Five Fundamental Flaws of The iPad
By: @Hilzfuld
The day the whole tech community was waiting for finally arrived yesterday, and it became clear within minutes that the hype exceeded the reality. The famous Apple iPad was born and its announcement led to the immediate crash of almost all tech sites and blogs, not to mention Twitter completely buckling under the pressure of 170,000 iPad tweets per hour.
I do not intend to spend too much time on this point, but when it comes to the name of this new Apple tablet, am I missing something or is it just a really dumb name? Seems the Web community as a whole agrees, judging by the attention the name has received, and so the jokes begin. On a more substantial note though, the big question to which we will not know any answers soon, is how will the iPad affect our lives and will it be widely adopted by the public?
I am of the opinion that even with its stunningly good looks, impressive specs, and beautiful interface, its numbers will not resemble iPhone or iPod Touch numbers, not even close. The reasons I think the iPad will not take off are many, starting from its lack of a camera (or two), its lack of free 3G, and many more. However, I would like to focus primarily on the software side of the iPad, since after all this is the Appboy blog, and software is what we are all about.
Jobs made it very clear that the iPad will include three different store fronts to support its rich feature set. There is of course the iTunes Store for music and movies, the App Store for Apps, and now the book store for eBooks. However, each one of those stores and mini ecosystems has a serious and fundamental flaw that should not be ignored. The following is a list of five basic and crucial flaws with the iPad:
- Books: This category splits into two types of people. There are the ones that will not use an eBook reader since they just like the feeling of an actual book in their hands. These people will of course not consider the iPad. However, the audience Apple is targeting is the type of person who would buy the Kindle. The question is, would a Kindle type person go for an iPad instead? The answer? Absolutely not! The number of available books for the iPad is dwarfed by the 400,000 books available for the Kindle. The iPad does not have free 3G to download books wherever you are, and most importantly, the battery life of the iPad cannot compare to the potential two week battery on the Kindle. So, if it is an eBook Reader you are after, the iPad is not for you.
- Media: Why can’t Apple just give up on their jail like mentality and allow drag and drop functionality on their devices? Not sure what the answer is, but today’s world is not the world it was when the iPhone was announced. Not sure Apple can continue getting away with this when there are better alternatives to the iPhone platform, such as Android. People want freedom with their files. Having said that, there is something to be said for the ease of use provided by the iTunes/iPhone/iPad team. The iPad does not even include a USB port to connect the device to a computer, so it’s not like Apple can fix this issue with a simple software upgrade. Seems like media on the iPad will be via iTunes only.
- Apps: This is a tricky one. There is no denying Apple’s dominance in this space. The latest numbers are 140,000 apps and over 2 billion downloads. Those are crazy numbers. Having said that, similar to the media issue, developers are starting to get really sick of the intense approval cycle of Apple apps. The fact that iPhone apps work on the iPad is a cool feature (although I hear in full screen, they are a tad blurry, but then again, how could they not be?), and the availability of the new SDK for the iPad has developers excited, but once again, we have evolved from the first days of the iPhone, and there are now alternatives. Apple should have addressed this issue with some very needed freedom. All that is important, but it is nothing compared to the most major flaw in the iPad, the lack of background processing ability. Are you kidding me, Apple? What is this, 2009? One app at a time on a device that is supposed to replace a netbook or even a laptop? Sorry, that is just not going to work for me.
- Web: OK, so we established that the iPad is not the ultimate eReader, media device, or multitasker, but maybe it is the ultimate web machine like Apple so casually mentioned like 100 times in yesterday’s keynote. Nope, sorry, it is not that either. Yes, the iPhone has the best mobile browser, and this device has a bigger screen, so what could be possibly be the issue? Well, like the iPhone, the iPad has no Adobe Flash support. You know what? I can forgive that on a mobile phone like the iPhone, but if the iPad is supposed to replace my netbook or laptop, it needs to be able to access the full Web and no Flash is a deal breaker. So, the iPad fails on this front too.
- Connectivity: I know we mentioned this earlier, but this is such a crucial point that might just be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. So many rumors circulated the interwebs in the weeks leading up to the release of the iPad. There were such high hopes for the ultimate device, and then there was the iPad. So, are you telling me that I am supposed to buy a device that is missing all the above features, and I am not even able to access the Web on it? Yes, if you are in a hot spot,there is Wifi, but what if you are not? There is of course the more expensive model with 3G support, but then you are forced to pay extra for a data plan. This just does not seem right to me. I now have my smartphone that connects to the Web wherever I am and if I happen to be in a place with Wifi, I have my laptop, remind me what I need the iPad for again?
In conclusion, I know this article is very one sided, and to deny the beauty of the iPad would be nothing short of a lie. They did an amazing job with the hardware, the fact that the processor is made by Apple is big news, and the new iPhone OS running on the iPad seems a whole lot better than its predecessor. Having said that, I honestly cannot figure out who Apple is targeting with this device, and it is for this reason, that I will be be truly surprised if this device becomes a success the way its baby brother, the iPhone has become.
