The hype and speculation around what Apple was going to announce yesterday was quite incredible. The realty of it at the end of the day though was that everyone was expecting far more, something far more revolutionary and game changing, and instead we got a giant iPhone that’s not even a phone.
I can’t help but feel underwhelmed. I was ready with money in my pocket to run out and get one (the first model with WiFi only is available in 2 months, Wifi + 3G in 3 months), but now I’ve got the details I can’t see why I would want one – It overlaps with everything else I already own but doesn’t replace anything:
- It’s a large phone-like internet device but it’s not a phone, so I still need my phone.
- It has a screen like my laptop (ok, touch enabled), but it’s no where near as powerful as my MacBook Pro.
- I can run anything on my laptop, but the iPad is restricted to iPhone apps
- It doesn’t have any cameras, forward facing or rear facing, so no good for video calls
- It doesn’t use eInk or similar technology – if I wanted an ebook reader I’d most likely buy a Kindle instead because it’s easier on the eyes for reading ‘print’
- It doesn’t have any USB connections for connecting my camera, and looks like there’s no iPhoto equivalent
- If you want to connect anything to it you have to buy a variety of dongle connectors, which are extra (?!)
- It’s too big to carry around, won’t fit in you pocket, but too small to replace my MacBook Pro
- It’s too expensive and underpowered compared with practically any other netbook. Steve said in the presentation why would you buy a netbook when you can have one of these, but that doesn’t make any sense. If I’m going to spend 400 on a small form computing device, at this point I’d rather get a netbook because you get more computing power and flexibility for the same if not less money
So I don’t get it. This device isn’t obviously aimed at me or people like me, so who is it aimed at? If you didn’t already have a laptop but wanted to surf the web from your sofa, would you be interested in one of these? Possibly, but it still seems too expensive
I seriously think Apple undelivered with this gadget. But maybe that was intentional to keep the price low – the result is though that for the money you get something which is quite underwhelming, and I think you could get far more for your money if you shop around