Apple’s iPad: Interesting, But Not Quite Baked Yet
Apparently there’s been a bit of buzz around Apple’s tablet recently. Few folks were wondering what I thought… which was a better question than they really knew since I was still trying to wrap my mind around it myself! There’s probably going to be more, but for now I think I’ve distilled it down to a few key points.
The first is that this is a classic Apple 1.0 product. It’s sexy, has appeal to a reasonably large market, and also has an annoying but obvious list of omissions which will be added to inevitable upgrades. No camera, no GPS, no connectivity to external displays, and likely CPU speed increases are all things we’ll see in the next few revisions. (On that note, be sure to check the MacRumor’s Buyer’s Guide before you purchase anything Apple; they’re on a pretty regular schedule, and the site will help you avoid buying something just weeks before a major refresh.)
The second is that Apple (with AT&Ts help) drove a huge wedge into the door toward opening up reasonably priced, ubiquitous connectivity. Although 3G isn’t on every device, WiFi is – which is pretty darn well ubiquitous at this point. I’m also sure you’ll see 3G (or successors) become standard in the next few years as well. In addition, the no-contract 3G plan from AT&T is a huge step forward toward enabling people to be constantly connected. (Although the new microSIM is a clever way to continue giving AT&T a limited time-exclusive on the iPad through hardware while being able to have a talking point about opening up the device to other mobile operators in the future.)
The third is that constant connectivity will likely help drive new genres of entertainment, especially for games. You’ve begun to see iPhone games (such as Words with Friends) and platforms (PlusPlus, OpenFeint) that try to take advantage of this capability. I’ve spoken before about the importance of Asynchronous Gaming; these games and platforms are just the first steps down that path. (The interesting question is what Apple will do about all of these different social gaming network platforms springing up on their devices. They’re still in the early stages of their game strategy, but keep an eye out for them to either build out their own cross-platform social network for games, or just purchase one of those guys as a jumpstart.)
Finally, it’s pretty obvious Apple is in the early days of their gaming strategy, but definitely have their eyes on a cross-platform, unified development platform target. Lots of hints like the extension of the iPhone OS to the iPad, iPhone app compatibility, iTunes as the content aggregator/distribution point, lack of sideloading capability, the stagnation of Apple TV (and the eventual reboot as yet another connected platform to play these games on) all point to a clear direction. (The eventual Apple TV reboot could also be the reason there’s no way to connect the iPad to a television right now – why create competition for yourself?) Don’t look for a lot of investment in enabling traditional “PC” games on Mac, but definitely watch as they extend the ability of their development partners to target the widest possible audience across devices. This is also one of the reasons I’m quite sure there’s a cross-platform social backend (with support for gaming) coming from Apple – it’s low-hanging fruit (no pun intended).
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I find myself feeling just a little sad about the device. The low-end $499 price point is nice, and having a big screen is nice, but it’s missing a lot of things that I was hoping for. In particular, GPS and camera. This would have been a great platform for Augmented Reality applications, but in its current form those just won’t really work.
There are a lot of people talking about making games for the device, but I’m not seeing much there beyond what one might do on a tablet PC. If I was a new iPad owner, sure, I’d be buying some apps specifically designed for the device, so there is a market there for game developers to address. But right now I feel like iPad is just an iPod Touch XL. There will be people who will buy it for that. But on a budget, I’ll just keep using the devices I use now – an iPod Touch for media playback, and a light laptop or netbook for quick web and email checking. I will wait for version two.
On the point about networking – eventually people are going to get frustrated about paying for DSL at home, 3G on the phone, a laptop dongle for when you’re on the road, iPad networking, etc, all separately. We need package deals, or SIM cards we can move between devices. It’s getting a little crazy.
First, I have no idea how to customize my own avatar image when logged in as an administrator. Personal fail – anyone have any ideas?
Second, totally agree with you Mark! The missing functionality keeps this from being a must have device in my opinion… but it’s close, and I suspect I’ll be very interested in the next revision. Also agree on the networking point – we’re a few years away, but at some point relatively soon we’ll start paying for wireless network access as a commodity. VoIP will replace the oldschool phone networks, and the idea of releasing any sort of connected device like this without the ability to communicate with people will seem insane.
To be fair, that last point shouldn’t be seen as a criticism of Apple. Their segmented approach to having 3G as an option makes sense in this time and space. But it’s coming!
… stupid Gravatar image.
Oh, even better. *I* have to validate myself to the reCAPTCHA.