iPads, the niche and hype

Well folks, this is it. The device that will revolutionize the way we look at computers. Or phones. Or books. Or all of them! We've seen similar devices in the past, from netbooks to e-readers to super-gigantic smartphones. What we really want to know is, where does it fit in mainstream America 2010. What I really want to know is, will this be the beginning of a paradigm shift in mobile computing technology as a whole?

I first heard about the iPad at the beginning of the year, and needless to say I was a little more than skeptical. For the past two years or so, tech companies have tried to create a market to bridge the gap between the cumbersome laptop computer (which is about 3x less cumbersome than 15 years ago, but still) and the convenient-yet-lacking-in-power smartphone. I've seen tablet PC's, ultra-lightweight laptops, and netbooks -- all of which have the same major deficiencies; weight, battery life, messy software (aka Windows), and all sorts of issues we're used to in the desktop computing world of today. The Kindle e-Reader has seen popularity, however it's capability is quite limited and display is still too small for my liking. To me, the iPad wasn't going to be able to offer anything I didn't already have, and the price tag was on the high side, to boot.

When the iPad was first launched in April, I was reading mostly negative reviews from authors who shared the same sentiments which I had. Why would somebody go out and throw $500+ on a device that can't run Flash, make phone calls, or anything else that a similarly-equipped iPod touch can? My logic, which at the time seemed completely solid, had a few flaws. Here are a few point-counterpoints which I have revised my opinion about:

-The iPad can't do half the things that a normal laptop running Windows can:
While factually true, the iPad can still do the things that matter most to the vast majority of users, and virtually all business users. It can do e-mail, calendaring, attachments, surf the web (not all web apps work properly, but this is addressed later). Furthermore, the device comes with no bloat and extra "stuff" to clog up/slow down the system either.

-Why would anyone want to read a book on a computer rather on paper?:
If you still feel this way, try reading something on an iPad or any other e-Reader for that matter. There are still some publications which you'd much rather have to page through and skim (reference books like almanacs come to mind), but I'm a huge, huge fan of reading books on the iPad. You can even change the font and font size to suit your liking. And some eBooks are absolutely free (lots of classic novels) so it really might NOT cost you more in the long run!

-It can't do Flash so it's automatically bad
Can we all agree that Flash isn't the second coming? Apple sure does, and they've decided that there's a better alternative: make individual applications that don't use Flash that are carbon copies of the ones that do! Stuff such as YouTube, Facebook, and just about anything you can think of. And if they haven't yet, they're probably planning on it.

-It has no place in the business/enterprise world
If Blackberries took the business world by storm, the iPad has the potential to be a Category 5 hurricane. No longer do business travelers need to lug around their dreadnaught laptop/power supply/accessory bundle with them everywhere they go. The iPad is light, slim, clean. The battery will probably last over the entire weekend. You'll get e-mails, and you can actually read the attachments that probably weren't going to be edited until you got back to the office anyways. Oh, and it's a handy dandy GPS too (if you have the 3G version which I highly recommend!)

-Price is waaaaaay too high:
But there's really not that much price difference between this and a mid-range laptop. This guy is highly marketed towards business professionals, who are much less likely to balk at the price tag, and in relative terms isn't all that expensive to begin with.

-Who in their right mind is going to carry a laptop, smartphone and intermediate device?:
My opinion is that the iPad doesn't fill the role which I alluded to earlier. It simply complements (and in some cases, can actually replace) a laptop computer. That said, I somehow see the stock in laptop computers falling to some degree and possibly becoming a niche device.

While I definitely feel as though Apple made a lot of good decisions regarding the iPad so far, the technology still needs to improve. I'm not here to tell everyone to throw away their laptops and buy iPads, but I do encourage everyone to give it a chance. Apple is making a concerted effort to cater to the business community and I have faith that it's strategy to integrate the iPad into the workplace will be successful.