Apple's iPad: Worth It?

After months (even years) of hype, Apple has presented their new device: the iPad. And for the last 24 hours, cyberspace has been exploding with comments of people loving it, hating it, expressing admiration or being dumbfounded by the device. If anything, I believe there's more comments leaning towards the "I like it" than in the "I hate it" camp. Here's Apple's video:



So, what's to like, what's to hate, what's the bottom line?

To like, at a first glance, is the crisp, bright screen and the 10 hour battery life. Also, and this is not surprising coming from Apple, the interface. It simply can be described as organic. And beautiful. Another point which I believe to be a brilliant strategic move by Jobs, is that it can use nearly any iPhone app out there. This immediately gives the iPad access to a library of hundreds of thousands, even millions, of applications. While there will evidently be native applications which better exploit the device's increased screen real estate and other hardware advantages, the fact is that the device is at a big advantage.

However, I'm not a big fan of certain aspects of the iPad. First of all, even though it is touted as a device that's made to surf the web in absolute confort, it doesn't support Flash. Big mistake. Flash is used by many websites. Without it, some of these just won't be accesible from Apple's device. Another issue is multi-tasking. Google's android has demonstrated that there is a need for this capability in modern operating systems, regardless of whether they are focused on computers or smartphones.

As an aside, I can't help but listen to all those comments that say there is no real need for something that isn't and iPhone nor a laptop.

When the iPod came out, it changed the whole industry. There were already dozens of portable MP3 players in the market, some with much better technical specs than the original iPod. And yet, it was Apple's device the one that changed the playing field forever. And I think the iPad just might be able to do the same on the basis of its similarities.

The iPod had a very friendly user interface. So does the iPad. The iPod had a very convenient way of interfacing with the user's computer via iTunes. So does the iPad. The iTunes store was probably the biggest difference in the end. The iPad has access to this marketplace, as well as to the App store and the newly created iBookstore. In short, everything seems set for the iPad to start gaining momentum quite rapidly.

My bottom line? I probably won't buy it soon. Then again, I might just walk into a MacStore with some extra cash burning a hole in my pocket in a few months.

Will Jobs change the industry yet again? Time will tell. If I had to bet, my money's with the winning horse - and Apple has been that horse many, many times by now.