The mysteries of the Neofonie WePad tablet [information, article] will be revealed in just a short while. Android, X86, Marketplace, AIR, battery life, etc, etc, etc. All those questions will be answered later today by Meet:Mobility partner in crime, Sascha over at Netbooknews. I’ll be staying in touch with him monitoring his German and English content and summarizing here later. Jeff Jarvis (@jeffjarvis Journalist, author, Android-interested) is also there and as someone who sent back his iPad, I’m interested to see what he thinks
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Chance of a ‘Wow’ this afternoon: About 30% if you ask me!
Press conference starts at 1630 GMT+2 (2.5hrs from this post)
Let me start like every other blogger that can’t be bothered to deal with Apple fanatics in comments. I like the iPad and it has a place in the world. It’s making people think about different usage scenarios in ways that Origami/UMPCs never had the chance too. With over 500,000 devices out there, some great discussion and experimentation is taking place.
This article is aimed squarely at people that want to be connected and productive while mobile. Through years of testing mobile computing (and consumer internet) devices we’ve picked up plenty of knowledge on the subject and in this article, I list the significant items that are important when considering the iPad. The list doesn’t just apply to the iPad of course and it’s not exhaustive but seeing as many are looking to use the iPad as a productive device (and I’m honestly very happy that people are trying) it makes sense to put this information out there.
Your comments are, as always, encouraged and anything relevant will be folded back into the list for the benefit of everyone.
So lets start by me explaining how I’m writing this article. I’m using the tiny but powerful Fujitsu U820 (variant) which is running Windows XP. Connected to the device are a wireless mouse and keyboard, a 160GB USB drive, my Nokia phone (it’s charging via USB) my HiFi and a 1440×900 21 inch monitor. I’ve been using this ‘grab and go’ solution as my desktop for over a month.
The iPad can do some of that, for sure, but let’s take a deeper look into the limitations because what you see there is just the start of it. Not all issues will apply to you and some issues may become obsolete after iPad OS upgrades but as it stands today, here they are.
Multitasking. With Livewriter, 5 Firefox tabs, Gtalk and Last.FM running I’m obviously taking advantage of Multitasking. I could Close everything but livewriter but I’ve been side-by-siding a similar article I’ve written to make sure I’ve covered everything. That simple operation just wouldn’t be possible on the iPad. Single-tasking DOES preserve user experience but most users also know how to preserve it themselves.
Keyboard. If you want to be truly mobile and productive, you need to be looking at a thumb keyboard either in two-handed mode or single handed mode. There’s no substitution and if someone tells you ‘I can reach 55 WPM’ just consider some of the stress levels involved in using a keyboard with no tactile feedback. Also think about multi-key shortcuts, preserving screen space and programmable keys. The iPad can give you all the characters you want but it will be slow, heavy and a stressful.
Tablet Form factor. During the ultra mobile PC years many of us shouted loud about the need for keyboards in slider and clamshell designs. Tablets work in some scenarios but they never really satisfied anyone. Even if you marry the right software with the right touch hardware, you’re still left with a form factor that has limitations. Nothing can really fix that and the popularity of netbooks should be testament to that. Input of any kind on a tablet PC can be stressful and unproductive in many scenarios.
Processing power. Apple have done an awesome job with the ARM Cortex-based CPU but it’s still slow in comparison to CPU’s on PC’s. Looking at some of the thin and light CULV devices (the Acer Aspire Timeline 1820PTZ often comes up in discussions) you’re paying a similar price for many many times the processing power. Even looking at basic things like web page processing, you’ll see a big difference that could save many minutes a day.
Memory. If you get into any sort of professional work from creating documents, coding and editing photo’s, memory is a must. You need memory and you need lots of it if you want to get productive.
Adobe Flash. Regardless of whether you like it or not, it’s there. Not only for advertising and video but for many other uses from graphs to product comparisons. The same is true of Java, AIR, Silverlight and others come into the mix too.
Weight. 680gm is nothing for a computer but when you’re mobile, it can turn out to be too much. One-handed use is a particular problem with a tablet when you don’t have a surface to rest it on. Try holding the edge in landscape mode and pressing a few keys. The leverage on the wrist is huge. For document reading, this isn’t the best solution.
No 3G. Tethering and 3G routers are a great solution but take it from someone that has used all the solutions; there’s nothing like built in 3G. Ease-of use. Antenna strength. Battery life. Reduced points of failure. Accounting. If you want to go mobile, get the best built-in antenna possible and a quality 3G chipset. I still haven’t found anything that beats the reception on my Gigabyte Touchnote and when I’m sitting in a conference watching people trying to hook-up to the Internet, I’m happy I invested in it.
Capacitive touchscreen Capacitive touchscreens are good for some things (Glass solution. Light finger touch) but bad for others. The accuracy of a capacitive touchscreen becomes a major issue for annotations (marking up docs, signing) handwriting recognition and any type of graphical operation. Accurately cropping a photo can be a problem on a capacitive touchscreen.
It’s more than just a little annoying that the only thing known about an iPad in Europe is that it is due to launch in ‘late April’ for an ‘unbelievable price.’ That’s the stable Euro/$ for you!
One can assume that a 1:1 dollar to Euro conversion is going to be in the right ball-park though and I’ve even found one retailer already taking pre-orders. 3GStore.de (info via Blogeee) appears to be a big site with a solid history and it’s offering the base iPad for 549 Euro. The high-end model clocks in at 879 Euro. I’m guessing that they’ve thrown 50 Euros onto the estimated retail price and are simply taking a risk by being first. SEO value + increased margin = Smart move!
At 499 Euro inclusive 19% local taxes (543 dollars before tax) it’s not cheap -the same cost as an unlocked HTC Desire. How will this fit with the easy-going EU public?
As we mentioned on the Meet:Mobility podcast this week, we don’t see the penetration being anything like what it is in the U.S. Based on my experience with resellers and affiliate schemes, EU conversions run way way below that what you’ll see in the U.S. I’m estimating about 20% of the penetration seen in the U.S. Assuming Apple sold 500,000 in one week among a population of 300 million in the U.S., I wouldn’t expect anything more than 100,000 sales in the first week across the Euro-zone which has a similar population.
If you’re in the EU, how are you feeling about a 500 Euro price tag?
If you’re the type of person that’s more interested in kicking back in a comfy chair with a coffee and your favorite internet sites and apps rather than looking to get productive with UMPCs, you’ll want to take a look at our sister publication, Carrypad. We’re focusing on consumer media and internet devices and building a database of all that’s interesting.
Typing on the iPad Ben has an iPad. Here’s one of his videos. Stay tuned to Carrypad for more iPad news.
iPad: What’s Bubbling To The Top? Looking at the reviews for common threads. How’s the iPad doing? We’re not seeing too much rising up as ‘killer’ features.
Why The CIDs Will Suffer. A thought about how the iPad could stall the market for consumer internet devices.
It wasn’t an easy decision to make but it made sense. Our iPad (that’s the one that Ben and I have bought for Carrypad) will be spending it’s life over in the capable hands of Ben over in Honolulu. It turned up today and Ben’s already posted some unboxing pics. He’s planning to get rolling with a series of usage articles and we hope that we can offer you a useful perspective on the device. Ben has a lot of experience with UMPCs and netbooks and he’s also an iPhone owner so he should have no trouble getting used to the iPad. We’re also planning to learn from the iPad and to see what elements of the device are missing from other devices and if the iPad has potential as a full, productive mobile device.
Although the iPad carries the soul that the Origami team were searching for back in 2006 we’ve decided to do the coverage at our consumer-focused sister site Carrypad. We might bring some tech thoughts over here in a few special articles (the iPad runs in 2.5w 10hrs in 700gm! That’s something I want to talk about soon at UMPCPortal) but at the moment, everything is going on over there.
When you’ve got a new born baby and an Archos Android Tablet at hand (see image) you have a lot of time to read and that’s what I’ve been doing non-stop this weekend as I check-out all the news about the iPad. 24hrs into the game we’re starting to see some well-balance posts about usage models of all types and even though I don’t have an iPad myself (Ben has just started his coverage. His iPad turned up today.), I’m starting to get a feel for how it’s going for people and what usage scenarios are bubbling up as the most important and most interesting.
First off, there don’t seem to be any major surprises or let-downs and you really have to pay the Apple marketing teams some respect for working within sensible bounds and not going crazy with their marketing. Battery life is as good as expected (more on that below,) the screen is crisp with a wide viewing angle, the web experience is very fast and UI is as smooth as you’d expect it to be. Apart from some quibbles about USB charging I haven’t seen anyone that has hit any sort of roadblock. On the other side of the coin however, we’re not seeing any killer usage models rising the surface. Yet.
Tablets have always been a difficult product to position. In the 4 years that I’ve been covering the smaller tabletPCs, the Origami and ultra mobile PC area I have learned a lot about target audiences, usage models and niches. The iPad isn’t any different although it definitely plays to a more lounge-focused audience rather than to the portable PC fans of the ultra mobile PC world. The issues are the same though so here’s a list of the key ones from the tablet world. How is the iPad shaping up?
There’s the full internet experience and then there’s the consumer internet experience. One needs to be 100% accurate, extendable and tailorable through plugins, multitasking and extensions and the other simply needs to be good enough to serve customers with 95% of their pages in a slick fasion. In the laid-back world of sofa-surfing the iPad seems to really hit the mark. Reports are coming in that Safari is fast and fun. Faster than the fastest phone (widely agreed to be the Google Nexus One at the time of writing) and without any worries of zooming or panning. Easy-to-read and fun to use and for some people, worth the $500 just for this!
Battery life.
Top marks to Apple here. They’ve produced a device that runs over 10 hours. It’s a full day and enough for nearly everyone. There are some interesting stats that can be gleaned from the battery size though because the 24wh battery means it’s running in a 2.5w profile About 3 times what a smartphone would take under load and it’s all to do with backlight. In fact, I estimate 80% of the battery drain to be coming from screen backlight, Wifi and components other than the CPU.
Keyboard.
I’m not hearing anyone calling the keyboard total rubbish but we’re hearing a lot of ‘you won’t want to write a book on it’ type comments which is exactly what people say when they know it’s not going to cover every usage model. Flat-usage on a table in landscape mode is sub-optimal (neck pain) and resting the device on bent knees is also uncomfortable over time. The device is too heavy for extended one-handed use and trust me, carrying a bluetooth keyboard and batteries around ends up being akward. Let’s wait for a while on this because I’m guessing the excitement over blogging and emailing using the iPad will wear off after a while. As always, the phone is always close-by and the laptop is always more productive.
Size/Weight.
I’m seeing a lot of people talking about the hefty weight of the iPad and I think this is going to be a problem. Apple have chosen to use an aluminum body for strength but it’s added a lot to the weight. The 120gm battery pack is also adding a huge amount of weight. It’s a difficult design decision that plagues tablets all the time and Apple have probably made the right choices but it still doesn’t make it right. For the ultimate in usage flexibility and to cover mobile usage scenarios better, a few hundred grams needs to be taken off the weight.
Frame controls.
If you’ve never spent a lot of time with a device that has frame controls for things like scrolling, selecting, backlight adjustment and radio, you’ll never notice that these are missing from the iPad and as one would expect, this shortfall isn’t getting much coverage. We’re talking form over function here but surely there’s something that could have been done with all the frame space?
Applications.
It’s here where the big discussion takes place and although I’m personally not a long-term iPod Touch or iPhone user, I can see that users are enjoying the large-scale applications. iPhone apps using pixel doubling (4 ipad pixels for each iPhone aplication pixel) are a different matter though and I’m seeing an almost universal disappointment with this. The landscape will change quickly though and you’ll see iPad apps flowing through very quickly now. Games are bubbling up as an exciting feature although I doubt anyone was expecting the best gaming experience; the device just isn’t built for it. You’re unlikely too see too many iPad owners being disappointed with the gaming. Finally, the iWork apps seem to be impressing most people although as with the keyboard issue above, many are also saying that it won’t quite replace a laptop which also means it probably won’t ever replace the laptop.
Price.
No-one is moaning about the price. What owner would! For comments on pricing you need to ask people that didn’t buy the iPad. Is it too expensive?
Also-mentioned.
USB charging problems, no GPS on Wifi models, no memory card slot or USB host port.
Not mentioned.
It doesn’t surprise me that the lack of Flash isn’t mentioned much in reports. Of course it’s mentioned but there aren’t many users getting upset about it. Flash is a serious component of the serious web but when you’re lying in bed, it’s not such a showstopper. Also not mentioned with significant weight is multitasking. I wonder if the iPad is so fun and intriguing that switching between apps is actually fun!
Summary.
In summary I’m seeing a ‘reader’ and an entertainment device bubbling up as the key usage models right now but you have to look between the lines to find it out because as most of the bloggers out there are scrambling to make money out of it first! As many of them invested $500 in it, there’s also a level of vested interest too!
It seems that Apple hasn’t solved the basic physical issues with large-format tablet devices and if you really were expecting them to, you probably need to spend some time with a tablet device to find out that it’s almost impossible. What Apple appear to have done is created a huge wave of interest and sales that will ensure enough momentum to make this iPad a success. Customers are happy and are likely to stay that way and that’s enough for a few million sales. If Apple don’t reach their targets or the momentum runs out, they’ll will still have learned enough and made enough cash to try again and make a better product next time. The iPad is a great device but you really need to be aware that it’s not going to solve any major issues for you; it’s simply a well-designed luxury viewing frame.
Recommended reading / Sources.
At the time of writing we have a list of about 16 ‘latest newslinks’ to important articles about the iPad from across the net. Stay tuned to it as we continue to update it. Information in this article was gleaned from the articles in the list.
You’ll see that we’ve turned off the normal comments on this post. Instead we’ve embedded the comments from the product page which you are invited to add to so that others can benefit on the future. Anything you add here, will appear on the iPad product page and will serve as a long-term reference.
