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The iPad fails to be as revolutionary as Apple say it is

By on February 3, 2010 1:40 am in Columns / 7 comments

 
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For all the flash and hyperbole, Apple’s new darling, the iPad, is essentially useless.

This column is being written on an Acer Aspire One netbook that retails for $250. While using a word processor, it also is running two chat clients, an Internet browser with multiple tabs open, including a tab with a Hulu.com video, and a music player.
There is a USB flash drive plugged into it as well. This description is necessary, because these are all things that cannot be done on the high-end, $500-plus iPad. All the iPad can do that the above-described netbook cannot is respond when it is poked.
Apple’s new “innovation” runs one program at a time. It does not support Flash and, save for the docking bay by which to charge it, has no external ports.

Even the iPhone could take pictures and make calls, which this blunder cannot. Apple is saying it is the “perfect” way to view photos but, save for loading them onto another computer and uploading them onto the Internet, there is no way to get photos onto an iPad.

Of course, the most damning argument against the iPad is that there are other tablet computers that do more, better and sell for cheaper. Amazon’s Kindle and Barnes & Noble’s Nook are trying to carve out a niche in the book universe, but the real story comes from a company called Archos.

The Archos 9 tablet computer functions as an actual computer rather than a big cell phone that does not make calls. It runs a full version of Windows 7 without any weird restrictions, with an 80-gigabyte hard drive for $550, whereas an iPad with 64 GB of storage will run you $829.
The Archos does not sacrifice any of the gee-whiz touch functions, and whether you are a “Mac” or a “PC,” the fact that it runs an actual computer operating system rather than a polished-up cell phone OS makes it infinitely more useful in any number of situations.

Granted, if any company can pull off selling a large tablet computer with less functionality than its own cell phone, it’s Apple. Marketing and branding are their bread and butter.

After all, this is the company that’s been selling overpriced computers running basic Unix operating systems on the selling points of fashion and not-being-Microsoft for years and years.

 

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  • iPadinformer

    Idiotic article… and yes the iPad can connect to a camera or SD card via the Camera Connection Kit. Please do keep using that crap of a netbook. The iPad is not for you.

  • John Gaskell

    Running this mainly to counteract your FUD and misinformation. I’ll get in to your netbook in a second.

    “Apple’s new “innovation” runs one program at a time.” Actually, it can run several apps at once, just one “AppStore” app at once. Wee bit of a difference.

    “Apple is saying it is the “perfect” way to view photos but, save for loading them onto another computer and uploading them onto the Internet, there is no way to get photos onto an iPad.” Actually, you can hook your camera’s SD card (and didn’t I see an attachment for a camera itself??) right up to it using an adapter to import photos directly in to the iPad.

    You quickly speak of the Kindle and Nook, but both of those are one (two?) tick ponies and do NOTHING of what you just bashed the iPad for doing ‘poorly’. And they only cost $100 less.

    Next one: iPhone OS is not a “polished up cell phone OS” but rather a stripped down version of OS X.

    Now, let’s talk about netbooks. I have the same one you have, the Aspire One and I run about 90 of them here at school. 60 through a one-to-one project and 30 in use with my science department. Great little machines, except a couple of gripes: Undersized keyboards and honestly, underpowered processors. I WAS a big proponent of netbooks as they suited my needs of a cheap computer I could carry around without worrying about my main machine being stolen or damaged. It could do internet surfing, email (albeit short ones due to the little keyboard), word processing, stuff like that. Games? Not really made for anything good. Video? Hulu sucked and even more than a couple of YouTube videos seemed to kill the processor. Music? Faired pretty well under windows, but with Ubuntu and Jolicloud, Lala was my only hope.

    The iPad isn’t an undersized notebook computer, like most netbooks. It is made for just a few things: internet surfing, video and music, gaming (under one of the better mobile gaming platforms. And yes, I have a DSi and a PSPgo), and light word processing and keynote building/editing (I HATE numbers). Remember, you can use a BT keyboard for word processing. I think for many regular, non-geeky users, the iPad is that middle ground between their phone and their main computer. It’s for casual usage. I think netbooks are on the way out, or at least converging with notebooks (most of the new “netbooks” are 12 and 13″ now!). Tablet PCs are best for enterprise due to that robustness you spoke of with the Archos.

    Think of the iPad as the Wii of netbooks and tablets and then I think you’ll grok it.

    Aaaand one more thing: I can get around Linux quite well. PCs? Not a problem. Why is the Mac my computer of choice? Because it just works. It’s not marketing, it’s a great user experience where I don’t have to FIGHT my machine to make it work. No quarterly reinstalls of Windows, no broken drivers and a wasted evening finding the culprit. It just works.

    Have a great week!

  • Frank

    hilarious. nice column.

  • ID-Ten-T Error

    IPAD HUNGERS FOR THE DISPOSABLE INCOME OF GULLIBLE USERS

  • http://www.twitter.com/adamwheelerson Adam Wheeler

    But tell me Brad, did you purchase that Acer?

  • http://www.xby.ch Anonymous

    I don’t think the Ipad will be as successfull as the iphone, as it is not as knew and revolutionary.

  • http://www.xby.ch test handy

    I don’t think the Ipad will be as successfull as the iphone, as it is not as knew and revolutionary.