iPad or iDud? Part Two

When iPad was announced, I was surprised by the extreme negative options of iPad online. “This is Jobs’ biggest miss.” Why is this? First, I think people are uninformed about iPad’s capabilities and target audience. Second, I think the hype and expectation got away from Apple in the run-up to the launch. The general media was reporting iPad as a miracle product literally months before launch. Unless iPad was free, it could never match the expectations of the type of people who spend all their time in online technology forums.

Of course, Apple itself is calling this a “revolutionarily” and “magical” device. Imagine if Apple simply said it was releasing a $500 eBook reader that also did everything the iPad can do. That’s only $100 more than Sony’s top eBook reader, and only $10 more than the Kindle with 9.7-inch screen (which is the same size as the iPad’s screen). The iPad has vastly more functionality than either of those devices. Some common criticism of iPad:

The name sucks!

I certainly don’t love the name, but I guarantee by summer few people will even notice it. Here are some other non-hygienic items with the name “pad” in them: notepad, TextPad, scratch pad, control pad, pad thai, mouse pad, crash pad, pad of the foot, shoulder pad, etc. etc. Remember when Nintendo announced the name for the Wii and everyone was confused and made awkward wee-wee jokes? No one even thinks of that anymore. No one except the guy with the popped collar in the corner who thinks his Richard Nixon imitation is just hee-larious.

No multitasking means it won’t EVER work for me!

There is a lot of misunderstanding about this. It is possible to run certain apps in the background on the iPad/iPhone, just as it is on the iPhone. I listen to iTunes music while using Facebook, writing emails, etc. all the time. And with Push notification, I also use IM while also doing other tasks on the iPhone.

Now, background tasks aren’t the same as multitasking. Many people will want multitasking; it’s useful. Cut and paste is useful, as is the App Store, and GPS. Remember when the iPhone didn’t have those? And millions of iPhones were sold anyway? The iPhone has all those features now. I am very confident the iPad will indeed have multitasking in the near future. if multitasking is of supreme importance to you, wait for iPhone OS 4. That should be out by the summer, if not sooner.

Also, so far literally every hands-on review of the iPad notes that it’s truly blazingly fast. Switching between apps is much, much faster than on an iPod or iPhone.

No Flash.

Apple says the iPad puts the full internet in your hands. Well—sort of. Like the iPhone and iPod touch, the iPad doesn’t support Flash. But most Netflix and YouTube videos will play on iPad, and Hulu is rumored to be working on an iPad-native app. Flash ads can be ported over into an iPad/iPhone-compatible format.

Apple and Adobe have been having talks about optimizing Flash for the iPhone, a process that involves making Flash content smaller, more secure and more stable. But they appear to be at an impasse. This despite fact that the latest version of Adobe Flash Professional allows for the creation and export of iPhone/iPad apps.

It’s just a big iPod touch.

This complaint is off for two reasons: first, many people were clamoring for a large-screen iPhone/iPod touch. We heard our customers asking about this, our team was talking about this, and seminally huge (or at least vocal) numbers of online commentators hoping for a large, tablet-sized iPod touch.

But when the iPad came out, some of these very same people are now complaining that the iPad is “just a big iPod touch.”

Second, the iPad isn’t a big iPod touch/iPhone. It’s both more and less than those devices. As Steve Jobs said, it’s a “third way” between a full computer and an iPhone. The iPad isn’t designed for making calls like an iPhone—would anyone really want a 9.7-inch cell phone? Meanwhile, the larger screen makes the iPad more useful in some ways than a 3-inch iPhone/iPod.

For example, long-form document editing. Sharing a movie or YouTube clip with a friend. Light image editing. Midi control for music. Personally, I use a number of video production apps that will be much better on a larger screen—including a storyboard tool, digital clapper, TelePrompTer, and script reader. Never mind the ability to watch and share footage on the 9.7-inch screen.

As David Pogue says, “Now, though, it looks like Apple really has created something new. Criticisms of ‘like a laptop” and “a big iPod touch’ don’t really do justice to the possibilities.”

No HDMI output!

It would be cool if you could connect the iPad to your flat panel television. Oh wait—you can. You can also connect it to a projector, albeit with $30 cables from Apple. Many people want the iPad to have HDMI-out. I would have just preferred a Mini DisplayPort (all current Macs have a Mini DisplayPort), which converts easily to HDMI. Maybe this is one of the features Apple cut to get the price down to $500. In any case, very few people connect their iPhone or iPod to their television. Indeed, most of our customers don’t seem to know it’s possible to do this.

It’s not a portable device.

Really? Then how is a notebook portable?

It won’t fit in my pocket!

Get an iPhone or an iPod touch if you want a similar device that will fit in your pocket! Or don’t get anything at all! Or get bigger pockets! Actually, overalls have a nice big pocket on the chest.

It’s not a netbook!

It’s partly Steve Jobs’ fault that this comparison has come up; about netbooks, he said, “they’re not better at laptops than anything—they’re just cheaper.” The iPad is very different than a netbook because it’s not meant to be netbook. Netbooks have their place.

Different in the same way that a motorcycle isn’t a sub-compact car. Both are small and efficient, but not the same! Likewise, no $500 netbook has a 9.7-inch Multi-Touch screen, can run 140,000 free/inexpensive apps (to date; more always being released), has a ten-hour battery life, built-in accelerometer, etc. This is a different device, and was intended to be so from the early design phase.

For the people who say, “my netbook is better because it cost $100 less, it multitasks, it plays Flash and it has a webcam,” see above. I do understand those features are useful for many people.

I can’t call anyone on this!

Yes, you can, with an inexpensive third party app. It has a mic. It supports Skype. You can get full VoIP support for the iPad. But no matter what, you’re still going to look silly with a 9.7-inch cell phone pressed against your face.