Tee hee! Get it?
Dumb names aside, I really think Apple missed the mark with their much touted iPad. I knew well before this thing came out that I wouldn't be the target market for it. But now that it is out, I am left wondering exactly who Apple thinks the target market is? As the iPad's feature list of "doesn't"s far out weigh its "does" at the time being.
There were two different directions I thought that Apple might take with this, one being the e-reader market. At first glance some might think they took this market completely over. But from my eyes the entire majesty of the e-reader market was the e-ink. the reason no one reads on their current laptops is because staring at a white screen for longer than twenty minutes makes your eyes bleed. The main advantage of e-ink is there is absolutely no eye strain, and by using LEDs I think Apple completely missed the point of e-readers all ready. But as I don't even own an e-reader, maybe I don't know what the e-reader market REALLY wants...
The second market I thought that Apple might go after would be the tablet PC, which makes perfect sense as a large chunk of Apple's current users are in the creative field, and the ability to draw and sketch directly onto their computers would be a huge boon. But Apple didn't even make an attempt in this direction, no hand writing recognition and no ability to use such programs as Photoshop.
So other options would be is this Apples response to the growing netbook market? Yet their iPad doesn't have multitasking, doesn't have flash, and has dongles galore that would have to be carried around. So I guess it COULD be used as a netbook, but in my eyes (and anyone who looks at is objectively) it would be a poor one.
The last option would simply be a media player. But Apple already has plenty of those on the market, so why introduce a less portable media player when their current ones are already such a runaway success? Or I guess Apple could have just released a product for their loyal fanatics to buy, and I'm sure they will. But I don't think that market base is large enough to result in the iPad's success. I'm interested to see how this thing does, as well as what people will use it for, considering how little it does.
