The Apple iPad is here… but what does it do?

01/02/2010

Last week crowds of people flocked to the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco for the much anticipated unveiling of Apple’s newest innovation.

As with any Apple launch, great secrecy has shrouded the new product, leading to wild speculation as to what Mr. Jobs would present to the world. The safe bet was that it was going to be a tablet PC, but exactly what it was going to look like, or be capable of, was anybody’s guess.

And so at 10am on Wednesday 27th January in San Francisco, the presentation began, and just a few minutes in came the big reveal – the Apple iPad – a device designed to sit somewhere between an iPhone and a MacBook.

And indeed it does, in fact we’d go as far as saying it looks like a massive iPhone, except you can’t make phone calls with it. So what can you do with it? It’s compatible with nearly every application in the App Store and there’ll be iPad exclusive apps, such as a tablet version of Keynote, Pages and other office apps from the iWork suite.

Of course, it does web browsing, and there’s a 3G version so that you can get Internet access on the move (as you’d expect, with it being mobile). Apple’s also going to pushing its iBooks app, which allows people to download books, turning the iPad into a very swanky e-reader. Sadly, iBooks isn’t going to be available here in the UK at launch.

Pricing hasn’t quite been set yet for the UK, but US prices are $499, $599 and $699 for 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions respectively. Throw an extra $130 onto that if you want 3G support. WiFi only iPads will be available early April, with 3G versions a month later.

Reception of the iPad has, so far, been varied. Twitterer extraordinaire Stephen Fry reckons it’s here to stay. Others aren’t so sure, claiming that Apple’s streak of winning products could be reaching an end.

But of course, we won’t know if the world really wants the iPad until it starts shipping. The tablet PC isn’t a new idea – companies have been making them for years, trying to figure out how what makes one great.
Perhaps Apple has finally figured it out, or maybe the tablet still isn’t ready for the world. Will people find the iPad indispensable, or stick with their mobile phone and notebook? We’ll see…