iPad
Apple has announced a new product, as usual it was done with great aplomb, it’s ground breaking, paradigm shifting, mind boggling, the lot. Unfortunately a closer look at the specs reveals that it’s essentially a useless piece of junk. It tries to fill a non-existent niche. It’s much larger than the I-phone, but it offers extremely limited functionality. It has no web camera, no USB port, no nothing basically. And the thing that really killed me about it is that it doesn’t support multitasking. It’s like Steve Jobs decided to take us back to the 20th century and give us a glorified version of DOS. Sure it has GUI and the device has a touch screen and all, but if you wanted to listen to some music while editing an email – forgedaboudid. I mean I sure hope I’m mistaken and the review I read got it wrong but if it really has no support for multitasking then coupled with all the other features it’s lacking the iPad is just a glorified e-book reader.
Ah, and another thing, Apple’s also removed Flash support from it, saying Flash is a security risk, well maybe it’s a security risk but it’s a technology a lot of people have come to depend on, there are gazzillions of movies and TV series published on the Internet in flv, so what good is a device that won’t be able to play them?
Badly done, Apple. I don’t know how much longer they’ll be able to keep exploiting the cool factor of their products, but I’m afraid they’re going to run out of morons pretty soon.
It has to be said, though that one lousy product is unlikely to sink a company like Apple, after all they’ve got the iPhone, an ultimate cash cow that’s even allowed them to ride out the recent recession with sky-rocketing profits, and I think it’s probably going to last them for a few years longer, so they can afford a flop or two when it comes to new products.
On the other hand slate PC’s running Windows 7 look rather promising. After all they basically offer the same set of features as your usual PC or laptop but in a different form factor. So they may still have a chance.
Igor's musings and rants 
I’ve enjoyed Apple for sometime, they produce technology that is aesthetically beautiful while working like a charm. Alot of companies aren’t like that, it’s typically one or the other. Businesses don’t usually take aesthetics seriously like Apple. With that said I’ve got to say that I’m very excited about the new Tablet. One thing I question though, is it too soon? I think that this product may be ahead of its time. What do you think?
Apple products do look slick I’ll grant you that but I wouldn’t say always work like a charm, I’ve been in a couple of situations where apple computers simply wouldn’t work. The thing about them is that they work fine if you do everything as was expected by the designers, but as soon as something unanticipated comes up they’re extremely difficult to trouble-shoot.
I don’t think that tables, or slates as they’ve now come to be called, are ahead of their time, rather they’re outside of any existing niche in the market. They’re too big to be used as smart phones (I hear Apple will be offering iPads with the capabilities of a mobile phone, just imagine a person talking on it on the street), but at the same time they’re too stripped down to be used as full fledged laptops. And they’re also to fancy to serve as mere book readers.
Perhaps slates running Windows 7 might have a go at penetrating the laptop market, but the form factor is too weird. The iPad won’t be able to compete there. I think Apple’s trying to create new niche for it but I doubt if it will work this time round.