Apple has finally done it. Apple has launched its new tablet device, that is. The Mac public expected, indeed clamored, for Apple to release such a device, and soon! If Apple hadn’t done it, it would have been a huge disappointment (both to its customers and its shareholders). The urge was simply impossible to resist.
After all, the iPhone is essentially a miniature tablet. Apple has shown that it can “make” such a device like no one else. So despite past protests from Steve Jobs, launching a new tablet was a no-brainer. All Apple had to do was scale its brilliant interface to a larger device.
Did I say “everything Apple had to do?” The technical challenges in producing this new device, called the iPad, were enormous. Apple had to essentially design a whole new operating system that isn’t exactly the Mac or the iPhone, rewrite its core apps from the ground up, and basically rethink the entire way a computer works.
Apple wasn’t the first to launch a new tablet, just like it wasn’t the first to launch an MP3 player or cell phone, but it may well be the company that makes the tablet really “switch on” with the public. .
Apple has a huge head start with more than 140,000 iPhone apps, and it wisely designed iPad to take advantage of them. The iPad can run iPhone apps at their original size, or in “pixel doubling mode” twice the size of the iPhone, so they nearly fill the iPad screen. Developers can easily rewrite their iPhone apps specifically for the iPad in such a way that they take advantage of its new features.
How will the iPad affect internet marketers? Of course, the “i” in its name stands for the Internet (and it’s also a clever play on the “iPod” name). Browsing the web will be a joy, and a larger screen will give users a lot more room to work. Apple developers boast that it’s like “having the entire Internet at your fingertips,” or reading a physical book or magazine.
Developers creating new apps for the iPad could rival the gold rush that sprung up around the iPhone. Apple offers SDK 3.2 beta for developers with the tools they need to start building iPad apps and an iPad simulator that lets developers build and run Mac apps, design the user interface, test memory usage, and debug.
Web artists and graphic designers will enjoy the Brushes app included on the iPad’s larger screen, though some may think it’s something like finger painting: a stylus that works with the iPad won’t be supported, at least not initially. .
Apple has completely rewritten its iWork productivity software for iPad. Keynote contains custom chart styles, custom-designed themes, animations, and effects, and all-new features designed just for iPad. Pages includes templates and formatting tools designed by Apple. Numbers offers more than 250 formulas, flexible tables, and sophisticated graphics.
Want to catch up on your marketing reading? Apple has gone to great lengths to make reading e-books, magazines, and newspapers enjoyable on iPad. Apple’s eBook reading software has an interface that looks like a bookshelf. Flip the bookshelf with your finger and you will access the online store where you can buy new books.
iPad’s built-in Safari browser works just like the one on your Mac. And, like the version on your iPhone, you can scroll through pages by swiping, or pinch or double-tap to zoom in on a photo.
The Mail app offers a landscape view with a split screen that shows both current email and unread messages in your inbox. Do you want to see the current email message only? Just switch iPad to portrait mode and the message expands to fill the screen. iPad will work with popular email providers like mobile me, Yahoo Mail, Gmail, Hotmail and AOL. To compose a message, just tap and start typing.
This brings us to the on-screen keyboard. Many experts wondered how text input would work on the new Apple tablet. You can use an external keyboard to type long documents if you want. However, I think Apple made the right decision by not trying to incorporate a physical keyboard into the tablet. The goal of the iPad is to bring your data and web browsing closer together for an intimate feel. A keyboard would simply come between you and the screen.
The onscreen keyboard is much larger, of course, than is possible on the iPhone. In landscape mode, the keyboard is almost as big as a standard laptop’s. With just a few tweaks to the iPhone software’s word recognition and autocorrect features, I suspect that typing on this virtual keyboard could be almost as fast as using a real one. Also, I think voice dictation apps could quickly come to the iPad, just as they have on the iPhone.
And, of course, the iPad includes all the same features as the iPhone, only in a bigger form: video, YouTube, iPod and iTunes, interactive satellite maps, the notepad, a calendar completely redesigned from the ground up for the Search iPad, Contacts, and Spotlight.
The iPad will ship in three different internal storage configurations and with the option of Wi-Fi or Wi-Fi + 3G, for a total of six different models. The base model, the 16GB Wi-Fi only, will start at a reasonable $499, while the top-of-the-line 64GB Wi-Fi + 3G model will tip the scales at a still-affordable $829. Apple has said that while most new technology is introduced at a higher price and phases out slowly, Apple wanted to do things differently.
When will the iPad be available? Apple expects the Wi-Fi models to ship in late March and the 3G models to ship in April.
The thinness, just 0.5 inches, light weight, just 1.5 pounds, and flexibility of this new device are sure to make iPad popular with Internet marketers and anyone on the go. With its high-resolution LED backlighting, larger screen, responsive multi-touch display, and powerful Apple-designed processor, the new iPad will be thin and light enough to take anywhere. And I suspect that many people will choose to do exactly that.
