The Apple iPad

Marty_J

BillScarab wrote: »

Marty J, the price does seem reasonable, but you live in the US. Whether it will be quite so reasonable when it hits Europe is another matter.

As I'm sure you can remember technology companies often seem to have a strange exchange rate where $1 = £1.

True, but Apple's UK prices aren't too bad for some of their products. A 64 GB iPod Touch would cost me around $440 (£272), whereas in the UK, it costs £306. That's around 10% more.

I think the base model will probably be priced between £350 and £400.

To me it looks good but is filling a very small niche, a niche that may not even exist.

I'll give it time though and see what happens.

You've hit the nail on the head; Apple have created this device to fill a need they think exists, and it will succeed or fail on the basis of that. I think there is a market for a product between a smartphone and a full blown computer. Up until now that niche has been filled by the netbook, a device Apple have never passed up an opportunity to criticise for its trashy hardware and poor user experience.

As you say, I guess we'll see.

Marty_J

i8change wrote: »

The screen will have to be held at a good angle for viewing

Its LED-backlit screen uses a technology called In-plane Switching which gives it a 178° viewing angle:

but at 1.5 pounds it will be a bit hefty to use like a book. I would soon be looking for a pillow to rest it on, but then it might get very hot.

It's certainly heavier than the average paperback, but I don't think it's prohibitively heavy.

The screen at 1024x768 is 4:3 aspect ratio, so a lot of that 9.7 inch diagonal screen isn't going to be used if viewing typical 2.35:1, or even 16:9 widescreen, movies. Also, built-in speakers on small thin devices are usually poor quality, so decent headphones will be required.

Not all of the screen will be used for 16:9 movies, but it's not a one use device. A 16:9 screen wouldn't be much fun for web browsing when held portrait style.

As for the speakers, even full size laptops generally have pretty crappy speakers, so I don't see that putting anyone off.

edgex

hmmm

its a tablet without the real keyboard *


didnt jobsy-wobsy say that there was no place for tablets, & that they wouldnt do one?
& something similar about netbooks?


* in fact, thinking about it, its even less than a tablet, as its not a proper operating system


'jack of all trades, master of none'
well, being a jack of all trades can actually be very good
being a jack of some, & still master of none, & then charging the same or more than the jack of all trades?
not a good idea!

i8change

It's interesting that Apple are now producing their own brand of CPU, the "mobile device" market must be quite important to them.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/apple-ipad-iphone-ipod,9522.html

Marty_J

edgex wrote: »

hmmm

its a tablet without the real keyboard *


didnt jobsy-wobsy say that there was no place for tablets, & that they wouldnt do one?
& something similar about netbooks?


* in fact, thinking about it, its even less than a tablet, as its not a proper operating system

It's a "proper" operating system for a tablet. There's not much point just putting OS X on it, as OS X isn't designed for using on a tablet.

Even on a netbook, Windows doesn't work very well, and I can't use one without my glasses on. Conversely, I can use an iPod Touch without my glasses, as the interface is optimised for that size of screen.

'jack of all trades, master of none'
well, being a jack of all trades can actually be very good
being a jack of some, & still master of none, & then charging the same or more than the jack of all trades?
not a good idea!

Well, you assume that the iTab can't do anything better than anything else, and that may not be the case. Certainly, web browsing, email and photos look amazing on it.

Marty_J

i8change wrote: »

It's interesting that Apple are now producing their own brand of CPU, the "mobile device" market must be quite important to them.

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/apple-ipad-iphone-ipod,9522.html

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/iPhone-iPod,5645.html

According to the keynote today, Apple is now the largest mobile device manufacturer in the world.

Pablo147

Marty_J wrote: »

According to the keynote today, Apple is now the largest mobile device manufacturer in the world.

don't beleive the hype.
Nokia produce many millions more units per year than Apple.

Marty_J

Pablo147 wrote: »

don't beleive the hype.
Nokia produce many millions more units per year than Apple.

But Apple make much more money than Nokia.

Nokia's sales are plummeting, and they posted a $1.36 billion loss last year.

Apple is a much larger company than Nokia.

S0litaire

Marty_J wrote: »

Well, you assume that the iTab can't do anything better than anything else, and that may not be the case. Certainly, web browsing, email and photos look amazing on it.

Untill you hit a site which uses a lot of flash.... ^_^ lol

As for "Proper OS" it's not the OS that counts! it's the "User Interface" (UI) that determins how "Usable" it is!

An ARM port of XP or Win7 on the iPad with a good UI would be just as good as the iPhone OS currently used...

Saying that....

Give it 2 weeks after release and I bet you there will be guys trying to install a version of Linux on the thing.... ^_^

Marty_J

S0litaire wrote: »

Untill you hit a site which uses a lot of flash.... ^_^ lol

lol...I try to avoid sites with Flash anyway, even on my iMac.

As for "Proper OS" it's not the OS that counts! it's the "User Interface" (UI) that determins how "Usable" it is!

I quite agree. That's why I disagree that it would be better with a "proper" OS on it.

An ARM port of XP or Win7 on the iPad with a good UI would be just as good as the iPhone OS currently used...

Which is what the iPhone OS is; an ARM port of Mac OS X with a different UI.