Apple iPad fail
Everyone has been buzzing about the iPad, and I’ve quite purposely refrained from posting about it. Why? Because I don’t have anything to say about it that others aren’t saying much better, and more wittily. I’m not an Apple fan to begin with, and in general I find it ridiculous, from the name down to its many limitations. So I’m not going to write about the iPad. But I am going to link to the best discussions thereof that I’ve found (since while they will live in infamy on Twitter as I’ve retweeted them, finding them involves more “read more” clicks than I can stand).
Adam Frucci at Gizmodo compiled a witty, exacting list of 11 things that suck about the Apple iPad, pointing out, most aptly, that one cannot multi-task, lack of Flash interaction ability, that it isn’t widescreen and that it has the same closed-app environment as the iPhone.
Adam Pash of Lifehacker wrote at length, as well, following up particularly on that last grievance: the closed app environment. Now, as someone who doesn’t own an iPhone, I wasn’t aware of this issue, and it just gives me yet another reason not to buy into the Apple empire and get an Android instead. Pash does an excellent analysis and comparison in terms of what other products iPad is competing with, and why it might be better or worse than those things (Kindle, Netbooks). He also links to another article of his, which was most enlightening as far as Apple and apps is concerned.
Peter Ha of Time’s Techland is pro-Apple and gives the iPad the benefit of the doubt. Ha hates Netbooks and has been vocal about it before, so the common quibble of the iPad not having a camera where a Netbook would doesn’t rank for him. Nor does any issues with Flash, on-screen keyboard or battery life.
GeekSugar is less snarky, but makes two excellent points about the lack of ports, and a stylus. Even though I’m an iPad skeptic, they’re right: tablets are GREAT for artists, so why not integrate a stylus? I’d rather have a stylus interaction with such a tablet than have to use my fingers for everything.
And from the humor front, there’s BuzzFeed’s AMAZING ad for the “iPad Nano” (it even makes phone calls! LOL) and College Humor, who sums up the inherent comedy of the iPad perfectly. (sadly CH videos don’t seem to agree to embedding on WordPress 
)
I suppose I do have *some* semi-valid, almost original thoughts, the foremost of which being that, from a branding and timing perspective, Apple is being a bit presumptuous. They are peddling the iPad as the 2nd coming of the Netbook/Kindle when it doesn’t even come close to competing with the broad functions of either. Could it have such scope in the long-run? Surely. The launch just feels hastily put together, when even the simplest consumer survey would have pointed out to them some of the more obvious flaws in the design.
But I don’t think Apple cares. They know their loyal customer base will run out and buy one immediately, and then happily upgrade as the inevitable 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc. generation iPads are later released. Why release a solid, comprehensive product now (or, really, later!) when you can release essentially a base prototype and makes tons of money off the early adopters who will scramble to buy one? The presumptive, lazy business strategy behind the iPad launch is just disappointing.
And, well, the name is horrible. iPad? Really? <insert now tired menstruation joke here> Consumer launch fail.
