No other products from Apple released over the last decade have been generating some much buzz prior its announcement and comments after its birth to the world. While Apple have been clearly defining the iPad as the missing element between the SmartPhone and the notebook, some analysts and/or journalists are trying to compare the iPad with notebook and classify it somewhere. We can understand that some people like to categorize everything, however the iPad might well be the first model of its own class.... netbook did not exist before they were released, while being a defined class of cheap notebook with limited capabilities.
Did Apple manipulate news network by releasing some info and flares? For sure. They might even be at the origin of rumors related to the price of the iPad: 1,000 USD... as a consequence, when Steve announced that the entry level models was only 499 USD, everybody was cheering as "expectations" were higher. Nevertheless the high-end model is priced not so far away from the 1,000 USD tag. One the other end, do you need the high-end model for readying eBooks, reviewing presentations, documents, etc. in public transportations? Do you think institutions would invest in 3G models of iPad to offer a nice device to read information or video about topics, while visiting some expo or museum? You could get everything updated, no more brochures or booklets to print every quarter because it is outdated, now visitors will always get updated information. They could even prepared their visit from their home computer, and afterwards feel like at home when visiting the museum or the expo, bookmarking the "must see" and other interesting rooms/places.
Of course, few hours after the announcement, everybody is commenting the iPad, making it the smartest product ever made, a new revolutionary device or just another gadget from Apple, or a bigger iPhone without the phone. As we commented already, the non-support for Flash technology made Adobe reacting rather strongly, slowly but surely understanding that its proprietary format is not really making main players in the field so enthusiastic, especially when considering the hardware resources required to run Flash animation or movies (Apple, Google, YouTube and others moving away from Flash). Some people even made a "remake" of Hitler being disappointed after Apple iPad release:
By using the same SDK for the iPhone as for the iPad, Apple gives developers the opportunity to improve already existing applications in order to better benefit from the faster iPad hardware and its larger display. In other words, no earthquake for the developers, life made as easy as possible to continue offering such a large online catalog to end customers. We can already expect to have several applications to be released or updated for the iPad in the forthcoming 2 months prior the availability of the iPad. With iWork available on iPad, Apple also made it clear that this device can be used as an input terminal and not only for viewing/reviewing documents. Will Microsoft think of bringing Office Lite for iPad?
The coming weeks will clearly indicate how competitors will react, especially Amazon, and other e-book online stores, as Apple has already put 5 big names on its partnership for iBooks, and the list might be growing quickly as the iPad will be available worldwide. We are sure that the iPad will be also used for purpose not identified yet, and driven with the creativity of the developer community that have had now more than 2 years to be trained on the iPhone platform.
