Tomorrow is iPad day. If Twitter is to be believed, quite a few UK pre-orders have already been delivered. The Boson office is collectively wondering (and probably taking bets): how long before I cave in and buy one?
Good question. I love gadgets (it comes with the job), but I’m not wholly convinced by the iPad – yet. This is partly due to my concerns about it not running Flash, but also because I’m not sure it’s quite the gadget I’m looking for.
iPad
If you ask them, keen Mac fans will warn you off buying the first version of anything from Apple. Being an early adopter is one thing, but you don’t get the best value for money. You pay to have something before everyone else, but if you can hang on for a year or so, you’ll get much more bang for your pounds and pence.
Think about the leaps made from the first iPhone to the 3GS model (and the imminent 4th generation). The iPad will do the same, so it’s safe to predict that 2nd gen models will include a user-facing camera for video chat, a better OS (perhaps with multi-tasking, which has turned up in the most recent iPhone OS betas), and even faster processing oomph.
In short, I think the next iPad will make buyers of this one kick themselves. Then go and buy their second iPad.
I’m also waiting to see what effect the iPad has on the mobile web. Will it have sufficient impact to change the way web developers work? Are we going to see more iPad-enabled websites? And what will our customers be asking us about it? My gadget lust aside, from a professional standpoint it’s going to be fascinating to watch.
