I’m going to say this upfront: I’m not an Apple fanatic. There’s been no queuing up at all hours to get the iPhone, nor shaking of my tiny fists at UK pricing of the iPad. Yes, they’re pretty. Yes, they’re uber cool. Yes, Steve Jobs is both a genius and an incredibly scary man. But honestly, I just haven’t cared that much – I like my Lenovo laptop and my Blackberry. I like having different tools to do different things. So, when my boss announced she’d purchased a company iPad, whilst stranded on an ash induced vacation, I wasn’t too excited. Then however, she bought it in to the office, handed it to me and told me I could take it home to try out …
The iPad does what it does very well. It’s a good design (if a little ‘honey, I blew up the kids’), the screen is incredibly impressive and using it is a breeze, though I couldn’t figure out how to turn if off! I looked for a holiday, flicked through the app store (and err…hello Glee app), wrote a couple of notes, enjoyed the delete action, read the paper and watched some videos. Easy, useful, very portable; but just not worth at least £429 of my hard earned cash.
The real problem is, it is what they said it would be, a third category device. I could do the same thing on my phone – not as well granted, but mostly I can. I can do the same thing on my laptop – sure it’s a bit heavier, but it’s still portable. Though I knew what to expect, I just imagined there would be more, and I was slightly disappointed there wasn’t.
One of the reasons is I’m a massive fan of writing; actual using a pen on a bit of paper writing. In fact, the first draft of this was written on the tube home, in my pad, with a pen. For me, the move away from this has been hard to bare, I’m constantly looked at weird for writing so much in my notepad – but I like it. So, for me, the iPad would be better with a stylus – which allowed me to write on it as though it were a pad. I know, I know, how retro of me, touchscreen is ‘the in thing,’ just, well it annoys me. And anyway, think about it, this is the next step up from using a pen and paper, just like that was an advancement on a quill and parchment. Sending handwritten notes – electronically, it’s both personal and amazing! I’m not talking for everything obviously, that letter to the CEO is probably better typed; but for a product, which, lets face it, is all about being ‘off duty’ – I think it would fit and rock!
However, aside from my little handwriting rant, I think this type of product is the future. I’m just not sure how far in to the future we’re looking. Sure, the iPad will undoubtedly be snapped up by early adaptors, but mainstream? I don’t think we’re ready for it yet. Though, saying that, the assault of these products on the market is just starting. When there’s a wealth of competitive products on the shelves and prices drop, I think they’ll be a different story. But, until that point, and perhaps until we get some awesome augmented reality apps and a stylus, I’m happy with my smartphone, my laptop, my biro and pad.
