iPad

I figured I’d jump on the bandwagon and put up a post about the Apple iPad launch today.

I think it’s great, Apple can iron out some of the kinks so by the time a sensible, affordable and open bit of tablet hardware is available they’ll know what mistakes to avoid.

Given that I own a laptop and a mobile (Android G1) I really don’t see quite where the iPad fits into my gadget ecology. I think I’d use it for reading stuff on the way into work and at lunch. Not worth the price tag to me, and in the current economic climate, there’s not much chance of convincing someone that I need one “to check our website renders OK on it”.

Apple Store UK currently has a piccy of an iMac with the (reimaginated) USS Enterprise on it, and the iPad does get a huge + for the fact that it reminds me of the pads which Kirk had to sign in Star Trek, but I think I’d prefer a touchscreen on my laptop. I went from a Psion 5 to a laptop and it took some time to adjust to the non-touch screen.

Apple aren’t dumb, but I don’t think this first iPad is going to change the way people use mobile devices. But I think it’s the vanguard of more affordable, and open, cousins which will end up lying around on coffee tables 5 years from now.

I think the moral of this story is don’t stop designing websites to fit on small screens.

UPDATE:
Having slept on it, and rechecking the dimensions (24 x 19 x 1.3) cm, 0.7KG, it will have about the shape of a clipboard. I can see it being rapidly adopted by people who need to be very organised while looking classy; wedding planners, Maître d’, ensigns on starship bridges…

They won’t fit in your pocket, they are about 2cm wider and taller than the size of a modern hardback book. As Nick Humfrey @njh tweeted yesterday, “Apple iPad = win for manbags?”