Last Wednesday in San Francisco, Steve Jobs got onto a stage and revealed the iPad, Apple’s new tablet PC. With its 9-inch multi-touch screen, the iPad may just be a larger version of the iPhone-in fact, it’s running the iPhone operating system (OS) with access to all of the iPhone apps.
But that might be one of its advantages as Steve Jobs said at the event. Instead of trying to browse the Web on a tiny smartphone screen, you have something nearly the size of a magazine to view full Web sites on. The iPad will also have the ability to reads books from iBookstore, play movies, TV shows and music from iTunes and run tens of thousands of applications from the App Store. With all of these features, the iPad could be the ultimate media-consumption device. But will it find a place in our overly-digital lives?
During the Apple event, Steve Jobs said the iPad will fill the gap between the smartphone and the laptop, performing key tasks like Web browsing and media playback-far better than anything else. Before introducing the new device, he said that netbooks have been trying to do this, but very poorly, because they are merely “poor laptops.” Now with the iPad at its surprisingly cheap base price ($499), people will be able to perform all the functions of a netbook with the confidence and power of an Apple device.
Ryan C. Meader, founder of MacOSRumors.com, said the iPad will easily beat netbooks and competing tablets in the mass market, because it’s ARM platform will provide the best performance with the best battery life (10 hours).
Farhad Manjoo of Slate Magazine said the iPad fits his dream of the “perfect second computer.”
“I wanted a flat, portable, easy-to-use machine that I could use for e-mail and reading the Web. The iPad is that device,” Manjoo said in his article “I Love the iPad.”
While many reporters and consumers were impressed by the iPad presentation, there were others who felt threatened by its closed nature and what that might mean for the future of personal computers.
DefectiveByDesign.org, a campaign by the Free Software Foundation, launched a petition targeting the DRM (digital rights management) component of the Apple iPad.
In a letter addressed to Steve Jobs, DefectiveByDesign.org writes:
DRM will give Apple and their corporate partners the power to disable features, block competing products (especially free software) censor news, and even delete books, videos, or news stories from users’ computers without notice– using the device’s “always on” network connection.
It goes on to say that “By making a computer where every application is under total, centralized control, Apple is endangering freedom to increase profits.” And they cite Apple’s past record of rejecting and removing apps from the App Store for reasons not to trust them.
Meader acknowledges that many “geeks are definitely frothing at the mouth” about Apple’s closed system.
“It’s much easier for nontechnical users to find applications in a formalized system like the [App] store,” he said, indicating that nontechnical users belong to Apple’s target demographic.
The Apple iPad is slated for a March 2010 release. Despite the predictions, it’s hard to tell if the iPad will sell well enough at launch. Will the iPad replace the netbook or will it be more of a leisurely device? No matter the outcome, it’s certainly an exciting and interesting way to start the decade.