iPad….iStill don’t get it

OK, so this is not a slight to anyone getting an iPad. They’re very slick devices and obviously the conventional wisdom is that they’re awesome. But I gotta admit, they make no sense to me as a viable trend setting piece of technology.

Yes, the book reader is cool. Yes, you can stream movies. Yes, there will be cool apps for it. But all of these are true of a $300 netbook, which by Steve Job’s own criteria is the reason the iPad was invented.

So let’s look at some of the hardware comparisons. I’ll use an Asus Eee netbook from Best Buy.

Cost:
iPad $500
Eee $310

Screen:
iPad 9.7 inch – 1024×768
Eee 12.1 inch – 1366 x 768

Weight:
iPad 1.5 pounds
Eee 3 pounds

Ram:
iPad ???
Eee 1Gb

Storage (this is a big one):
iPad 16Gb
Eee 160Gb

GPS/Compass
iPad Yes
Eee No

Networking
iPad Wireless
Eee Wireless and wired

Camera
iPad No
Eee Yes

USB
iPad None
Eee 3

Battery
iPad 9-10 hours
Eee 6-7 hours (higher capacity available)

There’s more, but basically the only real hardware advantage is the cool touchscreen and the weight. And there are significant disadvantages in storage. Battery life is sorta an advantage, but you can get a high capacity battery for the Eee that will make it last 10-12 hours.

Then there’s the keyboard. Whereas people who use it say the iPad touchscreen keyboard is surprisingly good, it’s a pretty safe assumption that it’s not good enough to do a large amount of typing given the reviews. Then when you buy a bluetooth keyboard, all that convenience of a single touchscreen goes out the window.

Some people would argue that with the Eee you’re getting Windows, which is inferior to the iPad…but I completely disagree with this. We’re not talking Mac OS vs. Windows here. We’re talking iPhone OS vs fully featured Windows, and the iPhone OS has significant limitations that don’t impact phone usage–but are terrible for laptops.

The much-talked-about lack of multitasking is a big problem. You can’t run multiple programs at once.

The whole process of getting files in and out of the iPad is evidently a convoluted mess. If you type a document or make a presentation, you have to go through some procedures get the files out if you need to work on them somewhere else. The Eee supports thumb drives, external drives, etc. right on the laptop.

Also, with the Eee you can move files from your digital camera in less than a minute with the built in cardreader. I shudder to think of how long it would take to do this with an iPad without an accessory…and even if you have it I wonder how easy it is to move the files around. Ever tried managing photos on an iPhone? Good luck. This is only practical if they’ve done considerable re-engineering for iPad.

In short, iPhone OS is great for a little computer that fits in your pocket, and it soundly kicked the techno-hiney of any phone out there when it came out. But the shortcomings will make it very impractical for laptop-style computing over anything longer than the short term. I can just tell that any attempt to replace a laptop with an iPad would slowly fail through the attrition of convoluted inconvenience.

But it’s a great eBook reader. And it is. But that’s a pretty expensive eBook reader, and the jury is still out on eBooks with regard to how prevalent eBooks will be. Plus you can install several free ebook readers on a laptop.

Gaming will be awesome on the iPad. But it’s also awesome on a Nintendo DSi, which is much cheaper.

It just seems that beyond all the hype and whiz-bang, this device isn’t going to solve many of existing problems or be any better at critical, meat-and-potato tasks. It may create entirely new markets for certain software or media, and the nature of the interface may create some interesting new applications, but will these be big enough to justify huge numbers of sales that will “change computing as we know it”? That’s a tall order.