The iPad is a beautifully pitched complement the Apple’s suite of products, which we may consider as Desktop, Laptop, Mobile and media centre devices.
In my own use cases, there were clearly situations where the iPad would better perform than one of the other devices, and virtually all of these use cases are in the home. Here are the four use cases where we currently struggle with an appropriate device.
- Reading books: I am a read back sort of person, so I find the screen angle on a big monitor or laptop inappopriate. I have read more books on my iPhone than on my Kindle, and continue to read books on my iPhone. The iPhone’s limitation is it’s screen size (which results in fare to frequent page flicking, and in the case of PDFs annoying render times). The iPad should resolve that.
- Watching videos: We end up pushing our Air or Pro around the house for watching videos, in particular kids videos. This is as much a bore as it is annoying. Kung Fu Panda will run on my Pro when I need to catch up on some work. The iPad should resolve that as a far better video display device for kids movies and late night viewing (stand resolved).
- Controlling my media centre: Our Mac Mini drives our beautiful Samsung HD tv. Most DVDs are ripped and stored locally. Driving this via a wireless keyboard is a bit painful because font sizes at 1080p are tiny. Using the various iPhone remotes is marginally better (but not perfect, by any means). Boxee and Plesk choke on our 18 month old device. The iPad–and a simple app on it–should allow us easy control of device.
- Traditional browsing: Like many households, we often find ourselves with laptops open, researching furniture or something in the news. We end up hunching over these hunchable screens, although I do lean back and put the device on my knees (the odd angle probably explains the rate at which I torch hard drives). We do very little keyboard input during these times. The iPad should be perfect for domestic browsing–and possibly more important sharing with ones partner. (We tried doing this on the iPhone but the browsing experience isn’t good enough).
In other words, the iPad will take over tasks we currently do either on the iPhone or on a Macbook Pro. If I count the hours per day spent on the above, I would reckon it is a minimum of one hour and some times as much as three hours per day. More importantly, it is several critical touchpoints during the day.
- Morning: Most appropriate device for checking weather, train times, quick directions. (Currently we struggle through with looking up flight information on an iPhone or Nexus One; or having to power up the HDTV).
- During the day: quick instant on access to calendars and off email.
- Evening: Video device for kids in the kitchen/dining area (we don’t have a TV in the kitchen)
- Late evening: Used to browse to check for viewing times. Used to control media on the Mac Mini. Casual research browsing for washing machines, furniture, clothes.
- Bed time: iBook reader.
- Weekends: Available to kids for simple games, thus freeing up the iPhone. No wait. I’ll play the games on the iPad. They can play them on my iPhone.
Does the iPad’s technical spec accomodate all of this?
Well yes. I don’t need a camera. I certainly don’t need a boatload of connectors. I don’t expect to be connecting it too much, if anything, except possibly a couple of times a week to shift high definition video across. For everything else the 802.11n will be adequate. (And in my use cases I definitely don’t need 3g). I probably don’t need multi-tasking, at least not in the laptop sense of the word. Lying on my sofa, I have my iPad and two phones (a BB and an iPhone). On a given evening I use the phones for email and Twitter, and they are always within reach. I certainly don’t need the iPad to have a phone at this point. (BB, iPhone and the Nexus One).
What I do need is something to help me manage my media better. We are already pushing our video over a range of screen sizes, 1080p down to the iPhone. So I wuld expect to have some help from iTunes (and Handbrake) to help my find and move the appropriate file across. This may involve needing to store 1080p, 720 and 480 files, which in turn will require some smarter media handling and more drive space.
The 64gig will be a limiting factor. I have almost that much in photos; and far more in music. Moore’s Law will resolve.
I also need wifi vendors to start producing more robust home solutions which take into account real world factors. A typical home needs two access points on the same SSID connected by hard wiring (most likely 300 Mbit/s Powerline) rather than WDS (pushing video around when you have WDS extensions gets very slow). We also need access routers that can handle the speed of modern DSL/cable modem connections.
I can imagine buying the Wifi only one immediately they come up for grabs.
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