Contra iPad (Comparative Editorial)
Originally written for the issue published February 4, 2010.
For too long, Apple has been using aesthetic appeal to mask the fact its products tend to be lacking in hardware and customisability. The recently unveiled iPad proudly continues in that tradition, using the steamrolled iPod Touch look to compensate for it being underpowered, locked down, and incomplete.
The iPad is poised to tackle the Netbook, a device bridging the smart phone and home computer markets. The majority of Netbooks (over 90%) are Windows based, with the remainder using an open source platform (such as Linux). These days, the standard Netbook operating system is the complete Windows 7 OS which is something the iPad can’t compare to. Keep in mind this isn’t a petty comparison between Mac and PC user preference. The iPad will be running a tweaked iPhone OS. Why an alleged Netbook killer is running a phone’s OS and not a home computer’s OS is quite curious.
In terms of hardware, the iPad is far from impressive. The HP Mini Netbooks, for example, are readily available with a 1.66 GHz processor and a 160GB hard drive standard, while the iPad uses a 1GHz processor and has a 64GB flash hard drive at most. The iPad is also a fully fixed product, meaning that individual components cannot be upgraded. Netbook users are able to upgrade their RAM (if only by a little), and even beef up their hard drive with the proper know-how.
Connectivity is also a troubling issue. There’s no USB, HDMI, or FireWire; the only physical connection to the iPad is through the 30-pin connector (same as the iPod). Avoiding USB is admittedly advantageous as it means Apple avoids driver issues, but it’s a stark inconvenience for the user. For the company, however, being fully committed to the 30-pin connector is profitable, as extraneous docking devices and adaptors will become necessary for optimizing the transfer of media.
And really, this is where my biggest quarrel with the iPad lies: it’s just too expensive. $350 will get you a perfectly capable Netbook, so the $500USD iPad introductory price is far from competitive. And when consider the litany of limitations (No Flash media, no 16:9 aspect ratio, no camera, no multitasking, to name a few) and the cost of peripherals, accessories, applications, and media, you begin to invest a lot of money in something you really can live without. Then again, I guess that’s just the cost of the Apple lifestyle choice.
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