Is the iPad Another Game Changer from Apple?

Yesterday, Steve Jobs finally quelled the maniacal hype surrounding the mythical, mobile touchpad device from Apple. No tablet has been so highly anticipated since Moses revealed the ten commandments. Jesus pad, anyone? The Apple iPad converges media and mobile computing in a new way that might just bring the newspaper business back from the brink of doom.

At first glance, the iPad looks like an oversized iPod touch. It’s thin, only half an inch. It weighs 1.5 pounds and it sports a 10″ multi-touch touch display. Plus it has all the things you’d expect from an Apple mobile device: built-in speakers, headphone jack, microphone, Wi-Fi, compass, accelerometer, and on and on. It runs a flavor of the iPhone OS and although 3G is an add-on option, the iPad does not have a built-in phone. Nor does it run Adobe Flash which seems to surprise a lot of industry watchers. Not us. But more on that later.

Many people we spoke to after the announcement were left feeling underwhelmed by the iPad. We think this partly due to the over hype leading up to the announcement, but also because people can’t envision how the iPad would fit into their lives. It’s too big to fit in your pocket or hang around your neck, and besides, we already have iPhones. It’s not as powerful as a desktop computer so it won’t replace our iMacs or MacBooks. So what exactly is this thing and who would buy one?

We predict iPad to be immensely popular in two industries, education and healthcare. People in both of these fields rely on information which up until now has been primarily in the form of hard copy text. iPad will replace all the books and at the same time, it will enable the transformation of information from text to multimedia. Fifteen years ago, this was the promise that CD-Roms were supposed to fulfill. The iPad will finally deliver this promise by filling in the gap between smart phones and mobile computers.

We do know of one person who wasn’t underwhelmed by yesterday’s iPad announcement, the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. You see, Jeff has been very busy for the past two years creating a new market for the Kindle, Amazon’s mobile e-reader that was supposed to help his company sell more books and magazines and at the same time, save the publishing industry. When you compare the iPad with the Kindle’s clunky, clinical aesthetic, its black and white display and chicklet keyboard, it’s obvious Jeff has been frantic, calling emergency triage meetings with his staff to figure out a response to the iPad. Jeff knows Apple’s foray into the e-reader market should not be taken lightly because Apple’s lightning does strike twice. The iPad will come packaged with iBook, an app that will do for publishing what iTunes did for music. It’s the same thing the iPod did to the Sony Walkman, and what the iPhone did (and is still doing) to Palm and almost every other smartphone. Apple is going to own the e-reader market and restore traditional publishers to their former glory.

Much like the iPhone, the iPad is a closed system meaning all apps that run on the device must be downloaded through Apple’s distribution channel, iTunes. This disappointed many people who were hoping the iPad’s OS was more similar to Apple’s desktop software that allows you purchase and install from third parties. The App Store has given the iPhone a complete lock on the mobile app industry (by a whopping 97% margin), and they want to do the same with iPad. Current iPhone apps will run as-is on the iPad but developers can adjust their apps to make better use of the larger screen so expect to see another surge in app development soon.

The iPad has a virtual keyboard by typing on it seems a little strange. Unlike the iPhone you can’t easily hold the device up and type at the same time because it’s too big. Also, if you lay it on a table to type you need to be looking straight down, which is pretty awkward. Too make matters worse, the back of the iPad features a slight curve which makes the device rock as you type. Apparently, this is why we saw Steve Jobs kicking back on sofa typing on the iPad propped upon his knees. It’s also why Apple will be offering a physical keyboard and docking station so you can use the iPad like a desktop computer.

During the announcement, nobody made any mention of Adobe Flash and most people interpret that to mean it won’t be included on the iPad. That is absolutely incorrect. Flash will indeed appear on the iPad, and iPhone for that matter, just not the way you expect to see it.

Most people think of Flash as tiny little apps and games that you interact with inside a web browser. Mobile Safari has never, and will never have Flash support. Why? Because Apple will lose control over the way users get apps via the App Store, and therefore lose revenue. If developers could distribute Flash apps on their own web sites, then they wouldn’t need to give Apple the 30% transaction fee charged for App Store sales. No Flash means everyone is still forced to use the App Store to acquire apps. But wait, didn’t we say Flash would appear on the iPad? Yes, there will be Flash apps running on iPads, iPhones, and iPod touches but they won’t run in the web browser. These are standalone apps created from existing, browser-based Flash apps, packaged to run on the iPhone OS. To download these apps you’ll still need to go to the App Store. Expect to start seeing these appear later this year after Adobe releases the next version of the Flash authoring software which has this new iPhone OS export feature.

We can think of a hundred features Apple could have included to add more sizzle to the iPad’s launch. Wireless syncing, biometric security, hdtv tuner and pvr, just to name a few. The one obvious feature missing from the iPad is the camera, not so much for taking pictures but rather for video conferencing. The device is a little too big to hold up for taking pictures, but a camera on the display side would make it perfect for video chat. It seems like that would be a killer feature and we hope to eventually see it included on iPad 2. Something that simple could help transform yet another industry, online porn, which doesn’t seem to be suffering much without the iPad.

In any case, we’ll be in line soon at the Apple Store rubbing elbows with Woz to get our hands on this new “magical” device from Apple. Do you plan to buy an iPad as well? If so, we’ll keep you posted on the latest iPad news and developments so stay tuned to Touchtip.

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