The web is full of opinions about Apple’s new tablet ‘computer’, the iPad. With all that buzz and information at hand I can’t help but put my own opinion online. Because it’s my own opinion and nobody else’s it’s just fair that I offer some information where I’m coming from here:
- I’m a content user of Apple products. I’ve owned Apple notebooks for many years now and I thoroughly enjoy the Mac user experience on my MacBook Pro with Mac OS X.
- I’m using an iPhone 3G for almost a year now and I like it very much, in spite of its obvious shortcomings. I’ve spent a small fortune on applications from the App Store, a lot of those are fun games.
- I’m a software engineer and technical consultant by day. I deal with software technology for a living.
- Although I enjoy using Apple’s Mac OS X a lot, I spend even more time in front of computers running GNU/Linux with a 100% Open Source software application stack.
So here we go. I’ll give you the short version of my opinion in just one sentence, if you don’t like it you won’t be forced to read on through the rest of this. In my humble opinion, all Apple did was to super-size the iPod Touch and give it a new name. Basically. Add a microphone, tweak the underlying software a bit to take advantage of the bigger screen but basically the iPad is a bigger version of the iPod Touch at almost the same price (ever wondered if the iPod Touch will now be getting much cheaper to compensate for this?!). So what’s the buzz? Because the iPad is basically just a bigger and better version of the iPod Touch, it shares all of its disadvantages that didn’t matter as long as you compared the iPod Touch to other media players. The iPad however will have to measure up against so called netbooks and other tablet PCs. And when you do that, you’ll be utterly disappointed.
Before Apple introduced the iPad, almost everybody wondered what it is that you do with it. What’s the use case for an Apple tablet? Where and why will there be demand for such a device? The great thing about Apple is that they are able to actually make that demand and the use cases spring into existence when they introduce new products. Before they introduce something, nobody ever missed not having it. But afterwards, nobody wants to live without it. Well, how about the iPad? Do I want to live without it? Most definitely. I just don’t see any serious use case I could use that iPad for.
Actually, there’s at least five core reasons to be disappointed:
The Name
“iPad”. Feminine hygiene products anyone? And it seems like I’m not the only one with that association. The rumored “iSlate” would have been so much cooler. Hey, but have it your way Apple…
No Multitasking
Imagine yourself lying lazily on the couch with the iPad in your lap. You are listening to music from your iTunes library on the iPad while surfing the web with Safari, the iPad’s browser. That’s about as much multitasking as you get. What I really want to do with the iPad is to start an application like Skype and let it run in the background, so that I’m able to receive incoming calls while I’m happily browsing in Safari and listening to music. Well, that’s not possible. The only way you can receive feedback from applications not running in the background is by push notifications. In my opinion, the biggest drawback of the iPad is the use of the iPhone OS which does not allow for true multitasking, something that every Windows PC manages since Windows 95. Things that seem so natural for almost everybody today, like switching between several running applications is not possible on the iPad. Apple takes a great technical platform and gives it a crippled OS which was designed for limited devices such as MP3 players and mobile phones. That really sucks.
No Interfaces
The iPad has no interface to the world around it other than the port with which to connect to an iTunes enabled computer, WiFi and optionally UMTS at a higher price. You have a digital camera and want to copy the images to your Apple tablet? Well sorry, you first need to put those images on a real, grown up computer before you can put them on that iPad toy as there is no way you can connect the camera’s memory card to the tablet directly by use of a card slot or attaching a USB card reader to the non-existent USB slot. You have an external hard drive and want to connect it directly to the iPad? Sorry, no can do. Somebody hands you a USB stick with some files and you just want to copy them? No can do with the iPad. You’re traveling abroad and the place you’re staying at doesn’t have WiFi and UMTS use makes your roaming bill go through the roof? Want to connect an ethernet cable instead? Oops, no can do. As innovative as the hardware of the iPad is, its lacking connectivity to other media is simply embarrassing. As I already mentioned, the iPad is not a computer, it’s simply a super-sized iPod Touch. Any netbook for about 300€ copes better.
No Flash
The iPad promotion video on Apple.com states that the “iPad is the best way to surf the web”. Well be sure to remember that whenever you hit a web site with Adobe Flash elements that Apple’s crippled iPhone OS running the iPad does not support. Apple must hate Adobe’s Flash platform a lot as neither the iPhone, the iPod Touch or the iPad support it and it’s probably not going to change. According to this Techcrunch article, Flash will be supported on the iPad sometime. However, if you read closely, it’s only about porting Flash applications to native iPhone OS applications to be distributed from within the App Store. So in other words, forget about using Flash from within web sites. The reason for this lack of support is probably not even of a technical nature but simply to the fact that Flash is a competing technology that would allow to distribute applications to devices like the iPad by circumventing Apple’s App Store. This is leading me to the next big issue. Read along…
Too much Control, no Freedom
The iPod Touch, the iPhone and the iPad are 200% proprietary. The only way to put any software on them is by going through Apple’s App Store. There’s no way you can choose the origin of the software you install yourself. If for some reason Apple denies a software vendor to distribute a specific software product via the App Store you simply cannot use that software, even though you want it and a vendor would be willing to supply. Again: if Apple doesn’t want you to be able to use specific software on your device, you won’t be able to. For example, the only web browser you are ever going to use on the iPad is Safari. You want Opera or Firefox? Screw you, because Apple says no! While this restriction is something I can live with on a device like an MP3 player or a smart phone, the boundary is most definitely crossed when it comes to a tablet computer. I wouldn’t tolerate this kind of external control over my MacBook Pro and I’m not tolerating it for a tablet computer I would be interested in.
Another threat posed by distribution models such as Apple’s proprietary App Store is the lack of openness as witnessed in the Open Source universe. While there are a few Open Source applications available on the App Store that doesn’t necessarily mean that users get to experience the freedoms granted by typical Open Source licenses – because Apple doesn’t let them. Essentially, Open Source software grants its users the freedom to modify the software they licensed under an Open Source license. If I download Firefox and its sources I can make changes to it, rebuild it and use that modified version on my computer (and even if you can’t do that technically, someone else could do it for you). With the iPhone OS platform in general and the iPad specifically you cannot modify any application you download from the App Store, even if it’s an Open Source application. You would need to register for Apple’s iPhone developer’s program (and pay the fees) and put your modified version of the software forth for an application so that it’s available in the App Store again. So Apple decides again – not the user.
While this kind of control exercised by Apple is tolerable for devices like media players and smart phones (folks like Richard M. Stallman would utterly disagree here), I am very much afraid of the inclinations this trend will have on future home computer use. If Apple manages to establish this kind of environment for distributing software to home computers and the market accepts this kind of model, there is no future for Open Source software anymore. It would be very harmful for consumers as it narrows choice and freedom of use. The iPad is crossing a line here and it’s not pretty on the other side of that line.
I don’t think the iPad is going to be a big success like the iPhone. Maybe I’m wrong, but don’t say I did not warn you. In my eyes the iPad is simply an unnecessary luxury toy – an iPod Touch grown too big. Have fun with it if you buy it though.