I was out of the office all day driving up and down the coast line of New Jersey so I didn’t get the chance to watch the live blogging that of Apple’s Special event. After our lunch meeting and driving to our next meeting, my colleague picked up his iPhone and started looking at the coverage and what we missed. I have to say that I was left with an underwhelming feeling. Here’s why:
- The name – it’s not the worst name in the world but it’s not the best either.
- Lack of Multi-task – In something the size of the iPad, you are going to want to actually do more with the device. Not having that ability in a phone is one thing, but not having it in a 9.7 inch device? I think that it’s something you need. I do have a conspiracy theory about this and it has to do with Apple wanting you to buy music and not listen to Pandora and similar services.
- The genre of device – I am still not convinced that there is really a need for an iPad. I don’t mind using my laptop to watch TV (via Hulu – something you still can’t do on the iPhone or iPad) or showing off pictures on my iPhone. The latter since it’s especially portable and you have it with you at all times. To me there is just no place that I see a tablet fitting in my life. The only place that I can see it fitting is as an eBook reader and I’d rather just get a Kindle or a Nook, if I decided to go that route. We all know how torn I am about that.
- Wireless – I know that it comes with Wi-Fi but to pay an extra $15 or $30 for 3G? Really? That is just a plain old money grab. I mainly blame AT&T for that but I also blame Apple for not saying no. In my case, if I am just going to use it as an eBook reader, I’d rather have to not pay extra when I want to download a book and I’m not on an open Wi-Fi network.
- eBook – I’m grateful that Apple decided to use the epub standard but what about side loading other non encrypted epub books? That is the big question and I suspect the answer is that you won’t be able to get them onto your iPad.
Am I missing something?
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