iPad, Therefore I Am
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It’s the morning after and time for an unjaundiced look at Apple’s just-announced iPad tablet computer thingee. My last post was a series of pre-announcement Tweets from a guy at or near EnGadget and I took some grief from readers for even posting it, but in retrospect I am glad I did because it gives me a lot more to say about the new gizmo.
Were the tweets from a real beta tester? While many readers thought they weren’t, I’m pretty sure they were, primarily based on what many perceived as mistakes. Yes, the price points were off but those things can change hour-by-hour right up to the last minute and I wouldn’t put it past Apple to deliberately give bad pricing to testers to mislead and catch leaks. More importantly, the Twitterer said there would be three price points and there were. Based on the iPhone/iTouch intro model one would only have expected two price points.
Let’s look inside this price differential for a moment and try to channel our inner Steve Jobs. The Twitterer said $599, $699, and $799 while Apple announced $499, $599, and $699 without 3G and $629, $729, and $829 for the same models with 3G. But remember the Twitterer was strictly referring to 3G models, since he said they had 3G. He also mentioned both AT&T and Verizon Wireless, while Apple mentioned only AT&T.
Just because Apple didn’t mention Verizon doesn’t mean they won’t also offer 3G service from Verizon. The word “exclusive” was never used referring to AT&T. They trotted-out that pre-paid plan, but it would be crazy for carriers to not also offer a one-year or two-year subscription plan, too, which would drop the unit price somewhat. Maybe the subscription rates weren’t yet set. More likely the Verizon details were still in some limbo or Apple gave AT&T an exclusive presence at the intro in exchange for some concession we may never know about.
With Steve Jobs the deal isn’t done until it is done so I am sure he’s still trying to take one or both carriers to the cleaners.
Which brings us back to that price, which was $30 higher than predicted by the Twitterer. Remember Apple dropped iPhone prices almost immediately after the units started shipping. I don’t think this pricing is set in stone, either. Maybe the $30 is padding they’ll drop at the intro to make us feel good. Parts experts say 3G chips now cost around $7, so including one hardly adds $130 to the price or even $100.
Another point brought up against the Twitterer was the battery life (he said three hours, Apple said 10 hours). Reality in the PC and mobile industries is that a 10 hour battery life really means six hours. You may get 100 percent of the advertised battery life, but I don’t. My little Dell Vostro A90 (more on that in a day or so) is supposed to be good for six hours but the little battery meter always tells me on a full charge that I have 3:25 to go. There’s simply no way that iPad, no matter what the processor, is good for a real 10 hours of continuous use. And remember this is the non-3G version they are touting, while the Twitterer was clearly using 3G.
An iPod Touch with Wifi turned on lasts a lot longer than a comparable iPhone with WiFi turned off. In real life I’m pretty sure a 3G iPad IS a 2-3 hour device. And what’s wrong with that?
Finally, where were the split-view camera and the gimmicky solar charger? According to EnGadget the split-view cam is mentioned in the iPad SDK as “iPad-only” and some iPad apps ask you to take pictures without giving you the capability to do so…. yet. I’m sure the camera is coming. As for the solar charger, who’s to say that won’t come shortly, too?
In fact I wouldn’t be surprised if both features are present when the iPad finally ships in 60 days along with iPhone 4.0 software, which many expected to be part of yesterday’s announcement.
I was disappointed by the lack of iPhone 4.0 because this kind of device really needs true multi-tasking. I’m sure we will see it soon. What I am not at all sure about but wish we’d see soon is support for Adobe’s Flash. What does Steve Jobs have against Adobe, anyway? He used to love Adobe chairman John Warnock. There’s some weird daddy thing going on there with Apple’s rejection of Flash and I am tired of it. This new processor is plenty fast enough to support Flash and HTML 5 is still not ready for prime time.
Correction — Here’s a more informed view of the Flash situation from a friend. it’s hard to argue with his numbers:
“I did a quickie test with the new YouTube HTML5 beta. On a site that embedded a video (so Flash was used), my browser CPU utilization was 22%, and the Adobe Flash plug-in CPU utilization was 55%. (dual core macbook pro, so total CPU% = 200%).
After the video played, I watched the same video again directly on the YouTube site in HTML5. Adobe Flash plug-in CPU utilization was 4% (what it consumes just sitting on its hiney), and the browser CPU utilization was 17%.
77% vs 21%. that’s why Apple hates Adobe. There certainly may be personalities involved (with Jobs, there is always something personal), but Adobe Flash is just technically awful (this actually may be the crux of any Jobs’ hatred – he hates inelegance, and Adobe Flash is inelegant).
I don’t hate Adobe, and it does bother met that I can’t see Flash on the iPhone or iPad, but Adobe has acted very awfully in this area and doesn’t appear to be doing anything to address it. Google and Apple have the muscle to squeeze them out.”
Now we return you to Bob, already in progress:
The apps were underwhelming to me with the exception of iPhoto, but maybe that requires waiting for iPhone 4, too. Overall the product felt rushed. But knowing Steve a little bit I think he’s seeing this as a two-part intro and there will be another event around the shipping date, supposedly 60 days from now, which he’ll correctly view as yet another marketing opportunity. At that event we’ll see 3G from more than just AT&T, we’ll hear about more data plans including subsidized plans that will drop the price by $200. We’ll see the split-view camera, iPhone 4.0, and maybe even that little solar charger.
As presented yesterday the iPad was cool and I’ll probably buy one, but not right away. Fortunately many people will buy them right away then buy them again when the update equivalent to 3G (4G? HD?) comes along, just as they did with the original 2G iPone and the original 128K Mac. So I am sure the iPad will be at least a modest success, even in its initial incarnation. But you know what it feels like to me with it’s hype followed by an underwhelming reality? It feels like another Segway, which sure hasn’t changed the way people move on the Earth.
The battery is really good. Their new processor is something that we will have to look. In an iphone, it’s going to be monstruous !
Daniel.
Scrabble Cheat
I would agree with you, yeah I’ve just been using iPad for 2 weeks. It can stands longer as described and I kinda loving it.
Mike (iPad Apps)
Yep, and as battery technology improves it will just get even better!
I have to disagree with you about the battery problems. I have been using my ipad for the past month and have no issues with the battery. Yes.. its true that next generation ipads will come with more capable batteries but that does not mean the current ipad is flawed!
It is nice but it is essentially just an oversized iphone. I agree with waiting a few months as many users already are experiencing quite a few problems with the ipad.
I do not agree that it’s just an oversized phone. There’s a lot to it than a phone. I agree though that you might want to wait for a second generation iPad to polish all the issues.
far from it. its a tool that small biz owners can utilize easily and mobily. the best is yet to come with these devices.
Agreed. The iPad can (and will) revolutionize the way businesses work. This is not just another laptop it really is a change in the way we interact with computing devices.
The iPad is one of the best things of apple. After the iPhone I like it to surf with the iPad. The idea of this product is good, but it can be a little bit bigger.
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i am planning to buy an iPad since it looks lighter than a regular desknote and i don not use much of the features of a laptop.”-
book the range’s posible, theres a bit of rumours which in turn it can be done, outside i have been searching additionally noticed nada. internet marketing as well within mexico!
Steve J include this guy of the size of his business presentation attached to apple ipad.
just jailbreak, looks like drudgery i needed a brand new ready. lay. may i do just that, jailbreak after that build all my apps and as well phone holding it away not including physically redownloading vacation cruise?
Climate, the actual iphone 3gs fitness club marketing services really does cushioning triggering the iphone. Females and males apple company iphone SIM account unlock applications are down below developping and will be publicized just a little future. Gratify frequently soon to test this kind of weather.
And yet Items continue doing this for one more time, Submit an article basically no plans to tried but true some sort of untethered jailbreak. I would not learn pressure, good, if, perhaps a person, could very well be, potentially if/when it will likely be freed.
Apple never just create widgets; they design solutions that people can see fitting into their lives eventually. As a university teacher with a fantastic life, I can see this being a very useful thing to have.
I absolutely agree with this article on several levels. First of all, there are apps for photo editing, but no capability to take photos??? Also, I’m not sure what the beef is between Adobe and Apple, but many of the websites that people use now incorporate Flash – which the iPhone and iPad does not support. I hope that they come to some sort of an agreement because its irritating and frustrating at best.
Hi,
Hi,
I signed up to ipad media all seems ok but I’m having problems getting the ebooks on. My friend in new york has theirs working but I’m stuck on what I need to do. Anyone else used this service? Link is below,
iPad is way too cool to own, i wanna buy one next month.”..
We’ve had some pretty good luck using the iPad to demo websites for clients. But, I definitely will probably be more interested in using another tablet with Flash ability.
I have to tell you though, the functionality of “handing someone their new site” is just amazing. It’s really good stuff. If only…. Flash…..
Almost Apple, almost.
Marcos
I love ipad and i think that its battery time is very good as compare to iphone
I am planning to buy this device tomorrow and after using it i will tell you how it was.
Californication is great too and involves lots of sexy stuff in this tv series.~“
Hey i bought this device yesterday and i think that its a same copy of iphone but in big size and it was a wonderfull experience.
Thanks for this article, i see you are master at this, can you please teach me how to do it?
I only want to post quick hi and want to say thanks for this very useful letter. I keep trying to find through the web for some kind of enlightened like this, or at least a website. That coveredwhat i looked in to
Thanks a lot.
To set the record straight on the battery life. I have tested my iPad out on 6 different occasions. The actual time is around 7 hours with heavy usage. Don’t know how the Twitterer came up with 3 hours. I watched movies for four hours and it still had some juice.
Joe
Wimax offer more bandwidth and more services than traditional microwave communications. .;’
i love to watch Californication, all those pretty girls wowwww’.’
Vacation credit cards could be a lot a lot much more than pre-printed credit rating cards stuffed in envelopes with mailing labels applied. With some imagination and also the right greeting card supplier, a greeting card can be considered a really unique, greater high quality present that projects company professionalism as nicely as heartfelt wishes for that holiday season.
my girlfriend is going to give me an ipad on my birthday this month.`.~
Great breakthrough from Apple with the iPad. Enough with our fingers so we can do anything. Unfortunately not support flash.
Well, who would have guessed that the iPad would be as popular as it is? It’s no segway for sure… it looks like major businesses are starting to incorporate it into their workflow and everything. Even with all the outcry over no flash support, it’s amazing that nobody really cares about that anymore!
I’m looking forward to seeing whatever the future generations of the iPad end up looking like!
Wimax would be the solution to the ever congested bandwidth of 3G:”
Excellent read, it’s the really helpful content that I was looking for.
There is a lot of space for growing, but i think iPad is the greatest device in its category…
It is definitely diversified and multilateral, being able to reform and take the place of ereaders or the gaming and GPS tools.
Here are the top 50+ best ipad apps, that should take into consideration
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was disappointed by the lack of iPhone 4.0 because this kind of device really needs true multi-tasking. I’m sure we will see it soon. What I am not at all sure about but wish we’d see soon is support for Adobe’s Flash. What does Steve Jobs have against Adobe, anyway? He used to love Adobe chairman John Warnock. There’s some weird daddy thing going on there with Apple’s rejection of Flash and I am tired of it. This new processor is plenty fast enough to support Flash and HTML 5 is still not ready for prime time.
Correction — Here’s a more informed view of the Flash situation from a friend. it’s hard to argue with his numbers:
“I did a quickie test with the new YouTube HTML5 beta. On a site that embedded a video (so Flash was used), my browser CPU utilization was 22%, and the Adobe Flash plug-in CPU utilization was 55%. (dual core macbook pro, so total CPU% = 200%).
After the video played, I watched the same video again directly on the YouTube site in HTML5. Adobe Flash plug-in CPU utilization was 4% (what it consumes just sitting on its hiney), and the browser CPU utilization was 17%.
77% vs 21%. that’s why Apple hates Adobe. There certainly may be personalities involved (with Jobs, there is always something personal), but Adobe Flash is just technically awful (this actually may be the crux of any Jobs’ hatred – he hates inelegance, and Adobe Flash is inelegant).
I don’t hate Adobe, and it does bother met that I can’t see Flash on the iPhone or iPad, but Adobe has acted very awfully in this area and doesn’t appear to be doing anything to address it. Google and Apple have the muscle to squeeze them out.”
Now we return you to Bob, already in progress:
The apps were underwhelming to me with the exception of iPhoto, but maybe that requires waiting for iPhone 4, too. Overall the product felt rushed. But knowing Steve a little bit I think he’s seeing this as a two-part intro and there will be another event around the shipping date, supposedly 60 days from now, which he’ll correctly view as yet another marketing opportunity. At that event we’ll see 3G from more than just AT&T, we’ll hear about more data plans including subsidized plans that will drop the price by $200. We’ll see the split-view camera, iPhone 4.0, and maybe even that little solar charger.cheap VPS
As presented yesterday the iPad was cool and I’ll probably buy one, but not right away. Fortunately many people will buy them right away then buy them again when the update equivalent to 3G (4G? HD?) comes along, just as they did with the original 2G iPone and the original 128K Mac. So I am sure the iPad will be at least a modest success, even in its initial incarnation. But you know what it feels like to me with it’s hype followed by an underwhelming reality? It feels like another Segway, which sure hasn’t changed the way people move on the Earth.
iPad is a great device but it needs to improve heavily in the next gen, as in coming months so many big companies are coming up with their own tablets. And Apple just can’t win with their software they will be required to update the hardware expects as well.
Just like the evolution of the iPhone the iPad will evolve and get better with each iteration.
I very much like the battery technology in particular.
I just love my iPad! I’ve had it about a month now and can’t put the darn thing down!
Whilst the battery lasts for a day, I am looking forward to when they develop new battery technology to make it last longer. Still, I do like the iPad.