Apple's announcement of the new iPad last week has drawn alot of attention, and at the same time it has also drawn its fair share of criticism. The most important thing to keep in mind about the iPad is that Apple is not proposing it as a laptop replacement. The iPad is really more of an smart phone enhancement than it is a new computer. Apple envisions users browsing the web, reading, and doing their casual computing from the iPad.

 

First the technology of the iPad is evolutionary. It is a 9.7” screen and .5 inch thickness. These decisions on size appear to be mainly to increase portability. It runs all existing iPhone apps from the App store. This means that there are thousands of applications available immediately. Apple also will let you use apps that were already purchased for your iPhone on your iPad. While this is a plus, this means that the iPad does not run Apple OS X software.

 

Apple designed the iPad to take net books to the next level. If you are not familiar with net books, they are essentially small laptops often with cell data services built in. In typical Apple fashion they looked at ways to make improvements to the problems with net books by removing features they felt were not necessary. The thing to keep in mind is that the iPad is NOT a laptop replacement. Through the sacrifices Apple made they were able to deliver 10 hours of run time and a much more portable device.

While net books are portable, they are limited by small screens that are hard to read for people without 20/20 vision. Apple's solution to that is to allow zooming on many applications. Also net books generally run a standard version of Windows, so that makes them vulnerable to spyware and viruses. The iPad will most likely not have any viruses, but your will not be able to run as many applications as a net book. The most glaring omission on the iPad is the lack of flash support, so while Apple touts the iPad as the best way to surf the web, all of the flash websites will be inaccessible.

 

The iPad is also positioned to complete with Amazon’s kindle. It is priced competitively with the kindle with models starting at $499. The iBooks Store allows you to purchase books from 5 major publishers. They also have plans to introduce textbooks to the iPad. While many book lovers are hesitant to move to electronic books, they have their place. While most people will not use the iPad strictly for iBooks, the ability to read a book from the iPad will be tempting and it will give many people their first experience with eBooks.

 

An appealing feature of the 3G iPad is the data plans. AT&T will be offering a 250MB data plan for $14.99 and an unlimited plan for $29.99. Neither plan requires a contract so you can try without the plans to see if you really need them. There was no word from apple if wifi will be required to download some apps like the iPhone currently requires. So having a home internet plan may still be required, but the low cost of the data plans makes it appealing for those users who do not do much more than surfing the web and e-mail.

 

The bottom line on the iPad is that it is not a laptop replacement. If you have need of real portable computing, you will still be lugging around a laptop. Where the iPad shines is when you need portability and speed. You will be more likely to bring along an iPad than a laptop in most cases when your wait isn’t very long. Trips to the doctor’s office or waiting for your car’s oil to be changed will be more pleasant experiences with an iPad. It is just a question of if the price tag is worth what it offers.

 

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