So back in January we saw the announcement of the iPad and now the time of the tablet is upon us. I wrote up a small preview back when it was announced and mentioned a few of the issues I have with the device. Mostly it came down to some of it’s capability and it’s price, two things that I still hold as the primary reasons for holding off on buying one. The problem is that there are so many reasons to check one out.
Let me explain. I have a Droid, and before that I had a Blackberry Storm. I am on the Verizon network and have no plans to change that anytime soon. My phone plays music and runs apps and plays videos just finr so the things I would use an iPod for are all covered…..except the litany of custom iPhone and iPod apps that are available. It would appear that since Apple was first to really grasp the App market mentality that many of the primary developers have embraced that as the high visability area to produce their applications. Due to this, most of the more utilitarian and high quality apps are produced for that platform. Not to say that there are not any good apps for the Android market, there are, but they are still playing catch up.
Because of this, I have been kind of yearning for the ability to make use of some of these apps. Until now, the only way to acomplish this has been via the iPod. Andrew has an iPod and I have toyed around with his for a while, but it would be wrong of me to monopolize it. So, that means my option has been go out at buy myself an iPod touch. But again, my phone does more of that and so getting yet another small touch screen device for only a little functionality doesn’t seem like a wise use of funds.
Enter the iPad. So over the last 4 months there has been a lot of talk about what the iPad will be able to do, as well as an ongoing war between Apple and Adobe over Flash. (FYI, for those interesting, I am in the Flash camp. It’s damn hard to do things on the Internet without flash.) Other things that have gone on are all about showing how many new and cool things the iPad can do. From Specific games designed for the larger screen to the ability to stream Netflix Watch now movies. (Which personally, I think is huge.) So now we have a device that is 1/2 way between a netbook and a iPod, that has full access to all the apps available to the iPod and iPhone crowd.
Gizmodo has a great set of articles that covers why you should, and shouldn’t get the iPad. I am still riding the “Not gonna get one” side of the fence, but from what I have seen as of late, it’s becoming increasingly difficult. The biggest issue, of course, is still the price. I can’t see dropping $500 on something like that just yet. I also have a feeling that we may see a price drop within the first few months. I have changed my original estimate of $300, to a good solid $400 for something of this worth. So a simple $100 price drop on it would totally entice me to buy it. It is just still too early to jump on the bandwagon and grab one.
But the gadget guy in my is screaming in the back of my head. It’s gonna be a long month or two.
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