Apple's own iPhone? Who would feel the need for a device that seemed to be a jack-of-all-trades, but master of none? Why can't Steve Jobs wear anything other than black turtleneck t-shirts?
Apart from the last one, the other questions will probably be answered once Apple actually ships the device, and consumers and developers start fleshing out the ecosystem around the device. However, in one category at least, the iPad does seem to have some clear advantages and great potential—as a gaming device.
The iPhone (and iPod touch) has clearly demonstrated that it can hold its own in the handheld gaming market against Nintendo's DS and Sony's PSP, carving out a niche for itself in the lucrative handheld market. While at the moment, nobody actually purchases the iPod as primarily a gaming device, the fact remains that once they own one, most iPhone / iPod users end up playing games on them. Need proof? Just look at the App Store—the vast majority of apps downloaded are games.
The multi-touch and accelerometer controls have proved to be the 'killer feature' that separates the iPhone from the DS and PSP, enabling thousands of casual games that appeal to a large cross-section of gamers, as opposed to the other two devices which focus more on 'hardcore' gamers and kids. And it's for precisely this reason that the iPad, with its larger screen real estate, stands a chance to upset the applecart.
Developers are excited about the design potential unlocked by the iPad's screen size combined with multitouch, which provides a greater flexibility for input systems when compared to both the DS and the PSP. Although very little is known about the hardware capabilities of the iPad at present, there are two features that could excite game developers even more—the 1GHz A4 processor, and an improved accelerometer that can detect tilting along both X and Y axes. A faster processor always means you can pack more into your game—AI, Physics, Graphics—but until Apple reveals more details about the processor architecture and specifications, it's difficult for developers to know exactly how much of a difference it will make.
The accelerometer (again, no specifications have actually been revealed by Apple) does have the potential to unlock true 3D control, which, in combination with the multitouch, would make for a gaming device that controls unlike any other. This, as Nintendo will tell you, is a potential hook that will sell a ridiculous number of units and destroy the competition.
We could see a larger migration of more hardcore game designs to the iPad platform, in addition to the obvious cavalcade of casual titles that are already on the app store. Strategy titles such as Sid Meier's Civilization and Diablo-like role-playing games would immediately benefit from a multitouch interface. Real-time strategy games and squad-based RPGS are also logical choices to migrate to the iPad, and indeed be enhanced by the touch-based input.
And that's not even accounting for the innovations in gameplay that might spawn entirely new game types for the platform. For instance, simultaneous, synchronous multiplayer games that could have three or four players crowding around a single iPad would be terribly exciting, and we're almost certain to see a slew of such games.
This would put the iPad in serious contention as a device that's looked at seriously by gamers both hardcore and casual. It would feature several key differentiators to create a new category of gaming device—one that offers high quality gaming on the go. That would be an extremely tempting promise for gamers, who might even be willing to pay a higher price for such a device.
A Chinese company is claiming that its iPad knockoff is in fact an original design that has been copied by Apple. The P88 has been on the market in China for six months. It’s easy to recognize: It looks just like a big iPhone.
Xiaolong Wu, the president of the Shenzhen Great Loong Brother company that makes the P88, gave an interview to Spanish national newspaper El Mundo. If the iPad comes to China, he says, “We won’t have any choice but to report them,” because “it will certainly affect our sales.” The charge? Oddly, El Mundo reports the crime as “plagiarism,” although we assume it means IP or copyright infringement.
Wu says that Apple has not only copied the concept of a multitouch tablet, but also the design of the case and screen bezel. And pre-empting our obvious criticism, that the P88 is just a large-scale iPhone or iPod Touch rip-off, Wu says that “they have nothing to do with it, as they have completely different functions.”
As you can see from the picture above, Wu is being rather generous when he describes the P88 and the iPad as “completely identical”. The specs tell a different story. The 10.2-inch screen isn’t multitouch (it uses resistive touch), the P88 uses a hard-drive (250 GB), has an Ethernet port, a 1.3-MP webcam and Intel 945GSE chipset (likely to be paired with an Atom CPU, not listed) with a gig of RAM. It also runs Windows.
The kicker, though, is the battery life, low even for a keyboard-less netbook, which is what this is. Without the power cord you get just 1.5 (claimed) hours.
The whole story is ridiculous, and most likely a cheap play for publicity. Anyone confusing the two products deserves the P88. What is clear is that the Chinese company squeezed a (very bad) netbook into an oversized iPhone-style case and claimed to have some kind of ownership of this design. Good luck, Mr. Wu.
10 Features of IPAD
1. Price It comes down to this. Most sane people will not buy a tablet if they can get a notebook (or an iPod touch!) that does all the same stuff at a lower price.2. Apps Actually, apps are doomed. HTML5 will see to that, eventually. Until then, Apple’s tablet needs to run all the apps already in the iTunes Store. Even the fart apps.
So, from an HD screen, Internet connectivity, incredible battery life and support for software to more factors, many things are needed to make the iTablet a success. What’s the one killer feature that will guarantee Apple’s tablet huge and sustainable success?
3. Awesome Battery My dream in terms of battery life would be five days between full charges. But, realistically, this being a first-generation device, the battery will probably be weak.
4. Multitasking We need real background processes, Apple. No excuses this time.
5. Touch Media You know what we want here — multimedia creation, editing and consumption, all touch-friendly. The retrofitted iPhone’s iPod app just won’t cut it — what we need is a touch-based iTunes. And a touch-friendly iMovie would be very welcome.
6. Cameras That’s right, cameras is deliberately plural. One on the back and one embedded up-front for video iChat. Anything less than 5 megapixels, by the way, is criminal.7. Ubiquitous Connectivity Sounds fancy, but it’s just a 3G radio for connecting to the Net. For an added awesome factor, let’s do it WhisperNet style, with no monthly 3G fees. (Never gonna happen, but what a wonderful dream!)
8. eMagazine Reader E-book readers are greyscale and dull. An eMagazine Reader offers colors, animations and adventure. (Plus, you can get automatic content delivery via iTunes subscriptions.) The concept below is by Bonnier R&D.
9. High-Definition Prowess HD is crucial — 720p natively, 1080p via external screen. It has to manage at least three hours of continuous HD playback on a single battery charge.
10. OLED Display I’m sure we won’t get this, and that’s a shame. Sure, we’ll still get HD resolution with an LCD, but the battery will suffer.
