and that netbooks “don’t do anything better”. So we’ve established his goal is to kill the netbook market.. thus… COMPETITION! I’ll address the second part of his comment a little later.
Let’s just look at some of the features, or lack of features. And to do so… let’s have a conversation with myself!
“So what does this thing do?”
“Well you can use the Apps you already use on your iPhone! ”
“Oh… Why wouldn’t I just use my iPhone? ”
“Irrelevant, this has a bigger screen! And it has pixel doubling!”
“Well can I go to Facebook.com on it?”
“Why would you? There’s an App for that!”
“Can I make a phone call on it?”
“Of course, Skype!”
“Oh awesome, I can see it being useful for video calls.”
“No, there’s no camera. But there is iBooks!”
“So I can read and listen to music at the same time?”
“Well there is no multi-tasking. One thing at a time! That’s why it’s good for productivity.”
“So why would I buy this if I can do all this stuff already on my iPhone? Plus make phone calls, plus it has a camera, plus it fits in my pocket, plus it’s easy to type on with thumbs?”
“I said it already! That’s irrelevant! This isn’t an iPhone, it’s bigger!!!”
Maybe I’m not getting it. Did I see a different presentation than everyone else? I don’t see how anyone could like this recycled operating system, cut back features, no real selling point other than ‘It’s Bigger!’ device. What am I missing? Oh right, the Netbook comparison, how this is better.
Well… let’s see… I can run a word processor, Windows Live Messenger, have a browser opened to Facebook.com and another one to Twitter.com. I have 3 USB ports that I can connect my mouse too. I have a built in webcam to do conferencing. I can watch movies/Youtube and with this new Crystal HD video decoder, it does so perfectly without any kind of stuttering (which admittedly is a problem without it.)
The fact is, the Netbook in terms of productivity can do a lot more than the iPad. The iPad is nothing more than a bloated iPhone, but with less to offer.
Apple got this one wrong. It’s a horrible mistake. They billed it as an ‘in between’ item, but didn’t deliver.
BUT!!!
Yes, there’s a but. Compare the very first iPod to the iPods available now. Big changes. In 2-3 years this iPad may be what it should have been already. Then again it may not. The first iPod was revolutionary, so it had momentum. The iPad has no legs.
This is one time, I’ll agree with Hitler.
