Apple's iPad

So here it is.   The iPad.  Cool new gadget?  Definitely.  Industry game changer?  Probably not.   Although the hype leading up to today’s product announcement was unprecedented, I don’t think the product released today will indefinitely sustain it.   Sure, early adopters may make for “buzz-generating” TV shots of crowded Apple stores with long lines of Apple fans waiting for a chance to buy the iPad.   And I don’t disagree that the iPad has great potential in specific areas of personal computing.   But will it forever change the way we work and consumer content?  No.

Steve Jobs introduced the iPad as a third product type to fill the gap between the iPhone and the Mac.  While the iPad will undoubtedly fill that space in the market nicely and possibly offer new ways of accomplishing niche tasks once done on either of the two devices sandwiching it, it’s neither portable enough to challenge tasks the iPhone currently does well nor unique enough at its to induce a wave of “upgrade-itus” amongst current owners of laptops and netbooks.

What makes the iPhone great is that it bundles a ton of additional functionality and content accessibility into a device that everyone would be carrying in their pocket anyway, without significantly changing the required form factor.  The iPad, which introduces another class of device, is opposing the trend of device convergence.   People won’t be walking around the streets of town with an iPad in their pocket.   Those who do adopt the device will sit on their desk or coffee table, or use it during travel, both in much the same way they probably use their laptops and netbooks now.  So does the iPad really offer more than a good netbook or ultraportable laptop?   We’ll have to wait for more hands on trials of the device to answer this.   But if it’s not, its dispersion into this new “third market” could be as nothing more than another competitor to the products that currently fill that need.