The plunge

 To those out there that bought the iPad on first launch, I applaud you. You clearly have a much bigger dedication to your brand than anyone could hope to have, because to a regular consumer, that was a really stupid move to make. The announcement of the easily mocked iPad came as no surprise to the tech community, but even less of a surprise was that their competitors would soon follow suit, and if pushed hard enough, would also release their equivalent product at much cheaper prices. 

 Let's be honest here; the average iPad contains no more tech than your average netbook, except with the added cost of a touch screen. What avid computer users have known for years is that it doesn't take expensive parts to make a good tablet, and unfortunately, no one else knows this, because the iPad sold thousands upon thousands of units. I'll give Apple credit, because they turned a very quick profit based on an already existing tech (the iPhone) by doing nothing more than making it bigger and slapping their friendly logo on the shell. They didn't even wait a half a year to release the thing. The guys at Apple actually knew that this was one of the few times where excessive buildup was a bad thing, and by releasing it so closely to the announcement shows that Jobs and Co. are not idiots by a long shot. If anything, we should be heralding Jobs as a genius. 

 This launch was supposed to fail, and it was supposed to fail in the worst way possible. The iPad was a train wreck waiting to happen from day one, and Jobs knew it. It was an old tech that the masses literally had to be forced into wanting (see iPhone again). Microsoft had been pushing for this idea for years. The announcement itself was underwhelming, as the product resembled nothing more than a bigger iPhone or a souped up Kindle. So many features were missing that people began to wonder what the $500 was actually being spent on. When videos became available of the iPad being "gutted", I wondered myself what could possibly justify the price tag being attached to it, and the answer was "nothing". There is nothing in the iPad that is special in any way. 

 If we had time to simmer on the announcement, we would have quickly found that there were other companies out there willing to give us the tech we were finally ready for but with a different interface. I'm not talking Windows, either. The trouble with Microsoft's push towards a tablet PC was that Windows itself was the problem. XP and Vista were terrible operating systems for a tablet. Windows 7, on the other hand, it well suited to the medium, but the push came years ago and Apple reignited the torch when Microsoft stopped paying attention. In otherwords, six months would have hurt Apple immensely. A quick release would ensure that they got market penetration and pushed idiots into buying their tech first and at a premium. 

 Now, Google, Acer, Asus, Microsoft, and various other companies you've never heard of have stepped up their efforts to get a tablet on the market as soon as possible. This was predicted. In fact, that was pretty much a given. Apple's tablet announcement would make tablet's feasible for the rest of the industry, and competition would reign.

 Why do I complain? Because a good tablet is only worth $300, and no one should be paying more. Tablets are netbooks, plain and simple. I said this years ago, and I'll say it again. Until tablets reach that $300 price point, don't even bother buying them. Wait for the big boys to duke it out, and then come out a winner a year from now when the prices are affordable and you know what's going to work best for your own personal needs. There is no killer-app for the iPad. There's no great need for an iPad. There's nothing you could do with an iPad that you couldn't do with an iPhone or a netbook. You can wait. 

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