Apple's IPad Beats the Competition Out of the Gate, No One Will Catch Up Now

Netbooks and tablets: the electronics industry has long tried to drive a wedge between the smartphone and the portable computer. The problem with this approach up to now was epitomized by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's presentation of a prototype HP tablet at the Consumer Electronics Show recently in Las Vegas. The device Ballmer showed off was singularly lackluster and seems to lack a reason for its existence.

Apple on the other hand spent years researching the market and possibilities. Two years ago, Steve Jobs was personally involved in the negotiations to acquire chip manufacturer PA Semi who had a CPU based somewhat on the old Apple/Motorola/IBM Power architecture. Jobs intimated the PA Semi chips would be used in the iPhone and the iPod Touch and no one could figure out what he was talking about. Jobs plays his cards close to his chest.

Meanwhile, the Apple designers sat down and thought through the problem methodically. They worked not from the idea that there must be a tablet but what such a tablet would have to be to succeed.

They knew that the tablet would have to be not only as good but better than both the smartphone and the portable computer at whatever it's doing. That was their starting point. And they concluded there was a market for a device meeting all those requirements. And now we've seen the device: the iPad.

The iPad is powered by PA Semi's - or Apple's - own CPU, or rather 'chip', so called because it does a lot more than any traditional CPU does. People who've seen the iPad in action and looked closer at this 'Apple A4' chip say the rest of the industry are going to have to work very hard indeed to catch up. The iPad's A4 leaves the rest of the field behind in the dust. The iPad is namely blazingly fast.

Such a pad was predicted by Arthur C Clarke years ago in his novella 2001. There he called it the Newspad, and it looked much like the iPad does today, with a lot of the same functions.

First the drawbacks. There are only a few. But they might be deal killers for you. The iPad can't multitask. It's not likely its OS kernel is incapable of multitasking; rather that that interface isn't designed to work well with it. It won't phone. Unless you install Skype or something similar. Developers have to pay to get on the bandwagon.

Now the attractions. It has a 9.7 inch screen (diagonally). It can run most of the 140,000 apps already available at the iPhone App Store. It can run these apps in both an iPhone mode (with iPhone size rendering) or through graphics wizardry at a very low level, in iPad mode with a lot bigger rendering.

It can run games extraordinarily fast. The A4 runs at 1 GHz. A demonstration by Electronic Arts showed just how much you can push the processor.

All interaction is touch like the iPhone and it's all intuitive, with things right where you'd expect them to be. It has an 'accelerometer' for performing a wide variety of functions.

iBooks is a new Apple feature which lets you tank books down from the App Store (in EPUB format) and put them immediately on a book shelf. Then all you have to do is touch a book on the shelf and it opens. Five major publishers have signed on.

The screen uses IPS, which means it's going to be easy to read even from an angle. It has an all-new calendar app and a YouTube app (but not flash, presumably because Adobe's product is not frugal with CPU/battery power). It has a tweaked Google Maps application. It offers a completely new iWork.

The second best way to get an idea of what the iPad is to watch the 90 minute presentation available at the Apple website. The absolute best way to get an idea is to pick one up and play with it. Those who have, such as Stephen Fry and Steve Jobs himself, say you cannot convey the experience in words - it's more than you're capable of imagining.

The first iPads (with WiFi) will be available in 60 days. The 3G models will be available in 90 days. Apple have settled on an aggressive pricing scheme with the low end models starting at $499 and the most expensive - with 3G and 64 GB flash memory - costing a mere $829.

Whether or not the iPad is commercial success, it's introduction establishes Apple as the only serious and innovative electronics corporation in the industry.

Sources:
Apple iPad microsite
Stephen Fry: iPad About
BBC News/dot.Maggie: The morning after the tablet
CNET Nanotech: Inside the iPad: Apple's new 'A4' chip
Engadget: iPad powered by custom 1GHz Apple A4 chip
Rixstep software: iPad Establishes Apple as #1
Vancouver Sun: 'Intimate, capable' iPad a smart game-changer