11 Feb 10 Has The New Apple iPad Missed The Mark?

I must admit to being at least a little bit curious about the new iPad from Apple. But, not curious enough to stay awake nights wondering if it was really just a rumor, and what it would actually be like. I wasn’t even curious enough to watch Steve Jobs announcement about it on the day it was released. I just watched it yesterday, and to be honest, part of me was impressed, and the other part of me was slightly bored.

Of course, there has to be a bit of chest thumping at these things, to keep the die hard Apple lovers enthralled, so I’ll put up with it for a bit. I guess I would take the time to toot my own horn, if I had a captive audience as well. Fortunately it didn’t last long, and they eventually got the good stuff. The actual iPad itself. Now, before I get overly crusty and critical let me just say right from the beginning, that I thing the iPad is a grand idea. And, a bit of a tricky product to get right. It is tough finding something that fits in between a smart phone and a laptop. And, I agree with Mr. Jobs, that a netbook is probably not that item. But, I’m not sure the iPad is either. At least not as it currently is.

Two big glaring missing items on the iPad at announcement time, were of course the camera and phone capabilities. Now, don’t get me wrong, I know this thing is too big to hold next to your ear like a iPhone, but it does have bluetooth, and with a bluetooth headset, this could be a great phone. If they went so far as to a webcam on the screen side, it would be extremely cool for skype and other video chatting applications. It really does need two cameras on it though I think. A good one on the backside (non screen side) for taking pictures and video, and a basic (at least) webcam quality one on the screen side.

Now, of course there has been much ado about whether or not the iPad will ship with a camera or not. The spies are everywhere, reporting on suppliers delivering camera parts that would be suitable for the iPad to Apple, and eagle eyes, who noticed that a number of the applications on the iPad seemed to have photo taking options included. I think, it’s safe to say that at some point, the iPad will have at least one camera, and phone capability. Perhaps not this coming March, but some incarnation of the iPad will have it all.

The other quibble I had with the iPad, had to be the screen keyboard. I really don’t know about this thing. Sure, it’s bigger but even Steve and the other guys typing on the iPad soft screen keyboard were any threat to Mavis Beacons speed records. And I kept thinking during the entire iWorks section of the presentation when they were showing all the word processor documents, that there was no way anyone typed those in using an iPad. Way to slooooooooooowwwwwwww. But, the one accessory that did jump out for me was the docking station with built in keyboard. Now, that’s a good idea.

So, I must say in summary, that the iPad has the potential to be an amazing machine. With a few more items (camera/phone). I think this is a tough challenge for the folks at Apple. The iPad didn’t wow me the way the iPhone did. We’ve seen all this touch screen stuff before. All the cool scrolly stuff with your finger that was pioneered with the iPhone, is now being done by everyone and their dog. And that’s no surprise either. That stuff is not going to bowl us over anymore. While the iPhone was a revolutionary product, I think the iPad is only an evolutionary one. A natural progression from the iPhone and iPod touch. A necessary step I believe, but nothing that will have me reaching for my wallet on day 1.

Tags: ipad, ipad touch, iphone, ipod