When Jobs & Co. unveiled their newest toy to the world last Wednesday, I was more disappointed at the long list of missing features than wowed by Apple’s magic. And it seems most people out there had the same reaction I did. Nearly half of CrunchGear.com readers that took this poll said they would not be forking over money to purchase an iPad. The remaining half was split between wanting to buy one and “Meh, I could go either way”. This reaction is completely logical; without some of the much-anticipated features such as a camera, simultaneously-running apps, an option besides AT&T, Flash, GPS, and an earth-shattering new user experience (just to name a few) the iPad simply doesn’t live up to the hype that had snowballed since rumors of such a device had surfaced years ago. At first, you may think the iPad is just a big iPod touch, but then you’d be under-appreciating what’s perhaps its most important feature: a glossy 9.7 inch, 1024 x 768 resolution screen.
Apple is no doubt taking a gamble by entering a relatively uncharted product category. Many people, including myself, aren’t convinced that this is a device that actually solves a need. I’ve already got a smartphone and laptop, do I really want to pay for this in-between thingy? The feeling of “omg, this is going to change everything.” that followed the announcement of the iPhone two and a half years ago just doesn’t exist for me with the iPad… but that doesn’t necessarily mean that it won’t be a successful product. Perhaps the same way that Apple carefully entered the digital music space with the iPod less than a 
decade ago and revolutionized how music was sold and consumed, they hope to do with the iPad. The iPod and iTunes made it easier, more convenient, and cooler to experience all your favorite tunes in a format other than CD, cassette, or radio. With the iPad, Apple aims to set bar for this new class of portable computing/reading devices. They’re making an entry into an industry that’s projected to reach nearly $10billion in 2010 and one that Amazon, Sony, Barnes & Noble, and many others are also attempting to figure out. What makes Apple’s chances perhaps better at succeeding is a user experience that 75million iPhone and iPod touch users are already familiar with and a business model that’s already proven.
Will people be willing to trade in their e-ink readers and Kindles for a device that costs double, is under the strict control of Apple, and sports a lengthy list of missing features? Well, if so, this is what Apple’s betting will win them over and also attract millions of others:
- better e-books (not just text, but multimedia & extras)
- a superior mobile web browsing device (yah, even without Flash)
- great multimedia and gaming
- the most apps (they’re like glossy, digital Crack)
- an unbeatable user experience
The Apple iPad is not simply the shiny, fresh product out of Cupertino, but rather the most promising, new platform to affect digital content consumption. It’s a replica of the model that’s already been proven with the iPhone and the evolutionary next step in Apple’s plans for success in the mobile computing space. The UI is one that’s already embraced by tech enthusiasts, young kids, and older audiences alike. 3rd party developers have another potential gold-mine on their hands with this new product, yet with a very familiar SDK. Oh, and content publishers and bleeding old media giants finally have something to get excited about. Perhaps this is finally the format that’ll fuel mainstream purchases of digital books, magazine subscriptions, and other forms of content. From what I’ve seen and read from people that have actually handled one of these things, the iPad is a surprisingly fast, light, and fun new form factor to play with — something Jobs is betting people will soon see the value in.
Where the tablets of the past have all failed, the iPad hopes to be the first true prophet and deliver on perhaps what’s been missing in a tablet all along: a proper user experience. It’s got most of what people already appreciate from the iPhone and iPod Touch but with a larger screen to accommodate a new breadth of reading, gaming, and communications applications that we don’t yet know we want. Time, of course, will reveal the success of the iPad, but I’ll go out on a limb here and say that the future shows promise.
