My Thoughts About the iPad

After giving you 17 reasons why the iPad sucks and 499 why you should buy one, I wanted to share with you what I really think about the iPad.

Underwhelming is the word

All throughout Steve Jobs’ presentation of the iPad, I was waiting for the time I would be amazed and excited. Jobs always does a great job at giving me the chills for his products but this time, he failed to.

When the presentation was over, I really felt underwhelmed. I thought to myself: is this it? There had to be something I had missed. Some feature I had overlooked. No, that was really it.

Apple had failed to create excitement.

Netbook > iPad

Steve Jobs made it pretty clear that the iPad aimed at taking over the netbook market. However, I’m not convinced the iPad is better than a netbook at all. To be honest with you, I even felt offended when Steve Jobs called netbooks “cheap laptops”. I am currently traveling with a netbook right now, and there is no way a giant iPod Touch would be half as useful as my netbook is. Really.

If all you do is going to Facebook and check emails, then yes, get an iPad because it will do that just flawlessly for you. However, if you’re looking for a mobile device from which you can actually work (ie. save documents, create documents, extensive typing, video chat, etc…), then I believe a netbook still is your best bet.

I am not Apple’s target market

I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t know who the iPad really is for. It is not for me, I know that. I am a computer power user. I need multitasking, I need Flash, I need to be able to save documents to my hard drive. But I might be blinded by how I see the perfect tech gadget, and what I believe is good for me probably is far from what Mom and Pops think is good for them.

If my Mom told me she wanted an iPad, I would gently explain to her that it might not be a good idea for the time being and that she might as well buy a $400 Lenovo netbook because she’ll get much more out of it. The problem is that my Mom will be so excited about owning a device with a fruit on it that she probably won’t listen to me anyways.

The iPad might be targeting these people: those who don’t know enough, thus can be easily influenced by good marketing campaigns.

Do I NEED or do I WANT an iPad?

The reason why I’m so confused about this new device is probably because I haven’t used it yet, but also because Apple hasn’t managed to make it clear why I need an iPad. Apple is usually great at making me NEED things. 3 years ago, I was very happy with my BlackBerry Pearl, then Apple shows up with the iPhone. They made me NEED it, instantly. This has been also true for the iPhone 3G and 3GS.

Apple doesn’t make me need an iPad right now. It hasn’t hit the spot yet!

Will I buy an iPad?

Yes, I will buy an iPad. The main reason is that if I’m going to blog about it, I’d better know my stuff. It might also be convenient at night to check Twitter or my emails while watching TV on the couch. I’m a news junkie and I admit that an iPad will be much better to read the news from my RSS reader, which I usually do from my iPhone.

Oh and one more thing, my fiancee is very excited too, for slightly different reasons though. Here is what she said to me: “I think playing Bejeweled on this giant screen is gonna be awesome”. She had a point. I started dreaming about landing giant planes on Flight Control, one of my favorite games, on this big iPad screen. Haha!

The future of the iPad

This is just the beginning. What Apple is giving us today has nothing to do with what they will give us in 3-4 years. They could very well give us all we want right now (more storage, Flash, video camera, etc…), but they have to start somewhere. They have to work on us and create the need for an iPad. This will take time but I am convinced that once Apple really unleashes the power of the iPad, it will be one of the most amazing and useful device ever made.

On the bright side, I know the Dev Team will be working day and night to jailbreak the iPad. Once they find an exploit and can inject their codes in there, the iPad will be on its way to kicking ass.

What’s your point of view?