iPad

The much rumored, much speculated iPad is official.

The device looks amazing.  It looks very sexy.  But I don't see myself buying one just yet.

Here are some of the thoughts and observations I've had about the iPad.

iPad.  A lot of people are raising their eyebrows at the name.  Forget about the name.  The Apple logo on the back of the device sells the device.

Integration into the ecosystem. A big reason why the Apple logo sells is the product ecosystem.  Jeff Dachis wrote about the ecosystem here.  This is well worth reading.

Amazon.  Steve Jobs basically told Amazon that he's out to crush them in the ebook space.  This device can do that.  Barnes & Noble came out with their Nook too late to even compete, in my opinion, and the iPad raises the bar.

Price.  The device is priced very well.  Going in I thought it could be a game changer with the Kindle but that was dependent on the price.  $499 is twice the price of the Kindle but it's beautiful, it's sexy, and it does a lot more than the Kindle.  A lot of people will pay the premium primarily to use the iPad as a book reader.

Keyboard. I won't comment positively or negatively about the touch keyboard because I didn't think I'd like it on the iPhone either.  This being larger, it could work once someone gets used to it.  Might take awhile though.

Where does it fit?  This is the big question.  Is there space in the market for something between a smartphone and a laptop.  Apple clearly believes there is and will attempt to define that market.  I have questions on if the market truly exists but time will tell.  The key is price and at the price point I think there will be a lot of people willing to participate in that market.

I hear people mention that they've pratically replaced their laptop with their smartphone and then I hear people mention that the iPad will take a chunk out of the laptop market.  I can see this for some users but there are a lot of things I do on my laptop that I can't do on my iPhone or would not be able to on the iPad.  Music is one.  With a super mobile device like both of these, the amount of music you can carry is limited, although 64 GB is a lot of music.  But remember that Apple acquired Lala.  Look for Apple to start pulling Lala into the ecosystem even more, allowing people to listen to their music library from anywhere without needing more device memory.

Multi-tasking.  Apparently the iPad still does not do multi-tasking.  Apple seriously needs to work this out.  This is my biggest complaint on the iPhone and I'm disappointed to hear it carrying into this device.  This device should function as a mobile window to the internet but no streaming music while writing emails or using iWork?  Only if I use the iPod and I bet Lala will become allowed as well.

No camera.  Really?  Shouldn't a device like this have a front facing camera and iChat?  Seems like it should be there.

Still doesn't support flash. I laughed when Steve Jobs opened the New York Times website and the first thing I saw was the blue lego indicating the device couldn't handle the flash.  Come on, Apple, you've got to support this technology.  It's there and it's big, you can't ignore it just because you don't like it.

Will I be buying one?  No.  Not yet at least.  Yes it's sexy and yes I want to hold one and play with it but to me the cons are big and I really don't need a big iPod Touch between my iPhone and MacBook.  But these will sell because they're Apple.  Apple makes great products and I love them but they always seem to skip some critical elements knowing that they'll be forgiven because they're Apple.

I'll go to the Apple store in a little over 60 days (let the crowds die down) and hold one and that'll probably satisfy my iPad desires for awhile.