Early Friday morning, the gadget that’s been most-talked about this year has started preorders: the iPad. Whether you think it’s a revolutionary device, a big iPhone, or something in-between, something about it is true: it’s going to bring a lot of changes to the tech world.
The hardware. There are two key components that make the iPad an iPad: its big screen, and Apple’s A4 processor. The screen, which is 9.7 inches, has a resolution of 1024×768 pixels — much more than the iPhone’s 480×320. The large, multi-touch screen opens up a lot of possibilities for the user to experience. But that gorgeous screen wouldn’t be anything without some power to back it up — Apple’s A4 processor. Apple claims that this, the first processor they designed, actually saves battery power without sacrificing the need for speed. But until we spend time with the device, we won’t be able to tell just how different the processor is from others that are similar enough in the mobile market.
The OS. A lot of people were disappointed to find out that the iPad runs the iPhone OS; but it would be a mistake to underestimate it. As you may already know, the iPhone OS is a modified version of Mac OS X — so thinking it is a simple phone OS is a mistake. The fault here was on Apple’s part by naming it the iPhone OS instead of something that better describes it, like Micro OS X — yes, I know that name actually sucks, but I did a better job than Apple this time.
The apps. Apple did a superb job in adapting many of the basic apps into ones that offer eye-candy and actually improve the user experience with all the extra screen space. The one I’m more looking towards too is the calendar app which pretty much emulates a datebook — that is, if it ends up with the same support for push syncing Google Apps (using the iPhone’s Exchange support) like the iPhone (haven’t found a reference to it yet). After the basic apps, there’s some new ones like iBooks, Apple’s answer to the Kindle and the Nook (more on that later) and the iWork apps, which will be going for $10 a piece. Oh, and Apple claims for out-of-the-box support for all existing iPhone apps — not to mention what exiting new ones we’ll see designed specifically for the iPad.
The iBookstore. Better later than never, Apple finally enters the ebook market to face the reigning champion, Amazon’s Kindle, and another newcomer, B&N’s Nook, with the iBooks app for the iPad. The iBooks app will be a free download, and initially available only to the US, which features the iBookstore — an iTunes-esque book store just like the App Store is an iTunes-esque… app store. Some time back it was apparent this was going to be the next market for Apple to enter; and with the popularity of iTunes, Apple already has some muscle to shove itself into. Now, Amazon has all the right reasons to be concerned. But the question is whether it will take off with a price of $500 for the reader (and so far, no plans of an iPhone or computer version of the reader), that is, if the iPad is not to be considered something beyond a reader to some potential customers?
The developers. Developers are more than excited with the iPad — even if the appeal is not immediately evident. After playing around with the beta SDK for a while, I managed to see that appeal. I won’t be able to talk about it since Apple has us under an NDA again — so let’s just say that we’ll see some pretty exciting apps soon enough. In fact, I’m interested in adding some iPad support to a not-yet-released app of mine in the future.
The preorders. The preorders were a huge hit since day one — some put the number at around 100,000 units. As a good Apple enthusiast and interested developer, I placed my preorder for the base model iPad to be picked up at one of the local Apple Stores on April 3rd. So expect to see some hands-on to appear here over the iPad’s launch weekend.
In the end, the iPad is already surprising the world — and it has not even been released yet. Only time will tell if all the hype surrounding the device has a basis on reality; personally, I already do see it as another big hit for Apple.