As already noted, like any impending new Apple product, the iPad was hyped to the max before its launch and it would have taken something special to live up to the speculation. Like a lot of people, I was expecting an all-singing, all-dancing super-device – an OLED-based display with tactile feedback, front and rear facing video cameras and facial recognition. Given that this was supposed to be the saviour of the print industry I was expecting a multimode LED/e-ink screen at the very least.
But these bleeding-edge technologies don’t come cheap – certainly not for $499. I thought it interesting that there are actually two devices: one wifi only, clearly targeted at home use and another slightly more expensive 3G-equipped mobile version.
The speculation on the technology gave rise to a rumoured $1,000 price point. If the iPad was basically a keyboardless MacBook Air replete with the aforementioned display then I would say you could safely double that and halve the battery life.
Shares in AAPL started to slide when the product was initially announced but when the pricing was revealed the market cap grew by $5bn. I’m not suggesting for a second that Apple had anything to do with this. Besides, thing have since reverted to post-announcement form and shares fell 4% the next day.
It has slowly dawned on me that this device is brilliant for the market that it’s
aimed at: namely people who consume more than they produce. It is not meant as a replacement for the laptop but more for casual browsing, emailing and a low-margin front-end for purchasing content from the Apple Store.
Apple made $15.6bn revenue in the first quarter, has $35bn in cash at the bank and no debt.
While not a loss-leader per se, Apple simply don’t need initial sales of the iPad to make them money.
I didn’t have quite the same reaction as Hitler but yes, I was disappointed. Living up to the amount of hype generated would have been nigh on impossible but I still think Apple have a case to answer to defend against the trade descriptions act: despite what they say, this device is neither magical or revolutionary. The iPhone was magical and revolutionary when it was first demonstrated – unlike anything we’d seen before. This iPad device however . . .
Continue reading ‘The iPad’
Unless you spend hardly any time online – in which case I’ll assume you won’t be reading this – then you’ll have heard that Apple will be announcing something at a special event tomorrow. The general excitement is based around the much anticipated “slate” tablet form computer but due to the extended running time I suspect there will be other things on show.
Just like the iPhone, the applications and content for this new device will be distributed through the App Store. I’m also fairly confident in my predictions that the current applications will be able to run on the new device and that the OS will be heavily based on the iPhone. This system has come under fire recently but turnaround times have been much improved ahead of the explosion in content likely to be made available for the tablet. Personally, I’m a fan of the App Store approval process. Anything that comes between me and malicious content on my phone can only be a good thing. Of course, it’s not just a phone any longer: I do my banking, make online purchases and organize my life. Already the Android Marketplace has been a target of at least one application that tried to steal your data.
Apple are by no means perfect but controlling their system is what they feel is necessary to protect their customers. Having famously pushed for the removal of DRM from music it will be interesting to see how they approach the issue of keeping other content producers happy.
CES is over for another year and a seemingly massive concerted push for 3D was the stand out news for me. There’s still a huge disconnect between the perceived worth of these products and the actual value they bring to our lives. While 3D looks like it’s here to stay for the movies there’s probably quite a low demand for the technology in the home for the passive TV-in-the-background type of viewer. Until another breakthrough in something like the holographic projection front then I’m going to stick it out with normal broadcasts.
One product that did catch my eye was the Airenergy harvester that claims to pull energy from wifi signals just like Ed Begley Junior’s go-cart. However, not everyone is convinced that the gadget does exactly what it says on the tin.
Wireless power is certainly nothing new: Tesla was experimenting with it over 100 years ago. Several years ago I started to get all excited by SplashPower – which has now become the far-less-catchy ecoupled. You may be more familiar with the Power Mat after their advertising campaign just before Christmas.
The ultimate goal for wireless power is to beam solar energy back from space. Japan has big plans to be a pioneer in this field. The future looks like it’s finally only a few years away, I’ll have a flying car yet!
The past several days have been spent in a winter wonderland. For those of you who don’t know, some friends and I have been working our way through the alphabet of places to spend Hogmanay and New Year. This year was the 10th installment so we spent a few days down in Jedburgh in the Scottish Borders. Our base was the fabulously equipped Bairnkine Cottages a few miles outside Jedburgh where we were made to feel very welcome.
We saw the Bells in at a wonderful ceilidh in the Town Hall and then somehow made our way back through the snow to the cottages. The next couple of days were spent relaxing, building snowmen and igloos, and ferrying goods from our abandoned vehicles at the bottom of a hill, near the main road.
After a steady drive back up to Edinburgh on the Saturday we were a little taken aback to see the mostly city clear of snow – which we’d kind of gotten used to. It turns out that we needn’t have been too upset though: a further several inches fell overnight and covered the city once more.
It has been quite rare in recent history for Edinburgh to have snow laying for any length of time and as such I noticed a few things. Not being able to rely on the council, people will seemingly clear the pavements only to the edge of their property line and not one centimeter further. Messages in the snow are commonplace – usually obscene ones left on car windscreens but I did notice one helpful message informing the car owner that they had left their lights on. On a grander scale I witnessed a guy shoveling a Spanish message in the snow (with his scarf for the tilde in ñ) for his friend to photograph from their fourth-floor flat for use on a CD sleeve.
Pride of place has to go to this though. It was nice to see a little imagination and something a bit different on Rothesay Place: a snow Sphinx and mini-pyramid!
