The Apple Tablet Is Here, And It's Called the iPad

So, it's an iPod Touch. A large one. The iPod touch is a min-iPad and this is the max-iPad.

It was great how Steve fully acknowledged the problem with tablets, "So all of us use laptops and smartphones... the question has arisen; is there room for something in the middle. We've wondered for years as well -- in order to create that category, they have to be far better at doing some key tasks... better than the laptop, better than the smartphone."

Then he proceeded to introduce a device that underperforms vs either smartphones or laptops in almost every way.

No keyboard. Less space than a netbook. Lame.

The innovation was in the iPhone. The news apps, book apps, content consumption and games, all MOBILE. The i-pad makes these innovations PRACTICAL with a bigger screen, and that is something worth buying.

I don't know how I feel about this. Part of me wants to say this'll be a great light mobile device to carry around, and the other part says this is somewhat useless as I can do most of these things on my iPhone. I really don't see anyone using iWork on the iPad to create presentations or documents. You usually wanna crank that stuff out quickly, and the speed at which you can type up a slide title, browse the net for an image, copy and paste it over, etc, on a laptop is, I'm assuming, far greater than you'd be able to do it on the iPad. Not to mention, I'm worried that typing on this thing is going to be extremely awkward. The keyboard is too big to use while holding the iPad with your hands (unless you're a hunt and peck typer), and laying it on a flat surface will mean you'll have to hunch over to see what you're typing. The screen real estate is great, and I can definitely see myself using it to read books, but for $500, I'm not quite sure it's worth it. I would've loved to see them unveil some sort of medical charts app for use in hospitals. That would've been a wow moment for me. But they didn't, so I'm torn.

In 10-15 years, I can see most students carry an iPad-like device to school instead of a bunch of books many (esp in Asian countries) need to put in their bags today. It would also be a great replacement for brick-heavy textbooks. If we can collectively break the textbook oligopoly, the costs would be much lower as well.

Together with video lecture inserts to clarify difficult points and interactive & intelligent tutoring software, this could potentially change the way people learn.

I see this going the way of the Macbook Air.

Yeah - it's a big iPod. yawn

As an instant-on, full-page web browser, it's far more useful than a netbook, but it's pretty underwhelming for everything else.

With shorter battery life, greater cost, and more eyestrain than the Kindle, I doubt it will have much impact on the e-reader market.

I thought you are supposed to under promise and over deliver?

I see nothing new and innovative.

Starts at $499. Suck that, netbooks.

Presentation just finished. I have to say I'm disappointed. First point is trivial; they should have gone with a new name like iSlate. Playing off of your own products name (IPod) is weak marketing. It sounds like something somebody would try to knock off an iPod with.

Actual problems with the iPad:

1)It should have 128GB of storage available. I understand this would lead to a big price leap, but availablility would be nice

2) They should've gone 16:9 Aspect Ratio. EVERYTHING is that ratio now. Notice all the vids didn't fit the screen? Furthermore, the keyboard built in would be much more effective with the increase in dimensions.

3)Thank the lord they have 3G. If they didn't I would've lost it. But why can't they just put this on the same bill as my phone? THAT would've been a good contract negotiation. That way Phone providers get even more of our data usage and it's built in. This would help me use up my 6GB monthly dataplan. I want simplicity Apple, not another plan to activate.

The battery life is brilliant though.

The target demographic for this device may not be current iPhone, iPod or MacBook users. Consider the many people that want MacBooks but can't afford them. The iPad + keyboard dock is a lower-cost alternative, especially with iWork applications for $10 a pop.

I see this product as doing nothing but growing Apple's customer base.

One thing we have to think about with this is that Jobs is not afraid of a wholesale platform change.

This makes me think that his is really a quiet thrust back into general computing, from a platform, hardware and software ecosystem that's been very successful and is wholly owned and controlled by Apple.

The current Mac ecosystem is basically no different, or just a variation on, the PC open platform. Jobs has stated many times in the past that he prefers to "control the end-to-end user experience" which is code for "prefers to control the margins on Apple products, from hardware to software".

Everything in the iPhone ecosystem allows Apple to control the end to end margins retrievable from the consumer. The Mac ecosystem lost this message a long time ago and this seems to me like a soft-shoe effort to turn the Apple consumer onto a new computing platform that's on the Steve Jobs "margin controlled" message.

It also cleanly gets the moved away from the Wintel style computing and back into proprietary and incompatible land. Within two years, people will be using these things for general computing, with mice and keyboards and webcams and all kinds of specialized docks and iPad 2nd monitors and such. Within 5 years they'll offer a complete out of the box computer running in this constrained ecosystem and traditional Macs will be relegated to some type of "Pro" offering targeting writers and artists.

Already it's principle release feature is the presence of 140k apps, ready to roll with it that you can purchase only from the Apple controlled online store. And there's discussion on porting more traditional productivity apps (iWorks) to the platform.

Effectively, this puts the iPod/Phone/Pad derivative products into direct competition with Apple's own products, which already have plenty of competition from traditional Wintel boxes, Netbooks of all varieties, other tablets, the upcoming Chrome OS machines, and Android computing platforms. But because it's so tightly controlled the intersection in the primary computing ecosystem is minimal.

Truth is between my laptop and my iPhone, there really isn't space left for another $500 device. If I can take the iPad around I can take my laptop too. IPad can't beat iPhone in terms of taking out of my pocket and quickly getting some info. Can't be my laptop because it can't run my work apps.

It's an entertainment device that can't fit in my pocket, and can't work like a bigger computer. I've got some space for it in my bathroom though, however doctor says I shouldn't sit there too long.

Seriously if it ran OS X it might be enticing, but why get an oversized iPod touch that can't fit in your pocket.

I'm going to wait for the iPhone with pico projector embedded.

All the flash (or lack there of) got me excited, but there are a few glaring questions left unanswered:

1) Support for multi-tasking? This is a must on something like this. Perhaps they want to ensure performance of single applications by restricting multi-tasking?

2) Flash support? When Steve was browsing the flash plugin was missing... another must on a device that is trying to act as an intermediary between laptop and phone, primarily for web usage.

3) All of the focus on the iPad as an e-reader is neglecting the fact that the screen will be difficult to read off of. The screens of Kindles and Sony e-reader products are the major attraction, in my opinion. There's no way I could read for several hours on a backlit screen.

It's a great multimedia device, and has some awesome practical implications. However, I think the things I listed above are big time issues for the intentions of this device.

I don't have a need for one of these things, but I think it might be great for my mother or grandmother.

If they include a pull-out or pluggable physical keyboard, arranged to allow the pad to stand like a frame, it could be a great replacement for most netbooks and allow for hands-free reading--therefore a Kindle killer as well.

Wonder if they have ever considered the idea and reject it simply for the aesthetics of having the simplest, smoothest device possible. Aesthetics is good, but if a small compromise can be made for much greater functionality, it would be a good trade-off.

I think some other companies might have come up with a device I described above. Anyone here knows of one? I would consider buying it. A link would be appreciated.

i was underwhelmed until I heard the price: at $499 this thing is going to be a huge hit.

So far, I think ill stick to getting a netbook, just because im not a fan of depending on the iPhone OS on anything but a phone, and even that is a deal breaker for me. Maybe if it came with Mac OS

Also runs on Apple's own silicon. The A4.

What about a camera? Did I miss anything?

Horrible name, and no flash..again? What a serious waste of money

Can't wait to see what other devices like this will be out there in a matter of months based on Nvidia Tegra - and at what price. Could this be the downfall of netbook growth?

And how much is it... refresh refresh refresh

It seems like it will be excellent for for salesmen or pharmaceutical representatives.

Personally, I'm fighting whether I should continue with my Kindle DX purchase, or get this instead.

Charging $100 extra per 32GB must be a big money maker for Apple. I just bought a 32GB USB stick off newegg for $70 and considering Apples buying power, it probably costs them a lot less.

It seems their main target is the macbook-buying college student. I wish this thing doesn't cost more than 499 ($599 max).

The pricing suggests they plan to make a lot more money selling apps & books/magazines than the hardware itself.

I wonder if it will come with wings? So we can (say) safely use it while exercising ;-)

ATT providing the 3G service: #FAIL

ynterestingly, Fujitsu already have this particular product name trademark and apple has been trying to wrestle yt away from them for a while now.

yt ys an ynteresting feat of branding that apple has been able to establish president that they have claim to any name starting with the letter i. (The same thing happened with Cisco and the iPhone).

Personally, y've always found that particular piece of branding obnoxious. Really? a lowercase i?

Luckily we have cognates and perhaps y-combinator can release its own brand of yPhone, yTouch, and yPad? (all, of course, running on a lisp OS).