By the way, Apple iPad.

Waste.of.money.

Still would like a iphone thought.

what´s it cost ....? the ipad?

I guess thats another item on somebody`s birthday wish list ;)

It's supposed to be 499$.

But I guess some phone operators will do like for phones, nearly free if you got a plan for 12/24 monthes.

$500 for 16 GB model

$600 for 32 GB model

$700 for 64 GB model

At the same time, they are introducing the Apple iBook store

Available end of March, 3G version in April.

End of March in the US or here in Europe as well?

I want one too......hopefully in NY in June will see if I can pick one up......better learn to use my i-phone first though LOL.

Hah,

I really really tried to figure out what and especially where I would like to use that machine. Couldn't come with any other ideas other that my living room and my cosy sofa. Laptop offers all way more needed functionality to be carried all the time around and on my sofa, I really could use my computer quite easily with remote keyboard.

So, question follows, what is the Niche for it? If someone can figure it out, please yell it out loud. Otherwise I go with the opinnions like "Apple religious people only would buy shit like this", "It just looks nice and it has no proper function." :)

I rather buy Nokia Booklet 3G witch has equal and in many ways even more advanced specs with cheaper price.

June for Europe.

Justdoit,

Check the link below... 30$ forced data access plan with special locking mechanism called 3FF Sim. :) Well, I shouldn't put happyface because there are people who are under influence of this really well trimmed marketing machine called Apple.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/27/apple-ipads-micro-sim-explained/

WHAT iPad is Missing???

No 3G support for Verizon
One of the earliest rumors about the iPad (which I'd still rather call the iTablet) was that it would come with embedded 3G support in addition to Wi-Fi. Well, the 3G part was true (monthly pre-paid plans will start at $14 for 250MB of data, or $29/month unlimited), but alas, no Verizon; instead, we're stuck with good 'ole AT&T (which is either a good or a bad thing, depending on how you feel about AT&T).

No jaw-droppingly new user interface
One of the most amazing things about the original iPhone was its ground-breaking touch interface; just pinch to zoom into a Web page! Tap to turn on the speakerphone! Swipe to flip through your photos! So maybe it was only natural that many of us gadget hounds (myself included) thought that Apple would come up with some new, "Minority Report"-style interface for the iPad ... perhaps some cool haptic feedback for the virtual QWERTY keypad, or maybe (as outlined in some recent patent filings) the ability to sense a finger that's hovering near the screen but not touching it. What we got, instead, was ... pretty much the same touch UI as on the iPhone, except with a lot more room. Not bad, but not all that revolutionary, either.

No built-in camera
The iPhone has a camera, the MacBook has a camera ... heck, even the new iPod Nano has a camera (well, a video-only camera, anyway). So, what about the iPad? Ahhh ... nope, and that's especially disappointing given the chatter from the Wall Street Journal that Apple has been toying with facial-recognition software that could potentially be used to, say, identify the various members of your family and deliver their own, customized iPad interface.

No Flash support
When, oh when, Apple, will you let us view Flash videos and Web modules on the mobile version of Safari? Who knows, but it's definitely not starting with the iPad, which is just as bereft of Flash support as the iPhone and iPod Touch are.
No user-replaceable battery
Steve Jobs claims that the iPad will come with an impressive 10 hours of battery life and a full month of stand-by time. Pretty cool, but as with the iPhone, the iPod Touch, and the latest MacBooks, the iPad battery comes sealed in the case, and there's no way to swap in a new one yourself.

No TV subscriptions
One of the more intriguing recent rumors was that Apple was going around to all the TV and cable networks, trying to sell them on the idea of monthly TV subscriptions that viewers would be able to watch on iTunes, the iPhone, Apple TV, or ... the iPad. Word even had it that Disney's Bob Iger was in San Francisco today, all set to announce a new content deal with Apple, but ... nope, didn't happen. (The writing for this non-event was on the wall, thanks to a recent New York Times story that reported that TV execs looked over Apple's subscription proposals and said "thanks, but no thanks.")

No iPhone software 4.0 announcement
Yet another interesting rumor had it that the reason that there hadn't been a big iPhone software update lately was that the new code was too intertwined with the iPad OS, and therefore we'd get a big announcement today for iPhone software 4.0-complete with full-on app multitasking, UI enhancements, and other goodies. The rumor sure sounded plausible (and hey, the part about the new iPhone software being closely interwoven with the iPad may well be true), but the Apple event came and went Wednesday, with nary a sign of iPhone software 4.0.

Last but not least ... no iPhone for Verizon
Besides the iPad itself, the Apple rumor that seemed to generate the most excitement was the possibility that Steve Jobs would announce the end of Apple's exclusive iPhone deal with AT&T ... and announce an iPhone for Verizon at the same time. After all, most believe that the Apple-AT&T deal is set to expire this summer anyway, so why not get a jump on the news? But as with the talk about the iPad coming with support for Verizon's 3G network ... well, maybe we'll get a Verizon iPhone in June or July, but we didn't see one today.

Watch the Intro here: Apple iPad Intro

Best part is at 08:10-8:30, talking about NetBooks.

"iPad is an awswome way to endure your music collection" -- Steve Jobs, 2010.

Hm. the camera missing, and no flash renders it not useful to me.. shame.  otherwise I think its a lovely thing..

I am certainly tired of carrying a full laptop around whenever I attend a quick meeting, or like to chat on skype..

(to genevorine: a tablet is something totally different.., would only confuse us arty drawing types..)

For those of us who dont know any of the two, can anyone summarise the pros and cons of Nokia Booklet and iPad? In ten sentences or less :)

Ps I never heard of nokia booklet. Can i get it in switzerland without a phone contract?

I'm sure it will be sleek and cool like everything Apple does, and the Iphone/Ipad operating system is pretty good, but I can't imagine the virtual keyboard being very comfortable for writing long mails or taking notes in a class/meeting.

For alot of us, the Ipad will not replace the laptop, or the Ipod, or the Iphone - so just one more device to carry around?

O

I don't get the HUGE hype over this iPad thing...it's just like a PC in size and weight and capabilities, but just flat, innit?

I can tell something about Nokia Booklet 3G from my memory, but google should be quite aware of it in any cas.

Things that I would highly appreciate for carry-on device are as follows: 12h of usage time, silent (no fans), light and small, built in a-GPS, 3G connectivity just by duplicating your SIM card with your already existing provider/priceplans, Win7 (compilant with all basic windows software and I asume you could hack linux in it in 2 hours), WiFi and so on and so on...

I don't take any responsible over those specs, but hopefully it gives the picture why iPad doesn't sound that reasonable to be carried everywhere. :)

I read the same article that Geneveorine has posted. 

The OS is utter crap.  It's litterally a larger version of the iPhone.  Except the Iphone has a camera at least.  It doesen't even have flash capabilites.  So all those movies you download, can't watch them.  Unless you download them off iTunes.  (And I'm not talking illegal downloads for the people who are about to attack me.  There are other legal download sources besides iTunes people.) Oh, and 16 gig is something to laugh at when most people I know have 20+ gig in music and photos alone.

I waited for the 2nd generation iPod nano when they first came out and I was SO happy I didn't get stuck with all the problems that came with the 1st generation.  I was also happy I didn't jump on the iTouch bandwagon right away either.  I wait, the item gets revamped.  It gets cheaper, more streamlined.  THEN I buy it.

I'd rather buy a netbook with Windows Crap7 than buy an iPad.

Der Untergang parodied for the nth time:

A massive let down... won't bother.

Multitasking, video camera for Skype and Flash would have sold it for me.  I still might get one though...  :)

Actually the specs question is largely irrelevant.  The critical point here is that like with an iPhone Steve Jobs gets to decide which applications are allowed and which applications are too confusing, duplicate functionality, are bad for apple's business model, or otherwise verboten.

iDon't want one.

FWIW I have one of these things which fits in my pocket and does anything I could possibly want to do on a tablet without going to a real computer.

http://maemo.nokia.com/n900/

Multitasking, flash, and front facing video camera (though the built-in skype client doesn't support video calls yet)

Oh my god. I can't believe some of the nonsense, unfounded, FUD and hate that some of you are spouting.

Massive letdown, eh? Why? What were you expecting?

OS is utter crap? Really? And how do you know so certainly? I would suggest that the 10+ million iPhones and another umpteen million iPod Touches that have been sold not too mention the hundreds of thousands of developers / applications that have stampeded to the new platform might disagree.

Flash - yeah, I agree that not having Flash is an interesting omission. Previously, they said that it was a processor or battery issue. Since this has a completely new processor and amazing battery life, perhaps it's around the corner.

Yes, I'm an Apple and Mac fan, but face some facts. Apple is a very successful company, despite yearly predictions that they will go under or be sold, they sell LOADS of computers, phones, iPods, etc. in a struggling market.

So, maybe, despite what you are all saying, they know what they are doing?

Just maybe?

And remember, this iPad is not the final version. It's the first version. Ya gotta start somewhere, eh? Compare the original iPod (5 GB!) to the current lineup and tell me they haven't made a few interesting changes along the way.

Hi Zonker,

I usually don't tend to talk about Apple products with Apple religious people for the same reason it is no use to talk about religions with religious people... But still, I had to...

"Yes, I'm an Apple and Mac fan, but face some facts. Apple is a very successful company, despite yearly predictions that they will go under or be sold, they sell LOADS of computers, phones, iPods, etc. in a struggling market."

Where are the struggling markets? (for me it is hard to see strugling markets where price is never anything to do with the product itself e.g. overpriced stuff) Where is this succesfullness based on? To the people who are lured to use products which are based only on marketing, not the top-of-the-notch technology itself (as Apple tries to lie). Is this really a good company because of that? If I make money out of someone ingnorance of facts, am I morally on safe ground? You don't have to answer, because I know your stance on it.

"And remember, this iPad is not the final version. It's the first version."

Exactly! This is the point why I get disgusted about Apple. There is no technical reason not to add those to the product that have been under development for over 5 years. This is the business plan how to take the advantage (and their money) of people who doesn't know anything about technology. There is nothing in technology point-of-view that wouldn't had been demonstrated within last 5 years...

I come from the coutry, where it is forbidden to bind phones with mobile carriers, place where linux core developer comes from and so on. So our points-of-view are most likely way different.

So, to the conclusion what I try to say with this post. I would never, fucking ever buy shit from Apple, because it binds me, as an individual, and as a software developer, to something that is ruled by despotic Apple. Now, I have all the power in my own hands, and I wish to keep it that way.

To iron out the differences just a little: I give a lot credit for Apple about its marketing, but I wish, they would have as much effort to provide good pieces of technology for me. Unfortunately this is not the case.

hi there, i think pepso's comment says it all. :-) absolutely right.

the only real target group could be trendy commuters with a long way to work who are sick of staring into their small cell phone screen.

I heard there won't be any USB support (scoket).

If that is true, I find it unbelievable!

Apple sucks...

That is right.  It's not a computer.  It's a gadget.  You actually sync it with your current computer.  It dosen't replace your current laptop.  (IF it did, I might be inclined to possibly, ever so slightly, ponder for just a moment on getting one.)  What is is a gigantic iTouch.

But hey... to each, their own.  I'm sure there will be several million people with money burning a hole in their pockets, who buy one.  Personally, I'd rather spend it on that new digital SLR camera I've been drooling over.

I've got a lot of data stored on 5 1/4 inch floppies. Can it read those?

@pepso: struggling markets.....the last year has been an economic downturn for most industries and most companies in the markets that Apple competes in. But, Apple has thrived. 

How are they successful? Just look at their numbers.

Apple binds you?! How? How much stuff on Mac OS X is open source software? Tons. How much stuff on Windows is open source? Virtually nothing. Try moving Outlook or Outlook express files to software which supports standards. Pain in the ass. See what MS did with the Open Document standard? It didn't have any hooks for their OS, so they developed a new "standard." And how's that going for them? Apple is much more permissive than Microsoft. With regards to Music, TV shows and Movies, they are bound by the content providers. If the content provider says "We want DRM" then Apple kind of has to do that. If the content provider says, "For sale in the US, but not Europe," well, Apple can't secretly go behind their backs, can they? 

And about the "last 5 years" you mentioned....if it's all available, if it's nothing new, then why hasn't anyone else done it? While the iPad is *not* a tablet or trying to compete with tablets, certain people I think are erroneously equating the two. But, how successful are tablets? IMHO, they failed. Lots of hype, lots of marketing, but where are they now? Sometimes technology is available for a long time before someone, not just Apple, but Sony or Nokia or others, can make it interesting to the consumer market. Simply "being available" doesn't mean shit.

Wait, you want Apple to only come out with version 2.0 or 3.0 of products? Never a 1.0? Is that really what you're saying? Get real. EVERY company comes out with a product, to test the market, to see if they can compete with other companies with similar products. If it's well received, they listen to feedback and add new features and release new versions. It's kind of Business 101. And yet you complain.

I'm happy for you that you are from the land of Linux. I'm happy that Finland prohibits binding phones to mobile carriers, but if you are trying to make the case that 1) USA is the only one or 2) Apple is somehow at fault, I respectfully disagree.

I get it, pepso. You don't like Apple. You're not gonna buy one. Fine. 

Well, whether a gadget or computer, it comes with a myriad of software and hardware locks which are designed to control and limit what one can do with the device they have purchased.

Zonker, we are not hating on the device or even its feature set.  There is a fundamental issue of openness and software freedom here.  If one has an iPad or an iPhone, then unless one resorts to hacking their own device ("jailbreaking" in iPhone speak) in order to circumvent the protections which Apple has placed between you and your own device, then one is limited to using applications only which Apple has explicitly approved, according to possibly arbitrary and certainly capricious polcies.

Additionally, one is required for example to use iTunes to load music on the device.  There are additional locks built into the software on an iPhone at least to explicitly prevent the possibility of syncing with any other software.  This also strongly discourages the use of non-iTunes music stores.

If Apple spent their effort enabling their customers to make innovative use of the strong points in their hardware and software designs, then they would have killer products.  As a conscious decision they are more interested in locking their hardware and software platforms down in order to force their customers into their extended ecosystem of closed and locked-down products and services.  With users unable drive real innovation given the imposed restrictions, they are therefore left waiting for the next big announcement from Steve Jobs, with all of the supposed innovation coming from the top (ie Apple) down (the mere users of their products).

If Apple had a larger market share, these practices would be considered monopolistic and posibly illegal.  As it stands they are anti-consumer and in the end anti-innovation.

The iPad may be a gadget rather than a computer, but the same closed ecosystem of software and services is where Apple would like things to go for computers as well, and you can bet they will try on the MacOS side as soon as they think they can get away with it.

My rant for this morning,

Josh

@hayes: the 360KB floppies or the 1.2MB? Ones. I'm hoping to finally be able to back up my mag tapes.

I found some 8 inch floppies in my office a while back.

Would be quite a search through some dark corridors to try and find a drive though.

I believe those drives would also predate the standard floppy interface.

@jbendavi: how is the iPad not open or how does it limit software freedom? You want to add software, go to the store and buy it and download it. Want to buy a book? Same thing. Music, movies, TV shows. Same thing. Simple. How is that different from buying a (digital) book at Amazon or elsewhere? Buying and downloading movies, tv shows, music from other online sources? How do you install software on ANY computer? You buy it (in the store or online) and then you install it.

I don't see the difference or the closed aspect that people are talking about.

The iPad is not "locked" like the iPhone, so hacking is not necessary. Don't cloud the issue by putting them in the same sentence.

Using iTunes to load music on the device....so what? You have to use the Nokia software to interact with Nokia devices, Microsoft software to interact with the Zune, Canon software to interact with your canon device.... should Apple release the iPod and *not* provide a way to transfer songs? What would you like Apple to do differently?

It is not open because if you want to add software you can ONLY get it from the App Store, where Apple decides which software is or is not allowed.

Ditto for music or books, you can (likely) ONLY get it from the Apple santioned/supported services.

For a normal computer, I can buy software from any store, or get it from the website of an independent developer, or write it myself.

For my Nokia device, and my previous mp3 player, I plug it into my computer by usb, it mounts as a mass storage device (like a usb key or external hard disk) I copy music/movies/pdf's/whatever over to it in konqueror, or dolphin, or nautilius, or windows explorer, or on the command line.

Then I can access them on the device.  I CAN use Nokia software if I choose, or not.  I can also get the music/movies/whatever from whichever source I choose, as long as it doesn't have DRM which is designed to control what devices I can use it on.  (This is the other side of the coin to a device which tries to control which content you can use on it, and is of course equally bad)

Apple should provide a way to transfer songs, but the system should also be flexible so you are not forced to use exclusively the provided method.  Ditto for App Store or iTunes.  They may be nice services, but if they are the only choice to use with the device, and there are explicit protections to prevent using anything else, then there is something seriously wrong.

Dear Zonker,

There are different groups of user when it comes to technology, adoptation of it, and especially, the needs of different groups differ a lot. Sorry, I don't belong to same group of technology users as you apparently. There is no need to even start talking, and for god sake, not at least to fight about these differences between the groups. Try to see and learn the big picture of technology, designated consumer groups, and respectively mine/yours/others arguments in a more theoretical context:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_adoption_lifecycle

http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_rogers_innovation_adoption_curve.html

Also, I found it is just not worth of continuing this topic when someone gets fanatic over something. IMHO, the anologue between iApple and religions is still valid.

Its as usless as Iphone,

but its almost on everyone wishlist]

I cant see the puprose of it

the nice is between that

http://www.wacom.eu/index2.asp?pid=90&lang=en

and netbooks.

No one thought that I phone will have higher sales then Nokia N95, but it did with all its minuses.

The target group is almost every Apple fanatic, to start with, and the rest to folow after 1 billion and somthing application will follow.

It a shame that there is now USB or internal card reader and missing a lot of vital things,

BUT I WOULD STILL GO FOR IT, 

I believe the production version will be better then the one presented, and would be worth 500 USD, for all that little things that make your sould happy as a child.

I am amazed with so much hype created for "iPad" (which is litterally a big iPod Touch) as some how that it represent some qualitative technological leap. iPhone was certainly a leap forward in terms of bringing up a mobile platform that focused on usability and applications. 

iPad is more or less a touch screen e-book reader with network connection (Amazon already did that so did others) and some how combines with picture slide show frame we often see from Samsung and Sony.

But it's neither a new design concept (there is plethora of touch screen systems) nor in terms of a software!

I will certainly not be inclined to buy it..

@mr.KIO K

There were people who thought it through, but screwed up the money machine involved. I actually blame one professor of mine, who conducted studies for Nokia about the touch screen phones in early 2000's. In any case, I was having a lot of interesting talks with him.

"No one thought that I phone will have higher sales then Nokia N95, but it did with all its minuses."

I remember having the feeling of "touch screen phones are the future" when I was using Nokia 7710 on 2004, some 2 years before iPhone came out. I was confident, that touch screen and internet is the thing that will replace the basic mobile phones off the shelves. I didn't anticipate the company would be Apple. And to be honest, I really don't care about who did it, as long someone did it.

Shame for Nokia, that it saw, that there is no money to make out of touch screen phones in fortcoming few years, and they trashed their software line of series 90 (and 80 for navigators). But that is history and there are more signs up in the air where the things are evolving... Apple in the last years haven't picked those up early enough to be the leader, rather just to be the commercializer for vast amount of user base to make money out of other's inventions.

Sorry of going so much out of the topic.

Before the Iphone I was all about nokia, I still have 8800 Arte as a second phone (because its a propper phone with all the functions I need)

I loved N95 and was using communicators from 9210 up to E90, and strating form E90 smomthing went wrong, and iPhone appeared.

I remember 2g announcment and comments. They were alomost the same to the ones we have here. 

People spread into groups they either haters, hidden admirers,  etc., and by the end of the day if marketing is right majority of them end up with Apple products or will push others to try one.)

I believe Nokia couldn`t afford as much risk and work out so well planned marketing strategy as Apple.

and iPad is just a process of market fragmentation or perhaps its a new segment, 

as apple loves Latteral marketing and pull strategy, as it seems to me.

Just to add to this debate.... Stephen Fry's viewpoint : why the Apple iPad is here to stay

Well bless my soul and whiskers. This is the first time I've joined the congregation at the Church of Apple for a new product launch. I've watched all the past ones, downloaded the Quicktime movies and marvelled as Apple's leader has stood before an ovating faithful and announced the switch to Intel, the birth of iPod, the miniMac, the iTunes Store, OS X, iPhoto, the swan's-neck iMac, the Shuffle, Apple retail stores, the iPhone, the titanium Powerbook, Garageband, the App Store and so much more. But this time I finally made it. I went to San Francisco for the launch of the iPad. Oh, happy man.
The day had special resonance. In front of his family, friends and close colleagues stood the man who founded Apple, was fired from Apple and came back to lead Apple to a greatness, reach and influence that no one on earth imagined. But a year ago, it is now clear, there was a very strong possibility that Steve Jobs would not live to see 2010 and the birth of his newest baby.
With revenues of $15.6bn, Apple is now the largest mobile-device company in the world, Jobs told the subdued but excited 600 people packed into the Yerba Buena Cultural Center for the Arts theatre. A few more triumphant housekeeping notes followed and then we were into the meat of it. Well, the whole event is available to be watched online, you don't need me to describe it. He picked up an iPad and walked us through. Afterwards I was allowed to play with one myself.
I know there will be many who have already taken one look and pronounced it to be nothing but a large iPhone and something of a disappointment. I have heard these voices before. In June 2007 when the iPhone was launched I collected a long list of "not impressed", "meh", "big deal", "style over substance", "it's all hype", "my HTC TyTN can do more", "what a disappointment", "majorly underwhelmed" and similar reactions. They can hug to themselves the excuse that the first release of iPhone was 2G, closed to developers and without GPS, and that cut-and-paste and many other features that have since been incorporated. Neither they, nor I, nor anyone, predicted the game-changing effect the phone would so rapidly have as it evolved into a 3G, third-party app rich, compass- and GPS-enabled market leader. Even if it had proved a commercial and business disaster instead of an astounding success, iPhone would remain the most significant release of its generation because of its effect on the smartphone habitat. Does anybody seriously believe that Google, Nokia, Samsung, Palm, BlackBerry and a dozen others would since have produced the product line they have without the 100,000-volt Taser shot up the jacksie that the iPhone delivered to the entire market?
Nonetheless, even if they couldn't see that three billion apps would be downloaded in two years (that's half a million app downloads a day, give or take) could they not see that this device was gorgeous, beautifully made, very powerful and capable of development into something extraordinary? I see those qualities in the iPad. Like the first iPhone, iPad 1.0 is a John the Baptist preparing the way of what is to come, but also like iPhone 1.0 (and Jokanaan himself too come to that) iPad 1.0 is still fantastic enough in its own right to be classed as a stunningly exciting object, one that you will want now and one that will not be matched this year by any company. In the future, when it has two cameras for fully featured video conferencing, GPS and who knows what else built in (1080 HD TV reception and recording and nano projection, for example) and when the iBook store has recorded its 100-millionth download and the thousands of accessories and peripherals that have invented uses for iPad that we simply can't now imagine - when that has happened it will all have seemed so natural and inevitable that today's nay-sayers and sceptics will have forgotten that they ever doubted its potential.
"What can I do with it that I can't do with a laptop or an iPhone?" they might now be objecting. "Too big for my pocket, not big enough for serious use. Don't see the need. It's a solution looking for a problem."
There are many issues you could have with the iPad. No multitasking, still no Adobe Flash. No camera, no GPS. They all fall away the minute you use it. I cannot emphasise enough this point: "Hold your judgment until you've spent five minutes with it." No YouTube film, no promotional video, no keynote address, no list of features can even hint at the extraordinary feeling you get from actually using and interacting with one of these magical objects. You know how everyone who has ever done Who Wants to Be A Millionaire? always says, "It's not the same when you're actually here. So different from when you're sitting at home watching." You know how often you've heard that? Well, you'll hear the same from anyone who's handled an iPad. The moment you experience it in your hands, you know this is class. This is a different order of experience. The speed, the responsiveness, the smooth glide of it, the richness and detail of the display, the heft in your hand, the rightness of the actions and gestures that you employ, untutored and instinctively, it's not just a scaled up iPhone or a scaled-down multitouch enhanced laptop - it is a whole new kind of device. And it will change so much. Newspapers, magazines, literature, academic textbooks, brochures, fliers and pamphlets are going to be transformed (poor Kindle). Specific dedicated apps and enhancements will amaze us. You will see characters in movies use the iPad. Jack Bauer will want to return for another season of 24 just so he can download schematics and track vehicles on it. James Bond will have one. Jason Bourne will have one. Some character, in a Tron-like way, might even be trapped in one.
There's much to like, of course. The physical beauty and classy build quality, as in anything designed by Jonathan Ive. The shockingly low price - $499 for the basic model. The contract-free, unlocked nature of the 3G version. But there are two chief reasons for its guaranteed success.
1. It is so simple. It is basically a highly responsive capacitative piece of glass with solid-state memory and an IPS display. Just as a book is basically paper bound together in a portable form factor. The simplicity is what allows everyone, us, software developers, content providers and accessory manufacturers to pour themselves into it, to remake it according to the limits of their imagination. I'll stop before I get too Disney.
2. It is made by Apple. I'm not being cute here. If it was made by Hewlett Packard, they wouldn't have global control over the OS or the online retail outlets. If it was made by Google, they would have tendered out the hardware manufacture to HTC. Apple - and it is one of the reasons some people distrust or dislike them - control it all. They've designed the silicon, the A4 chip that runs it all, they've designed the batteries, they've overseen every detail of the commercial, technological, design and software elements. No other company on earth does that. And being Apple it hasn't been released without (you can be sure) Steve Jobs being wholly convinced that it was ready. "Not good enough, start again. Not good enough. Not good enough. Not good enough." How many other CEOs say that until their employees want to murder them? That's the difference.
I have always thought Hans Christian Andersen should have written a companion piece to the Emperor's New Clothes, in which everyone points at the Emperor shouting, in a Nelson from The Simpsons voice, "Ha ha! He's naked." And then a lone child pipes up, "No. He's actually wearing a really fine suit of clothes." And they all clap hands to their foreheads as they realise they have been duped into something worse than the confidence trick, they have fallen for what EM Forster called the lack of confidence trick. How much easier it is to distrust, to doubt, to fold the arms and say: "Not impressed." I'm not advocating dumb gullibility, but it is has always amused me that those who instinctively dislike Apple for being apparently cool, trendy, design-fixated and so on, are the ones who are actually so damned cool and so damned sensitive to stylistic nuance that they can't bear to celebrate or recognise obvious class, beauty and desire. The fact is that Apple users like me are the uncoolest people on earth: we salivate, dribble, coo, sigh, grin and bubble with delight.
No, I don't have shares in Apple. I came so close to buying some as an act of defensive defiance in the early 90s when every industry insider and expert in the field agreed that Apple had six months to go before going bust. But I didn't. If I had done I could now afford to buy you all an iPad. Yes, I do like and have tried to champion OpenSource software. How can I square that with my love of Apple? I'm complicated. I'm a human being. I also believe in a mixed economy and mixed nuts. I love our NHS and the National Theatre, but I also love Fortnum and Mason and Hollywood movies. "Apple," Steve Jobs said, "stands at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts." This statement confused non-Americans who are not familiar with the phrase "liberal arts" but I think shows the fundamental cultural seriousness of Jobs and Apple, which in turn explains their huge success and impact. He might perhaps more accurately have said that Apple "stands at the intersection of technology, the liberal arts and commerce".
You may or may not be in the queue for an iPad in March, April, May or June. Or you may decide to stay your hand for version 2.0 or 3.0. But believe me the iPad is here to stay and nothing will be quite the same again. You should know, however, that plenty of industry commentators disagree with me. They have pronounced themselves less enthralled. It is perfectly possible I will be proved wrong about its enduring, game-changing place in the landscape and that people will gleefully rub my nose in this blog in two year's time. I'm certainly not wrong about how soul-scorchingly beautiful it is to use though. And that, for me, is enough.

So I don't know if the iPad is great or not great, but one thing is certain from this discussion: Apple brings out a lot of passion - good and bad - in a lot of people.

Even if just for that one point, you got to admit they're doing something right!

Some reactions to the iPad:

There were women that hated the Ford Probe.

The interesting thing is that you can use an iPad even if you have a Wii.

The iPad is just a bigger iPod Touch. If they make an even bigger iPad, will they call it the MaxiPad?

looks like some people have way too much time on their hands.........

i like the ipad idea. it suits my needs. i´m having one........deal with it!

Bravo for lightening the tone Jouni.................it's all hot up in here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yup, not trying to stir up (too much) trouble.

I for one welcome our iPad overlords :P

Amazingly enough, the people at MadTV predicted the coming of the iPad already three years ago.

(Warning: mildly funny and mildly sexist)

listen guys let's face it: apple had to push this tablet out right now, better today than tomorrow. steve ballmer showed some prototype at the ces in las vegas a week ago (ridiculous though), so the heat was on. apple will add all the missing features in a second or third ipad version, so everybody can be happy with this tool. let's see, it's gonna be exciting.

Some ten years ago, I had a Palm. It too was kinda limited in that, you would sync it with your computer, the interface was "simplified", it was kinda limited in the ports, connections, apps you could load on it etc... Back then, this was fine for me.

Now I have an iPhone, had it for over a year. As far as phones go, it's ok really as all I want from a phone is to surf the net a bit (an easy to use, if crash prone browser) and make phone calls. The iTunes store is a plus and I have a few games on it (but wish there were actual buttons to use as I'm from the Nintendo generation).

Now we have the iPad, and the reaosn why it's a let down for me, is that when it comes to computers (or tablets/slates for that matter), I want a little more. The iPad is just a small extension of the iPhone OS, which I think is FABULOUS for some people. Many of us out there just don't want a million menus, options, customization, complexity. Many will use this in a manner which is like a picture book, all ready bundled with "do this to do that" icons.

But I want a proper OS on something like an iPad. I don't want to go through a limited iTunes store to get an app which does X Y or Z, I want to be able to load software from a thousand other sites as I see fit. I want the myriad of icons and options an OS X or Windows offers me. I'm a full blown techie, I work in IT, I don't "need" the fluff on a computer. This is also why I dismiss some of the netbooks out there that have been loaded with the ultra simple Linux distros. I just format the things and install a proper distro for the extras I can get with them.

Now... I'm not too concerned about the iPad not having a USB port or a card reader. That's all right, would have been nice to be able to connect an external disk or memory stick to watch movies and the like... It's more of a shame since 16gigs, whilst ok most of the time on something like an iPhone (I really just lug around a few gigs of music on it), anything with a bigger screen is really screaming for movie support, and movies take up precious space. You might as well lug around a netbook as well to store your hundreds of gigs of movies so that you can sync up new movies to the iPad when you've finished watching previous ones. But then... why not just turn the netbook on and watch it from there?

Flash support is a bummer, and I really would like to know if the browser is "sturdier" in the iPad. Having a camera would have been nice as well, but you can get very decent pocket sized cameras these days that take better pictures than any "phone" on the market.

I can understand Apple's business model in releasing a "first" iteration with less features, and that's quite ok. They are out to make money after all, but as much as the iPad looks like a cute flat PC, all I'd really want to do with it, is attach it with velcro to my fridge so I can surf for recipes on the internet when planning for dinner. In situations like that, you don't really want a keyboard in the waz.

So in the end, the iPad is just a larger iPhone, and it just feels so "crippled". This is why it's a massive let down for me, but I have a feeling that Microsoft will go the same way once they release their tablet, l with a pretty UI that for someone like me, detracts from what I really would like it to be. As it stands, it's just a multimedia station and I think I'd rather just carry my iPhone around if I need to do some quick net surfing, listening to music etc on the go.

When I want to sit down and do some proper work, give me a real keyboard and mouse hooked to a laptop that lets me do everything I want and I'm a happy camper.

Bring along version 2 or 3, maybe feature wise they will be improved. But I say bring along a hacked one which can be loaded with Linux, Max OS X or Windows, and then we're talking.

One thing I can't understand about Apple and die-hard Apple fans -

Apple's pattern is to release a 'basic first version' of a product (Ipod, Iphone...) and then, about 6 months later, to release an improved version with more features and improvements, and, ironicaly, the improved second version is sometimes cheaper than the original basic version.

Knowing the above - why would people purchase the first version instead of waiting for the improved version?

I know everyone wants to be an early addopter and be the first on the block to have a new product - but after getting stuck with a first generation Ipod and a first generation Iphone, I'll never buy a first generation Apple product again.

What about you?  If you think the IPad is a good/useful tool, will you buy the first version or wait for the second generation?

Oded

after watching the presentation by steve jobs, apple seemed to indicate that they took a diiferent marketing approach for this product as compared to the others.ipod,iphone etc.  this ipad is priced at rather an acceptable cost at this stage. it is not meant to be laptop, or an iphone. it was strategically created to be in between the two others. it is made to surf the web, watch movies, listen to and down load music (and videos), read and send emails, run basic apps ( word proc. spreadsheets, prersentations - power-point type ) plus over 140'000 apps that you can get on the app store. all this is rather unpleasant on the iphone, and a lap top is "overkill" if this is all you want to do. besides, it is a low cost way to get the unitiated (like me) into the apple world. ( i have an iphone and find it fast and easy to work with) IMHO.

Do we know if they will release iPads with more memory?

I haz too much stuffs :(

I favoured a blackberry over an iPhone as recieving my emails as soon as they are sent to me is most important and I was told I couldn't do this on a iPhone. I then favoured a gaming laptop over a mac as well macs just aren't meant for gaming. But I do love apple products, even if it is mainly for their pristine appearance, which, lets face it, can't be faulted! I like the idea of the iPad and I am guessing I can use it in much the same way as I use my laptop for iTunes... which means I have the added bonus of freeing up space on my laptop. However, at the moment with all my movies, TV shows and songs they really need to make an iPad with larger memory capacity. Then I will definatly be begging OH for one!

I sense a lolcat fan

I wonder if the iPad could be used to read music or moviers off a home NAS devices, say something that's hooked to a wireless router so you could travel around the house with the tablet and always have access to your "collection".

And about those 140k apps on the iTunes app store... how many of them are "useful" for the iPad? A ton of those apps are specifically made for the iPhone, so I wonder how well they scale to be used on the iPad?