A Big Welcome to Apple Tablet : the IPad

January 27, 2010 marks the announcement of Apple Tablet aka iPad. It has a 9.7" multi-touch screen with Wi-Fi and optional 3g plan from AT&T. It weighs about 1.5 pounds, too good to be true battery life so it is definitely portable. The best part is that there is no contract for 3g use. You can cancel anytime and plans are $15 for 250mbs or unlimited 3g for $30. The announcement of the iPad will create a significant dent in future notebooks and e-readers. The starting price is $500 for Wi-Fi only and 16 GB. It goes up to $829 for 64 GB and WI-FI + 3g.

If you have not seen the pictures, it looks amazing and it is slightly bigger than the Kindle 2. The average 10" notebook is around 2.5 to 3 pounds so it is almost half the weight. It is essentially 3x version of your iPod touch or iPhone. A majority of the apps on the iTunes store will work on the iPad as well as special applications like iWork and one call iBook. It can also play music, video, and store photos but it does not have any webcam.

Most importantly, this will make our wireless companies (Verizon and AT&T) rethink their plans for data. This will be the first step toward cheaper data plans and also not forcing it down our throats. I am already paying $80 + tax for my iPhone and I barely touch my minutes each month. In addition to Google Voice finally coming to the iTunes store and other third party VOIP (Skype), I might ditch my cell phone and get the iPad.

Notebooks will still have a following as it looks difficult to type a lot of stuff on the iPad. However, the Amazon's Kindle, Barnes and Noble' Nook, Sony's and other e-Reader might soon disappear. If the iPad can deliver 10+ hours of reading while having the ability to do other things, then I do not see how any e-reader can survive. For double the price, I will gladly choose the iPad over a Kindle.

Apple has yet to take orders for the iPad but they announce that it will begin selling it on March 2010 for the Wi-Fi only edition and April 2010 for the Wi-Fi+ 3g. I am certainly going to get one.