Apple iPad | 01/02/10 - 02.32 |
There’s been an incredible volume of text written about the as-of-yet unavailable iPad. I don’t want to add too much to it, other than just to place my opinion on the record for reviewing in future.
I think that the iPad will be a huge success. I don’t think it will have colossal sales initially. It’s going to take a while for everyone to see it up close and for developers to produce apps that show off the power of such a large screened portable device. I think many more of us than we expect may have one much sooner than we expect. Chrome OS netbooks or tablets versus this will be extremely interesting. Something of note is that Chrome OS has no native apps as a key part of it’s design – everything is a web app. Sort of fairer than Apple’s picking and choosing, but also sort of more restrictive than the App Store model.
A new version of the hardware will ship probably just under 12 months after the original which may address some of the issues that some people are pointing to as complete show stoppers. I’d be surprised if the price for the lowest end model ever slipped below $499. Although continual iPhone price drops would suggests Apple does do this, most of these relate to payment over the length of a long contract which disguises the rather static price. iPhones do not cost $99/$199.