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Apple launched the much anticipated release of its newest creation, the Apple iPad last week. It’s been covered it in an array of blogs ranging from iPad evangelists to those who claim it lacks certain features and was a risky endeavor.  Pulling all these things together in one post, we’re going to cover some basics.

The Apple iPad is essentially a mix between an iTouch and an iPhone, only a bigger version of the two with a 9.7-inch screen, 16 to 64 GB of memory, and the ability to run almost every iPhone app (and more) in the App Store. It will be able to sync with your PC or Mac, play video, act as an ebook reader and a lot more. The starting price of the iPad is USD$499.

Mashable wrote a comprehensive guide to the iPad. It covers the specs, the interface, web/maps/email, connectivity, ebooks and publishing features, TV, movies, videos, gaming, productivity, and iWork. And while all these things are amazing, the article does note that the iPad is lacking in some key areas:

No camera: There is no front-facing camera for video conferencing, and there is no back-facing camera for taking photos. This is a major omit from the device. Hell, most netbooks and smartphones have a camera or two.

No multitasking: You cannot run multiple apps at the same time. To make this a useful device, it needs to be able to do things like run Last.fm while tweeting. This is one we hope Apple will fix with a future iPhone OS update, but for now it can’t run multiple apps.

No HDMI Output: You can’t plug your iPad into your TV.

No USB port: You can’t plug in your favorite keyboard into the device…or anything else, really. It will plug into your computer via the same cord you charge iPhones and iPod touches with.

Will this list inhibit potential users from buying until the 2^nd generation comes out? Or will the 2^nd generation also omit these functions? Mashable writer, Stan Schroeder seems to believe there is a reason for these functions to NOT be on the Apple iPad.

“The thing is, Apple didn’t omit a camera or multitasking by accident. An engineer didn’t come up to Steve Jobs on Tuesday saying, “I don’t know how to tell you this, Steve, but we’ve forgotten about the camera. No, please, not the head! Ouch!” They’ve omitted all these things on purpose, and this purpose tells you more about Apple’s plans than the things they did put in.

First of all, Flash. For years, we’ve been hearing that Adobe and Apple are in talks to bring full flash support on the iPhone . It was almost always described as “nearly there.” Well, now that the iPad is out — a bigger device, perfect for browsing the web — and there’s still no Flash in sight, we can assume that Apple is not only not bringing Flash to its mobile devices, it’s fighting against it. For some reason, Apple doesn’t see eye to eye with Adobe where Flash is concerned, and if they haven’t reached some sort of agreement now, it’s probably not just around the corner, either.

Then, there’s multi-tasking. Nearly everyone I’ve talked to thinks this is a huge deal-breaker, but I think it makes sense. Although Steve Jobs was trying hard to prove to us that the iPad is a computer, it isn’t. Just like the iPod and the iPhone, its main purpose is to give the users an easy way to consume certain types of digital content. After music (iPod) and mobile applications (iPhone) comes iPad with video, photos, e-books, e-magazines, games. Apple doesn’t really want you to do complex photo editing on the iPad; you’ve got your Mac or PC for that. Apple wants you to touch a button, and start consuming content (preferably paying a couple of dollars for it).

Finally, the camera. Yes, it would be nice to have video chat. But once again, Apple wants you to do that on a Mac. If you want to snap photos, you should do it on the iPhone — you’re carrying it with you all the time, anyway. Once again, it becomes clear that Apple doesn’t want to sell devices that can do everything; they want to find the best form factor to consume some types of digital content, and then focus on them. If you look at it, you can do pretty much everything on your personal computer; by that philosophy, you don’t need anything else besides a laptop. And yet, you’ve now got smartphones and e-readers selling very well. Could it be that one powerful device is not as good as several less powerful, but more focused ones?”

As for sales of the device, Wall Street estimates the iPad will sell between 1M-5M in its first year. Of course, that ranges between who you talk to, but overall, it is anticipated to be a huge success.

Although there may be some features that may not be a selling point, I think what it DOES have and DOES do, far outweigh the cons. It’s exciting to see new technology as it develops. Personally, I can’t wait to get my hands on one (with 3G). What are your thoughts on the Apple iPad? How do you see yourself using it?

posted by Piers Hogarth-Scott in the category Media
Tags: apple, iPad, mashable