This is definitely the hot thing-to-have but, in South Africa, we have the luxury of being able to see what others say before it becomes available here.
The iPad went on sale in the US on 3 April and should be available in nine other countries by the end of the month. In South Africa it will probably only be available by late 2010.
First-day reported sales of 300 000 units in the US look pretty good but are a little short of the 500 000 that some analysts expected. And those buyers are probably the Apple faithful, a devout minority among device users. Nevertheless, these are big numbers and anything from the Apple stable seems to be a success. It might only be a matter of time before Steve Job's organisation applies a trademark to the letter "i".
So what do people say? Here is a sampling of overseas comments.
On the plus side, this is a convergent device with a user-friendly form factor and the bonus of having a touch-screen interface. It can do a lot of things: take pictures, handle multimedia, display ebooks and act as a portable device with internet access and computing power pretty much on a par with the now-familiar netbooks.
But can even the innovative Apple produce a device that can do all these things well and fit in the awkward space between a laptop and a smartphone? Maybe the answer is "not yet".
The downside that reviewers hit on include both serious and trivial issues. The iPad doesn't have a front-facing camera. It has a curved back, which makes it hard to use lying flat. It's too heavy to hold for very long in one hand – that's a problem for ebooks. Using a touch-screen keyboard is still uncomfortable for most users. The screen is not bright enough to use outdoors in sunlight. It doesn't have a USB port (there is an adaptor), HD video out and its multitasking abilities are described as "limited". It has Wi-Fi but 3G is an optional extra.
Bridging the usability gap between laptops and smartphones is tricky. Other companies have tried and either failed or ended up with niche devices that are not widely adopted. The iPad looks like a smart approach to the contradictory demands of screen size, weight and user-friendly interface, but it seems like it tries to do a lot of things without doing any in a compelling manner.
These are early days. Even the monumental successes of the iPod and iPhone started with a few stumbles and it seems reasonable to assume that later models will quickly pick up on what users really want. Apart from the faithful Apple users, it will offer a new option in the mobile computing area that might well suit the needs of many entry-level and specialised users.
However, early adopters beware! Later models will improve on the device's abilities. And, locally, this will not be cheap. With US prices ranging from $500 to about $1 000, we could be looking at quite a few thousand rand to buy it here.
