Apple’s iPad Greeted to Cold Reception

After months of intense hype, Apple finally announced its “tablet” computer yesterday. I use tablet in quotes, because after making our news post about the iPad yesterday, I quickly realized that Apple itself was not using the word “tablet”. Rather, it simply calls it a “device”. Go ahead, look around Apple’s site, and look for mention of a “tablet”… you won’t find it.

But that’s hardly an important detail when looking at the reaction to the iPad around the Web. I admit, after I posted yesterday’s news about it, I didn’t find any major faults with the device, but it turns out that a lot of important details didn’t come to light until after the press conference. Not long after the conference ended, sites all over were posting lists of things that are wrong with the device.

Of all the issues floating around, the most major seems to be the lack of multi-tasking. This is a huge blow as far as many are concerned, because something like that on a device like this should be a given. No multi-tasking means you can’t listen to music while browsing the Web, can’t talk on an IM client while working on a file in iWork… it’s a major problem.

Other noted issues include the larger-than-necessary bezel, the non-widescreen resolution (1024×768), the lack of a camera/webcam, lackluster video output (it appears that with a special adapter, video output will be at around 720×576), the lack of Adobe Flash support, poor SIM card support, no SD card slot, and the fact that the device gets expensive if you want any real storage (HD movies, which this thing touts, can run into the multiple-GBs).

Whew. All of this dislike strikes me, because after all of the hype given to the iPad over the past few months, I’m sure Apple wasn’t quite expecting this reception. But, to be fair, who on earth couldn’t have predicted such a response, on a $500 tablet that doesn’t support multi-tasking? One thing’s for sure, future iPad’s are going to fix a lot of the issues with the first generation. If you don’t mind the lack of multi-tasking, and everything else mentioned above, then the iPad may still be for you, but it doesn’t seem to be for most.

Oh, and as it appears, Mad TV had a skit over two years ago poking fun at a prospective “iPad” product, and yes, it has exactly the same spin as you’d expect.

The high-resolution, 9.7 inch LED-backlit, IPS display on iPad is remarkably crisp and vivid. Which makes it perfect for web browsing, watching movies, or showing off photos. It’s also been designed to work in any orientation — portrait or landscape. And because it uses a display technology called IPS (in-plane switching), it has a wide, 178° viewing angle. So you can hold it almost any way you want, and still get a brilliant picture, with excellent color and contrast.