Don’t Slate The iPad

Yesterday an iPad was brought into the office 2 days prior to the UK release (which is tomorrow).  It was the first chance to get a look at the “haloed” piece of technology, and even though I didn’t actually get to use the device it still was mouth-wateringly delicious to look at.

I can state now that I’m definitely going to purchase an iPad in the near future.  I’m still undecided about which model to get, but I’m edging towards the 32GB 3G version.  I know 32GB isn’t a huge amount of storage by todays standards but most of my media will be kept on my Linux server and Mac that will act as data hubs for the iPad.  I only need to store media on the iPad that I’ll be consuming within a short time period.  Then it’ll be back to the hub to refresh the content with new stuff.

Onto the haters.  I have no idea why I’ve heard so many people slate the iPad before they’ve even tried to use it.  I’ve heard comments that it’ll be rubbish for work, or you won’t be able to do what you do (design and build websites) on it.  These people don’t have the faintest clue what they are talking about!

The iPad was not designed to replace the desktop, it was not designed to replace a work station or work laptop.  They’ve given it some business type applications, but these essentially will not be used for primary construction of documents and such.  What Apple have done is to explode and invigorate a dormant tablet market with a brilliant product.

They’ve created a product that’s a great media consumption device.  It’s about accessing information quicker than ever before and being able to traverse the information in a intuitive and sexy way! Whether you’re on the move or lounging on your sofa, all you have to do it pick up the iPad and begin.  It’s an e-reader, internet browser, music player, portable tv screen, social communications device, quick play gaming device, and much much more.

It will never replace your computer, but it wasn’t designed to.  It will hopefully however make a large dent in the netbook market.  These terrible underpowered, poor screened, cheap feeling computers that have seen a large market growth in recent years.  Many people also have complained that these computers are nothing like their desktops or standard laptops. Surprise, these too are not designed to replace your work stations. Perhaps these are the same people who moan about the iPad not being able to function like their computers?

You’ll start to see within the next year other companies quickly trying to pedal out their own versions of tablet devices.  No doubt in the rush to capitalised on this refreshed market they will output shoddy imitations where they haven’t spent enough time balancing the software to hardware relationship which Apple does so well.  Just look at all the shoddy iPhone wanna-bes that have been coming out over the last couple of years.