Apple Introduces The Game-Changing iPad

Today Apple announced the iPad, a new tablet device aimed to fill the gap between a mobile phone and notebook. The iPad offers a similar interface to the iPod and iPhone, but blown up to take advantage of the increased size and screen resolution. Priced at $499, is this the netbook replacement we have all been waiting for? We're going out on a limb and saying, YES.

Apple iPad Specifications:

• 1GHz Apple A4 Processor
• 9.7-inch Capacitive Multi-Touch IPS Display (1024x768 resolution)
• 16GB, 32GB, 64GB Storage Configurations
• 10 hours of battery life, one month of standby
• 802.11n Wireless, Bluetooth 2.1 +EDR, 3G WWAN ($15 for 250MB, $30 for unlimited)
• Compass and Accelerometer
• 0.5” Thick
• $499 Starting Price (3G models will cost $130 extra)
• Weight: 1.5lbs

iPod and iPhone software support comes straight of the box with the iPad working natively with all applications. Software designed to run on the smaller screens will be displayed in 1x mode or scaled up to fill the entire screen. Apple also released a new SDK for developers so we should see most applications supporting the full resolution of the iPad very soon. The iPad also offers redesigned versions of the primary applications, including a cooler looking iTunes store, Calendar, better email support, and a much larger finger-friendly keyboard.

A new application being introduced today to compete in the Kindle space is iBooks. Offering a storefront to purchase some of the latest books, we see Apple isn’t holding anything back and plans on going full into the eReader space with the new iPad. iBooks will offer a clean reading interface with multiple fonts and font sizes to pick from. A productivity suite is also being introduced offering Keynote, Pages, and Numbers (or PowerPoint, Word, and Excel in Microsoft Office terminology). Each iWork application will be offered for $9.99 ... not included with the purchase of the iPad.

The biggest surprise with the new Apple iPad which very well may be a game changer is the inclusion of 3G support and pricing structure. Normally most notebooks with WWAN built-in require service contracts with plans starting around $60 per month. The Apple iPad will offer two contract-free data plans ... 250MB per month for $14.99 and unlimited data for $30. That right there is what will change the entire pricing structure that most cell companies go with when they deal with notebooks. If Apple can offer these plans at this cost with ATT, more companies will be pushing for lower rates—without contract—for their products.

Apple iPad Pricing
iPad Version	16GB	32GB	64GB
Wi-Fi	$499	$599	$699
Wi-Fi + 3G	$629	$729	$829

Overall I can't wait to see the Apple iPad in person. This device will probably cannibalize current sales of the iPod Touch and MacBook Air with its low starting price and it will easily influence other data providers to start lowering their pricing schemes for wireless broadband. As Jerry mentioned in our Apple iSlate editorial yesterday, many of the things we mentioned it would offer came true. It is based off a mobile operating system, uses non-traditional netbook hardware, and priced well below $999. Apple says that consumers can expect to buy the iPads with Wi-Fi only as soon as March. iPads with Wi-Fi and built-in 3G will be coming a month later. Stay tuned for more information on the Apple iPad and our review that will be coming as soon as it is released in stores.

The new iPad runs the iPhone OS -- and that's the problem

By Jay Garmon

No matter how excited you are about the 9.7-inch HD display, capacitive multitouch interface, or staggeringly cheap 3G data plans promised by Apple's iPad, there's one feature that's billed as a benefit but may prove to be more of a bug: The iPad runs the iPhone OS. On the surface this seems like shrewd platform cross-compatibility, but do you really want to pay between $499 and $829 (plus data plan) for a device that actually does less -- as in no built-in camera, no phone -- than your iPhone?

While you may be smiling inwardly at the notion of getting all your existing iPhone apps ported to your iPad for free (you've already paid for them), there's a question of whether anyone really wants to run apps designed for a phone-sized screen on a tablet-sized display. During Steve Jobs's demo today, we saw this phenomenon in action. Either the iPhone app ran at native resolution as a floating block inside a lot of blank screen real estate, or the iPad upscaled the app to its full screen resolution, presenting you with ridiculously oversized icons and buttons. If one could run multiple iPhone apps side by side on the iPad, that would be worth talking about, but that brings me to the second problem with building an iPhone OS-based tablet: No multithreading.

The iPhone OS can't run background processes. It can't have two apps open at the same time. You can't chat while watching a video. You can't read the New York Times while listening to Pandora. You can't toggle between a word processor and a spreadsheet, or a Web browser and a presentation. Thus, while you can get an iPad version of iWork for $30 ($9.99 each for Pages, Numbers and Keynote), you won't be using any of those apps simultaneously -- which is how many of us work best. Here's betting that most iPad adopters will want to rebuy most of their apps in iPad versions, which makes me wonder why the iPad couldn't get its own multithreaded OS to begin with.

The other major drawback to the iPad's iPhone OS-basis is a lack of support for Adobe Flash. I'll accept not being able to render highly interactive Flash Web sites on my phone, but on a high-end media consumption device like the iPad I should be able to open every Web site on the planet. This Flash incompatibility also bans any Web video player that isn't Quicktime or Youtube. Sorry budding filmmakers, but there will be no Vimeo or Hulu or Yahoo Video for you on the iPad. Jobs himself showed a failed Flashplayer icon during his Web surfing demo today, so clearly Steve isn't perturbed by this feature limitation, which won't be solved until HTML5 reaches full adoption -- months or years from now.

On the bright side, the iPad running the iPhone OS does mean that the new iBook store will be cross-compatible with the iPhone, which is great news for iPhone owners. The iBook store will sell ePub versions of books from major publishers, which means digital reading just got a boost, if only because iBooks will appear on the world's most popular mobile phone. That said, I don't expect the iBookstore to truly revolutionize publishing, both because the $14.99 price point suggested for iBook titles is still too high, and because I can't rip my existing dead-tree books to the platform. While almost anyone can copy a CD into iTunes easily, almost no one can scan in paperbacks to iBooks with any speed or grace. At $14.99 each I'm not going to rebuy all my favorite books for the iPad.

Now that the iPad SDK is in the wild, I expect developers to create new and innovative applications and content that truly take advantage of the iPad form factor, display, and interface. Until those iPad-native apps show up, however, I'll reserve judgment as to whether the iPad is the successor to the glorious iPhone, or the ignominious Newton.

Readers Respond: Apple iPad a Boom or a Bust?

You've got to hand it to Steve Jobs. If there's one person on the planet who knows how to generate buzz over new technology it's the man in charge over at Cupertino. Apple's announcement of the iPad was probably the single most talked about piece of tech news during the month of January. Tablet PC enthusiasts have been asking for an Apple tablet for years and Steve Jobs finally delivered one ... more or less.

As we covered the launch of the iPad last week we couldn't help but notice some potential problems. First, the iPad isn't a tablet MacBook like many people hoped. The iPad runs a modified version of the iPhone OS and is designed to fill the gap between a MacBook and an iPhone. Think of the iPad as Apple's netbook: a mobile internet companion that provides more functionality than a smartphone but less computing power than a full notebook PC.

That being the case, the obvious question is ... will consumers buy it?

As of this morning a total of 2,116 readers responded to our survey about the Apple iPad ... and it looks like opinions are pretty evenly split. About 25 percent of respondents think the iPad will be a flop, 25 percent say it will easily attract a following, one third of our readers say it's "nothing to write home about" while just over 15 percent think the iPad is "a sure hit."

One thing is certain: The announcement of the iPad last week left a lot of consumers wanting to know more. Is it meant to be an ebook reader? Is it a portable web browser? Is it just a larger iPod Touch? Is it a mobile digital photo frame? Is it a fully functional slate tablet? The answer is simple: Yes. At least that is what Apple wants you to think. The marketing blitz over Apple's new "media tablet" seems to be working as the iPad even made a surprise appearance at the Grammy awards thanks to Steven Colbert.

However, the buzz surrounding the iPad isn't entirely positive if the discussion forums here at NotebookReview.com are any indication. Most of our forum members are concerned about the limited hardware and software on the iPad. Forum member MGS2392 summarized many complaints by saying: "The hardware isn't too bad (just about netbook level), but the software is what holds it back. I really don't see the need to run mobile apps on a bigger screen."

Our audience seems pretty divided over the price of the iPad as well. Some people think the $499 starting price is reasonable for what you get while many others think $399 netbooks offer much more value for the money. Forum user Skyshade had this to say about the cost of the iPad: "All I can say is: Thanks, Apple. Somehow you made Sony VAIO X's pricing sound reasonable."

At the end of the day the jury is still out on Apple's latest mobile device. The iPad offers consumers a great deal in terms of a mobile entertainment device, but we'll have to see what software becomes available for the iPad before we know if this tablet offers any additional productivity compared to an iPhone.

Let us know what you think. Head over to our discussion forum and make sure your voice is heard.