But I would like to take it to work and read my IHT on the bus or train as well as catch up with Twitter and FB (my local buses have started to provide free wi-fi, so I imagine that trains will soon be enabled). I would certainly like to have it at work because it would mean that I could bypass the office IT policies that prevent me using FB and Twitter as well as Flickr and blogs. But how to get it there? Women can chuck it into a handbag but men don’t have one and it’s certainly not pocketable. It would go in a laptop case, but the laptop’s already in there, isn’t it? So it’s not easily portable. That’s its main drawback; but it’s not a killer.

I have to confess I really don’t like that bezel. it’s just too thick. However, if the price were £250 I’d be sorely tempted, especially with iWork being ported across.

And please, could people stop battering it because it’s made by Apple? It’s a tool. Sometimes it’s what you want, sometimes it isn’t.

But, as with all things, the arbiter is cost.

http://whatswrongwithwindows.blogspot.com/2010/02/what-does-apples-latest-ithing-mean-for.html

Applications and uses of the iPad will be new and different from the way we use devices now, and I don’t think a new device needs to replace an existing device, eBook readers have shown that people are prepared to carry and extra new device, if the iPad is good at the things you want it to do, people will buy it.

Remember, the original iPhone lacked probably more features than the iPad does, and that sold for $599 for an 8Gb model! To me the iPad looks cheap, and if you’re already an Apple ecosystem user, I know that I’ll have all my emails, book marks, photo’s, music etc on the device in minutes from unpacking it.

The iPad is a new device with a huge Eco-system behind it, its just that most people don’t get it completely yet, they will, and that’s not Apple’s fault. Remember everyone said a touch screen only phone would never appeal to a majority ..

So now the print publishers think they have found their salvation (ie new revenue stream) in Apples iBook store? Good luck. The problem with print publishing is one of evolution and failure to adapt to a new market. Only the legacy generation is going to be wowed by a “digital magazine”. These experiments have been tried and have failed. Personally, with the dominance of the web, I feel *any* for of “reading” is a niche and hence any “reader” is a niche and they all have expiration dates. Kids will be looking to traditional venues for reading less and less.

As for multimedia experiences, they can be created and consumed on *any* computing device. We don’t need a locked ecosystem. And therein lies my problem. Kindle is available for Kindle, Windows the Mac and the iPhone (Android coming). Same for the B&N reader. Zinion, which as people hail Apples salvation of magazines people seem to ignore (its the same thing but has been around for 6 years), also runs on PC and Mac.

Why do we suddenly now “need” this to be handled by Apple and locked in to *their* store on *their* device on *their* terms?

With music and video the market was too big and their lock in was finite. Eventually they were forced to open things a bit – port iTunes to the PC, move away from DRM, etc. I would expect a similar thing will happen with the book format. I am sure they dont *want* it to happen though.

So do we need some revolutionary form of moving print to the digital age? Possibly – at least for some folks. Do we need to “save the print industry” by supporting a monolithic ecosystem design to appeal to partners by promising maximum monetization and hardware lock-in? No. We really dont.

I think Apple addressed gigantic, clearly important, markets when they released their MP3 player and phone. These were *proven* concepts that simply needed better execution.

Slate tablets? Not so at all. Many say the “problem” has been MSFT incompetence. I dont buy it. I think the problem is the form factor. If its big enough to be useful, its as big as a laptop, yet never as useful. They’re always bound to be as expensive as a laptop. And a laptop can be as small and light as a slate (or very nearly so).

EReaders in general are a semi-proven niche. But the Kindle and Nook and Sony cover that niche fairly well.

So the iPad is a traditional slate tablet, running a phone OS, masquerading as an eReader in order to have a clear use case.

If it werent for the Jobs magic, Apple hype machine, and near SLAVISH devotion of the media and blogosphere to Cupertino, the reaction would have been overwhelmingly skeptical as it has been each and every time we’ve gone down this road.

Microsoft definitely was delinquent in not providing any sort of ecosystem or transformation of the user experience or update to Office when they went down the Tablet road, Origami road, UMPC 2.0 road…

But lets be real… The PC market (unlike the Apple market) is OPEN. If the form factor were KILLER and so genuinely important, 3rd parties would have rushed in.

The price point of the iPad is great and ubiquitous connectivity makes things interesting, but what I think happened is that the Netbook bomb dropped *during development* of that thing. They missed their window and they know it. Thats why Jobs went so hard after Netbooks (and btw, there are Netbook tablets and slates) in his key note.

I think the release and enormous popularity of the Netbook form factor was an “uh oh” moment for the iPad team.

My feeling is it will find its niche, Apple fans will buy 5 of them (the Apple bloggers are already on line), the tech press and media will be SLAVES to the concept since they see it as a life line, but ultimately, this will certainly not be as “transformational” or “fundamentally important” as some of the intense hyperbole from the tech press would lead you to believe. It is CERTAINLY no iPhone.

Apple are famous for their design but this thing looks hideous.

Re 42 some bloke & the Eee PCs, If that’s what you think, fine. You get what you pay for. Yes the Eee PC is half the price, but looks cheap & nasty. You could never say that about any Apple product.