Sounds like a Netbook killer for sure... and probably a Kindle killer.

Pretty slick. But pricey. If it was half that price it would sell like hotcakes... (though it probably still will) ;-)

How much is that worth to you? Is it worth ignoring all the other, much cheaper electronic readers as well?

Doesn't matter as I'll be using one of those except it'll be Android and have a camera.

But yes, size matters when you're reading a lot, so does color images and video, this will be the real next step in where newspapers and magazines will head.

Besides, a single device like this could hold all of a kids school books for all 12 grades and not cause little johnny to break his back carrying all that crap to school.

If nothing else, it makes mobile website coding seem more important.

It's not a Kindle killer, but I suspect it will kill iPhone sales. This device is extremely expensive to operate versus the competition in the eReader space.

It's a luxury item that people will wear show off like the iPhone. I've been waiting on this announcement to buy a Kindle or Nook.

I'll pass on the iPad.

nice gadget, it's cool, new design idea, didn't exist before. but: no thanks.
as user it clearly should not matter to me at all what limitations and economical challenges the manufacturer has faced. all i want is a great and useful product. it doesn't interest me, what difficulties apple had in the producing process.
yet, the fanboys(tm) don't get tired of finding excuses for an overall poor execution of a great concept. apple friendliness instead of user friendliness.

hopefully the followers on the pc side soon provide us with a real unproprietary device with full hardware/software/network capabilities, the same look and feel and without the ridiculous flaws of this product.

and no, this thingy doesn't substitute netbooks at all. too different. it's a new product category.

I suspect it will kill iPhone sales.

How so?

The tablet won't fit in your pocket.

I think the price will be its downfall. Then 6 months from now they will drop the price for the holiday season and folks will take another look at it.

The bigger problem is most of their target market already has a device they love that can pretty much do everything this thing does... and more. And is smaller... How do you justify paying $500-$800 for something you already have that is not as portable?

People are making a joke due to unfortunate word associations in the name of Apple's new tablet, the iPad (Jan. 27).

lol

[edited by: travelin_cat at 3:30 am (utc) on Jan. 28, 2010]
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I suspect it will kill iPhone sales.

How so?

The tablet won't fit in your pocket.

Because the iPhone is more than a phone. If I can get a device like the iPad, I have less use for an cellphone like the iPhone.

It's amazing how the opinions on this site are so so so far off the word on the street. People assume this thing will take, while over in Twitter-land, the public and women in particular, you know, non geeks for whom this product is intended, are making fun of this product.

It's amazing how tech heads can be so removed from reality. Guys, get your heads out of the sand dune.

It will definitely sell, but this thing is not a game changer.

[edited by: travelin_cat at 5:57 am (utc) on Jan. 28, 2010]
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If I can get a device like the iPad, I have less use for an cellphone like the iPhone.

How so?

The iPad still won't fit in your pocket...

That thing is way too big to replace a cell phone.

Last thing people will want is to drag some big tablet around opposed to a thin little phone.

Perhaps if you hang the iPad around your neck with a big gold chain like it's bling bling...

Please do not post any alternative names for the iPad.

Lets just talk about the product, not its name.

Ok, let's talk about the product. This product so far is not popular with women.

And you base that on what?

The iPad was revealed 12 hours ago.

incrediBILL, you hit the nail on the head. It will be the next bling bling like how you would see people in SUV's and cars #*$!ed out with DVD players in every seat... haha!

I am not sure what to think of this but I did hear watching Fast Monday on CNBC earlier some guy commented saying Apple is doing this to go after Google... he claims people will quit using search engines the more Apple has you in their.. well in this case in their iPad. lol. Could he be right somehow? I just do not see it but maybe he is...

I have little doubt it will do very well. For about a decade Bill Gates has been refering to the tablet form as the future. The problem being the vendors who saw his vision where clearly aiming their products at the enterprise sector. Now it looks as if Apple are going to be the driving force behind the consumer tablet.

However, I see a real market for competition. The iPad falls short on many levels. It's not a fully fledged pc and lacks a lot of laptop like features. If a vendor was to push out a similar device running a "real" OS then the uptake may be favourable.

As a consumer device the Apple brand = cool. That's something any competition will struggle against.

Mack.

So, can anybody please explain to me what purpose this new piece of eyecandy will serve? Or am i simply getting old?

I like the look of the iPad...but it really isn't much more than a giant iPhone...at a first glance. I may well be tempted to get one though. It would be great for reading online magazines and watching movies on.

It looks cool, but seeing it, I got a weird association with those giant remotes which are sold as either joke gifts or useful products for the elderly.

With so many missing features Apple has clearly missed the mark on the first version of the poorly named iPad. I'm sure with future versions they will lower prices and increase the devices functionality. By the time they get to version 3.0 all of the missing features will be in the device unquestionably.

I doubt that they will be the market leader in the Netbook \ eReader market but they will be a significant player since they can leverage the large iPhone App base they have. Hopefully they will move the device into using a slim version of OSX but Mr. Jobs is quite a stubborn guy.

I won't be developing any apps for the platform however since I refuse to learn Objective C or to use any framework to build an iPhone \iPad App. I'm not sure why Mr. Jobs won't just let his devices truly flourish on any Mobile Network or use apps that aren't run through their approval system because I really wanted one of these.

a... big... iphone

I don't see this thing running top end games nor do I see magazine readers spending 500 bucks (or more) to not have to flip real pages. If it gets a mouse plugin it's like a laptop, minus ease of use.

I'm not sold, to me it's just a big iphone with a lot of marketing to make it seem like more. I don't get the hype.

Waste of money!

Far better to have a Netbook and a iphone or blackberry.

For the time being it will definitively not kill eReaders, the main advantage of an ePaper reader such as the Amazon's kindle or Sony's ebook is the lack of backlight, this is just an oversized iphone or a downsized tablet PC. Though it still could have use for kids who don't fully recognise yet how cool is having a couple of healthy eyes.

Why do people want a camera on this thing? That would make it about the bulkiest and awkward cameras on the market. This is just the next step to a better laptop. Imagine being able to install actual programs on it. Now that would make me salivate. I'm sure Google will work that into the upcoming GooglePad ;)

I see this as the future of magazines and newspapers.

You will have a subscription to your favorite newspaper/magazine delivered via WI-FI/G3 every day, you can read it anywhere. The images will be in full color and the publishers will be able to provide full motion video as well as dozens of other things that paper can not do like real time news delivery.

The print industry will be the biggest looser. All of those giant web presses will be obsolete.

Think about where we have gone recently. Does it really make sense to have somebody physically deliver some dead trees to your home? Wouldn't it be great to have the news that you choose delivered electronically 24/7?

Also, future versions, and the inevitable competition will drive the technology even further and the price down.

couple of healthy eyes.

Is that why the others don't offer a back-light? I was curious about that. I guess it makes sense. Interesting.

The Skiff, supported by the Hearst Company actually offers a better product for reading books and magazines. So do the Kindle and the Nook. There is an important thing that's been missed here. The lack of e-ink is one. This thing is just not user-friendly for extended reading. But the one thing people are missing is that people who enjoy books and magazines, probably don't want to be interrupted by videos and moving graphics when they read.

When you read a text, you go into a quiet mindset and something that can potentially have interrupting sounds and moving widgets does not support the quiet time people expect when they read. They tacked a bookstore to it, but don't understand what it is about reading that people like so much and why the Kindle has done well thus far.

As for students using this for text books, yeah they can, but part of using texts for research and study is the ability to quickly move back and forth between pages, put bookmarks all over the place. Highlight sections of texts on the go, without worrying about an electronic interface getting in the way. The book reader really has not addressed any of these issues and is just a boring pdf clone with font changing tools. People don't care about font changing - that would be worrying about typography - the container, instead of the actual contents.

As a e-book reader this product is a total failure trying to ram itself into a market it was not optimized for. The whole point of this thing is to sell books from Apple, rather than buying them from Amazon or using Google Books. This is the prime features of this product from an e-reader's perspective - thus it does not address any user's needs, but it sure does offer Apple an opportunity to cash in some dough.

As a video player, well, it doesn't play HD formats. You can't play a movie that looks nice on this thing, as it's limited to the 4/3 format of TV. That's a big oversight for a company known to produce video editing software for professionals.

As a multimedia device, the lack of multitasking will quickly cripple people's usability. If you can't have several programs performing tasks in the background, then the full potential of a product in this category are totally missed. Currently, I have 7 browser tabs opened, and email in the background and that's only because I haven't gone totally productive yet. Unless I use the core programs from Apple, I can't use any other third party app in the background, like say a sales' app or a calendar app or a medical app for my work. I'm stuck with iTunes, email, Safari and a few other toys.

The iWorks suite's changes are totally ridiculous and not a strong office suite. I tried Keynotes once, but stopped short when I looked around and found no PC viewer for the presentation. I went back to PowerPoint and never opened that silly little "app" that wasn't designed to communicate with the rest of the business world. How can you claim to make serious productivity software that doesn't exchange data with others or cannot be touched by PC computers? What's the benefit for a user for producing data that cannot be exchanged with the majority of computer users? I couldn't make a Keynote presentation and put it on a stick and just open it in any conference room without first checking if they also have Macs on site. I can't send my clients spreadsheets unless I check if they have a Mac. How professional is that? At least with Lotus and Quattro, I can export the spreadsheets as Excel docs. So on the productivity front this thing is a failure.

Is this thing really the product of the future if it does nothing right in all the categories it tries to occupy?

[edited by: Harry at 3:41 pm (utc) on Jan. 28, 2010]

If someone gave me one, i'd accept it.

If I want an e-book reader, there are light-weight alternatives that will last a lot longer on a charge. The lack of keypad means it won't have the usability of a netbook/laptop. Netbooks cost a lot less.

The advantage I see is the slick software.

iPhone/smartphone is powerful, compact and slips in the pocket, making phone and social media communications easy and quick from any location with a cell phone signal or wifi.
That's a significant advantage.

For me, I can't see a need for one, and certainly wouldn't pay that kind of price.

WOW - that is underwhelming.

What happened to innovation? As has been previously stated - just a big iPhone - and a new set of headaches controlling the iPad domains that everyone has now registered!

No wonder their stock tanked a bit on release... (as well as all tech being down today on top of that)

I don't own an iPhone so if I was given the choice of iPhone or iPad I would go for the iPhone. Could sales of iPad be detrimental to iPhone sales? I guess we will need to wait and see.

Mack.