Monday, October 11, 2010
Is my iPad too big?
I have been an iPad user for over six months now. I went through all the phases: excitement (wow, this is cool), doubt (cool yes, but what am I going to do with it?), depression (really, it does not have a front camera?), acceptance (cool device, and useful, I am going to keep it and use it). I have left it in my bag for a few months, going back and forth from home to the office and to meetings in the Valley. Once I figured out I never took it out of the bag, I decided to leave it on the couch. Now it travels with me only when I take a plane.
Overall, I am quite happy with it. It is the perfect couch device. I rarely browse, I do some Twitter-Facebook-Linkedin (still wondering why the last two do not have an iPad application) and mostly email (95% reading, 5% writing). I have watched five YouTube videos - at most - and I have used FlipBoard for a while, although I am already bored with it (somehow, I end up reading only work-related stuff and it is not really what I want to do on the couch). It also comes with me to the bathroom, but only when I leave from the couch (I know, too much details, but I never walk to the couch just to grab the iPad before going to the restroom, and this is an interesting fact ;-)
When I travel, it is mostly a gaming machine. An amazing one, BTW. I play to kill time. I have watched a few movies, some rented, some found online (ehm...). I have read a few books. I have looked at the stars in the dark outside with my daughter using Star Walk (amazing app). I would not leave home to get on a plane without my iPad. It is the only thing that I take out of the bag on a plane. The laptop stays in the overhead bin these days, thankfully (in particular, if you fly economy or, worst, low-cost in Europe). I do love my iPad.
My family loves the iPad too, although for them it is just a gaming machine. WeRule is huge in my household. They cry when I leave for a trip and take away the device with me (and then they realize they should cry also because I am leaving).
Last week at CTIA I met for the first time the new Samsung Galaxy Tab(let). It runs Android 2.2. My first impression was extremely positive. I am not sure why, but I was expecting a slow tablet (maybe because Google said that 2.2 is not an OS for tablets, way to set expectations low I guess). Instead, it was very fast. The screen was great, the app I am used to (I also own a Nexus One) were there and looking even better. I downloaded the Funambol client and it worked right away. It just felt very natural, like the best of the iPad combined with the best of the Nexus One.
Once I put down the device, I was left with one major question: is my iPad too big?
It is an interesting question. I did not wonder whether the Galaxy Tab was too small, I wondered whether the iPad was too big. The iPad has a 10" display, the Galaxy 7". The difference is substantial. The Tab is almost half the weight of the iPad. It feels small, in a good way. And I never wondered if the iPad was too big, it felt just right before I tried the Galaxy.
It is fascinating to look at screen sizes and usability. The 4" screen is the way to go, for a pocketable device. I would not talk into anything bigger (the 5" Dell Streak makes you look ridiculous), take a picture (the camera on the tablets is only for video chats, in my opinion) or navigate a map while walking with anything bigger in my hands (a smartphone is just perfect). From 4" to 7", therefore, there seems to be a gap. Devices in the middle are too big to fit in a pocket and too small to deliver much more than a phone. At 7", apparently, the device seems big enough for my needs: email and browsing on a couch, gaming+movies+books on a plane. At 10", maybe it is even too much. I was surprised.
I was expecting a lot of tablets to challenge the iPad. I was expecting different UIs, USB ports and front cameras to be the big differentiators. And I was sure none had a chance. Instead, the challenge came from size. A smaller iPad is interesting in itself. It is different. And it definitely has a chance.
What's next from Apple? Let me guess: an iPad mini, at 7". They must be ready to ship it, I bet.
Posted by Fabrizio Capobianco at 17:24
5 Comments:
Dror M said...
Boy, this makes me feel a lot better. Before the iPad came out, I kept saying, "what's the use case for this device? I can't see myself using it anywhere except on an airplane." And then millions of people bought one, and I felt that had mis-read the market. I can totally see taking one on a plane for movies, games, light email, etc. For everything else, I want a real keyboard. But that's just me, after all what percentage of the population uses Linux on their laptops?
Comment Posted at 22:45
I guess another differentiator other then the screen size will be the battery autonomy ...
Comment Posted at 05:55
Andy Cavallini said...
How many times have I heard the question "what's the use case for this device"...?
Everybody, after ‘playing’ with the iPad for a few minutes, ask themselves this question at least once…
The iPad is usually considered only in a totally positive light (“It ‘s very useful !”) or in a completely negative light (“It’ s just a gadget !”).
There is no trace of half-measures (“Cute …”).
Have you ever noticed that the polarization of opinions is typical of successful initiatives? Mediocrity has never stimulated any deep disagreement…“It ‘s very useful !”: it’s a device for curious intellectuals, people hungry for positive stimuli, with many interests, whose calendar is always full. Thanks to the iPad, time (…always in short supply !) can be used in a fruitful and useful way.
“It ‘s just a gadget !”: The iPad is unsurpassed for those who asks nothing better than being distracted, for passive consumers of multimedia content; it anesthetizes boredom to promote the pleasure of pseudo- active idleness.
Someone said that “wasting time” is that erudite art that illuminates the thin path that winds through boredom and depressing activity; “wasting time” with an iPad allows you to do it with style and sophistication. What is the iPad if not a large and expensive Tamagotchi for adults?
It would be interesting to hear the opinions of two great writers (and philosophers): Aldous Huxley (author of “Brave New World”, etc..) and George Orwell (“1984″, “Animal Farm”, etc…).
Huxley believes that Man finds his destruction in things that give him pleasure. He may say that the iPad, thanks to the ease with which it offers information, entertainment, communication, content, etc., risks to become like a drug, causing dependence and addiction.
Orwell, believing instead that Man finds its destruction because of his fears, may instead consider the iPad the perfect device for control and surveillance: everything you download, read, write, search, etc., is inexorably stored somewhere; the perfect tool to efficiently and effectively monitor the behavior, the social activities and the cognitive processes of millions of people.
Does the iPad embody the Good or the Evil ? Most likely a weighted average of both…
Anyway, the answer is quite irrelevant since everyone will use it in their own way, following their instincts and satisfying their individual desires.
iPad critics often do not fully understand this device: they try to weigh it against other devices that are in fact not comparable. The iPad definitely is neither a ‘traditional’ PC, nor a Netbook, so long-established metrics won’t do… The iPad is a device that stretches out between the advanced smart-phone and the laptop.
Andy Cavallini - Italy
(andy.cavallini@tin.it)
You can read other 'rants' about iPad on:
http://meetingofideas.wordpress.com/ (in english)
http://meetingdelleidee.wordpress.com/ (in italian)
Comment Posted at 00:28
Second to Dror's comment above - I'm not yet a full believer. But I have been known to write real emails on my keyboard smart phone... The iPad IS too big...
Comment Posted at 03:26
Jamie F. said...
I use an ipod touch, not as a toy but like I used to use a palm pilot. For calendar, contacts and things to do lists. It's handy to pick up fb/email when I encounter wifi but not the make or break function of this work-related productivity tool. But it's too small. I would be so grateful if someone could effectively pass the word to apple that there needs to be a device in btween the ipad and the ipod, size wise.
The size I have in mind would be about the same as a golf score card. The author's comment about how silly he might look talking into a such a device is a red herring. Banish that thought from your mind. I would be very happy if the device did not have a phone in it all. The point here is to fill the gap between the too large and too small. Please forward to Steve Jobs et al under the Subject Heading: MIND THE GAP.
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