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Well, it's here. The big question, though, is whether April 3, 2010 will be a headline or a footnote in the technology industry's history book. After giving a look over for several hours, the bet here is on headline. A big, 64-point headline.
Apple's iPad will change use patterns, alter expectations and force PC makers that compete with Apple to change their strategies. It's not a business device but it will start seeping into the corporate world in spite of efforts by CIOs and IT administrators to keep it out.
In fact, it's not even ludicrous to believe iPhone as an operating system -- the OS that powers the iPad and iPhone -- will give Windows 7 a run for its money this year in number of devices actually used for business. Here are a few reasons why:
Form factor: Like it or hate it, iPad's form factor is just easy to carry around and use during the course of a work day. A pound and a half feels like nothing compared to even an ultra-light notebook. It's smaller than even a legal pad for note-taking and, via its Safari browser, data access over the Web is fast and easy.
Battery life: Apple says iPad provides 10 hours of battery life and, as others have noted, it will likely actually give you more than that. After four hours, our iPad still registered 70 percent battery life with audio running in the background the entire time. It was also used for word processing, its GPS/mapping was tried out, and other testing was performed. Unlike the iPhone, though, iPad tells you what percent of battery life you actually have remaining so you can manage power use easier. Battery life here is a competitive strength not a weakness.
The keyboard: After two minutes, you might hate it. After five minutes, though, you could start loving it. This review is being typed on iPad using Apple's $9.99 Pages app, which has been optimized for iPad. Once you get the feel of it, even power typers like the one writing this review will find it easy and comfortable to use. (Full disclosure: this is being written in landscape mode, where the keyboard is larger and wider.)
Performance: Apple is using a 1.00 GHz A4 processor for iPad -- its own, proprietary CPU. That was a roll of the dice on Apple's part, but it seems to have paid off. The device boots fast, runs fast, is exceptionally cool to the touch after a couple of hours of use and, as mentioned, gets great battery life. That can't be an accident. While Intel has done ground-breaking work on developing and engineering the Atom platform, from this vantage point it appears that Apple has either caught Intel or surpassed it on mobile CPU technology. (Extensive, head-to-head benchmarking between A4 and Atom will need to confirm this, though.) For now, just know that Apple is sitting on powerful processing technology that will deeply impact the industry, it seems, for much time to come.
