10 Things Missing from iNewton Discussions
Just like everyone else, I’ve been following the launch of the iNewton iPad closely.
I wonder why no one is talking more about the following…
- Steve sounded horrible. He was fidgety when sitting, he made mistakes when speaking. And, he totally missed an opportunity to make fun of e-book readers that go blank between each page turn… even though he willingly called out Amazon’s Kindle.
- If you watch the event recording, like I did, you notice they edited out the boos when Steve mentioned that AT&T was their named wireless partner here in the US. (I had heard of the boos on a live blog I was able to glance at prior to watching.) What really is going on between Apple and AT&T? Is there really any chance we get an iPhone on Verizon later this year?
- Have you seen the address book and calendar? I’m still hard! Any chance we can get those on the Mac and use the touchpad instead of the touchscreen? Yummy.
- If Apple is producing accessories… any chance they open up that spec so others can too? That could get interesting.
- Very smart to make it pre-paid. What if they had done that with the iPhone? Of course, they could never have gotten to the iPhone price point if they did.
- I did see one comment on the new Apple chip included… that it is the most interesting technological innovation mentioned yesterday (I agree), but I wonder why no one is speculating if similar chips will dramatically change the iPhone?
- There were no other updates? I was kinda hoping for updated specs on the MacBook Air. Don’t they usually update other stuff this time of year?
- It’s menu driven?!?! Yeah, you touch somewhere to bring up a menu… I was surprised at how clumsy that was. Perhaps it’s the only way, but geez, welcome to DOS on a tablet.
- Any chance I can get one of those fancy touch screens (now that they’re getting bigger) on my MacBook Air combining a laptop and one of these things? I don’t mind the 3lb weight of the Air, but it would be cool if I could interact with it like an iPhone.
- At $499, it’s cheaper than a digital frame + Kindle. So, any commuter in a shared office space can now instantly have their family photos in their “rent-a-desk” and still have something to read on the way to and from the office.
As for what I think? I think it’ll do quite well. I also think it’ll improve and change a lot over time. It needs video conferencing. I think people’s experiences with the 3G version will be substantially different than those with only the WIFI version. I don’t use my iPod Touch nearly the same way I did my iPhone because I’m not connected all the time.
I don’t think I’ll buy one… mostly because I’d prefer to wait to see if I can update my Air, or get an iPhone on Verizon. But, it’s possible I’ll get an itch for a new gadget, so who knows.
Categories: Technology
Interesting. I predict the iPad will bomb. I think Apple does well when they create a better design for poorly designed products in fragmented market spaces. Think MP3, cell phones, early PCs. They do poorly when they try and innovate new products. Think Newton, Lisa, NeXT etc.
I think this is an interesting product, that like the Newton, will focus people’s attention in this area and lead to better products, but I think the main beneficiaries will be Kindle, NexusOne and the iPhone.
Cool? Yes. Profitable? No. Bust? Most likely.
Andy,
I guess we’ll have to see. I think it’s a different world, than when the Newton came out. With it’s focus on an intimate relationship with media, I think it’s got a market. I mean, I’ve overheard one person say she bought a mac to make it easier to work with her iPhone, and another person who’s husband bought her a Kindle to read the newspaper because she’s really “green” and doesn’t like to waste paper.
I do think always online is critical though to really have a game changer. So, we’ll see how that works out.
David