iPad makes iResearch

My apologies for the cliche title and bad grammar, but I couldn't resist the urge.

I am not a Mac user. I wanted to be, but I couldn't afford it and decided that I wouldn't be able to figure out the new programs anyways. There is an incredible fascination in our American society with Apple products. Macs are viewed as the superior machine, perhaps because they are more expensive and look cooler than PCs. I had a friend who worked at the Apple store who used to tell me, "There are two types of people in the world: Those who use Macs and love them, and those who hate Macs because they don't know how to use them." I don't necessarily agree with that, but it shows the battle between the two worlds of Macs and PCs.

When the iPad was unveiled, I was pretty interested. I read reviews, watched videos, watched Steve Jobs' speech about it...the only thing I was unable to do was use the product. This is not for a lack of trying - last time I went to the mall, they were still not in the Apple store. It was intriguing because many reviewers, such as this one, believed that the iPad was a fairly major letdown. To be honest, I was shocked that the Apple creators did not think of including a camera, a USB/memory card slot, multi-tasking, and phone capabilities. Theory #2 is that Apple did indeed think of these things and is waiting to make a profit before introducing the second generation iPad that comes in fancy colors and fixes all the problems. That, however, is too conspiracy-theorist for me to really value as plausible.

As the reviewer said, I am unlikely to spend my money on the iPad (as if I have $500 to throw down anyways). To me, it seems unpractical at this point in technology, particularly if you have a laptop and an iPhone. Perhaps if I was more Apple-savvy I would think differently.

If you would like to view a video of the iPad, here is the official video from Apple. The video is about eight minutes long, and keep in mind that it is 100% biased. However, I think I would be hard pressed to find a video that was unbiased regarding the iPad.