Hey Guys, I'm new here.
Yesterday, Apple released its much anticipated “Magic Tablet”, deemed the “iPad” by them. The iPad was met with a lukewarm welcome all across the board, and almost every single person I’ve talked with doesn’t seem have anything good to say about it, nor do they have anything bad to say about it either. To see it in a broader view, in a current Lifehacker poll about the iPad (link), a whopping 44 percent voted it “useless”, 37 percent voted that they are in the “wait and see zone”, while only 15 percent voted being “very excited” it.
I’m not here to sway anyone’s negative opinion about the tablet, I am merely here to drop mine.
I believe that there are essentially three things Apple should have done regarding the tablet, that would honestly have required little change that would have made it a bombshell success.
1. A User Interface that is actually a little bit innovative.
OK, Apple, we know you’ve done it before. How difficult can it be to come up with an interface that isn’t just the iPhone’s with space between the icons? I know a good half of the apps are well designed. They combine the desktop interface with the iPhone interface and it looks great. The process, however, should have been done with the other half of the apps, as well as the home screens, and the lock screen. If you are going to sell something as a whole new device between the PC and the Smartphone, then why not have a UI to match the claim?
2. A Front Facing Camera (Or even back-facing, we would take that, too.)
So you know that little thing that you stuck in the new iPod Nano as something to keep the line alive? Well you could have done it with the iPad, except instead of just keeping it alive, you would have been launching it with universal praise. The machine would be absolutely perfect for video chatting or conference calls, you could hold it anywhere, anytime, as opposed to a laptop, where you are limited to where you can sit or stand. The camera mechanism is only around $5, $10 for a higher resolution, for picture taking, possibly. So it really make no sense that the tablet wouldn’t have one.
3. A Home Button that isn’t exactly like the iPhone’s.
Let’s face it, the iPad has received an incredible amount of criticism using just the phrase “Giant iPhone”, because, well, it looks like a giant iPhone. If the Home Button was a square on either side of the screen, and marketed as a landscape oriented machine, it could be something worth looking at in a new light, but this is another thing from Apple I just don’t understand. There isn’s much more to say on the subject, but maybe it will look different second time around.
Final Points
To close it off, there are two more things I would have done if I was Apple. The price point, while good, could have been lower, and there are reports that it was planned to be $399, which would have guaranteed its success. And a final thing: an accessory that combines both the stand/case and the external keyboard, in landscsape mode, so the iPad could have been easily marketed as a netbook.
I personally believe it is a good product at the moment, but I am going to wait until second generation to buy it, in hopes that Apple will be smart enough to implement the three things.
