iPad, iHype, iFail

After all the built up hype, comments from Steve Jobs about this being a revolutionary product (and saying we would be surprised at how we interact with it? touch screen keyboard? wow), the iPad is disappointing. It turns out to be exactly what the original guesses were, a large iPod Touch, with a 3G option.

I have been reading the message boards and universally people seem disappointed. For every comment about loving it, there are ten saying "meh" or worse. The price turned out to be more reasonable, but the lack of a camera for me is the biggest set back.

I bought a netbook by ASUS (running linux) 1 year ago and it has more capabilities and a 10" screen for $384 at the time. It appears the iPad blows the Intel Atom based netbooks out of the water on shear speed, but...

• No camera, some predicted 2 even
• No Flash support in the browser, huge deficiency for a device this size competing with netbooks
• No multitasking, minor problem on a small device
• No usb or removable storage
• 4:3 ratio? Little old school

And how about those wild leaks at the 11th hour about HDTV, PVR, OLED? Nothing of the sort. I am sure most of my gripes above will be addressed in the next version, except for the USB and removable storage. So wait for the next version, as was the case for the iPhone, to get the one they should have made.

I am sure they will sell plenty of these, but realistically, who is the market for this? There will be those who buy everything Apple puts out, but really if you already have an iPhone or iPod Touch or something equivalent, you don't really need this. It is a little underwhelming for a netbook with the lack of a camera and Flash support, but they will capture some of that crowd, although I don't think it will be a large market share. So basically this is for someone looking to purchase their first iPod or upgrade from an old one.

This is not coming from an Apple hater, I am currently typing this on a recently purchased iMac. The Apple hype machine pulled out all the stops on this one and made Steve Jobs look like a seller of snake oil. They may have trouble the next time around getting the same attention for a new product, when they really do have something revolutionary to sell.