Common iPad Criticisms

Yesterday, Apple finally unveiled their rumored-for-a-decade tablet computer, called the iPad.  As much as I hate the name, this is a brilliant device.  It is almost exactly what I expected it to be, whereas some of the reactions I’ve read are from people who apparently expect Apple to bend the fabric of space and time to create an ethereal device that does everything for everyone and costs nothing.

For the sake of discussion, let’s take a look at five of the most common criticisms I’ve read online.  Remember:  Most of these people have never touched, seen, or used an actual iPad.  They’re reacting solely to pictures, specifications, and other reactions.

“It doesn’t have support for Adobe Flash!”

It’s not going to, either.  Steve Jobs’ chuckle at the “missing Flash” image on the WSJ website during yesterday’s demo was pretty telling.  iPhone OS doesn’t have Flash, nor does it need it.  With HTML 5 and CSS 3 rendering Flash obsolete, and when Safari has the best support for those standards (even on the iPhone), bar none, why bother with Flash?

Flash is the only de facto web standard that is built on closed, proprietary technology.  It’s also the single biggest source of instability on the Mac.  If you think Apple is going to allow that plague onto the iPhone, you’re nuts.

Further reading: Apple, Adobe, and Flash on Daring Fireball.

“iPhone OS and the App Store are too closed.”

You’ll stop complaining about this when you realize that the iPad is not meant to replace your computer.  It’s an appliance, designed to be synced to and paired with an actual computer.  Sure, it does a lot of computer-y things, but it’s not a computer.

Do you complain about not being able to run any app you want on your microwave?  Or your washing machine? Neither do I.

This isn’t designed to write your next novel, nor is it designed to find a cure to cancer.  It’s designed to be what you use to check your email on the couch, look up iMDB pages while watching DVDs, and show your vacation photos at the next family gathering.

If you’re familiar with Microsoft Surface, you can see exactly where this sort of technology is going.

“This is a terrible eBook reader; it doesn’t use an e-paper display!”

When I meet a BlackBerry user, who asks me whether I’d recommend switching to an iPhone, I have a pretty standard response: If you want a device primarily for email, keep your BlackBerry.  If you want the best web browser on any phone, highly polished multimedia playback, and an email client, get an iPhone (or a Droid, or a Pre, or whatever else).

The same idea applies here: If you want an eBook reader, get a Kindle or a Nook.  The iPad has eBook functionality, sure, but I’d say that it’s secondary (or possibly tertiary) to its functionality as a web browser, email client, and multimedia player.

“There’s no support for multitasking!”

Okay, I kind of agree with this, but I have to ask: What apps are there that really need multitasking?  I could count a few: IM clients, Pandora (or streaming audio in general), and … that’s it.  I can’t come up with anything else.  Can you?

For what it’s worth, I think we’ll see this in iPhone OS 4.0, along with a smaller (but no less powerful) version of the new Apple A4 chip that drives the iPad.  This chip is the single biggest announcement out of yesterday’s presentation, but most of the media goons out there are completely overlooking it.

There’s also a question of how to present multi-tasking to the users.  If there’s one thing that Apple is good at, it’s defining and polishing an interface until it’s as perfect as possible.  People lauded the lack of cut-and-paste on the iPhone, for example, but Apple took their time and they got it right.

The idea of apps running in the background, hidden, introduces a new problem.  How do you kill an app that’s running in the background?  How do you see what’s running in the background, or switch to it?  Apple’s engineers are no doubt working tirelessly to make the most of this interface opportunity, but you can rest assured that they won’t just add a button or create some obscure gesture.

“There’s no camera!”

I could see Apple including a camera on the front of this thing (similar to the current MacBook and iMac models), but I could also guess why it’s not there (yet).  If you watch the marketing video, or the actual presentation, you hear them say several times that the iPad adapts to you; you don’t have to adapt to it.  If you want to use it in landscape mode, you can.  If you’d prefer portrait mode, that’s okay.

With such a strong emphasis on “work the way I want”, where would they place the camera?  On the top, obviously, but which side is the top?  I don’t know.  Based on their marketing video, I’d argue that there is no “true” top side to this thing.

For those of you who wanted a camera on the back, or dual cameras (one each on the front and back), I have to ask:  Why?  I don’t see the point.

At the end of the day, this device does exactly what it was intended to do.  Don’t let the iWork demo fool you:  the iPad is all about consuming media, rather than creating it, and it sets out do that in a way that is more fun, more intuitive, and more interesting than any device or interface before it.

Will it be as successful as the iPod or the iPhone?  I don’t know, but Apple is clearly quite heavily invested in this device and its importance to the future of casual computing.  It could struggle to find its market, as the Apple TV has done, but I wouldn’t bet on it.