Where does the iPad fit?

29 January 2010 | by Willem Reyners Tay

As the dust settles around the announcement of the iPad, and the jokes subside, lets stand back and take a look at where the iPad might fit in the Australian market.

Kindle

So you are in the market for something to read books on. The Apple fan boys have been screaming from the rooftops, saying the Kindle is dead in the water. So apart from bringing with superior Apple coolness, how do they stack up if all you want to do is read books?

The e-ink screen on the kindle means you can comfortably read for a lengthy periods in most lighting situations without straining the eyes. TheiPad's backlit OLED screen is more likely to strain the eyes
Kindle's battery life is between 1-2 weeks vs 10 hours max for the iPad.
The Kindle is lighter and thinner
The Kindle will cost significantly less than the iPad
Free 3G baked in with the Kindle, iPad will require separate 3G plan.
Even the top of the line Kindle DX, at around $550, will be around half the price of an iPad with the way Apple gouges Aussie consumers

So if you primarily want a device to read books, then its clear that the iPad isn't going to be the first option.

Netbook

However what if you want something that can replace your netbook? The multitouch interface is certainly enticing, however the iPad has a few glaring omissions which might break the deal.

No Flash support - this means virtually no online videos such as YouTube. This means surfing the web is likely to suck, big time.
No USB ports - if you want to plug anything into this thing, like a flash drive, you can forget it without an ugly adaptor.
No multitasking - want to have Twitter running whilst you check your email, sorry, Apple doesn't support that.
No webcam/camera - no video calls on this baby
Price - if you look, you can probably find a netbooks with 9 hours battery for less than $500, and that includes a webcam, multitasking, Flash support and a thriving app ecosystem called windows.
No drag and drop file transfers, thin iTunes syncing to do anything.

The biggest question we should be asking is why will people buy it? With Apple's reputation there are certainly going to be a section of the community who will purchase the device for it's cool factor and smooth interface.

Inclusion of a micro-SIM slot means that finding a cheap iPad data plan might be hard, as normal SIM cards won't work in the device which may drive up the costs of data plans.

So where does the iPad fit? As a book reader it leaves a lot to be desired and as netbook it fails miserably.

Whilst the iPhone had the drawcard of 'your mobile plus much, much more' the iPad doesn't really fill any burning needs, except the need to be cool, which should never be underestimated.

Tags: iPad | Kindle | netbooks

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Add a comment6 Comments

at 09:38 PM on 31 January 2010, Andy wrote:
Regarding your first point under the Netbook comparison: you are correct that the iPad/iPhone OS lacks Flash support, but you are incorrect that YouTube will not work. YouTube works wonderfully on these devices, as anyone who has ever tried an iPhone would know – they even come with a built-in YouTube app! Other online video sites are also moving to iPhone/Pad compatible formats, like Vimeo. Flash is a CPU hog and I don't blame Apple for not wanting it on their devices. Have you ever used an iPhone? That's kind of required if you want to write with any authority about the iPad. For more on this issue, you'll find this worthwhile: http://daringfireball.net/2010/01/blue_boxes
at 03:43 PM on 30 January 2010, Jack Ranald wrote:
Clearly there is no journalist at work here. This sloppy, ill-considered contribution shows a complete absence of thought. Perhaps the most pertinent consideration is that Apple thinks very hard before it enters a product segment and in the last 12+ years has not really had a dud as a result. So their thinking must be that there is enough appeal on enough levels to attract sufficient buyers. Also, product update strategy means that not all features make it into v.1 of a product (and that applies to many goods). I doubt this is an iPod or iPhone scale product but it may appeal to e-readers, iPod gamers, light net users and others. It may also be aimed as a play into the education sector where its limited feature set may be more desirable. Last point - Apple has always been about selling an integrated experience rather than being a leader in hardware features. Hasn't served them badly ... or their customers.
at 03:52 PM on 29 January 2010, Jon wrote:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsjU0K8QPhs
at 03:51 PM on 29 January 2010, Chris O'Neil wrote:
Is this review based on what you've seen on the internet or a proper hands on review?
at 03:30 PM on 29 January 2010, johnno wrote:
Although I can't say any better, I'm not surprised there's no by-line on this article as most of it is rubbish. You might want to check your facts before publishing such drivel. You should probably also take a look at the USP of the iPad, rather than why it's better or worse than netbooks (yawn) or the Kindle (yawn) - incidentally, the DX Kindle is $10 more expensive than the base iPad. Anyway, with quality journalism like this coming out of "digital media.net", makes you wonder why I bother reading.
at 02:21 PM on 29 January 2010, JJ wrote:
Well, the ipad might as well fit in a vagina since it's pretty much useless.