Friday Review: iPad? I don't think so Tweet

Scepticism reigns as Apple unveils its much-hyped tablet, plus the rest of the week's highlights.

There is a good chance that the latest offering from the Apple stable, the sleek and shiny iPad, will be a success. After all, Apple made it, and that will be good enough for most people. And it looks pretty.

But will it have the runaway success of the iPhone or the iPod? My bet is no. Why? Because it falls between two stools – the mobile device and the laptop – and at a hefty $499 for the most basic non-3G version, Apple will have a difficult time persuading all but its most loyal fans that they need it.

It's all about marketing. And so far Apple has not done a good enough job of explaining to the world at large what they would use an iPad for.

The e-reader angle is probably the strongest. But I can't help but think that Apple would have been better off calling it an iReader, squarely targeting the e-reader market, and pitching all the extras – integrated iPod, photo display and slick Internet browsing – as just that, extras.

That said, Apple's confidence in the strength of the iPad's e-reader proposition could well be misplaced.

Market leader Amazon has done a great job with the Kindle. "We're going to stand on their shoulders and go a bit further," Steve Jobs said at the launch event. "We think the iPad is going to make a terrific e-book reader."

However, the iBooks app and iBooks store he presented to the audience appear to have nothing over Amazon's Kindle and online store, with the exception of some fancy graphics.

Meanwhile, Amazon charges just $259 for the 3G version of its Kindle e-reader; a 3G iPad, when available, will start from $629. The iPad's paltry 10-hour battery life pales into insignificance compared with the Kindle, which gives two weeks of reading time from a single charge (or one week with the wireless turned on). In addition, the iPad is backlit, while specific e-readers use E Ink technology that is significantly easier on the eye.

There has also been much speculation that the iPad will make its mark in the gaming world. U.K. newspaper the ...

Click to read the rest of the article

Labels: