Knocking the iPad
June 3rd 2010 02:46
Apple this week announced that global sales have passed the two million mark, a Royal Bank of Canada report also released this week forecasts sales of eight million in 2010 and 41 million by 2014, and Apple has just passed Microsoft as the world’s biggest technology company by market capitalisation.
The critics, therefore, and a list of their bleatings may seem unjustified. However, we see two solid reasons for the list: firstly, it is interesting to see how silly some people make themselves look by shooting from the lip; and secondly, some of these criticisms are valid.
After the iPad’s announcement in January
The overall reaction has been, in a word, underwhelming. (PC magazine, after Steve Jobs first announced the iPad in January to a reception which many other people would have described as overwhelming.)
Apple's iPad took years to design and build. Tearing it down has taken only a few hours. (Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek)
The iPad is like living with your parents -- there's a lot you can't do, but there are undeniable advantages. (Claburn again)
iPad is a silly name (many people).
Clearly, women are not finding this name attractive. The name looks like a mistake a man would make. Steve should have spent more time talking to his wife and daughters. (Analyst Rob Enderle, Enderle Group)
It has some absolutely backbreaking failures that will make buying one the last thing I would want to do. (Adam Frucci, Gizmodo)
The iPad is a grown up iPod touch. Apple has taken the safe route of offering its existing customers an option that goes beyond today's iPod touch in size and capability, but it has not offered a new category of devices that tackles the 5-6 hours of media we each consume every day. (Analyst James McQuivey, Forrester Research)
The iPod Touch is a significant step toward finally making tablets respectable. But making tablets respectable should have been the least of Apple's ambitions. (McQuivey again).
Perhaps it’s because the iPad is arguably the ultimate example of Apple’s penchant for pre-release speculation and hype gone wild. Let’s face it. There are enough valid quibbles about the iPad that it seems as if the product might have been rushed out the door, much like the company’s last big dud, AppleTV. (Brent Schlender, blogs.BNet.com)
After the iPad’s release in April
We hate it. (Gizmodo)
There's no point to this device. Laptops can do everything it can do and more, for less money. (Comment by Eagle628 on the PC World website)
My netbook was half the price of the base model iPad, has the same sized screen, a faster processor, 160gb of storage, 2gb of ram, a full keyboard, great battery life, a real OS - you know, one that can do multiple things at a time - a web cam, removable battery, flash support, etc etc. (Comment by Abrahmm on the PC World website)
Operational criticisms
Can’t edit video or music files (a criticism by Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple)
Can’t multitask
Doesn’t support Adobe Flash
Has no camera
Has no HDMI port
4:3 aspect ratio
Dependence on adapters
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