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iPad: I like the new Pillar

Thursday, January 28th, 2010
So yeah, finally, the day has come that Apple unveiled its new device, the iPad, after months of rumors, speculations, hype and downtalking from all sides.
You can get more details on the device on Apple´s shiny site for it , i´ll just post a streamlined and extended form of a reply i posted on a Kotaku article on it for now which sums up my thoughts on it so far:
I like my iPhone and iPod touch a lot, not because i develop for em, its the other way round, i make stuff for the devices because i think they are very well thought out devices with great focus on usability.
(And no, i´m not a blind Apple fanboy, i also have a PC sitting next to my Mac and develop for all sorts of platforms, not just Apple ones =) )
I was quite sceptical though when seeing the iPad unveiled.
The thick black borders around the screen made it feel less stylish than i expected, lack of new iPhone OS version with multitasking felt sad and it neither had a special screen suited ideally for reading like a kindle, nor one with wacom touch technology better suited for drawing.
And that´s just some of the points i wanted to see and was disappointed in not having in there.
But after letting it sink in for a while and rethinking it more from the side of what it is rather than what all the media or i dreamed it up to be, well, i came to the conclusion: the device itself is a pretty cool one.

I think where many articles i´ve seen miss the point is: Sure its not better than any console and won´t replace people´s main console or main portable, at least not initially.
And yes, it is not a full fledged pc with a full fledged pc / mac OS one can connect all sorts of devices to and run any app one wants on.
So its also not intended to replace people´s first/ main pc/mac.

Nor is it easier on the eyes or has longer battery life than a kindle.

What it can do though is become a device which one gets as second or third semi pc type device one has at home. Let´s say the pc is somewhere and this device is on the living room table.
One just uses it in between, and hey, when one already has it there, one can also play a game in between.
It doesn´t run all pc apps, neither is it best suited for gaming or reading books,
but it can be a great device many get because its overall a good package with many features, which then also gets used for those purposes its not best at. Sounds familar?

Yes, that´s how it works with the iPhone and iPod touch =)

I think Apple often finds a good balance of price, feature set, polish and a big focus on usability and this could be the next example for that.

I think the ones first to be scared are Nook and Kindle and well, regarding games maybe something similar happens like on the iPhone: Many don´t see most games as as good as on the ds or psp, but i hear more and more gamers who always have their iPhone or Touch with em and therefore automatically play less ds/ psp games.

And more and more games made specifically for it stand out with time.

I´m not sure if it will be the iPad, but i´m sure a device of a similar form factor will be on the living room table in most households in a few years (if technical evolution continues and we don´t have world war 3 ahead ;-) ).
And yeah, i think as package overall the iPad is a good contender for that spot on the table.

I think many are comparing functionality x or y with device z and i think that´s a mistake, this is really like a new Pillar between Smartphones and Netbooks/Notebooks/ Desktops, a new category, even if it can do many things devices of other types do.
I´m meanwhile convinced that there are many people this might be interesting for and i can think of many use cases for it, i´m personally looking forward to giving it a lengthy try, using it on the couch in front of the tv when the screen of the iPhone feels too small and the notebook or netbook too clunky and unintuitive to use in enjoyable way in the living room and that´s why i´m so also looking forward to develop games for it =)
More on that soon =)

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