In praise of the iPad: A contrarian view

The iPad will NOT replace a netbook until it can print and connect USB devices (like a DVD drive). Despite Erica's arguments (and I respect her IMMENSELY), there are people for whom the netbook IS their primary computer (not everyone has the luxury of owning 2 computers). The truth is that 80% of the people who use a computer today use it SOLELY to:
- listen to music
- watch videos
- write documents (make signs, do spreadsheets, make presentations, etc.)
- surf the web

If you write something, 8 times out of 10 you want to print it. You can do this with a netbook, but not (yet) the iPad. If you surf, the reality is that Flash is everywhere and you will be denied viewing in a lot of places. From what I've read, Flash is horrible and should (and hopefully will) be replaced by HTML5, but we're not there yet and the fact is that there will be a LOT of sites iPad users simply won't be able to use (one of my favorite is rummikub.com- they've done an amazing job at implementing this game on-line, but it's all in Flash :-( ).

So, as a 'large iPod touch', the iPad is great- but it cannot yet replace a netbook (unless one has a "real" computer too)...

one interesting thing about the name (besides the obvious silliness) is that it's an "i" product

it isn't a macpad! i think apple can easily take a macbook, remove the keyboard and replace it with a screen and call it a macpad would also cost more tan the macbook and be underpowered in comparison...

was iTab taken?

thanks Erica for that contrarian view. I think you're spot on. I also see that you are noticing the positives of this device, rather than the negatives (and yes, all devices have negatives).

I have a 1st-gen iPod Touch, and am happy with its capabilities. I just would like it to have a larger screen so I'm not endlessly pinching and zooming. I would have been happy with a 5" or even a 7" model, but no doubt Apple tried these sizes in prototypes and eventually concluded that 10" was the best compromise. I'm typing this comment using a 10" screen (my Asus EeePC 1005HA Hackintosh), and would be quite happy to replace it with an iPad and use it with my Apple bluetooth keyboard. (Lack of BT keyboard support is the main reason I've never bought an iPhone or the newer iPod Touch).

I can do without the Flash, but I agree the missing camera is a bummer. However, I'm guessing it was likely excluded due to constraints of cost. Constraints of timing to get this thing to market (how long have we all "known" about this thing?) And constraints of engineering, they were preparing a whole new chipset!

Furthermore, the first iteration of iPhone was extremely lacking, in retrospect, when compared to the following 3G and 3GS improvements.

Sadun quote: "Steve Jobs laid out the raison d'etre for the tablet right at the start of his presentation. Apple was going after the part of the market that wanted light computing: more than a phone could deliver and less involved than a laptop demanded. Ergo, the netbook."

Sorry, true netbooks multitask. True netbooks have a video camera. Steve Jobs purposefully crippled the iPad to prevent MacBook cannibalization. Leave it to Google and their Chrome OS to do what Apple will not -- provide us with a tablet platform w/ real computing ability.

The iPad has a chance today because the so called typical "netbooks" are getting larger and more expensive. When the netbook class started, we have 9" netbooks and smaller and they're really cheap (~$200-$250). Today, netbooks are at least 10" (more creeping up to 11" and up), and the same thing with the prices (creeping up to ~$400+). Because netbooks have very low margins, it's in the best interest of the manufactures to try to upsell them, and the easiest way is to make them bigger and sell them for more money. The iPad would be a total failure if it was released when netbooks are tiny and super cheap. Today, the iPad may actually make more sense for some consumers as it offers more portability than the typical "netbook," and for a bit more money, you get more content integration on the iPad vs a bare Windows OS (with many netbooks are still being sold with the aging XP).

OMG! There’s no camera what ever will I do. At first I was disappointed, a camera is a no-brainer right. Well I agree that the camera will not work that well when holding the ipad in your hand with the bad angle and all the shaking so I agree that built may not be the best idea (could there actually be people out there that don’t care about having a camera). With desktop mode, however, it will well. So the next no-brainer will be the camera in the charging base. We’ll all have to go back and buy something else so I’m going to wait. The other option is a Bluetooth camera that can sit anywhere. And, why couldn’t you use the one on your iphone or through Bluetooth. Oh wait, maybe they already thought of that! Fear not folks the camera will come.

With all the ipad comments I just have to add my two cents. I think everybody is analyzing the device to death when we should be looking at our lifestyles and how a family uses computers. Personally I think the ipad is going to save me a bunch of money- that’s right folks money.
It’s not a question why I would want to replace my computer with an ipad but why I would want to replace my second and third computer with an ipad. First I think the ipad was never designed to replace the macbook, obviously. It is designed to do one thing and that is to get on the internet and do it with style.
I’m a father of a 12 year old boy and 5 year old daughter. I’m on my third laptop because it get drug around the house along with the cord. It also sucks up dust and overheats. I yell at my wife and son to be careful and quite carrying it by the screen and bending the cord. Now the wires are showing and I expecting this laptop to bite the dust any day.
I just bought an i-mac so that I would have one reliable computer in the house. Now my wife and son fight over use of the laptop. My son watches you-tube on the couch and my wife checks her e-mail while watching TV and then takes the computer to bed and gets on face book.
Now when this laptop is history I’m going to have to replace it and I’m sticking with apple because of all the reasons people like mac’s, but why do I need to buy a mac-book when I can get a ipad for less than half the price. My wife and son will almost never need a full-up computer and if they do we already have one. Oh and my daughter will be on face book just like mom in a few years.
I can get two ipads for the price of another mac and how much easier to use and move around the house. Long battery life and solid state construction will no doubt out last a laptop two to three times. Yes the ipad is going to save my family a ton of money over the next five years and I haven’t even left the house with it yet.
The majority of people that buy laptops don’t do anything more that surf the net and check e-mail. To me it’s not a question of will ipad hurt the e-readers but is it going to kill Dell, HP, and Microsoft. People are going to realize they have be buying laptops when all they ever wanted to do is surf, email and look at their pictures.

Will the ipad sell? Are you serious. You better get in line.

I agree with many of the stated reasons in the comments as to why not having Flash on the iPad (and iPhone and iPod Touch for that matter) is a good thing. However, there is one major drawback the lack of Flash on these devices presents, especially the iPad.

I work for a very large online education company. We create online college-level courses which are then re-sold sold through literally hundreds (actually closer to 2,000) colleges and universities in the United States, the UK and Australia. While much of each course's content is developed using plain old HTML, JavaScript, etc., there is a very large portion of interactive content (and in a number of cases, entire courses and programs) that have been developed and deployed with Flash. We're talking hundreds of interactive components spread out across literally hundreds of courses that are deployed in colleges and universities across the country.

Over the years there has been a lot of debate and decision-making internally when it came to which browsers, operating systems, etc. to support and which authoring tools and plug-ins to use for creating and delivering course content. For multimedia and interactive content Flash was ultimately chosen primarily because the overwhelming majority of our end-users had some form of the plug-in installed already and also because it was a "swiss army knife" solution for us in that we are able to deploy a wide breadth of content types from simple animations, to audio, video and most importantly, interactive learning games through this single plug-in.

It is likely we will start to port video and audio content over to HTML 5 supported formats at some point in the near future as its adoption becomes more widespread. However, the sheer massive amount of pre-existing and already deployed content will make this process take at least a few years, not to mention the dilemma presented by the hundreds of learning games that have been developed and deployed in our courses with Flash over the past six or seven years.

So, while all this is technically our problem, it does however, present a serious issue for potential users of Apple's iPad (and perhaps to some small extent to the iPhone/iPod Touch) that could lead to negative customer experiences with an Apple product and bad publicity for Apple.

Let me elaborate. A number of people who might otherwise purchase a netbook might decide to opt for Apple's iPad, especially since it would at first glance appear to do everything they will need it to do - web surfing, e-mail, books, music, movies, podcasts, photos, etc. And, for the most part, it will, unless, of course, they attempt to take most any online college course.

A perfect example of this is our nanny. A few months back she had decided to start taking some online courses through a local college and decided to purchase a solution primarily for this reason. She had a maximum budget of roughly $500 - $600 to spend on something that would allow her to perform a few key tasks - web surfing, e-mail, listening to music, some social networking and you guessed it, taking her online courses. She also wanted something highly portable and lightweight. Being a huge Mac fan and owner myself since my first Mac several years ago (a PowerMac 7500), I suggested she at least explore Apple's laptop offerings prior to making a final decision.

Of course, price was ultimately the overriding factor for her and in the end she decided to purchase an inexpensive HP netbook. A number of weeks ago, she showed me what her online courses looked like briefly (being in the online education biz I was curious to see them), and sure enough - her entire program was being delivered through online Flash modules complete with audio, video, learning games, etc.

This week when she heard about the iPad, she commented to me that if it had been available when she was shopping for a laptop/netbook solution a few months back, she would've have definitely gotten the iPad over the netbook she has since the iPad appeared to do everything she needed and wanted, fit her price requirement and looked like a lot more fun to use, too.

I didn't have the heart to tell her that if she had she wouldn't have been able to access her online courses at all if she'd chosen the iPad since Flash is not available for or supported on the iPad. Furthermore, she obviously didn't realize that web surfing on the iPad doesn't include Flash content at all, and she shouldn't have to, since she's not a computer/tech geek, but rather the type of person that I imagine to be the exact target Apple had in mind for the iPad.

Furthermore, it made me wonder what sort of fallout there'd have been if she was making her purchase decision now and did end up purchasing an iPad only to find out that it was completely useless to use for taking her online courses. Of course, she'd

Erica Sadun is out of touch with reality.