 |
| iPad 2 |
The iPad 2 launched in the US on March 11 and analysts estimate that around half a million of them were sold over the first weekend, leaving shortages in many areas. It goes on sale in the UK at 5pm tomorrow, starting at £399 - a price that’s lower than the launch price of the first generation iPad, and the competition is still some way behind.
However, the tablets that are expected to give Apple a run for its money have not yet been released in the UK and, in some cases, have only the vaguest of release dates.
The Motorola Xoom is due in “the first week of April” and, at £499, costs £100 more than the cheapest iPad 2 (though you do get 32GB of memory in the basic Xoom - the same capacity iPad 2 costs £499); the BlackBerry PlayBook will be released some time between now and June and no UK price has been confirmed, though the US version matches the prices for the iPad 2; and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is not due for release until the summer and, once again, prices have not been confirmed.
Another thing that’s changed since the launch of the original iPad is that fewer people are asking what a tablet computer is for. This is partly because of Apple’s ‘iPad is’ advertising campaign, which focused on the various tasks that the iPad could be used for and showed them in action, rather than trying to explain the gadget verbally. This is standard Apple procedure: they seldom talk about the technical specifications of their gadgets and prefer instead to focus on what they can do.
That’s another problem for the competition: while they point to better specs, Apple points to a greater number of apps, to a tried-and-tested operating system and to four years of experience working on portable touchscreen devices.
People are beginning to understand that tablets can be ideal for web browsing and work well as ebook readers besides offering a surprisingly high quality gaming experience and all kinds of imaginative tools thanks to a growing range of apps.
That’s not to say that tablet computers are for everyone. There will be those who snort ‘I can do everything I need to on my netbook and it only cost £200 so why would I want one of these’. The iPad 2 is not for those people. They’re like the people who, faced with a new Mercedes, say that it’s just a car and they’re perfectly happy in their Nissan Micras. There’s nothing wrong with that attitude; some people want the cheapest tool for the job but Apple has never been interested in that market.
Then there are the hobbyists, the kind of people who would dismiss a new Mercedes because they prefer the car that they built themselves over many painstaking hours. These people don’t trust any device that they can’t open up and poke around in and upgrade. The idea that you can’t even change the battery on an iPad appalls them. The iPad is not for them either.
Watch a child use an iPad, however, and you’ll see just how natural and useful touchscreens can be. Touch is a more natural way of interacting with most things and those who have never learned to use a mouse have nothing to unlearn. Can you remember how cumbersome and bizarre a mouse appeared when you first used one?
Tablets aren’t for everyone but for most of us they are the future. And, for now at least, nobody comes close to Apple.
Sources: http://www.telegraph.co.uk
